Budleigh Past and Present

Friend of Fairlynch Museum Steve Hagger will be the leader on a six-mile exploration of East Budleigh Common, part of the Otter Valley Association's programme of walks open to all. The event on Saturday 7 July 2012, starting at 10.00 am from East Budleigh car park (SY065849), will follow lanes and tracks, taking in picturesque Squabmoor Reservoir, shown above. It is classed as a 'moderate' walk. For more details contact Steve on 01395 442631.

Lace-lovers who have admired Fairlynch Museum 's collection may like to know about a forthcoming event which will have particular appeal for them. 'Mother's Story' is a unique exhibition of lace and ceramic figures which takes place from Thursday 5 July to Sunday 8 July 2012 in Broadclyst Parish Church , near Exeter . The exhibition will be open from 10.30 am - 3.30 pm daily, except for Sunday (11.00 am - 6.00 pm). There will be talks and lacemaking demonstrations, and lunches and cream teas will be available. The event is in aid of Clyst Mission Community and Clyst Caring. For group bookings and enquiries contact Miriam Gent on 01392 467288.

Star pianist Alexandra Dariescu performs at the Music Festival With only days now until the start of the 2012 Budleigh Music Festival, Chairman Roger Bowen reminds us of the exciting and varied programme which music-lovers from East Devon and beyond are eagerly anticipating. As a founding member of the Music Festival, Roger was also a Budleigh Salterton Town Councillor and was for about three years on Fairlynch's managing committee with responsibility for liaising with the Museum. "My involvement with Fairlynch was when Roger Kingwill was chair," he recalls. "I   participated when Jeremy Robinson made his report about the Museum's organisation. I also prepared a website to replace the outdated hub-dependent one though it was never really used to any great extent." For three years Fairlynch put an event on for the Music Festival usually organised by Sonia Stone, who succeeded Roger Kingwill as chair.   Many members of t...

Click on any search engine like Google and you'll discover pretty soon if people are talking about you or your business. A recent Twitter comment about us - "Wow never knew this museum existed. Can't wait to visit!" - is good to read in a way from our Museum's point of view, but of course the implication is that not enough people have been talking about Fairlynch. So the comprehensive and top-quality talk delivered by Cosmic's Kate Doodson, on 20 June 2012 was all about enhancing one's digital reputation so that visitors and customers are drawn to your website.   Hopefully they will then buy your products, use your services, or, in our case come to admire our museum and its wonderful collections. Organised by Budleigh in Business, the talk in the splendid setting of the Oak Barn at Budleigh Salterton's Riding School proved really useful for local traders who had come to learn how to cope with the challenges posed by the internet...

The Friends of Fairlynch Museum's Summer 2012 newsletter has been printed and is about to be   distributed to Friends. We are aiming to make the newsletter a bit longer than it has been in the past, and we would appreciate your help in this matter. We'd love to hear from you. If you are a Friend of Fairlynch Museum a letter, or even an article, about your particular involvement in a club or society would be welcome.   We would be happy to promote your good cause on your behalf.   A letter to the Editor about ideas for future events at the Museum would be particularly welcome.   It's been suggested recently that in six years' time Fairlynch should be marking the 400th anniversary of the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. That really is thinking ahead. You may have visited another museum where you saw something that you think Fairlynch should be doing.   Or it may be that you would like to write a letter about a particular i...

Volunteer helpers at Budleigh Salterton's Fairlynch Museum have acted swiftly to reassure families that as far as they are aware no scenes of depraved penguins are on display in its display about Antarctic explorer Murray Levick and his companions. Organisers of the 'Survival!' exhibition at Fairlynch Museum admit that photographs taken by Levick are on display, along with a book about the creatures written by the explorer and published in 1914. "We are a family-friendly museum, and the last thing we would want to do is to shock our visitors by revealing what penguins got up to in their natural environment," said the Museum's press officer Michael Downes. His statement comes after the revelation by the Natural History Museum that Murray Levick, the doctor and zoologist on Scott's last expedition, deliberately withheld from publication descriptions of sexual shenanigans among the Ad é lie penguins that the explorer had witnessed and ...

If it hadn't been for the rain you wouldn't be admiring this image of a glistening, tear-dropped red rose which I found in one of Topsham's secret gardens yesterday. Or its diamond-clustered deeply blushing pink near-neighbour. Or yet another image of the same one which I didn't have the heart to cut out. Just showing off really. And gardening expert Veitch enthusiast Caradoc Doy wouldn't have been able to demonstrate how if you rub the soaking flowers of this magnificent ceanothus between your hands it'll be almost exactly as if you were holding a bar of soap. The foam that comes from this novel form of hand-washing is caused by the saponin contained in the plant, a substance found in many other specimens of the secret world of plants. It's true - I checked it out and found http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gardening-kee...

Some Budleigh residents still had the voice of Exmouth's Town Crier Roger Bourgein ringing in their ears, days after he made his proclamation about free admission to Fairlynch Museum on 1 June. There is no charge for the Town Crier's services but a donation to the Mayor of Exmouth's chosen charity is appreciated. Above: The Owen Building at The Rolle Centre, Exmouth Image credit: www.rollecentre.org Roger's efforts on Fairlynch's behalf were deeply appreciated by Friends of the Museum. A letter conveying our thanks will be sent to the Mayor, Councillor John Humphreys, together with a cheque made out to Rolle Exmouth Ltd. As a cultural institution benefiting the local community, Fairlynch Museum shares many of the values which make The Rolle Centre a potentially important part of Exmouth's economic and cultural regeneration. Earlier this year, at a meeting attended by hundre...