Budleigh Past and Present

        As a family-friendly museum Fairlynch is always keen to welcome children of any age. So the chance of a link with a well-established pre-school nursery in Budleigh was something Chairman Roger Sherriff felt was well worthwhile when he heard that Carousel Childcare was celebrating its 10th birthday this year.   Fairlynch Museum was glad to add its message of congratulations to those of many other local groups, all of which will appear along with a feature on the nursery to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Budleigh Journal. Carousel Childcare is based at Moor Lane in the grounds of   St Peter’s C of E primary school and is run by Nursery Director and mother-of-three Sarka Andersonova, pictured below, together with an experienced team of helpers. Collectively they have over 30 years’ childcare experience between them.                   ...

    Above: This cheerful-looking garden feature can be admired at The Salty Monk restaurant at Sidford, not far from Budleigh. It reminds guests that the building was reputedly a salt house used by the Benedictine monks of Norman times who traded salt at Exeter Cathedral . See www.saltymonk.co.uk     The scholar A.C. Heavison, in a scarce pamphlet on the Budleigh salt-mines, tells a story from the 11th or 12th centuries involving the notoriously short-tempered Prior of Otterton. It was thirst-making work in the salt-mines and Hugo, one of the Prior's serfs was in the habit of taking a flagon of cider with him on his shift. Quenching his thirst with too much strong cider on one occasion meant that Hugo ended up drunk at the bottom of the ladder, a section of which he had pulled down. All work at the salt-mine stopped. The Prior was informed and stood at the top of the shaft, shouting angrily at his senseless serf. All was in vain. It was decided...

Could this really be the Year of the Sponge? My crazy fantasy at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/absorbing-read.html about a Budleigh Sponge Day may not have been so crazy after all. I've just read Simon Barnes' piece entitled Unexplored wilderness at the end of the pier in The Times at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/simonbarnes/article3669027.ece reflecting on the wonderful hidden world of the Cromer Shoal Chalk Reef off the coast of NE Norfolk . Among other strange and beautiful secrets the Reef has yielded "a species of purple sponge new to science." That "new to science" phrase struck a chord, still reeling as I am from having written 70,000 words about Victorian spongiologist Henry Carter FRS (1813-95) as part of my own exploration of 19th century science, a world previously foreign to me. "New to science" was the excited and triumphant clarion-call favoured by Victorian botanists, zoologi...

What a pleasant surprise to receive the first of many responses to the first-ever bulletin of The Budleigh Chronicle on 20 January.   Especially as it had come from thousands of miles away in cyberspace. Well actually it had come in a short hop from Cape Cod on the other side of the Pond, so not really that far at all in this age of instant communication - when the internet works of course.       Pioneering transatlantic communication: the stained glass window in All Saints' Church, East Budleigh, commemorating former Budleigh resident George William Preedy   Admiral Preedy, the brave captain of HMS Agamemnon who played such an important part in laying that first successful telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean , and who came to live in retirement at Park House in Knowle on the outskirts of   Budleigh, would have been thrilled.   I was certainly pleased. The friendship link between Budleigh Salterton and Brewster , MA ...

A Brewster view: Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kyle Hinkle's article is below Last winter, the Candleberry Inn, pictured below, was one of three Brewster inns to become a verified Cape and Islands Green business (the others are Old Manse Inn and Captain Freeman Inn ).  Owners Charlotte and Stu Fyfe took steps to improve energy efficiency at the Inn and increased how and what they recycled. They make their own organic cleaning products, grow their own vegetables and herbs, and even have honey bees. They shop locally for things like cornmeal (at Stony Brook Gristmill of course!) and organic chocolates, and they encourage their guests to use eco-friendly efforts too. The Candleberry Inn, in exchange for the Fyfes' hard work, is now one of the Cape and Islands Green businesses enjoying the combined marketing efforts of the Cape Light Compact, Cape Cod Self Reliance and the Community Development Partnership who promote and manage the ...

Actress Jenny Coverack i nside Scott's Hut, dressed as Kathleen Scott Photograph copyright © 2006 Marketa Jirouskova We were awestruck by the courage and suffering of former Budleigh resident Murray Levick and his companions displayed in last year's Fairlynch exhibition 'Survival', and moved by actress Jenny Coverack's performance as Kathleen Scott in Budleigh Salterton's Public Hall.         Meredith Hooper, during a visit to Fairlynch Museum's 'Survival!' exhibition in July 2011   Now comes the final stage of the centenary commemoration of Captain Scott's tragic Terra Nova expedition with a BBC Radio 4 drama to be broadcast on Tuesday 5 February, from 2.15 to 3.00 pm, with Sam West as Scott and Emilia Fox as Kathleen. 'Kathleen and Con' by author and Antarctic expert Meredith Hooper is based on the two volumes of extraordinarily interesting letters written by Robert Falcon Scott and Kathleen Bruce. The dram...

Fairlynch Museum prides itself on growing global links. Our Local History Group regularly receives enquiries from people on the other side of the world asking if we can provide information about their Devon ancestors.   Singapore city skyline at dusk   Image credit: Chensiyuan We've just had an email from the USA offering us original Budleigh lace work and tools. And my research into the life and work of Henry John Carter for the forthcoming Sea, Salt and Sponges exhibition has led me to contact people in places ranging from the Netherlands to Japan , from India to California . After all, HJC as I'll call Budleigh's most distinguished scientist did spend over 20 years of his life exploring the deserts and coasts of Arabia before settling in India where he made a name for himself as a geologist and highly respected microscopist. And then, back in quiet little old Budleigh, was sent sponges from all over the world for the next twenty years by instituti...