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An archaeological high on High Peak

February 9, 2014, 10:05 am
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High Peak looking west, seen from the Coast Path between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton

New interpretation panels at High Peak reveal the secrets of this Stone Age site near the South West Coast Path just a few miles east of Budleigh Salterton.


 






















Following the harvesting of the tree crop on High Peak, between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton, by Clinton Devon Estates an archaeological investigation of High Peak hill camp was carried out in September 2012 to try and discover more about how this enigmatic site has been used over past centuries.
  

 






















Friend of Fairlynch and children’s author Jan Oke was one of about a dozen volunteers involved in the dig on alternate days. A member of the Devon Archaeological Society, she responded to an advertisement in its newsletter and found herself working alongside professional archaeologists in a group of half a dozen volunteers keen to gain experience of digging into thousands of years of history.


 
The hill camp was first occupied in the Neolithic Period between 6,000 and 4,000 years ago.  The site had been previously excavated in the 1960s when a jadeite axe head had been found.


 
 As in all archaeological digs extremely careful sifting of material was needed. “But it was not tedious at all,” said Jan. “The trench we were working in was across a ditch and there was a lot of neolithic flint items, tools and pottery. I found the first piece of neolithic pot. I was rewarded with a bar of chocolate!”


 
The view from the cliff edge, looking west towards Ladram Bay

 An added urgency felt by the group lay in the knowledge that their excavation might be the last ever at that site. “So much has fallen into the sea over the centuries,” Jan explained. “We had only a fortnight there - we’d have loved to do more.”

Approximately 1,000 flint objects were discovered, including a finely flaked arrowhead. “It was typical of early neolithic work from the period, but rare to find one in such good condition.”
Jan first got involved in archaeological digs when she volunteered to help with surveys on Woodbury Common as part of the Pebblebeds Project, following a talk given by Professor Chris Tilley to the Friends of Fairlynch.  But she had experienced the thrill of making unexpected discoveries from the past when a pile of Victorian toys were found under the floorboards of her house in Little Knowle. The result was a children’s book Major Glad, Major Dizzy which she wrote in 2011, following on from an earlier book Naughty Bus. 

Her hands-on experiences have inspired her to learn more about the subject. She is now hard at work as a full-time student at Exeter University, having enrolled on its three-year course in Archaeology. Who knows? Maybe the Stone Age will provide the inspiration for yet a third book for children.

Photos courtesy of Sue Dymond

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Shades of the Great War are all around us (1)

February 9, 2014, 10:14 am
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The Temple Church in Redcliffe, Bristol, founded in the mid-12th century, was bombed in November 1940 during the Bristol Blitz. More than 80 years later it still stands as a ruin 

When I was born, in 1946, the Second World War had only just finished but my childish memories of its impact are still vivid. Rationing wasn’t completely abolished for another eight years. I think I remember car parks in Bristol which seemed to have been made out of enormous bomb craters.
 
And some parents had vivid stories to tell: my mother seemed to have enjoyed her times in the WRNS, in safety in Scotland, while, disturbingly my father told atrocious stories of how he and his tank crew had dealt with the Japanese in Burma.  Other parents, of course, never spoke of those days.
  
I never tired of endless WW2 films and devoured books of PoW escape stories. Though that may have been my own escapism from a succession of ghastly boarding schools.

But WW1? There’s a strange gap in my memories. No grandparents seemed to have fought or even done heroic deeds in the equivalent of WW2’s Home Guard. 

 
















Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia: the villain of World War I?

For me WW1 remained mysterious. A senseless slaughter on all sides. Kaiser Wilhelm never had the frightening stature of WW2’s ranting bogeymen Hitler and Mussolini.  And the Gestapo and Germany’s brutal persecution of the Jews were associated in my mind with sadistic boarding school bullies. 

So in 1995, maybe to get back at the bullies, I wrote a book about WW2’s impact on the small town of Oundle in Northamptonshire.

Twenty years earlier, however, we had bought our first house.  There must have been a mania for stripped pine, for we set to work scraping off all that dark brown stain and woodgrain - the gloomy grey-green varnish which was supposed to look like finely grained wood.   

Beneath the stain which covered some tongue and groove panelling on the first floor landing we found the name  H.B. Hancock and the date 1912 etched into the wood. The decorator had obviously left his mark. Out of respect we left it.

 
Oundle's war memorial and the Talbot Hotel, a drawing by Diana Leigh

 It was a few years later that while passing the town’s war memorial I noticed our decorator’s name and the date of his death: 1917. 


The Battle of Arras: a photo dated 24 April 1917.  A battery of 18-pounder field guns under German fire close to Monchy-le-Preux. In the foreground is an advanced dressing station.
Oundle man Harry Baxter Hancock would die four days later

Thanks to the internet I can now read fuller details:
Harry Baxter Hancock  
Private, 24422, 11th (Cambs) Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action Roeux 28-04-17. Born, enlisted and resident Oundle. Commemorated on Arras Memorial, Bay 04.

Elsewhere I found an item from the Northampton Mercury for 24 Aug 1894. It reported that his father James Harry Hancock, of Oundle, also a painter and decorator, "for neglecting to have his child, Harry BaxterHancock, vaccinated, was ordered to pay 6s. costs and have the child vaccinated within 14 days."

Poor Harry.  The vaccination may have protected him from smallpox but did nothing to save him from death in his twenties.  

I hope the new owners of our Oundle house have kept that little bit of panelling as we left it. 
 
Four years after settling in Budleigh Salterton I got an email out of the blue from a Joseph Byrne, writing from Ireland.  He’d found me via a Cape Cod website. Isn’t the internet amazing!  The ghosts of the past can use it to help us tell their stories. Again, I found myself investigating the sad death of another victim of WW1.

You can read about him in the next installment, which will appear on the following site at http://fairlynchgreatwar.blogspot.co.uk/  

 I’m calling the site The Great War at Fairlynch and over the next four years I reckon I’ll be spending a fair bit of time there, and less on Budleigh & Brewster.   
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Storm at the Brook

April 6, 2014, 3:25 am
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Pink Floyd lovers and many many others will be delighted to see that the Brook Gallery’s Easter show is devoted to work by graphic designer the late Storm Thorgerson.

 











A teenage friend of Floyd founders Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, Thorgerson, pictured above, was responsible for designing album covers for many other well known rock artists including Led Zeppelin, Bruce Dickinson and Muse.

We're delighted to welcome the Brook Gallery as the latest Corporate Friend of Fairlynch Museum. The Gallery's Storm Studios Show  runs until 4 May. If you can’t get along to see it in Budleigh Salterton take a look at  http://www.brookgallery.co.uk/category.php?catid=126  to see the kind of amazing designs produced by Thorgerson, who sadly died last year aged 69.

Photo of Storm Thorgerson credit: Jheald



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New season at Fairlynch

April 6, 2014, 9:40 am
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Budleigh Salterton’s Fairlynch Museum welcomed visitors today with a range of brand new exhibitions and a smartly designed and renamed ground floor room to house its archaeological and geological artefacts.

For the first time in many years the Museum will be open on Saturdays, giving Budleigh weekend visitors the chance to appreciate something of the town’s heritage as well as soaking up the sun on the beach.

The World War One centenary, an exhibition of 1920s fashion, beautiful displays of lace, a collection of children’s toys and a look at the folders in Local History Room will all make for a fascinating afternoon for visitors. Especially if the sun doesn’t make an appearance.

Archaeological and geological items at the Museum, including the remarkable radioactive pebbles described by scientist Max Perutz, are on display in the refurbished Priscilla Carter Room.

Find out more about Fairlynch by clicking on our sites at http://devonmuseums.net/fairlynch    and  facebook.com/Fairlynch

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A debt of gratitude

April 8, 2014, 11:34 am
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Much respected Treasurer of Fairlynch Jim Milverton finally handed on his account book today when he stepped down after looking after the Museum’s finances for many years.

“The most important position in any Board of Trustees is that of Treasurer,” said Museum Chairman Roger Sherriff. “Fairlynch has been very fortunate to have a Treasurer like Jim. As  the consummate professional he has managed the Museum finances using sound judgement and his extensive knowledge.”

Jim, who with his wife Rose lives on Budleigh Salterton’s Coastguard Road, has also been Treasurer of the town’s Relief in Need Charity.

Looking after the Museum’s finances has often been complicated by issues arising from maintenance of the historic Grade II listed building, but Jim has proved to be a steady guiding hand, said Roger Sherriff.

“After over six years as Treasurer he is leaving the Museum’s finances well and truly in the black. We will miss his wise counsel and gentle good humour and we wish him and Rose well for the future.”

Farewell gifts from his fellow-trustees at the Museum included a bottle of fine wine and a garden voucher.

Jim’s successor as Fairlynch Treasurer is Nick Speare.
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Museum welcomes guests at Preview Evening

April 15, 2014, 3:22 am
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Friends of Fairlynch and many other supporters of the Museum enjoyed the opportunity of seeing the new season’s displays during our evening opening on 3 April.
  
Many local Councillors attended the event. Left to right are Cllrs Alan Dent and Caz Sismore-Hunt, together with Alan Tilbury (President of Budleigh Salterton Chamber of Commerce).


















The theme of the 2014 Costume Exhibition is ‘Fashion in the 1920s’, illustrated by this display of a dress shop interior. 
 
 


















Included in the Lace Room display are items made by a former Fairlynch lacemaker, recently donated to the Museum by her niece who lives in the USA.















Also in the Costume Room is a display of dolls and toys entitled  ‘Hidden Treasures.’


 
L-r: Lynn Cook, Bernard Hadley, Christine Bailey, Margaret Williams and Martyn Brown.



L-r. Iris Ansell, Laurence Scullion and Dr James Scullion. Previously involved with the Bowes Museum, Durham, Laurence is helping the Fairlynch costume department with restoration work. 

 

Budleigh Salterton Mayor Steve Hall is seen with Fairlynch Local History Group member Sheila Jelley. The LHG, consisting of Margaret Brett, John Hedderly and Glenn Sismore-Hunt, have been hard at work staging the ‘Great War at Fairlynch' Exhibition.











Detailed research for the Exhibition has been carried out on local residents of the Lower Otter Valley who were involved with the 1914-18 World Conflict. 

The 'Great War at Fairlynch' has benefited from a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.   



















 Also at the Preview Evening wereFairlynch Chairman Roger Sherriff, left, and Museum Secretary Michael Downes















Seen here (l-r) are Edward MacMullen, Angie Wilkinson and Mary MacMullen in the recently refurbished section of the Museum used for displays of Archaeology and Geology, formerly known as the Environment Room.  Mr MacMullen is the son of Fairlynch Museum’s late President Priscilla Hull. The Room has been renamed in her honour as well as a tribute to her father, local archaeologist George Carter.



The south wall of the Priscilla Carter Room, much admired by guests, was designed by the Bristol-based firm of Smith and Jones Design Consultants http://www.smithandjones.co.uk/ 
Click on the image to see the whole wall.


The 2014 exhibitions close on 30 September. Opening hours are 2.00-4.30 pm Tuesday to Sunday. Admission is free.

























































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The Susan Ward Collection at Fairlynch

April 15, 2014, 10:28 am
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 Friend of Fairlynch Museum and founder of Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival Susan Ward, left,  with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffyat a Brook Gallery reception in September 2010    Picture credit: Brook Gallery

New acquisitions in the Museum’s display of costumes this year consist of items from the Susan Ward Collection.  

When Susan and her husband Charles moved to Budleigh Salterton in 2005 she soon became involved in fundraising for Fairlynch, becoming a Trustee of the Museum's Endowment Fund.  But it was the Literary Festival that she founded which then became her real passion.

The first three-day Festival opened on 18 September 2009 with a strong line-up, including Hilary Mantel, H.R.F. Keating, Val McDermid, Simon Brett, the actor Sheila Mitchell and journalist Virginia Ironside.

Very sadly, after a long illness, Susan died peacefully at home in Budleigh on 19 June 2012.  Thanks to a thoughtful gesture on the part of Professor Charles Ward, visitors will now have the chance to admire these items, some of which are on display in the dressing room. 


 





















An Victorian cream silk dress with beige embroidery 

 






















A Edwardian black tussore silk dress with bustle, or framework to support the drapery at the back of the dress. Tussore silk comes from the larvae of the tussore moth and related species.


 






















This maid’s outfit will be kept in the Study Section of the Fairlynch Costume Department.


 






















Costume curator Iris Ansell with one of the dresses from the Susan Ward Collection which will also be part of theStudy Section.

One of the special items in the Susan Ward Collection is a  mannequin of the Edwardian period.  “Very interesting indeed,” was Iris Ansell’s comment.

And hiding under the Victorian dress was a 1970s dress which Costume Department volunteers found, to great excitement. “It’s perfect” said Iris. “Just as I remember them from that period!”


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Wanted! Good books.

April 15, 2014, 10:35 am
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Read any good books lately? asks the poster.   The Good Book Sale at Fairlynch Museum on 28 June 2014 will be a great opportunity to find books recommended by Friends of Fairlynch and others at bargain prices.

But the organisers need good books to get started.

If you have any that you think people would enjoy please start making a pile of them ready to take to the Museum during opening hours.  Or you can phone for a collection to be made from your home: 01395 442666 or 01395 446429. 

Just one or two books offered as a gift to the Museum would be appreciated by the organisers if you don’t have an entire library to give away.  Please start looking now.
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Town’s trader in good spirits

April 30, 2014, 11:06 pm
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Budleigh Salterton has always prided itself on the number of its specialist shops, providing that little extra bit of service to customers, and James Findlay certainly includes his among them.   Occupying a prime position on the town’s  High Street, Budleigh Wines offers a vast range of drinks to suit every customer’s palate.

The latest to join the growing number of Corporate Friends of Fairlynch, 25-year-old James is a keen supporter of the Museum because of his interest in the town’s heritage.  Budleigh-born, he feels a strong link with the local fishing industry through his mother, a member of the Rogers family. 

Heritage in the drinks business is a fascinating subject, says James. With the popularity of real ales and the rapid upsurge in the number of micro-breweries all over Britain in recent years there’s been a keen interest in traditional brewing recipes. 

The Chester-based brewery Spitting Feathers has even gone as far as using a recipe created by analysing residues found in pots discovered at archaeological digs at Roman sites dating from around 100AD and other research.  Original ingredients including oats, rye and bog myrtle make this is a real taste of ale as the Romans brewed it in Britannia around the time of Christ’s birth.

Whatever next? A Bronze Age beer made from a recipe discovered at a dig on Woodbury Common?

Distilleries have seen the same kind of growth as breweries. I hadn’t realised how many gins there are on sale in shops like Budleigh Wines.  I wondered whether the Bombay Gins that James stocks would have been popular with some of the Anglo-Indian ex-army types who traditionally retired to Budleigh Salterton. 






 























But my eye was caught particularly by the bottles of Tanqueray gin because of its very local connection.  The original London Dry Gin was launched in Bloomsbury in 1830 by Charles Tanqueray. When he died in 1868 his son Charles Waugh Tanqueray took over the business at the age of 20 and quickly built on his father’s success. 1898 saw a merger with another well known name in the gin business, forming Tanqueray Gordon & Company. Today, Tanqueray Gin’s largest market is North America, where it is the highest selling gin import.

 
Above: The Tanqueray family grave at All Saints’ Church, East Budleigh 

 Although based in London the family must have had a home in East Budleigh because it was here that Charles Henry Drought Tanqueray (1875-1928), the newly formed company’s Secretary was born. In 1906 he married Stella Mary Green, daughter of East Budleigh’s vicar, the Rev William Frederick Green. Their daughter, Beryl Mary Tanqueray, married Brigadier Robert Allen Elliott, whose widowed mother lived for a time in our house after losing her husband Reginald, killed in action during World War One. 

On the strength of those local links I think I’d better try out a bottle of Tanqueray gin. It’s a bit more expensive than my usual brand, but James tells me that Tanqueray No.TEN is recognised for making the most refreshing tasting martini cocktails. It won 'Best White Spirit' three times in a row at the San Francisco World Spirits competition. 

 















I might even branch out into an exploration of the Tanqueray-inspired cocktails that you can find at www.tanqueray.com

To see what else Budleigh Wines has to offer click on www.facebook.com/budleighwines

Photo credits: Ben Efros, WestportWiki, Craig Hatfield 

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Time for a tick

April 30, 2014, 11:49 pm
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I found my first tick yesterday. On me. I daresay that they’re all around us, floating like tiny little spiders over the East Devon heathland, but the ones that count are those that you spot suddenly after feeling that familiar little itch just when you’ve had a good day’s gardening. A tiny black spot, sometimes in a very awkward place on your body and you know that it’s time to get out the tick hook.

It’s been ages since I first wrote some warning words about ticks at
http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/ticked-off.htmland that was in connection with our sister town in Brewster, Massachusetts, where Lyme disease can be a serious problem.

Having extracted my tick I put it on a window sill and watched it. For such tiny creatures they move fast; this one seemed to be showing off, performing the occasional somersault. I wondered whether they might have been used in circuses, like fleas. Finally I called time on it.

My little tick bite yesterday came just after I’d read about rabies on Cape Cod at http://capecod.wickedlocal.com/article/20140428/NEWS/140426780  Now that’s a really scary subject and puts our Devon ticks into perspective.  Rabies deaths are rare,  and the US Department of Agriculture is intent on eliminating them altogether by distributing fish baits containing anti-rabies vaccine in an area which includes Brewster among other Cape Cod towns. But it was disconcerting to read that a 63-year-old man from the area had died from rabies two years ago after being bitten by a bat. 

Well, there have to be some drawbacks to living in Paradise, whether it’s Cape Cod or East Devon.  Those annoying ticks have started to appear with the warm damp weather of late spring, and the bats will soon be swooping over the garden to herald the arrival of summer.  In their way they’re both messengers of good things to come.  

Photo: There's the tick, between the two tick hooks. I do recommend these useful gadgets which you can get at your local vets. They're more effective than tweezers. When you twist the hook you should be able to hear a tiny click as the tick releases its hold on your body. That should mean that the whole head of the beast has been removed. I then rub TCP or similar into the bite and keep an eye on it. But see http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Bites-insect/Pages/Treatment.aspx  for official advice.
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Flower power to help Museum

May 1, 2014, 2:50 am
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The primroses came out early this year, heralding the arrival of spring. And now with May Day we enter a new season.  It’s no surprise that this pretty plant has been adopted as our county flower,  decorating as it does, in the words of the official website “countless miles of Devon's hedgerows and roadside verges in the early months of the year.”

The flower has been chosen also for its value as a symbol of conservation.  “Common species such as the Primrose are often useful indicators of the world around us,” I read a little further on the site. 

“Unless we succeed in maintaining the status of such common plants, we stand little chance in saving those habitats and species that are already rare or threatened. By promoting the conservation of the Primrose, we can help to look after the many habitats in which it is fundamental for growth and the many species that are typically found along side it.”

 






















'The Primrose' from volume I of Familiar Wild Flowers by F. Edward Hulme FLS, FSA

London: Cassell Petter & Galpin [1877]


So there we have it. The Primrose, like Fairlynch, is doing its bit for conservation. Primrose Cottage, the original name of the Museum building, was a highly appropriate choice for one of Budleigh Salterton’s best known landmarks, You might even call it prescient.

With spring, out with the old, in with the new. It was felt that the Museum’s newsletter needed freshening-up and with plenty of changes taking place at Fairlynch it seems a good moment to change the look of the Friends of Fairlynch newsletter.  The silhouettes, incidentally, are supposedly those of Matthew Yeates, the builder of Primrose Cottage back in 1811 or thereabouts.


 

This is one proposal for the new-look newsletter. Do let us know what you think, with a comment on this site or even an email to mr.downes@gmail.com  We’d value your thoughts even if you live on the other side of the world and are not yet a Friend of Fairlynch.

To read about Devon County Council’s Primrose Action Plan click on http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/environmentplanning/natural_environment/biodiversity/county-flower-primrose/primroses/why_conserve_primroses.htm

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Remembering Max Perutz (1914-2002)

May 1, 2014, 8:25 am
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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 molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew for their studies of the structures of haemoglobin and globular proteins. He went on to win the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1971 and the Copley Medal in 1979. At Cambridge he founded the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, 14 of whose scientists have won Nobel Prizes.  He was its Chairman from 1962 to 1979. 

Perutz’s  scientific career in Britain had begun 40 or so years before that date when he arrived as a student in Cambridge to work at the Cavendish Laboratory.  Born in Vienna, he had studied chemistry at the city’s University and had come to Britain in 1936, keen to work in the field of X-ray crystallography.  While at Cambridge he came into contact with a group of engineering students at Peterhouse College, one of whom was John Carter, a young officer in the Royal Engineers who just happened to live in Budleigh.  The engineering student’s father was amateur geologist and archaeologist George Carter. His sister was Priscilla, a co-founder of Fairlynch Museum, better known to Budleigh people as Mrs Hull.

Among George Carter’s geological  investigations in Budleigh were the strange nodules or grey balls of rock protruding from the cliffs, surrounded by pale green haloes of sand.  He had already established the slight radioactive nature of the nodules, and it was John Carter who suggested to his Austrian friend that the Cavendish Laboratory might have facilities sophisticated enough to enable proper experiments to be made.  

Max Perutz visited Budleigh and took up enthusiastically the study of the nodules, collecting some samples and examining them at Cambridge. He was keen to find an original subject for a scientific thesis, and was delighted to be invited to prepare an exhibition of the geological  specimens from Budleigh at the Royal Society’s formal Conversazione or evening party in May 1937 at London’s Burlington House. 

The event was not as successful as he had hoped, and not until 1939 did he succeed in having his research published by the Leipzig-based periodical Mineralogische und Petrographische Mitteilungen.  However Perutz’s dealings with the Budleigh nodules were a valuable learning experience for him. He seems to have found the work enjoyable compared with the crystallography projects that he had undertaken at the Cavendish Laboratory. His contact with top scientists in discussions concerning the nodules convinced him that he was destined for a scientific career.

Fifty years later, at a dinner given at Peterhouse College to celebrate his 80th birthday, he made a speech ironically titled ‘My First Great Discovery.’ He spoke of his gratitude to George and John Carter.  Priscilla Hull, who attended the occasion, remembered his exact words: “If you ever get to Budleigh Salterton  do walk westwards under the cliffs at low tide and have a look at the nodules. There also used to be a small museum exhibiting old Carter’s discovery.”

 











Mrs Hull was pleased to be able to tell him that the museum was flourishing, with a permanent display of the curious radioactive nodules and copies of his thesis on sale.

After his study of the Budleigh nodules Perutz went on to use the X-ray diffraction method to study the structure of haemoglobin crystals. His family fled from Austria in 1938, eventually coming to England. On the outbreak of World War Two he was interned, but returned to Cambridge and was involved in various secret wartime experiments because of his experience in studying crystal structures and glaciers.  One of these projects was Project Habakkuk, aimed at building an ice-platform in mid-Atlantic to enable the refuelling of aircraft. 

The study of haemoglobin was a subject which was to occupy Perutz for most of his professional career, and led to his becoming a pioneer in the new field of molecular biology, co-founding a world-class research laboratory and developing a technique to unlock the structure of proteins. Later in life he turned to the study of changes in protein structures implicated in Huntington and other neurodegenerative diseases.  He also developed a career as a writer on science and philosophy, taking outspoken stands on issues including religion and world peace.
 
All this was a long way from Budleigh Salterton and those funny looking pebbles. But visit the newly refurbished Priscilla Carter Room in Fairlynch Museum today and let your mind go back to those early days in the formation of a scientific genius. And if you’re young, and that way inclined, you might even decide to follow in the footsteps of the great Max Perutz.


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Fairlynch AGM on 19 May 2014

May 1, 2014, 10:41 am
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Fairlynch Museum and Arts Centre will hold its Annual General Meeting on Monday 19 May at 7.00 pm in the Peter Hall, Budleigh Salterton.

This is an occasion to hear Trustees describe recent achievements and developments at the Museum.  

All are welcome but only Friends of Fairlynch can vote on issues relating to the constitution. Refreshments will be served.  


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Topsham’s Secret Gardens on Sunday 8 June 2014

May 1, 2014, 11:02 am
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Even in the pouring rain the gardens of Topsham looked beautiful when I last visited them. This year, Friend of Fairlynch Margaret Wilson, who is heavily involved in this Topsham Museum event, will no doubt be praying for sunshine. But I wonder whether I’ll take photos as good as the ones of two years ago. You can see them at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/flowers-in-rain-at-topsham.html

Whether you like gardens or not, the event is enjoyable for all. “What could be more intriguing than exploring the hidden corners of an ancient port, with streets and dwellings going back 400 years?” ask the organisers.  “Well, looking behind those walls and gates at the secret gardens concealed in many an unlikely corner will certainly satisfy your curiosity.”

Sunday 8 June is the date this year when the owners of some of Topsham’s private gardens will be inviting you to see their treasures – if you can find them!

This bi-annual event has proved a big hit with locals and visitors alike, especially with the added attraction of cream teas at Topsham Museum, on the Strand, and in Victoria Road, to ease your path around the town.  This year there are new and previously undiscovered gardens taking part, and so even if you took part two years ago in the last event, there are new gems to uncover – and you can enhance your day even further by visiting the plant stall, where lots of bargains can be found, including selections from some of the Secret Gardens themselves.

Tickets will be available from the Museum, and from other outlets in the town and online via the Museum  e-shop from the beginning of May.  Entry costs £5 beforehand or £6 on the day.


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Shakespeare in Salterton

May 12, 2014, 8:18 am
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A Budleigh garden owned by an amateur dramatics enthusiast, a troupe of well known local actors, and a much-loved Shakespeare play.  What more would you want for  a Saturday summer evening’s entertainment?
West Country theatre group Prior Commitment is staging an outdoor performance of the popular comedy Twelfth Night in the garden of Cramalt Lodge, home of Fairlynch Museum President Joy Gawne.Directed by Steve Andrews, the production features well-known local actors including Mike Terry and James Cotter, pictured above, as well as performers from further afield.
Joy Gawne, a co-founder of the Museum and known for her love of theatre, is delighted that the garden is being used as a backdrop. “We used to have dressing-up entertainments at WI summer meetings, but this is the first time that Cramalt Lodge has been used for Shakespeare,” she told me.
Some Budleigh theatre-goers may remember her performances from the past, notably a production based on scenes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. The show was staged in the Public Hall in January 1957, with music specially written and arranged by no less a person than the late Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s mother, a former pupil of the composer Gustav Holst. Budleigh author and artist Joyce Dennys and Joy Gawne played respectively the White Queen and the Red Queen in a partnership which delighted audiences.
Joy would welcome future Shakespeare productions at Cramalt Lodge. There is a balcony, she says, so why not Romeo and Juliet?
Twelth Night at Cramalt Lodge, Budleigh Salterton, will take place at 7.00 pm on Saturday 24 May. Tickets at £10 or £5 (under 16s) are available from Budleigh’s Tourist Information Centre and other outlets as shown on the poster.  Audiences are invited to bring a chair and a picnic.
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Secret Gardens of Topsham 8 June 2014

May 22, 2014, 11:42 pm
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Good luck to our friends at Topsham Museum with their 2014 'Secret Gardens' event
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‘Local Voices’ in June

May 25, 2014, 4:39 am
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Three Friends of the Museum are involved in a project which will see a Salterton Playhouse production on Friday 13 June.

The project is sponsored by the Otter Valley Association with the aim of encouraging writing and the pleasure of reading — both poetry and prose fiction — inspired by our local Devon landscape and natural heritage.

Friends of Fairlynch Sue Chapman, Katherine McDermott-Darley and Nicola Daniels have been working in the ‘Local Voices’  group which includes Wendy Spicer and Maggie Giraud.   Their writing has been inspired  by the broad theme of the Phoenix Myth: regeneration, rebirth, hope and growth.  “It’s a very broad and surprising  spectrum of ideas,” says Sue.  A successful creative workshop collaboration with Clinton Devon Estates, and the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust took place earlier this year around themes associated with the ‘Phoenix Cycle’ and local photographer Mo Bowman’s stunning images. A second Writers’ Workshop took place on Saturday 5 April.   Dovetailing into this creative programme for 2014, ‘Local Voices’ has reached out to individuals in the community who have contributed their writing for an event taking place at the Budleigh Salterton Playhouse on Friday 13 June,  from 7.00 to 9.00 pm.  Sue’s fellow-organiser Katherine  explained:
 
“This event will be an evening of readings, wine and socialising, featuring writing linked to the local environment across an open theme  —  ‘The local natural environment explored and celebrated.’ We’re hoping to encourage and present a variety of writing which explores and celebrates what we have around us, and in a way which opens up the imagination and is experimental with language and metaphor.” Tickets at £3 on the door include a glass of wine and canapés.

Writing is most definitely a craft, and several books by or devoted to local writers are on sale in Fairlynch Museum shop alongside works of art and products from the area. Maybe the shop bookshelves will be a bit fuller with poetry and prose inspired by the area and what ‘Local Voices’ is doing to promote it.

Pictured above: The Phoenix reborn, one of the mythological creatures featured in the  Kinderbuch by the German publisher Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747-1822)

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Friends support pedalling for the pituitary

June 13, 2014, 4:12 am
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It’s a tiny gland no bigger than a pea, but for its size it’s one of the most important areas in the body.  The chemical messengers or hormones that it controls play a vital role in our health, affecting functions as varied as growth, mood and reproduction.

Pituitary disorders are rare but serious.  When Richard Greetham, a director of Bradleys Estate Agents was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour his colleagues at the firm’s Budleigh office were naturally shocked and upset.  His good friend Robin Burne, pictured above, is a familiar face to many involved in our local property scene. Robin is determined to do his bit and help Richard and his family in any way he can.

“Many people have not heard of this devastating condition, let alone the impact it can have,” says Robin. “To show my support for Richard I ran in Plymouth's Half Marathon on 27 April with other colleagues.  In June I am going to accompany Richard on Days 1 and 2 of his 'Tour De Bradleys' , when he is cycling to all our 33 offices.”

 

The first day of the Charity Bike Ride opens with the stage from Taunton to the Bradleys Head Office in Exmouth on  21 June. The following day will see a ride from Exmouth to Okehampton.  Richard  himself is aiming to complete over 400 miles during the entire ride, which he admits will be a tough challenge.

“I took up cycling a year ago with a view to training for this, and I have been training for a year, but sadly no amount of training can prepare you for some of the climbs and hills that Devon, Cornwall and Somerset can throw at you,” he explained.

“A year ago I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour, which came as rather a shock, having had a five year period of feeling generally unwell, and struggling really to find out the cause of these feelings. Once the diagnosis had been made, the transition from feeling generally very unwell to complete recovery and feeling normal again was such a relief. I really felt that I had to do something for this unknown condition. The Pituitary Foundation is mainly an information and promotional charity that helps people with pituitary conditions. Its main aim is to raise awareness of the many conditions that are linked to the pituitary gland, which sits just beneath your brain. They are a small charity but do a fantastic job and really need the support and help, so that they are able to help people who have been undiagnosed like I was for many years, and raise awareness of some of the conditions that are linked.”

Bradleys Estate Agents has chosen The Pituitary Foundation as its official charity during 2014, and further challenges for Robin lie ahead with September’s Half Marathon in Bristol and the Exeter Great West Run in October.

Pituitary tumours can be cured, and so far Richard has responded well to treatment.  “We hope that as a company we can raise much needed funds as well as vital awareness of this condition,” says Robin.

Bradleys is a Corporate Friend of Fairlynch and Chairman Roger Sherriff invites all those associated with the Museum to join Robin in helping to support this worthy cause.

For more information, click on http://www.justgiving.com/RobinBurne and http://bradleys.agent.staging.homeflow.co.uk/pages/tour-de-bradleys
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Budleigh Gardens open for Hospicecare

June 13, 2014, 4:17 am
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Above:  Beautiful domed blooms of the climbing rose ‘James Galway’

Sixteen gardens in Budleigh Salterton will be open on 28 and 29 June 2014, helping raise money for Hospiscare.  The gardens will all be open from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm each day. At only £5.00 per adult for entry into all 16 gardens that should be a beautiful experience!

The gardens include that of Cramalt Lodge on Cricketfield Lane, home to Fairlynch Museum President Joy Gawne. It boasts a rose garden and a medlar tree among its charms.

A photographic record of the evolution of Cramalt Lodge garden will be on display, along with an exhibition of bygones of yesteryear such as old toasting-forks and waffle irons. 

For details of the Open Gardens event click on http://www.hospiscare.co.uk/Events/Event_calendar


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Grand Book Sale at Fairlynch

June 13, 2014, 4:33 am
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The Grand Book Sale at Fairlynch Museum on 28 June 2014 will be a great opportunity to find books recommended by Friends of Fairlynch and others at bargain prices.

The range is huge - fiction, crime fiction, travel, biographies, art...  There will be something for everyone. And of course you can enjoy the garden. Or simply visit the Museum.
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