Museum shows off 'the Full Monty' and much more














A century of costumes. Go and find out what they're staring at in the sky!

Budleigh Salterton's Fairlynch Museum is celebrating a pair of centenaries in 2011 with two contrasting exhibitions. To mark the occasion there is a new exhibition of costumes on the theme of '200 years of ladies living at Fairlynch.' The display shown above portrays clothes which might have been worn during the first hundred years of the house. When I took the photo questions were being asked about what the ladies were staring at. Since then the answer has been found, but I'll leave you readers to go and find out what the exhibition organisers finally decided.




















The show includes the 1920s 'flapper' dress and evening wear from the 1930s seen above.




















Also on display and pictured above is a 1940s 'demob' suit, one of the thousands issued to British servicemen after World War Two. Made by the Leeds-based tailors Montague Burton the complete suit, including jacket, trousers, waistcoat, shirt and underwear quickly became known as 'The Full Monty'. The suit on display in Fairlynch was donated by William Rose, of Exmouth, who wore it only once on his wedding day.




















There's a nice contrast between the suit and this polar outfit modelled by 'George' in the Museum's main exhibition on the ground floor. Linked to the Scott of the Antarctic centenary celebrations the exhibition entitled 'Survival' pays tribute to the life and achievements of former Budleigh Salterton resident Surgeon Commander Murray Levick.














Originally called Primrose Cottage, Fairlynch was built in 1811 as a thatched marine cottage orné. It houses many items of interest, ranging from one of the finest collections of costumes dating from Georgian times to East Devon Pebblebeds geological specimens. The Museum is open until October, from 2.00-4.30 pm except Saturdays. http://www.devonmuseums.net/fairlynch

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