Budleigh Past and Present

Budleigh’s ‘buns’ or pebbles are what make its beach special and pebble artist Simon Wood over the last few years has made it even more of a talking-point with his creations. They don’t last for ever of course. The winter storms have taken away these pebble pictures that he created but the photos remain.  Apart from the pleasure they give, the pictures have benefited the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) for which Simon set up a website at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/simon-wood24       Simon has been kind enough to agree working with Fairlynch on a project connected with the Reg Varney centenary exhibition which will take place between Easter and the end of September.   You should be able to guess a likely subject of Simon’s pebble art for 2016. Meanwhile I’ll leave you with the...

  Fairlynch’s newly refurbished Priscilla Carter Room at last has an acknowledgement of the role that the eminent scientist Max Perutz played in the Museum’s origins. The story of Perutz and Fairlynch’s radioactive pebbles is now on display in the area’s geology section.  

  Max Perutz dancing with his wife Gisela at the 1962 Nobel ball Image credit: Wikipedia Not too many Fellows of the Royal Society or Nobel prizewinners have been drawn to Budleigh Salterton’s delights. So I was excited a few years ago to discover a genuine Budleigh scientist who’d remained faithful to the town of his birth and in 1862 settled here in retirement after an adventurous life on the other side of the world.   Henry John Carter FRS was deservedly honoured with a rare blue plaque on the wall of his house off Fore Street Hill. Max Perutz was not a Budleigh resident. But he certainly helped to give the place distinction, and for that reason among many others I will be toasting his health on 19 May. It’s 100 years since his birth, recognised this year by Royal Mail which has honoured him with a stamp as part of the ‘Remarkable Lives’ series.    Max Ferdinand Perutz, OM, CH, CBE, FRS, was an Austrian-born British ...