Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/bictons-countryside-museum-gets-new.html It’s good to see in the new Bicton Countryside Museum guidebook a few pages about its founder N.D.G. James. The story of the James Collection, as it’s now known, is really worth telling.  The Fordson tractor, built by the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, USA, dates from 1917 and is probably one of the oldest in the UK. You may recognise the scarecrow driver Farming and agriculture make up so much of the Lower Otter Valley, stretching from Budleigh Salterton to Newton Poppleford, that it’s only right that they should have their place in any local museum.  The threshing machine would definitely not fit into Fairlynch. Built by Marshall Sons & Co Ltd, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire and delivered to the now defunct Exeter-based mechanical engineering firm of Taylor & Bodley on 18 August 1890 Sadly, Fairlync...

The newly edited Guide to Bicton Countryside Museum  To Bicton for a weekend walk to admire the autumn colours. But really, I wanted to take another look at the wonderful Bicton Park Botanical Gardens Countryside Museum. Fairlynch, like many East Devon museums, is being put to bed for the winter. But Bicton Botanical Gardens’ proud boast is that it is open all year, excluding Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Unfortunately, unlike Fairlynch, they charge for admission, but if you become a member and pay what I think is a moderate amount you can wave your card and get in free on every occasion as well as receiving a 5% discount on purchases in the gift shop and restaurant.    The old guide: I grew up in Somerset with a John Deere tractor!  When I first discovered the Countryside Museum I was surprised to find that it didn’t have its own guide on sale in the gift shop. There had been a guide, but it...