Budleigh Past and Present

  Matching museums : The Elijah Cobb House in Brewster MA (top photo) will be the Brewster Historical Society’s new home. Image credit Rich Eldred Just over a year ago I wrote here about the ambitions of the Brewster Historical Society to have its own museum.   For those readers in Budleigh Salterton and elsewhere who don’t know about the slightly strange connection with Brewster, it can be summarised as the twinning that never was.  Back in 2001 there were people from both towns who were keen on the idea of a link, but for various reasons nothing was actually signed and sealed. I suppose the obvious reason was the traumatic event of 9/11, which understandably put Americans off the idea of flying. When I moved to Budleigh I was struck not only by the fact that Wikipedia listed Brewster as its twin town but by the numerous similarities between their areas: coastal situation, salt marshes, working flour mills, lots of what seem to be re...

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...