Formation and early years (1899–1912) The original Torquay United was formed in 1899 by a group of school-leavers under the guidance of
Sergeant-Major Edward Tomney. The newly founded club played its inaugural match against an Upton Cricket Club XI on one of local farmer, John Wright's fields, situated at the top of Penny's Hill, on Teignmouth Road. After a season of friendlies the club joined the East Devon League and moved into the Recreation Ground, their home for the next four years.
Plainmoor at the time was occupied by
Torquay Athletic Rugby Club in what is a reversal of the modern day situation. In 1904 Athletic secured the lease on the Recreation Ground from United, with League rivals
Ellacombe taking over the lease of Plainmoor, leaving United homeless for the first time in their existence – facilitating a return to the farmer's fields on Teignmouth Road. However the club was on the move once more when the fields were sold to be developed into what would later be known as Parkhurst Road. United soon found another home, sharing with Torquay Cricket Club in nearby Cricketfield Road (a site still used for football in the modern day by South Devon League side
Upton Athletic F.C.) for four years. It was during this time that they won their first honour; the 1909 Torquay and District League title. Following this breakthrough for the club, United merged with local rivals Ellacombe Football Club in 1910 and adopted the name
Torquay Town. It was then that United finally moved into Plainmoor where they would remain to this day. During this period the ground was shared with the team's remaining local rival
Babbacombe. Both sides were playing in the same league, the
Plymouth and District League alongside the reserve teams of
Exeter City and
Plymouth Argyle, Torquay Town would later win the league in the 1911–12 season. Torquay went on to finish sixth that season and during the summer applied for Football League status, but failed to gain a single vote. With the change of colours came a change in fortunes starting with the club's greatest ever
FA Cup moment that very season. Torquay were drawn against
Leeds United, away, in the third round of the Cup. Torquay went into the game clear under-dogs, yet they managed to hold the Yorkshire club to a 2–2 draw. The following Wednesday, 12 January, Torquay beat Leeds 4–0, with a gate of 11,000. Torquay United went on to play Huddersfield Town in the fourth round FA Cup game at Plainmoor. Torquay lost 1–0 to the higher-placed Division One club, but the official attendance of 21,908 remains a club record. Following their FA Cup heroics, in the 1956–57 season Torquay just missed out on promotion to
Division Two on
goal average. The season had begun well – and by April, the possibility of a first promotion to Division Two was the talk of the town. A trip to
Crystal Palace for the team and over 1,500 Torquay fans travelling on the last day of the season beckoned. Torquay only needed to win the game to be certain of going up, but they managed only a 1–1 draw at
Selhurst Park and Ipswich, who won their final match away to Southampton, took the title. United failed to repeat this form the following season and after finishing 22nd in the league they were placed in the new
Division Four, created by the de-regionalisation of the two third level divisions. With Eric Webber still in charge, United ended their first season in the League's new basement division in twelfth place; but the next season, the club returned to form, and on 27 April 1960, 8,749 fans saw Torquay United beat
Gillingham 2–0 at Plainmoor to return to the Third Division with two games of the season remaining. They were relegated on the last day of the campaign in May 1962. in 1968 at Plainmoor Torquay came very close to regaining their Division Three status when they finished sixth in both the 1962–63 and 1963–64 campaigns. In 1963, Webber signed striker
Robin Stubbs for a club record fee of £6,000 from
Birmingham City; he went on to be the club's top goalscorer at the end of the 1963–64 scoring 24 goals in 34 games. Torquay's FA Cup run of 1964–65 was the highlight of a disappointing mid-table season as United again failed to return to the Third Division. In the third round, Torquay were drawn at home to English football giants; Tottenham Hotspur. In front of Plainmoor's second ever largest attendance, slightly above 20,000 – the team performed well, in the last few minutes, it was the turn of record signing Robin Stubbs to net two goals and make it 3–3. The first attempt at a replay in London was cancelled, with the majority of United's travelling fans having already arrived in the capital. A week later though, in front of 55,000-strong crowd at
White Hart Lane, the match went ahead.
Jimmy Greaves scored a hat trick as Tottenham showed their class to win 5–1. After finishing in 12th at the end of the season, Eric Webber was finally sacked after 15 years as manager. Webber's replacement was
Frank O'Farrell. In his first season in charge, O'Farrell oversaw Torquay's second promotion when they finished third in Division Four. At the end of their 1966–67 campaign United finished in seventh, and at the end of their 1967–68 season, United came very close to promotion to Division Two, once again, finishing fourth, two points behind
Oxford United and
Bury. This period also coincided with the club's fans being voted the 'Best Behaved Supporters in the League'. The O'Farrell era ended in 1968–69, when he left to manage First Division
Leicester City and later
Manchester United.
Lower league disappointment (1970–1988) Another two seasons of indifference in Division Three saw the club finish in mid-table positions, then at the end of the 1971–72 campaign, United found themselves in the relegation zone, and back in the basement division. This led to a relatively uneventful decade with the club consistently scratching out mid-table finishes. O'Farrell made a return to Plainmoor in 1977 into the position of consultant manager, with Green taking hold of first team duties, The end of the
1977–78 season saw the Gulls finish in ninth place. Green then left the club, to be replaced at the helm, for the third time, by Frank O'Farrell. O'Farrell didn't stay in charge of team matters for long, bringing in ex-Scotland international
Bruce Rioch to become player-coach. Though the Gulls finished in fifteenth place in the 1981–82 season. During the following summer Rioch was named manager, and the following 1982–83 campaign saw United finish 12th, but reached the fourth round of the FA Cup for the third time, going out of the competition at Plainmoor after a thrilling 3–2 defeat at the hands of
Sheffield Wednesday. United would go on to finish the season in a strong 9th place. However, in Webb's first full season at the helm, the
1984–85 season United finished bottom of Division Four and had to apply for re-election to stay in the Football League. For the second successive year United finished bottom of Division Four, and again successfully applied for re-election. The
1986–87 season saw the club survive automatic relegation to the
Football Conference by drawing their last game with a goal in injury-time, which had been added after a Torquay player was bitten by a police dog.
A new era and the Bateson years (1988–2008) At the start of the 1987–88 season,
Cyril Knowles was appointed manager. That year, Torquay beat
Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 at Plainmoor in the FA Cup. The team also reached the semi-final of the
Football League Trophy. In May 1988, Lee Sharpe transferred to
Manchester United for £180,000, one of the biggest transfer fees in Torquay United's history. Torquay reached the final of the Football League Trophy in 1989. A crowd of 46,513 watched them lose 4–1 to
Bolton Wanderers at
Wembley. Under newly appointed
John Impey Torquay were relegated after only one season in Division Three. Soon after, Don O'Riordan took the senior job, guiding United to the play-offs again during the 1993–94 season, in which the club finished sixth. However, the team lost 4–1 at
Deepdale in the final. At the end of the 1995–96 season, Torquay finished bottom of Division Three. However, they were saved from relegation when
Stevenage Borough's ground was deemed unfit for League football. In the 1997–98 season, the club finished fifth and reached the play-offs, but lost 1–0 to Colchester United in the Wembley final. In 1999 and 2001, Torquay only narrowly avoided relegation to non-League football. Newly appointed
Roy McFarland only managed to deliver a 19th-place finish the following year, subsequently stepping down. At the end of the 2003–04 season, the club won automatic promotion, but their stay in the third tier was only to last one season, and they were relegated at the end of 2004–05. In the 2005–06 FA Cup 3rd round, Torquay managed a 0–0 draw with the then-Premier League side
Birmingham City. However, they lost the replay 2–0 at
St Andrew's. Torquay United lost their eighty-year Football League status on 14 April 2007, following a 1–1 draw at home to
Peterborough United. Soon after, a £15M National Lottery winner, Paul Bristow, bought the club. Rowe was installed as the new chairman, and
Paul Buckle appointed the club's new manager. On 15 March 2008, Torquay played at Wembley for the first time in ten years to reach the FA Trophy final. Having finished third in the
Conference, Torquay played fierce rivals
Exeter City away in the play-offs, and Exeter won 4–0. On 10 May 2008, Torquay lost the FA Trophy final 1–0 to
Ebbsfleet United at Wembley. They reached the fourth round of the FA Cup in 2008–09, playing Coventry City in front of 6,018, and lost 1–0. Torquay United were promoted to the Football League on 17 May 2009 in the play-off final at Wembley, with 35,000 in attendance.
From Football League to non-League (2008–present) In their
first season back in League Two, Torquay finished in 17th place and the club reached the third round of the
2009–10 FA Cup, where they lost 1–0 to Brighton & Hove Albion. The next season, Torquay United reached the fourth round, equaling the club record. That season, Torquay came 7th but they lost 1–0 in the play off final to
Stevenage and remained in League Two. United enjoyed an even more successful season in
2011–12 under new manager
Martin Ling, achieving a record high of second place in League Two. However, they lost 4–1 on aggregate to Cheltenham Town in the play-off semi-finals. The club was relegated to the Conference Premier in 2013–14. Torquay finished 13th in their first season back in non-league. In June 2015, ownership of the club was taken up by a new consortium made up of ten local business people.
Paul Cox was appointed as manager but left Torquay three months later. Shortly afterward, United suffered their biggest defeat in 20 years, losing 7–3 at home to Bromley. On 28 September 2015, the club announced
Kevin Nicholson would be the new player-manager. During 2016–17, a deal with a Swindon-based gaming and leisure company, Gaming international, was agreed and confirmed by the National League in March 2017. On 21 April 2018, Torquay were relegated to the sixth tier of English football for the first time. Soon after,
Gary Johnson was appointed manager. They were crowned champions of the National League South on 13 April 2019, their first league championship title since 1927. In
2019–20, Torquay finished 14th in the fifth tier after the season was cancelled in March 2020 due to disruption caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic. In
2020–21, the Gulls finished second. In the play-off final at
Ashton Gate, Torquay's goalkeeper
Lucas Covolan equalised in the 95th minute. However, Torquay lost out to
Hartlepool United 5–4 on penalties. Two years later, Torquay were relegated back to the National League South.
Administration (2024–25) On 22 February 2024, club chairman, Clarke Osborne, stated he was planning to appoint administrators and stood down. On 30 June 2023, the Gulls lost £1,163,124 and Osborne's loans to the club rose to £5.28m. After announcing likely administration, manager
Gary Johnson left the club by mutual agreement and his assistant
Aaron Downes was appointed interim manager. On 13 March 2024, the National League deducted Torquay ten points, dropping the club from 12th to 17th place in the table. The club formally went into administration on 5 April 2024. On 12 April 2024, Torquay was deducted a further point for fielding a suspended player, dropping the club to 19th with three games to play. Torquay finished the
2023–24 season 18th in the sixth tier, their lowest league finish since 1927. Off the pitch, a consortium of local businessmen, the Bryn Consortium, was set to take over the club. On 14 May 2024, Torquay appointed former
Truro City boss
Paul Wotton as their new manager, working with football advisor
Neil Warnock. The club was no longer in administration by 25 April 2025. ==Crest and colours==