Budleigh Past and Present

A walk around Budleigh Salterton to interest transatlantic visitors. Every so often there’s a diversion which may inspire you to visit places like East Budleigh, Exeter, Sidmouth, Colyton or even places in the United States and Canada.      The walk is set out in parts. Here’s the first part, based on the section from  Budleigh Salterton Information Centre to the Raleigh Wall, and called 'The Twins that never were'.  Summary: How Budleigh Salterton almost became twinned with a town in the USA.   Image credit: Christopher Wroten Did you know that Budleigh Salterton, according to Wikipedia for several years until the mention mysteriously disappeared, had an American twin? Don’t believe me? Take a look at this fine road sign on the approach to Brewster, Cape Cod. 'TWINNED WITH BUDLEIGH SALTERTON, ENGLAND', it announces. But I wonder whether it’s still there.   The name of our alleged sister-town on Cape Cod has nothing to do with the brewing i...

Image credit: http://www.henrybeston.org/ I knew nothing of this American writer and naturalist, but news from Budleigh Salterton’s sister-town of Brewster on Cape Cod on the far side of ‘The Pond’ always catches my eye. So I thought I’d like to know more about an illustrated presentation on Beston’s life and work being staged in Brewster. It was given by writer and film maker Don Wilding on 7 November at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster. Of course I should have mentioned it before the event! Preoccupied as we are with Remembrance and the Great War, but, Francophile that I am, I was also interested to learn that after leaving Harvard, Beston took up teaching at the University of Lyon in France. In 1914 he returned to Harvard as an English department assistant, but then came back to Europe, joining  the French army in 1915 and serving  as an ambulance driver. His service at Bois-le-Prêtre and at the Battle of Verdun was descri...

I haven’t yet made it to Budleigh Salterton’s sister town of Brewster on Cape Cod. One day perhaps. Until then I’ll enjoy reading about happenings over there thanks to Google news alerts, including this exhibition by Cape Cod artists.  Like so much of the artwork from that part of the US it’s suggestive of the wild beauty of that intriguing place jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. Benton Jones, seen above, is the owner of the Millstone Gallery in Brewster. He's an artist in glass with a cosmopolitan background: part Welsh, Norwegian and Italian, he’s married to Jana, a Czech lady.  Sadly, I won’t be able to attend the Reception on 18 July, but I’m sure that Benton and Jana would welcome any of my Devon readers. Click on  http://www.millstonegallery.com/  to see the Gallery's highly informative website.  This is what it says about the artists: Opening reception: Renditions of Plac...

    Thinking about the tour of Budleigh Salterton for the Literary Festival that I’m running on 19 September I noticed that our sister-town of Brewster, Massachusetts, has scheduled something similar - but five times bigger. Well, that’s America for you! Actually, all that’s happening is that the Brewster Historical Society is inviting visitors to a ‘Sea Captain’s Tour and Tea’, highlighting 30 historical sites and homes in the Cape Cod town.   But the event takes place five times during the holiday season, and you can enjoy luncheon as an extra, provided by the Candleberry Inn. There are two remaining dates: Thursday 14 August and Thursday 18 September.   Click on http://www.brewsterhistoricalsociety.org/events.html   to find out more. One other big thing about the ‘Sea Captain’s Tour’ is that it is scripted by author Sally Gunning, and based on her acclaimed historical novel The Widow’s War , fi...

I found my first tick yesterday. On me. I daresay that they’re all around us, floating like tiny little spiders over the East Devon heathland, but the ones that count are those that you spot suddenly after feeling that familiar little itch just when you’ve had a good day’s gardening. A tiny black spot, sometimes in a very awkward place on your body and you know that it’s time to get out the tick hook. It’s been ages since I first wrote some warning words about ticks at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/ticked-off.html and that was in connection with our sister town in Brewster, Massachusetts, where Lyme disease can be a serious problem. Having extracted my tick I put it on a window sill and watched it. For such tiny creatures they move fast; this one seemed to be showing off, performing the occasional somersault. I wondered whether they might have been used in circuses, like fleas. Finally I called time on it. My little tick bite yesterday c...

Fairlynch Museum and Arts Centre: its Local History Group meets in the picturesque 19th century building  Not surprisingly Devon has many local history societies - I’ve counted about 60 mentioned online - and that figure doesn’t include useful aids to research like Fairlynch Museum’s Local History Group or the Otter Valley Association's wonderful Ovapedia which you can consult at http://www.ovapedia.org.uk/index.php?page=archive   Fairlynch’s Local History Group has the privilege of meeting in one of East Devon’s historic buildings, first owned by 19th century shipowner Matthew Lee Yeates whose supposed silhouette can be seen above.    This Exmouth and Devon General Bank document dated 1 July 1809 bears Matthew Lee Yeates' signature That seems appropriate, given Budleigh Salterton’s coastal location. In fact Mr Yeates was really a businessman who took one risk too many.  With commercial partner William Good he launch...

    Above: Photo courtesy of Christopher Wroten Every so often my attention is drawn across the ocean to the affairs of Budleigh Salterton’s sister town of Brewster , on Cape Cod . Nothing official has ever been done to seal the relationship between the our two communities in spite of references to twinning on the internet and even on that Brewster road sign: some might say that maybe it’s better that way. I’m just happy to see via Google news alerts how a small American coastal town which has so many similarities to Budleigh Salterton deals with the issues of daily life that affect us all, ranging from town finances to dog poo. Yes, the battle over whether Brewster’s Drummer Boy Park should have a special dog-walking area has raised hackles and made headlines in much the same way that the Longboat saga has done in Budleigh. The issue of wind turbines in Brewster was another bitterly fought-over area that we in the UK would recognise, though we’ve yet to...

A Brewster view: Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kyle Hinkle's article is below Last winter, the Candleberry Inn, pictured below, was one of three Brewster inns to become a verified Cape and Islands Green business (the others are Old Manse Inn and Captain Freeman Inn ).  Owners Charlotte and Stu Fyfe took steps to improve energy efficiency at the Inn and increased how and what they recycled. They make their own organic cleaning products, grow their own vegetables and herbs, and even have honey bees. They shop locally for things like cornmeal (at Stony Brook Gristmill of course!) and organic chocolates, and they encourage their guests to use eco-friendly efforts too. The Candleberry Inn, in exchange for the Fyfes' hard work, is now one of the Cape and Islands Green businesses enjoying the combined marketing efforts of the Cape Light Compact, Cape Cod Self Reliance and the Community Development Partnership who promote and manage the ...

Regrettably it's not so often nowadays that I write about affairs on the other side of the pond. But an email from my Massachusetts correspondent the Rev Sarah Clark reminded me that while we were celebrating 60 years of a British triumph in 2012 with our Diamond Jubilee merrymaking, over in the USA they've been commemorating the bicentenary of a messy episode in Anglo-American relations.   There was even a Battle of the Thames which took place in present-day Chatham , Ontario , Upper Canada , in 1813, contrasting with our joyful nautical pageant of a few days ago on London 's great river to honour Queen Elizabeth II.   The above hand coloured lithograph depicts the death of the Native American Tecumseh at the hands of the Kentucky mounted volunteers led by Colonel Richard M. Johnson on 5 October 1813. A leader of the Shawnees, Tecumseh had allied his tribal confederacy with the British. The War of 1812-14, as I lear...