1896

In 1896, a number of Plymouth citizens had got together to form a committee to set up a society for about 200 deaf people in the Plymouth area. According to the British Deaf Times, the first meeting place was at the Borough Arms, the coffee Tavern, in Bedford Street and at the junction of Bank Street. These buildings survived the blitz, but were demolished in the reconstruction of Plymouth, and in my research, the exact site of the Borough Arms is around near where the escalator section of the Dingles store, at Armada way, is now. A local deaf man, Mr. Pike, was the first person to act as an unpaid missionary for two years.