Museum scores a precious find for Budleigh’s musical past
A 1957 Budleigh Salterton Drama Club production for which Joan Bennett wrote the music Rare compositions of music from more than half a century ago have found their way back to Budleigh thanks to a Friend of Fairlynch Museum who revisited the town recently. They give an insight into the background of one of the most successful and versatile composers of our times who was brought up in the area. Local jazz enthusiasts are among those who know of Budleigh’s association with the late Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, creator not only of jazz and classical pieces but also of film scores for box-office hits like Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Four Weddings and a Funeral. The Bennett family in the garden of Lace Acre, in Budleigh Salterton's Boucher Road Sir Richard’s fathe...