Budleigh Past and Present

  Friend of Fairlynch Museum and founder of Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival Susan Ward, left,  with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy at a Brook Gallery reception in September 2010    Picture credit: Brook Gallery New acquisitions in the Museum’s display of costumes this year consist of items from the Susan Ward Collection.    When Susan and her husband Charles moved to Budleigh Salterton in 2005 she soon became involved in fundraising for Fairlynch, becoming a Trustee of the Museum's Endowment Fund.   But it was the Literary Festival that she founded which then became her real passion. The first three-day Festival opened on 18 September 2009 with a strong line-up, including Hilary Mantel, H.R.F. Keating, Val McDermid, Simon Brett, the actor Sheila Mitchell and journalist Virginia Ironside. Very sadly, after a long illness, Susan died peacefully at home in Budleigh on 19 June 2012.   Thanks to a thoughtful gesture on...

A Literary Walk, exploring the writers, scientists and artists who have lived in or written about Budleigh Salterton. The first Walk will take place on Wednesday 19 September 2012 at 10.00 am starting from Fairlynch Museum Garden at 27 Fore Street.  A second Walk will start in the afternoon at 2.30 pm. Some of the writers associated with Budleigh are justly famous. Many of them reveal unexpected insights into the town and its people which are not widely known.  Other writers are not at all well known but their fascinating and sometimes eccentric lives make entertaining reading. The first Walk with Words took place in 2011 as a prelude to Budleigh Salterton's Literary Festival. The Walk is free, but donations are welcomed.