Budleigh Past and Present

At a previous post about Fairlynch’s Object of the Month for April 2016 I promised that I would give some background to my pooem at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/fairlynch-museums-object-of-month-for.html   No, it wasn’t an April Fool. A few years ago I wrote the first biography of any length devoted to the life and achievements of Henry Carter FRS, physician, geologist and naturalist, pictured above.  Born in Budleigh Salterton, Carter returned to his “native place” as he calls it in 1862 after travels in Arabia and working as a doctor in India . He is buried in the churchyard of All Saints, East Budleigh . Carter was internationally known by his contemporaries for his research into marine sponges, but it was for his work as a geologist that the Royal Society elected him as a Fellow in 1859. There is evidence to show that his geologising had begun while he was still a boy, as he explored ...

One of the fine panels in the Priscilla Carter Room at Fairlynch produced by local artist and designer Neil Rogers   A rare set of volumes of the Devon Archaeological Society has been offered to Fairlynch, enriching the Museum’s resources in the Priscilla Carter Room. Local resident Jack Major, who has donated the volumes, is delighted that the set will remain together rather than be split up, especially as it includes the much earlier Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Exploration Society beginning with volume 1 from 1929. Amateur archaeologist George Carter, right, with friends The collection is of considerable interest to Fairlynch as it contains two volumes dating from 1935 and 1936 in which articles by Budleigh Salterton amateur archaeologist George Carter about the pebble mounds of Woodbury Common were published. Professor Chris Tilley, seen here explaining the...