Budleigh Past and Present

Antiques, Collectables, Interior Design and Private Plane Hire – All Under One Roof! At the far end (away from the beach) of Budleigh’s High Street lies Just Find, which has been dealing in antiques and collectables for nearly three years. Recently acquired by Paul Elliott the services available have been expanded to include aircraft chartering and interior design. “It’s an unlikely combination and surprising to some customers browsing in the shop, who hear phone discussions about where to land helicopters and conversations in Russian about apartment décor – for those who can understand!” admits Paul. The explanation is that Paul has worked in aviation for many years, both in the Royal Air Force and with commercial airlines. Before moving to Budleigh he was working in Kazakhstan for the national airline, where he met and married his Russian-born wife Marina, a successful interior designer. (Right: Multi-talented Budleigh duo Marina and Paul Elliott) Just Find – the shop – specialises i...

“Brewed specially to celebrate the summer sounds by the sea for which Budstock has become legend” as the label says, this real ale has been bottled in a limited edition for Budleigh Salterton’s own rock music festival. You can’t ignore Glastonbury when it comes to West Country rock music festivals even though Budleigh people might like to think that Budstock http://www.myspace.com/budstock is the ultimate in such things. So it shouldn’t be too surprising to find that the new brew is a product of Somerset-based Glastonbury Ales http://www.glastonburyales.com/ The company specialises in real ale for festivals, marketing brews such as Lady of the Lake, Hedge Monkey, Golden Chalice and the punningly named Mystery Tor (surely this is worse that any of my own efforts on this blog?) On sale at Threshers http://www.threshergroup.com/ in Budleigh’s High Street, the bottles boast that they contain “real ale that really rocks.” The limited special edition 2009 was an initiative of Mike Reid, f...

The famous Millais painting of his boyhood, the Wall in Budleigh which bears his name, the picturesque Elizabethan farmhouse in East Budleigh where he was born… all these make Budleigh Salterton proud to be associated with Devon’s hero Sir Walter Raleigh. So it was an enthusiastic and interested audience in Budleigh’s Peter Hall which welcomed Ivan Roots, Emeritus Professor of History at Exeter University, when he gave a talk about the great man’s poetry on Wednesday 29 June 2009 as part of the town’s Festival of Music and the Arts. http://www.budleigh-festival.org.uk/ (Above: The portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh in All Saints East Budleigh, a copy of the work by Frederico Zuccaro now in the National Portrait Gallery, London) The event was a prelude to the excellent performance of Even such is Time , the cantata by local composer Nicholas Marshall, (right) based on one of Raleigh’s most famous poems. Raleigh is a complex figure, like many of his age, and like his name, which has been s...

"We interpret the world through stories... everybody makes in their own way sense of things, but if you have stories it helps." Paula Rego Guests perused the idea at the Brook's recent private view to launch the gallery’s current exhibition ‘Paula Rego: The Ultimate Story Teller’ which runs to 10 August. Paula Rego, internationally renowned contemporary artist, is exhibiting her etchings and lithographs spanning over 20 years at the Brook in Budleigh Salterton. Joined by acclaimed British contemporary artist, Chris Orr MBE RA, guests admired Paula Rego's skill at cleverly entwining her own experiences with those of dreams and fantasies. It's heady stuff for the art lover or just a glorious take on a fairy tale theme for some - in either case, guests enjoyed meeting Chris Orr, a distinguished artist in his own right, and the evening slipped by in celebratory fashion. Natalie and Christine Bland, Bob and Trish Beere Professor Chris Orr, MBE RA and Paul Smith Neil An...

Just as I’d been wondering whether I am one of those people who’ve enhanced Budleigh Salterton’s supposed reputation as “a haven for the frail and elderly to while away their twilight years”, according to the author of Devon Perspectives, up pops on my screen thanks to Google this amazing photo of Everest published by the Daily Mail newspaper. http://www.devonperspectives.co.uk/budleigh_salterton.html And to my delight I find that the couple behind the photo live in Budleigh! Leo and Mandy Dickinson specialise in drama and documentary films involving adventure sports such as mountaineering, skydiving, parachuting, ballooning and underwater in many countries throughout the world. Both husband and wife have distinguished themselves in such sports. Leo Dickinson began rock-climbing in the Lake District and North Wales whilst still at school and spent his first Alpine season in 1966 in the Dolomites, going on to a career of award-winning film-making and stills photography. He started para...

[Byron Cain, my informative and enthusiastic correspondent in Brewster, runs the excellent Brewster by the Sea Inn and Spa h ttp://www.brewsterbythesea.com/ with his wife Donna. He is also a talented photographer. He has written the following piece about Cape Cod’s beaches, which I have illustrated with some of his photos of Paines Creek in Brewster.] Mention Cape Cod and everyone has a different image in their mind....sunbathing, whale watching, fishing, kayaking, fresh seafood, history, galleries. All are part of the ambiance and unpretentious charm that attracts so many people to Cape Cod. But one thing that defines Cape Cod in most people's minds is our beaches. We have lived in Brewster for almost six years now and are continually amazed and awed at how unique and different each beach is on the Cape. Thankfully the national seashore was established in 1961 to help protect many of the beautiful beaches on the Atlantic side. Many of the smaller beaches are maintained by each of...

Budleigh Salterton Hospital’s League of Friends will be celebrating the completion of building and improvement projects totaling £262,000 when they hold their annual garden party on Saturday 1 August. The Arcadia Jazz Band http://www.arcadiajazzband.com/ playing a wide range of compositions, from traditional to mainstream, will be one of the major attractions of the afternoon and there will be a wide range of stalls at the event, which begins at 2.30 pm. Above: Dr David Evans, Chairman of the Budleigh Salterton Hospital League of Friends, at the Public Hall Clubs and Societies event in March 2009 From its beginnings in March 1888, when it started life as Budleigh Salterton Cottage Hospital “for the benefit of poor persons suffering from accident or non-infectious disease, who cannot be properly attended to in their own homes,” the hospital has always been enthusiastically supported as one of the town’s good causes. One of the earliest benefactors was the Reverend James Boucher, who do...

A Budleigh artist who specializes in unique kiln formed glass bowls is one of a group of like-minded local crafts people who are preparing a major exhibition of their work in the town. Linda Barrack has been making original handcrafted contemporary fused glass pieces since 2001 and dichroic fused glass jewellery since 2003 after training at the Mid-Cornwall School of Jewellery. Most of her work is inspired by the sea and its many changing moods, but the proximity of Dartmoor often has a bearing on the work. Linda and her fellow-artists regularly exhibit in Budleigh, Woodbury, Beer, Branscombe and Sidmouth. “We make our own unique items and prefer to sell locally rather than travel far afield,” she says. Her work is currently on display at Otterton Mill as part of the Coastline Exhibition which runs until 31 August http://www.ottertonmill.com/arts-and-crafts/arts-and-craft-events/q/date/2009/05/02/exhibition-coastline/ Included in the Budleigh fair on Saturday 8 August will be original ...

Devon’s cricket fans will have the chance of lunching with star names from the sport when internationally renowned members of the Lashings World Cricket squad will be in Budleigh on Wednesday 29 July. A charity lunch hosted by Lashings http://www.lashings.co.uk/ and including a special auction will be followed by a limited overs match starting at 2.30 pm between the Lashings team and Devon County Cricket Club at Budleigh’s Ottermouth ground. The price is £40 per ticket, or £390 for a table of ten. The 2009 Lashings squad includes Richie Richardson, Devon Malcolm, Jason Gillespie, John Emburey, Gordon Greenidge, Graeme Hick, Henry Olonga, Saqlain Mustaq, Stuart Law and Ian Harvey. In addition to the cricket, Devon cream teas, local ales, a bouncy castle and adventure activities organized by the Royal Marines will be among the afternoon’s attractions to make this a fun-filled family day out. Ground admission is £5 and under-16s get in free. As well as playing cricket, the Lashings team ...

Another ramble across the heaths with a friend from Shanghai, following the track to East Budleigh and the family home of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Elizabethan courtier whose pioneering expeditions led to the birth of a new English-speaking nation in America. There in the church of All Saints where Raleigh worshipped as a boy I discover to my pleasure and surprise a stained glass window commemorating Vice-Admiral George William Preedy, another Budleigh worthy about whom I knew nothing. Strangely, there is no mention of Preedy and his window on the information display in the car park outside the church. I had read many years ago, perhaps in one of my childhood encyclopedias, of the ship that he commanded, HMS Agamemnon , and the transatlantic cable it laid in partnership with the USS steam frigate Niagara . And thinking about this, and the way in which Columbus, Raleigh, Marconi & co all led inevitably to Microsoft, Google and my own humble use of Blogspot made me keen to learn more...

News of the death this week of British World War I veteran Henry Allingham, at the great age of 112, prompted me to visit Budleigh Salterton’s town cemetery on the appropriately named Dark Lane. After all, they do say that people come to Budleigh to die and then rapidly forget why they’ve come: the result is of course that they live longer than the average in this little oasis of stress-free tranquillity. And there are certainly some great ages recorded on the cemetery tombstones. Of course some people view this aspect of Budleigh in a negative light: “Today perhaps with some justification it is derided as a genteel backwater, a haven for the frail and elderly to while away their twilight years,” notes the author of Devon Perspectives http://www.devonperspectives.co.uk/budleigh_salterton.html seeing the town as a ‘Demographic Downer’ where a few years ago half the population was recorded as being over 50, with a third being over 70. I prefer to see it as I’m sure columnist Libby Purve...