Budleigh Past and Present

This obituary was published in the Friends of Fairlynch Museum newsletter, Spring 2015 Tony Colmer was born in Merton, near Wimbledon , on 15 March 1940 - the Ides of March, as he would say. The Second World War was still raging and this must have affected his childhood. Tony was an only child but the Colmers were quite a large family and he had several uncles and cousins with whom he kept up all his life. He was particularly proud of his grandfather, Francis Colmer (1873-1967) who was a gifted artist and painted many views of Buckinghamshire where he lived. Many of the latter's paintings are now in the County Museum in Aylesbury.  Tony's interest in archaeology would certainly have been encouraged by his grandfather, whose artistic output included drawings of Saxon weapons found at Bourne End. Tony was brought up in Wimbledon where he went to school and subsequently went to The Queen’s College, Oxford . He studied there from 1959 to 1962, taking a degree in Modern...

A recent survey conducted among Friends of Fairlynch has made for encouraging reading. "We're really grateful as Museum Trustees to all the Friends who took such trouble in answering our recent questionnaire," said Chairman Roger Sherriff. Thoughts about the Museum's role in the community have been stimulated by the recent abolition of admission charges. The decision to allow free entry has been approved by virtually all those involved with Fairlynch, particularly in view of the fivefold rise in visitor numbers. Confirmation of the benefits of the new policy came at a recent meeting of the Museum's General Committee with Roger Sherriff's announcement that shop takings had doubled. "Taking into account all cost factors we found that income for a set period before free admission amounted to £740, and for the equivalent period after abolition charges the figure was £800," he said. "So far it's cle...

A US-born writer who has settled in Devon and become of the county’s best known historians will be holding a local history workshop in the picturesque village of East Budleigh on 5 September. (Left: East Budleigh's prettily twisting High Street with its many ancient thatched houses, looking down from the church) Dr Todd Gray was born and raised in the Massachusetts towns of Ipswich and Gloucester, and first came to England on a school trip in 1973. He now has dual nationality. He returned in 1978 to complete his undergraduate studies and in 1989 was awarded his Doctorate in History from the University of Exeter. He remains an Honorary Research Fellow of the University. Dr Gray has written more than 40 books on the history of Devon and Cornwall and more than a dozen scholarly articles. He is Chairman of the Friends of Devon’s Archives, and a past Chairman of the Devonshire Association. He has not shied away from awkward subjects in his writing. His Blackshirts in Devon studied the ...