Budleigh Past and Present

Roger Conant Club members have fun, putting over a serious message for our times A dazzling display of Christmas trees was on show at the East Budleigh Heritage Centre in Salem Chapel on Saturday and Sunday 2-3 December 2023, from 10.00am-3.00pm. ‘We have a display of over 30 trees which look magnificent with all their lights!’ said organiser Maria Malinowska. ‘The trees are in all different shapes and sizes and many reflect the themes and interests of the groups who have decorated them. The tallest is 15’ high! ‘Contributions of Christmas Trees came from Drake’s School, All Saints’ Church, East Budleigh Parish Council, the Craft Group, the Sir Walter Raleigh pub, the WI, the Handbell Choir, the History Society, the Otter Valley Association, the Friends of All Saints, the Square Circle knitting group, the Flower Arrangers, the Bell Ringers, the East Budleigh Heritage Centre, East Budleigh in Bloom, the Roger Conant Club, the East Budleigh Community Shop, the Yoga group, the Churc

    From the top: East Budleigh’s ancient All Saints' Church, where the families of Sir Walter Raleigh and Roger Conant worshipped; the village’s High Street; Salem Chapel, on Vicarage Road, location of East Budleigh Heritage Centre.   This December will see a renewal of a local tradition in the shape of a Christmas Tree Festival in East Budleigh Heritage Centre. The first Festival proved so popular that the tradition grew rapidly, progressing from around a dozen trees to over 50 in 2016. The statue of Roger Conant in Salem, Massachusetts. Image credit: John Andrews and Destination Salem The 2023 Festival will include an unusual exhibit which pays tribute to East Budleigh-born Roger Conant, founder of the city of Salem in Massachusetts which will mark its 400 th  anniversary in 2026.  Decorated with many flags from all over the world, the ‘tree’ created by East Budleigh’s Roger Conant Club has a serious message in its setting of the appropriately named Salem Chapel.   Portrait by S

    A copy, in All Saints' Church East Budleigh, of one of the best known portraits of Sir Walter formerly attributed to Zuccaro but now to the monogrammist 'H' (? Hubbard) and dated 1588. It shows Raleigh in court dress at the height of his favour with Queen Elizabeth I. Raleigh had been appointed Captain of the Guard in 1587   Raleigh does not have a reputation as a peacemaker. Courtier, poet, soldier, explorer, historian he certainly was, and for most of his life, an enemy of Spain. In 1618, after his disastrous second voyage to Guiana resulted in the reinstatement of the death sentence there was jubilation at the Spanish court.     Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar, a title awarded by King Philip III of Spain in 1617. Image credit: Wikipedia Such was the hatred he inspired there that Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador in London, demanded that Raleigh and his crew be hanged in Madrid.    The 2007 film Elizabeth – The Golden Age, directed by Shekhar Kapur, s

  Continued from  19 April 1945 – A missing name. LIEUTENANT DAVID HUBERT HARVEY-WILLIAMS MC (1926-45)   Royal Horse Guards (Household Cavalry Regiment). https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2023/12/ww2-75-19-april-1945-missing-name.html   Rawalpindi War Cemetery, Pakistan, where Henry Finnis was buried.  The personal inscription on his headstone reads 'A dearly loved husband and father he fought a good fight and kept the faith' Only two Generals appear among the Budleigh-linked casualties of WW2, and perhaps typically, both had Indian connections. The town had a traditional connection with the subcontinent going back to the 19 th century, as I found when I wrote my little booklet about the Victorian scientist and sponge expert Henry John Carter FRS, entitled The Scientist in The Cottage .   Of the two Generals, only Lancelot Dennys is listed on Budleigh Salterton War Memorial. The connection of Major General Sir Henry Finnis – known to his friends as Harry -