Budleigh Past and Present

  This gold medal was struck by New York jeweller Tiffany & Co to mark the successful laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858  ‘Not much happens in Budleigh Salterton,’ they say. ‘Saltertonians don’t like change.’  Well, I beg to differ.  In fact I would go so far as to say that at least two former Budleigh residents have changed the course of world history.   I learnt about the first shortly after my arrival in the town back in 2008. Admittedly, my source was Wikipedia. Not the most reliable perhaps, but the story of how General John Graves Simcoe had unwittingly saved the life of the USA’s first President, George Washington, during the American War of Independence is so picturesque that it deserves a glorious mention in our town’s annals.  The second Saltertonian – well, actually he lived in Little Knowle – came to mind not just because Fairlynch Museum is honouring his memory with a bicentennial tribute in its exhibition this year, but because