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...

Devon's Topsham celebrates its US link in the Entwhistle Room Yes, as far as Friends of Fairlynch Mike and Margaret Wilson are concerned, ‘Celebrating Topsham Maine’ is probably the big exhibition at Topsham Museum. The Entwhistle Room is small, but Margaret, who has done the research, has managed to convey a massive amount of interesting information about the Devon port’s sister-town. All displayed on attractively designed panels. I first met Mike and Margaret when we were involved with former Fairlynch Chairman Roger Kingwill a few years ago in designing the Budleigh museum’s ‘Survival!’ exhibition to mark the centenary of Scott’s last Antarctic trip.  I knew nothing about Dr Murray Levick, the expedition's doctor and zoologist who had come to live near Budleigh, and not much more about Antarctica and Scott's ship, the Terra Nova . But I learnt a lot from Roger, Mike and Margaret about planning a museum exhibition. ‘Celebratin...

Regrettably it's not so often nowadays that I write about affairs on the other side of the pond. But an email from my Massachusetts correspondent the Rev Sarah Clark reminded me that while we were celebrating 60 years of a British triumph in 2012 with our Diamond Jubilee merrymaking, over in the USA they've been commemorating the bicentenary of a messy episode in Anglo-American relations.   There was even a Battle of the Thames which took place in present-day Chatham , Ontario , Upper Canada , in 1813, contrasting with our joyful nautical pageant of a few days ago on London 's great river to honour Queen Elizabeth II.   The above hand coloured lithograph depicts the death of the Native American Tecumseh at the hands of the Kentucky mounted volunteers led by Colonel Richard M. Johnson on 5 October 1813. A leader of the Shawnees, Tecumseh had allied his tribal confederacy with the British. The War of 1812-14, as I lear...