Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/02/stories-from-southlands-hotel-by-iris_28.html   Pictured above is Budleigh resident Iris Ansell. As a volunteer at Fairlynch Museum Iris looked after the Costume Department. In this article, the eighth and last in the series, she recalls more memorable moments from her time as proprietor of Southlands Hotel in Budleigh Salterton      About the late 1980s the economic situation changed in Britain. VAT was increased, stocks and shares were paying very little, and the cheap holiday abroad had arrived, with guaranteed good weather.   Southlands Hotel brochure After two years with bad weather, and guest occupancy down due to lack of funds of our older clientele, we decided to give up the hotel life after nearly 20 years.   The Jacuzzi: offering hotel guests a sensuous experience, it remained sadly empty!   Image credit: Pavel Ševela We sold to a young couple w...

Congratulations to Fairlynch volunteers Mike and Margaret Wilson, looking pleased with themselves, as well they might, for completing their display in the Museum’s Local History Room. Following on f rom my previous post at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/fairlynch-values-valley.html    I wondered whether they would make the deadline of the Museum’s new season opening. After all they’re only just back from Australia where the temptations of all that winter sunshine might have distracted them from serious matters like preparing displays on how the River Otter has changed its course over the centuries. The River Otter panel at the entrance to Fairlynch’s Local History Room has been deliberately placed to emphasise that the Museum is supposed to cover the whole of the Lower Otter Valley, rather just the town of Budleigh Salterton. Back in 1967 however, when Fairlynch f...