Brixham, United Kingdom

On 5 November 1688, the invasion force of the Dutch prince, William of Orange landed in Brixham, with more than 30,000 soldiers, sailors and volunteers, prior to marching on London to be crowned King William III as part of the Glorious Revolution. There is a statue and commemorative plaque marking the event close to the Golden Hind replica in the Inner Harbour, while a road at the other end of the harbour, which leads up a steep hill to where the Dutch made their camp, is still called Overgang, Dutch for passage or crossing.

Built in around 1736, Brixham boasts what is believed to be the world's only coffin-shaped house, the story going that its unusual design results from an argument between a father and his prospective son-in-law. Upon being asked for his daughter's hand in marriage, the father answered that, "I would rather see my daughter in a coffin than married to you." Not to be so easily discouraged, the prospective husband promised that the father's wishes would be met and built the coffin-shaped house, his action so impressing the bride's father that the latter gave his blessings to the marriage.

Built in 1815, the tower of All Saints' Church is a prominent landmark overlooking the centre of Brixham. Vicar of this church from 1824 to his death in 1847, though much absent because of ill health, was the Rev. Francis Lyte, who is well known for the writing, in the last weeks of his life, of the famous hymn Abide With Me at his home, Berry Head House, (now Brixham's largest hotel) on the north-eastern edge of the town.

Most of the small picturesque terraced cottages built during the nineteenth century and earlier, along the narrow streets overlooking Brixham Harbour were occupied by fishermen and their families and others involved in related trades such as boatbuilding and sailmaking, while housing further away from the harbour in Cowtown and Higher Brixham tends to date from between the 1930s and the 1970s.

Opened in 1863, the British Seaman's Boys' Home was established in Brixham by William Gibbs of Tyntesfield for the bringing up and education of orphaned sons of deceased British seamen. It was closed in 1988 and the building it once occupied, Grenville House in Berry Head Road, is now an outdoor education centre.

On the night of 10/11 January 1866, Brixham was subjected to a storm of unusual severity, which, after the wind had veered to the east around midnight, a direction from which Torbay is not well sheltered, sank at least eleven local trawlers and a visiting French boat. Four Brixham fishermen were drowned. Much greater damage was done to the large number of vessels, at least 62 in number, some by the standards of the time quite large ships, en route to other ports which had sought shelter in Torbay from the storm. Forty of these ships were driven from their anchors and for the most part wrecked along three miles (4.8 km) of the local coastline. It is not known how many of their crew members and passengers were killed; the committee set up to help the victims of the disaster estimated that at least 70 had died, while other sources, in particular contemporary newspaper accounts, made claims of more than 150 fatalities. A memorial marking a mass grave in St Mary's Churchyard memorializes 25 unidentified victims and four named ones. The estimated financial cost of vessel and cargo losses ranges between £150,000 (equivalent to £20 million in 2022) and £200,000 (£26.5 million in 2022).

A direct result of this disaster was that, thanks to money raised by the citizens of Exeter, Brixham acquired its first Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat, and has maintained a lifeboat station ever since. To date Brixham lifeboat crews (all volunteers) have been awarded 26 awards for bravery.

Brixham was joined to the railway network in February 1868 by the short Torbay and Brixham Railway which carried both passengers and goods (particularly fish), but the line, rendered progressively less and less commercially viable by the expansion of the road transport network in the course of the twentieth century, finally fell victim in 1963 to the Beeching cuts and the course of the old line, though still recognisable in places, has largely been built over, as has the site of Brixham railway station.

Due to Brixham's increasing popularity as a tourist destination following the Second World War, a number of holiday camps were built, for example Pontin's Wall Park and Dolphin camps, the latter being one of the company's biggest. It closed in 1991 after its main entertainment complex was destroyed by fire and the site has now been redeveloped with residential housing.