Twins, Sisters, Cousins...? Does it really matter?
What a pleasant surprise to receive the first of many
responses to the first-ever bulletin of The Budleigh Chronicle on 20
January. Especially as it had come from
thousands of miles away in cyberspace.
A "twinning" on paper: news of the transatlantic link as reported in The Budleigh Journal newspaper just over ten years ago
Well actually it had come in a short hop from Cape Cod on the other side of the Pond, so not really
that far at all in this age of instant communication - when the internet works
of course.
Pioneering transatlantic communication: the stained glass window in All Saints' Church, East Budleigh, commemorating former Budleigh resident George William Preedy
Admiral Preedy, the brave captain of HMS Agamemnon who played such an important
part in laying that first successful telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean , and who came to live in retirement at
Park House in Knowle on the outskirts of
Budleigh, would have been thrilled.
I was certainly pleased. The friendship link between
Budleigh Salterton and Brewster ,
MA
A "twinning" on paper: news of the transatlantic link as reported in The Budleigh Journal newspaper just over ten years ago
It was a surprise to find when I moved to East Devon five years ago to find a mention of our 'twin'
on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budleigh_Salterton
How come we had no Lincoln Road Eisenhower Avenue Kennedy Street
So the tenth anniversary of the near-twinning passed
almost unnoticed a couple of years ago. But thanks to the amazing phenomenon of
Google news alerts you can keep an eye on what's going on in the charming
little Cape Cod town which bears so many
similarities to Budleigh. And the news
or non-news of our relationship will certainly find space in the online museum
which is this blog.
Perhaps it's better that way. Better to have an informal relationship than
risk becoming enmeshed in the bureaucratic net that could be the consequence of
an official arrangement with all those illuminated scrolls, constitutions and
possible squabbles. Maybe best to imagine us as ships passing each other in the
night, mutually catching occasional glimpses of life onboard between the waves
of the rough rude sea.
I started what I think of as this museum in cyberspace with the intention of regularly
including an item about Brewster life, so there's some news from Kyle Hinkle,
Executive Director of the town's Chamber of Commerce at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/brewster-shines-in-spotlight-of.html
A view of Squabmoor Reservoir on Dalditch Common, just a few miles from Budleigh Salterton
Eco-tourism? That's certainly something we share with
Cape Cod, with our own pebble beach, sea-sports, cycle tracks, ancient
buildings and thousands of acres of heather-clad commons complete with Bronze
Age sites, Dartford Warblers, slow worms and rare butterflies Well, I know a
lot of it belongs to Clinton Devon Estates, but they do allow us to enjoy these
wonderful things. Long may that continue.
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