Budleigh Past and Present

  Nigel Tucker, with some of the coins from his collection I was saddened to hear recently of the death of Nigel Tucker, founding member of the Woodbury History Society, who helped to make the 2018 exhibition at Budleigh’s Fairlynch Museum such a success.     Putting together a museum exhibition can be incredibly time-consuming, especially if you decide to borrow items from places which insist on the payment of high insurance premiums and the completion of detailed questionnaires to satisfy the bureaucrats and pay the lawyers.     So when the Raleigh 400 exhibition at Fairlynch Museum was staged to honour Sir Walter in the 400 th anniversary year of his death, the generosity of kind friends and neighbours in providing items for display was much appreciated.   Coins of the period were especially interesting. Not only had they been lent thanks to a kind friend of the Museum but they were genuinely local. Maybe Sir Walter himself may have dropped th...

This area is reasonably well provided with museums, which is only right for such an interesting and historic part of Devon. They all have their special appeal.  Some are luckier than others in that they are financially well endowed; others will tell you that they operate on a shoestring budget. But what are they for? That’s the question that Friend of Fairlynch and museum enthusiast Mike Wilson will be trying to answer in a talk he’s giving to the Woodbury Local History Society on Thursday 5 May 2016 at 7.30 pm in Woodbury Village Hall. Mike and his wife Margaret have been involved in preparing exhibitions at both Topsham and Fairlynch Museums, and spend a fair bit of time in retirement visiting places all over the world, including museums of course.  Always happy to ruffle a few feathers, Mike enjoys speaking his mind on a wide range of issues. It promises to be a thought-provoking evening.  Admission charge: £4 for non-members. 

Nicky Hewitt in Fairlynch Museum’s Priscilla Carter Room Fairlynch’s own Nicky Hewitt will be giving a presentation about the natural history of the Pebblebed Heaths on Thursday 5 November. Nicky, who looks after the archaeology, geology and natural history collections in the Museum’s Priscilla Carter Room, made a deep impression in the local area with her impassioned letter to the Woodbury News about the Pebblebeds in October 2014, and an invitation to speak to the village’s Local History Group followed. Nicky also works for the RSPB on the area’s Commons as a part-time administrator and writes the regular report on the Aylesbeare Common Reserve. Based on her first-hand experience and considerable knowledge, this talk about our mysterious local landscape should be thoroughly illuminating. The talk begins at 7.30pm in Woodbury Village Hall.  Non-members are welcome to attend.

I snapped a photo of this poster, one of many in the area publicising the 2015 East Devon Heath Week. But what better way to advertise the event than with this t-shirt, worn by Fairlynch Museum’s own Nicky Hewitt. Nicky is in charge of the archaeology and geology collections at the Museum in the Priscilla Carter Room, where you can also see displays of the local wildlife which makes our region so special.     A geologist by training, Nicky works part-time as an administrator at the RSPB nature reserves on the Exe Estuary and at Aylesbeare. You can find out about them h ere and h ere. I regularly mention on this blog around this time of the year the East Devon Heath Week. It starts this Sunday 26 July from 11.00 am at Woodbury Castle, the Iron Age hill fort mid-way between Budleigh Salterton and the village of Woodbury. The Heath Week is an annual series of events that aim to celebrate the fantastic l...