Budleigh Past and Present

A much-loved Shakespeare play performed in a Budleigh garden at the home of   Fairlynch Museum’s co-founder Joy Gawne by a troupe of enthusiastic local actors… What more would you want for a Saturday summer evening’s entertainment?   Exeter & Countess Wear Community Theatre will stage an outdoor performance of The Tempest in the garden of Cramalt Lodge at 2 Cricketfield Lane. Members of the cast are featured on this poster. Director Jill Coram says, ‘I am particularly looking forward to directing this play with its so many facets, including betrayal, colonisation, slavery, murderous plotting and magic. Then there is of course the shipwreck and was it the shipwreck which started off a course of events which affected all the characters you will see in the play. Come along and judge for yourself!’ Jill explained that the location was suggested by Joy Gawne’s niece. ‘Once I viewed it, I felt it was perfect and lent itself beautifully to “The Tempest”.’ ...

Photo by Lynne Lovatt‎, Christmas Eve 2011  from the Rolle flats in Budleigh  and posted in Facebook's Budleigh - Past and Present Well, the sun has risen on a new year and it’s time for a change! I’ve been in the habit of emailing lists of news items and features of local interest on a regular basis. The Raleigh 400 blog has done its work to mark the 400 th anniversary of the Great Devonian’s death and has closed - though I'm likely to tinker with it from time to time!   You can view it at leisure by clicking on  http://raleigh400.blogspot.com Budleigh Salterton, William Payne, 1790    Devon Archives.  Posted on Budleigh - Past and Present by  Yannick 'MrMunro' Munro‎ Budleigh and Brewster United has come back to life, and I'll be contributing to that, together with the new Facebook group Budleigh – Past and Present. Details about that and how to join are at the end of this post. Budleigh – Pa...

Colin Yeats, left, and Leo Dolling with children from Budleigh’s St Peter’s School Two former British Railways employees were kind enough to welcome nearly 30 children from St Peter’s CofE School during a visit to Fairlynch on 9 November 2017. The KS1 children, accompanied by teacher Elizabeth Stubbs and adult helpers, had been studying changes in transport as a class subject. The Museum's railway display in the Local History Room, with its many artefacts, saved when the branch line and station closed in 1967, proved to be an effective teaching aid for the children.  Naturally there was fun involved when they were allowed to wear the station master’s cap, and there was a rare chance for some to hold the ceremonial spade used by Lady Gertrude Rolle on 6 November 1895 to cut the first sod for the building of Budleigh Salterton Station.  For Yettington’s Colin Yeats who had worked on the Budleigh branch line railway it was the second...

Having written a history of Fairlynch in 2017 I naturally volunteered a year later to review a similar publication which tells the story of the Baptist Church in our town. The subjects are alike in many ways: both museum and church are attractive 19 th century local landmarks. Being listed buildings they both present expensive headaches of maintenance; as institutions serving the local community both have had their ups and downs over the years. Baptist minister Revd. Graham Wise’s account of the church and its people is an enjoyably readable paperback which is a valuable addition to Budleigh's local history studies. A history of the church was first published in 1983. This latest version provides an update for the 175 th anniversary which it celebrated in 2018. The original Temple Methodist Church, with Ash Villa (left) which was demolished to make room for the car parking area  There have been Baptist Christians in Budleigh since...

An East Devon smuggler called Jack One evening came under attack. But he proved himself wily In behaving most slyly. Of escaping he’d developed the knack. ©  Michael Downes 2014 This painting by  Peter Goodhall (b.1957) is part of Fairlynch Museum’s art collection. It is entitled ‘A Revenue Cutter Apprehends the Smuggler Jack Rattenbury off Budleigh Salterton .’     A fuller commentary on the work will be published in due course. © the artist  Photo credit: Fairlynch Museum

This year is the 50th anniversary of Imperial Productions performing shows in Budleigh Salterton.   Its name has gone through various changes over the years, but the gifted performers who’ve been entertaining Budleigh audiences for over half a century can all trace their roots back to London’s Imperial College. One can get a bit lost amidst all the name changes: IC Dramatic Society, IC Operatic Society – or ICOS as it became in 1956; and then ICU Musical Theatre Society in 2003… but there was also Imperial Opera until 2007, when it finally became Imperial Productions.  The company’s relationship with the town goes back a long way, states the website.   Since 1968, the Public Hall, pictured above, has been the permanent location for the annual summer tour. Indeed, this is now the only venue at which the company performs outside of London. But why Budleigh?  No precise answer has emerged. ‘Our love of the place pr...