A Peacemaker in Troubled Times
Notable among the visitors to East Budleigh’s 2025 Scarecrow Festival on 7/8 June was a figure from the distant past. Born in the village over four centuries ago, a generation later than its better known Sir Walter Raleigh, Roger Conant was very different from Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtier. Sailing across the Atlantic to America in around 1623, he founded the Massachusetts city of Salem. Today, he is seen as a more modest and peace-loving character than many of the country’s European pioneers. And so, ‘Roger Conant’ had come to the 2025 Scarecrow Festival to preside over its Duck Race, now named after him. Many visitors to the American city are struck by the sight of Roger Conant’s statue with its tall hat and long cloak, unfortunately sited next to Salem’s Witch Museum. Understandably they think that its founder must have dabbled in the black arts. Some of East Budleigh’s visitors at the weekend probably thought the same. So ‘Roger Conant’...