Budleigh Past and Present

  James Lackington, the wealthy London bookseller who built Budleigh Salterton's Methodist Church. Last year was the bicentenary of his death Much of the archive material in Fairlynch Museum is due to volunteer researchers like local historian Roger Lendon, who contributes regularly to the Otter Valley Association’s Ovapedia at http://www.ova.org.uk/ovapedia  On Friday 12 February Roger will be giving a talk to the East Devon branch of the Devonshire Association entitled ‘Some 19th century Budleigh worthies’. The talk will follow a short AGM, which begins at 2.30pm Manor Pavilion Theatre in Sidmouth. Roger has given in advance some details of the talk.  After a preliminary preamble on the early history of the area he will focus on a few of Budleigh Salterton’s  inhabitants in the first half of the 19th century.   He will be talking in some detail about Matthew Lee Yeates, the ship owner and builder of Fairlynch; Rober

Knowle Village's local as it looked when I arrived in the area eight years ago. It had two pub signs: 'Britannia Inn' on the wall and 'The Dog and Donkey' on the car park The old 'Britannia Inn' sign: still there... but maybe not for long  The Britannia Inn, we’re told in Fairlynch Museum’s local history records, was the oldest institution in Knowle. It was older than the Village Hall and older by at least 20 years than the former church of St John which stood on Dalditch Lane, and which is listed as being built in 1893.   The church was converted into a private residence in around 2013.   I use the past tense because it seems at last that the Knowle pub will be officially known by the name used by generations of locals following its recent purchase from Enterprise Inns by publican Nick Stiling. From an incomplete collection of Budleigh Salterton street directories we can date The Britannia’s origins to within