The first house belonged to George Cole, an old sailing fisherman. He also owned the shop next door to Jackmans on the harbour. Well known character on the quay. Mrs Cole sat in the lower window all day watching what we kids were getting up to on our way to and from school.

George Cole had a son, also named George Cole, who married my husband’s aunt.

There was also a daughter, named Della Cole. She had a daughter named Marilyn and a son named George, who passed away at a young age.

Ran up those steps 4 times daily ... to school a.m ... home for dinner.. to school..p.m...after school.. Just looking at them these days wears me out.

Castle Cottage (just pictured below gas lamp) - (Custom Steps Photo credit: Andrew James Brixham in Pictures). I was born there in the top left bedroom in 1934.

White paint was put on the steps in WW2, presumably to show the way during blackouts. 

During the wartime blackout, all the lamp posts and electric/telegraph poles, had white stripes painted around them, to help avoid walking into them during the dark.

I used to sit on the steps above the hairpin bend and watch the fair lorries coming up Shade. The steps pictured I always knew as Overgang Steps though. Wouldn't mind a shilling for every time I walked up ‘em.

Just a thought....could Shade have got its name from the sails laid out in this area after tanning, with their different Shades..???

My great grandparents always referred to it as 'up shade'. Their surname was Coysh.

We lived on the Overgang Steps.  Bit of a nuisance to get to the car then. Up Furzeham

Yes I remember those steps well and getting up to Furzeham. My mother and father in law lived there in the early seventies in Spy Glass Cottage at Overgang. My daughter was only a few months old. Carrying all the baby’s things, pushing the pram up and down steep hills and all the steps was hard work but I have many happy memories there. 

I lived in Sea View Terrace and can only think the sun rose in the East but after midday that the road was in the shade?

We lived at Sea View Terrace and, like you said, it was in the shade pm, I used to go up and sit on the green in the afternoon. My Dad lived at Custom Court and always called it Up Shade.

Can't remember the last time I heard the expression "G’wen up Shade!"

We never really heard it called Overgang in those days. It was always Up Shade

Just shady characters

I lived in that house from around 1997-2000. It used to be a Chapel, then a Winkle factory, then split into two flats. I had the bottom one with the original Chapel stage and facing the sea.

Converted into three flats by adding another storey. Why it wasn't listed and protected only Torbay Council knows.

My parents are the freeholders of one of the properties in The Quay, right next to Overgang. This entire area was my playground 1986-1996 after which I left to go to uni.

I can imagine smugglers walking up there in bygone days.

Great atmosphere. I have stood there so many times.
 

It looks so lovely and clear prior to mass development.

Little hut on the left was a shoe repair shop, if I remember correctly, in the 50s.