  The TORCH time-of-flight detector will provide particle identification
between 2-10 GeV/c momentum over a flight distance of 10 m, and is designed for
large-area coverage, up to 30 m^2. A 15 ps time-of-flight resolution per
incident particle is anticipated by measuring the arrival times from Cherenkov
photons produced in a synthetic fused silica radiator plate of 10 mm thickness.
Customised Micro-Channel Plate Photomultiplier Tube (MCP-PMT) photon detectors
of 53 x 53 mm^2 active area with a 64 x 64 granularity have been developed with
industrial partners. Test-beam studies using both a small-scale TORCH
demonstrator and a half-length TORCH module are presented. The desired timing
resolution of 70 ps per single photon is close to being achieved.
