Budleigh Past and Present

As part of my research into life during WW2 in Budleigh Salterton I’ve been dipping into the ‘Henrietta’ series of books. They originally appeared in the form of letters published in the wartime Sketch magazine, and were intended to be read as letters from a local GP’s wife to her childhood friend Robert serving overseas.  'Henrietta’s War' and ' Henrietta Sees It Through' by Joyce Dennys, were published in book form in the mid-1980s. Some people find her brand of humour too arch for words, but I enjoyed the author’s humorous description of conditions in a Devon coastal village in wartime, especially as it’s clearly Budleigh Salterton – or Salterton – as the place might have been better known in those days. Dipping into other writings by Joyce Dennys I came across her autobiographical 'And Then There was One', published in 1983.  A World War One VAD ...

Iris Ansell, who as a volunteer at Fairlynch Museum looked after the Costume Department, recalls more memorable moments from her time as proprietor of Southlands Hotel on Budleigh Salterton's Marine Parade.  This is one of a series of her recollections. In the Quiet Season, i.e. the winter months, we, like most hotels who open all the year round, do not have so many guests in these months, so to keep our staff on, nearly all the Saturdays we catered for weddings. Southlands Hotel brochure, part of the Nick Loman Collection These were not the expensive occasions they are today, but much quieter low-key affairs, usually finishing with the departure of the bride and groom at 5.00 pm and all the other guests soon after. We did however have some funny moments during the happy events. The Bridal Cake, often made by the bride’s Mother, was made with not the hard royal icing used by professional bakers but soft fondant icing, easier to cut an...

  The statue of Roger Conant, by sculptor Henry Kitson, completed in 1911, stands outside Salem’s Witch Museum.    Photo credit: John Andrews It’s been a tough time for statues, especially in 2020. Many of them must be wondering whose turn it will be next, to be unceremoniously toppled from their plinth.   But a year or so ago, a group of East Budleigh residents decided that they wanted to honour Roger Conant, the mill owner’s son who left England in 1623 to found the city of Salem. How the Conant family mill in East Budleigh, sadly demolished in the early 20 th  century,  might have looked. Frontispiece illustration from  Upper Canada Sketches  by Thomas Conant, Toronto: William Briggs 1898 And a mini version of Salem’s statue, perhaps located near the Conant family mill, seemed an obvious tribute.   The unveiling of the statue of Sir Walter Raleigh in East Budleigh, ...

The Breaking of the Shell by Hanneke Coates, survivor of a WW2 Japanese internment camp, now living in Yettington, near Budleigh Salterton    Today is the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, and this Saturday 15 August is VJ Day or  Victory over Japan Day. It marks the moment when Imperial Japan surrendered in World War Two, in effect bringing the war to an end.   The surrender meant relief and freedom for thousands of Allied prisoners of war. But coming as it did after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, VJ Day was and will always be a bitter-sweet reminder of the evil of war and nuclear weapons,  especially when used against a civilian population.  In 2018, Yettington resident Hanneke Coates published an account of her experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War Two, and an explanation of how she has come to terms with that awful time. As a boy growing up near Highbridge, a small town in...