Budleigh Past and Present

It is said that a Budleigh resident may have played a crucial role in the creation of the United States. Simcoe House on Fore Street Hill was the summer residence of General John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) who in 1794 became the First Governor General of Upper Canada. As commanding officer of the Queen’s Rangers regiment he fought for the British during the War of Independence. But Americans have a particular reason to be grateful to the general even though he was on the opposing side. During the battle of Brandywine in 1777, one order from Simcoe changed the course of history, when he told his soldiers not to shoot three fleeing Americans in the back. It is said that one of those Americans was George Washington, first President of the United States. Above: Portrait of General Simcoe by George Theodore Berthon ‘Beau séjour’is the proud claim made by Budleigh Salterton Town Council on its coat of arms and it might therefore be only natural to assume that French speakers make up most of i...

Where on earth are they? Brewster is an historic sea captains' town of just over 10,000 people located on the sheltered bay side of Cape Cod, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It apparently grows to an amazing 25,000 people during the summer season. Brewster was described by The Daily Telegraph in 2003 as “immaculate” and “the most appealing of the towns on Route 6A”, the historic coast road also known as the Old King’s Highway. Above: Old Manse Inn, one of the many former sea captains’ houses for which Brewster is famous. http://www.oldmanseinn.com/ Budleigh Salterton is a quiet seaside town of nearly 5,000 people situated on the East Devon coast 15 miles south of Exeter, at the mouth of the River Otter. It is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, lying on the Jurassic Coast, England's first natural World Heritage Site. This covers 95 miles of truly stunning coastline from East Devon to Dorset, with rocks recording 185 million years of the Earth's history. Above: Vi...

Click on http://www.brewstercapecod.org/ and you will see a photo of Budleigh beach. So Budleigh has a sister-town on Cape Cod! That was news to me, but then I'm just what they call a 'blow-in' having moved to Budleigh in East Devon only in March 2008. This is the view of the famous pebble beach looking east towards Otter Head, the view that everyone in Budleigh knows. And this is the café at Steamer Steps at the western end of the beach. They sell nice crab sandwiches here. The beach huts are a special feature of Budleigh Salterton as you can see from the models and the picture on sale in this High Street shop. Another regular feature of the beach during the summer is our local fisherman who sells his catch direct from the boat. The mackerel is good value and really delicious. As you can see from the blue sign, this is also the approach to Budleigh's naturist beach which lies 500 metres west of Steamer Steps. But its pebbles or nodules as they are properly known are th...