Budleigh Past and Present

This is the story behind the recent acquisition by Fairlynch Museum of the beautiful replica of a 16th century communion cup from which Sir Walter Ralegh may have drunk.   It is hoped to exhibit the original silver chalice and paten, currently in storage, at Exeter Cathedral. Crafted by one of the city’s celebrated goldsmiths, they are among the treasures of All Saints Church, East Budleigh, birthplace of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtier.  In 2018 we will be marking the 400th anniversary of his wrongful trial and execution.  Promotional poster of 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' by artist Drew Struzan  Image credit: Paramount Pictures via Wikipedia “You have chosen wisely,” the Grail knight tells the hero in the film 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.'  Terrible things befall those who choose poorly and drink from the wrong communion cup. And so it was during the turbulent years of religious wars brought about by the ...

New arrival on the cultural attractions scene: the Heymuseums logo Volunteers at Fairlynch  are cheering at the news that their museum has been judged one of the most popular in the region according to a specialist website. Heymuseums places the Budleigh Salterton museum, located in a listed 19 th century thatched building described as a “marine cottage orn é ” on the town’s Fore Street, as one of the leading attractions of its type in East Devon.  The website, which calls itself the United Kingdom´s most updated site for finding museums and art galleries, puts Fairlynch near the top of its list for the area, second only to Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery. It currently boasts of guiding online visitors to   5,898 museums  in the UK.   Facebook logo. For Heymuseums, Facebook plays a key part in listing a museum’s popularity The site’s popularity-rank...

  Sir Walter Ralegh: the Devon hero who lost his head but helped Britain build an empire. His statue stands near All Saints Church in East Budleigh   Exciting discoveries have been made at the site of an American colony pioneered by East Budleigh-born Sir Walter Ralegh. The finds will be of interest to the Fairlynch team which worked on this year’s exhibition to honour the great Tudor explorer and courtier. Excavation at the Hatteras sites in 2012, where the ingot and counter was found and in 2015, where the rapier and slate were found. Image credit:   University of Bristol Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have uncovered artefacts that they believe may help solve the long-running mystery of the fate of the first English colonists in North America. Excavations on the Island of Hatteras (North Carolina) have discovered a number of artefacts, dated to the late ...

  Visitors seeking local memories of the 1914-18 world conflict have only another six weeks to go until the main season ends at Fairlynch on Sunday 27 September.   Our Great War exhibition can be seen again briefly when the Museum re-opens during the school half-term before finally being dismantled.  But our neighbours in Exmouth – all volunteers just as in Budleigh – staged their own Great War display and their museum remains open until the end of October. Exmouth is just a few miles along the coast from Budleigh Salterton. So it’s no surprise to find, from a rummage in the archives, that at least a dozen men associated with the Lower Otter Valley who died on active service during World War One also had links to the larger town. As at Fairlynch, there are photos of local men who served in the conflict.   Among...