Budleigh Past and Present

  Shackleton in 1901, aged 27. Portrait by an  unidentified photographer  Visitors to Fairlynch Museum’s Antarctic exhibition a few years ago were fascinated by the story of former Budleigh resident Murray Levick and his five companions, members of Captain Scott’s ill-fated ‘Terra Firma’ expedition. The group succeeded against all the odds in surviving the six-month polar winter, sheltering for much of the time in a snow cave. Antarctic expert Meredith Hooper and me at Fairlynch's 'Survival!' exhibition in 2012 Fairlynch’s exhibition was praised by, among others, the writer and broadcaster Meredith Hooper. The Australian-born Antarctic expert was one of the guest authors attending Budleigh Salterton’s 2012 Literary Festival to talk about her book The Longest Winter: Scott's Other Heroes.   The Endurance, listing heavily, immediately before being crushed by the ice, October 1915.  Photo by...

Antarctic artefacts: Former Fairlynch Museum Chairman Roger Kingwill, right, shows Professor Lloyd Davis some of the material used in the 'Survival!' exhibition to mark the centenary of Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole So many travellers and explorers associated with the Budleigh area have made their mark in distant lands that it’s no surprise to find overseas visitors in Fairlynch Museum keen to trace family trees or eager to see where their forebears lived. Professor Lloyd Davis, who holds the Stuart Chair in Science Communications at the University of Otago in New Zealand , was a recent visitor searching for information.   Wildlife enthusiasts from that part of the world will know Lloyd as a leading authority on penguins, on which he’s written many scientific papers. He’s even written a book   Penguin: a season in the life of the Adelie penguin , which is a story of penguins and Antarctica as seen through the ey...

Actress Jenny Coverack i nside Scott's Hut, dressed as Kathleen Scott Photograph copyright © 2006 Marketa Jirouskova We were awestruck by the courage and suffering of former Budleigh resident Murray Levick and his companions displayed in last year's Fairlynch exhibition 'Survival', and moved by actress Jenny Coverack's performance as Kathleen Scott in Budleigh Salterton's Public Hall.         Meredith Hooper, during a visit to Fairlynch Museum's 'Survival!' exhibition in July 2011   Now comes the final stage of the centenary commemoration of Captain Scott's tragic Terra Nova expedition with a BBC Radio 4 drama to be broadcast on Tuesday 5 February, from 2.15 to 3.00 pm, with Sam West as Scott and Emilia Fox as Kathleen. 'Kathleen and Con' by author and Antarctic expert Meredith Hooper is based on the two volumes of extraordinarily interesting letters written by Robert Falcon Scott and Kathleen Bruce. The dram...