Fairlynch's popular Coffee Time Talks begin a new season next month, so save these dates to meet friends and hear some enthralling presentations in Budleigh Salterton's Peter Hall (behind St Peter's Church) on the first Wednesday of the month.

Doors open at 10.30 for refreshments, with talks beginning at 11.00am. Entry costs £4.00 for Friends of Fairlynch and £6.00 for other members of the public. 

As always, the subjects are varied so hopefully there will be something to interest everybody. Further details about each talk are given on this site under 'Events'.

Wednesday 3rd September 2025: The Siver Greyhound: Life as Her Majesty's Messenger.
Speaker Peter Hearn
Wednesday 1st October 2025: Beryl Cook. A Distinctive Devon Artist.
Speaker Marilyn Bishop
Wednesday 5th November 2025: Kinder Transport. The part Devon played in the escape from Nazi persecution. Speaker Stewart Raine

Wednesday 3rd December 2025: A Tudor Christmas.
Speaker Rosemary Griggs
Wednesday 7th January 2026: It's not just birds!
Speaker David White
Wednesday 4th February 2026: A unique Budleigh Artist.
Speaker Brenda Thomas
Wednesday 4th March 2026: The South West Coastal Footpath
Speaker David Westcott
Wednesday 1st April 2026: Prof. Flo Prialo, Emeritus Prof of Mythos/ Antediluvian Envisaging, Uni. of Newton Abbot. Title tbc

This year's Angela and Tony Colmer Prize for excellence in Local Archaeology has been awarded to 21 year old Exeter University graduate Phoebe Holland. Fairlynch chairman Trevor Waddington gave Ivybridge-based Phoebe a cash prize of £100, a certificate and our warm congratulations for her outstanding research on rock art and the adoption of prehistoric monuments by early Christians on the edge of Dartmoor.

The prize, awarded annually by the Fairlynch Museum in Budleigh Salterton and Exeter University was set up in honour of benefactors Tony Colmer and his wife Angela. Until Angela’s death in 2007 and Tony’s in 2011 they worked tirelessly for the Fairlynch Museum, developing the archaeology collection and championing the area’s history.

Trevor Waddington, said, “We pride ourselves on our archaeology gallery and it is so important to see new work on the area’s past revealing fresh secrets. The award both encourages a new generation of archaeologists and pays tribute to the work that Angela and Tony did for the museum."

Phoebe said, “I’m particularly interested in the prehistoric story of Devon and Dartmoor in particular. I did a lot of work revealing evidence of rock art and how 3-D modelling can identify significant new data."

The university promotes rigorous scientific methodology in archaeological investigation and teaches the use of new technologies available to help with recording and analysis of ancient artefacts and structures. Phoebe’s dissertation was titled “More Than Meets the Eye: Using 2D and 3D Digital Techniques to Explore and Document Prehistoric Rock Art and Early Medieval Sculpture in Southwest Britain." With the technology, she was able to detect the addition of crosses to some standing stones, etching that is now so faint, it had previously been unobserved. 

Phoebe would like to use the technology to make archaeology more accessible to the public, perhaps in the museum or education sector. We wish her a successful and rewarding career!