Budleigh Past and Present

  Along with the Otter Valley Association and many local councillors Budleigh Salterton’s Fairlynch Museum rejects the conclusions reached in the recent Boundary Commission report, and will continue to cover the history and culture of its traditional area in its exhibitions. Newton Poppleford war memorial ‘A recent example was our much praised Great War at Fairlynch exhibition,’ said museum Chairman Trevor Waddington. ‘It focused on the way in which the 1914-18 world conflict affected the communities along the River Otter.’  Friends of Fairlynch Mike and Margaret Wilson, from Woodbury, have been hard at work on designing the above panel which aims to show how the Otter was once a busy river. They aim to have the panel installed in time for the Museum’s opening on 25 March. ‘Communications by sea provided excellent trading opportunities for Otterton, the principal settlement, as well as East Budleigh and other sm...

        Many visitors to Fairlynch Museum have admired this painting by local artist Alan Cotton. It hangs alone in the Environment Room, away from the Museum’s other pictures. That’s probably because it’s inspired by the ancient landscape of Woodbury Common with those mysterious Bronze Age burial sites that fascinated Budleigh archaeologist George Carter (1886-1974).   “I love this picture”, says Fairlynch Art expert Angie Harlock-Wilkinson. “Alan Cotton pulls our gaze irresistibly into this beautiful, timeless evocation of the Otter Valley by leading it along the sinuous 'S'-shaped curves of the silhouetted trees into the blue distant hills on the horizon.  The hunched, ancient oaks look as 'at home' in this familiar landscape as the wildebeest might do on the African plains.” Living in Devon since the late 1960s has been an inspiration for Alan Cotton’s art but he has portrayed landscapes worldwide.   In early 2005 he was inv...