Budleigh Past and Present

  James Lackington, the wealthy London bookseller who built Budleigh Salterton's Methodist Church. Last year was the bicentenary of his death Much of the archive material in Fairlynch Museum is due to volunteer researchers like local historian Roger Lendon, who contributes regularly to the Otter Valley Association’s Ovapedia at http://www.ova.org.uk/ovapedia  On Friday 12 February Roger will be giving a talk to the East Devon branch of the Devonshire Association entitled ‘Some 19th century Budleigh worthies’. The talk will follow a short AGM, which begins at 2.30pm Manor Pavilion Theatre in Sidmouth. Roger has given in advance some details of the talk.  After a preliminary preamble on the early history of the area he will focus on a few of Budleigh Salterton’s  inhabitants in the first half of the 19th century.   He will be talking in some detail about Matthew Lee Yeates, the ship owner and bu...

Time for a coffee and biscuits on arrival for the Devonshire Association visitors, greeted by Friend of Fairlynch Hazel Harland, right.     Fairlynch Museum hosted a visit by members of the Devonshire Association’s East Devon branch on Thursday 11 July. Among its many activities the Association regularly organises all-day excursions to the county’s towns to give members an insight into the history and particular features of a community. This was the first organised visit by DA members to Budleigh Salterton. St Peter’s Church and the long-established Croquet Club as well as the Museum were included on the itinerary.    The visitors were shown various areas of the Museum by volunteers Iris Ansell, Sue Morgan and Margaret Williams.  Museum Secretary Michael Downes told them something of the life and career of Henry Carter FRS, the Victorian physician, geologist and marine sponge expert who himself was a member of the Devonshire Association, ...