Today we are fighting a long drawn out battle for the preservation of one of Paigntons greatest heritage residences and surrounding grounds, OLDWAY MANSION. As far as Paignton is concerned the story began in 1870 with the arrival of Issac Singer, a flamboyant American multi-millionaire. This Illustrated Talk is very much about how the Singer Sewing Machine Company, through father and son, was to influence the development of Paignton and Preston through Victorian into Edwardian times and still visable today.