their own situation and decided to do something about it. Rumours of disturbances had spread around the town but no heed had been taken, so when at 7.30 p.m. on 17 May a crowd assembled in Lower Union Street the authorities were caught off guard as attacks were made on bakers' shops and women carried off the spoils in their aprons. As night drew on the rioters took advantage of the dark. Several thousand 'roughs' then swarmed down Fleet Street and attacked other shops, smashing shutters and windows as they went. Then they turned and marched to Torre, at the top of the town, before they were finally challenged by a posse of tradesmen headed by two magistrates. During the ensuing violent confrontation the Riot Act was read and those who had been taken prisoner were locked up in the Town Hall. The following day a party of 60 navvies who were working on the railway just outside Torquay marched down to the Town Hall to free their comrades who had been arrested. After a tense standoff their leader, James Hart, was seized and coastguards and 40 members of the 5th Fusiliers, just arrived from Exeter, helped restore order. A report in the Torquay and Tor Directory on 21 May 1847 accepted that 'the high price of provisions' had provoked the disturbances, but displayed little magnanimity in claiming that 'steps had been taken for relieving the sufferings of the poor and it will be far more grateful to the right-minded poor to know that the relief which we trust will shortly be afforded to them was not exacted by intimidation, but voluntarily determined upon before'. A handbill circulated at the same time, headed 'To The Poor of Tor and Torquay', informed them that the crop failures were down to His hand, and that they should put their faith in 'God's Providence'. In January 1854, further rioting occurred at Barnstaple, Tiverton and Exeter, when the military was called out again. Trouble had been anticipated in Torquay but this time the magistrates took the precautions to nip it in the bud, though five years later an attempt was made to burn down the Town Hall. There was a gruesome footnote to the 1847 riot when, in 1863, a shallow grave was found in the Torre area containing the remains of a young man who was said to have been killed on that