Qualla: Oldway Mansion https://qualla.com/oldway-mansion en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/oldway-mansion-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Oldway Mansion https://qualla.com/oldway-mansion Oldway Mansion: Introduction https://qualla.com/oldway-mansion/ Photo credit Ianmacm at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles is one of the most famous rooms in Europe - 73 metres of arched gilt mirrors that reflect the gardens of Louis XIV back into themselves. Walk into the first-floor gallery at Oldway Mansion in Paignton and you find it again, smaller but unmistakable, parquet floor and mirrored walls, in a town better known for ice cream and crazy golf. The man who built it was Paris Singer, son of the American who invented mass-produced sewing machines. The architecture was his answer to a question his family kept asking: what does new American money do in old Europe? At Oldway, between 1904 and 1907, it built Versailles.

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Image: Ianmacm at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/oldway-mansion-wp/gbvq-oldway-mansion-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Oldway Mansion: An American Inventor in Devon https://qualla.com/oldway-mansion/ Photo credit Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0. Isaac Singer was 60 years old and one of the richest men in America when he came to Devon. He had not invented the sewing machine - he had invented the version that worked well enough to sell - and the Singer Sewing Machine Company had made him a tycoon. He was also, by the stand...

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Image: Stephen Richards | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/oldway-mansion-wp/gbvq-oldway-mansion-an-american-inventor-in-devon.mp3 0:06 2 full Oldway Mansion: Paris Singer Builds Versailles https://qualla.com/oldway-mansion/ Photo credit Gordon Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. Isaac's son Paris Singer inherited his share of the sewing-machine fortune and a taste for grand European architecture that exceeded even his father's. Between 1904 and 1907 he rebuilt Oldway as a version of the Palace of Versailles. The grand staircase was carved from marble wit...

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Image: Gordon Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/oldway-mansion-wp/gbvq-oldway-mansion-paris-singer-builds-versailles.mp3 0:06 3 full Oldway Mansion: A Hospital, A Country Club, and an Air Raid https://qualla.com/oldway-mansion/ Photo credit Tom Jolliffe, CC BY-SA 2.0. During the First World War, Oldway was given over to the wounded. The Rotunda was filled with rows of beds and the building became the American Women's War Relief Hospital, treating soldiers brought back from the trenches of France and Belgium. King George V visited in 1915. Afte...

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Image: Tom Jolliffe | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/oldway-mansion-wp/gbvq-oldway-mansion-a-hospital-a-country-club-and-an-air-raid.mp3 0:06 4 full Oldway Mansion: Closed, Crying Out, Still Standing https://qualla.com/oldway-mansion/ Photo credit User:ianmacm, CC BY-SA 3.0. For decades Oldway served as council offices. Couples were married in the rotunda where wounded soldiers had once lain. In 1993 it was Grade II*-listed for its architectural importance. In 2012 Torbay Council approved a £12 million scheme to convert the mansion into a luxury hote...

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Image: User:ianmacm | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/oldway-mansion-wp/gbvq-oldway-mansion-closed-crying-out-still-standing.mp3 0:06 5 full