Thirty Museum volunteers enjoyed an evening together on Saturday 14 December 2019 at what has become a regular pre-Christmas fixture in the Fairlynch calendar. The fish and chips supper was provided by Budleigh Fish Café and proved a popular choice, followed by mince pies and cream and a raffle! Cheers! Here’s to many more Fairlynch parties!

The 2020 end of season party for volunteers will be on Saturday 7 November 2020. How about joining us if you’re not already a volunteer? 

This was recently confirmed by lace historian Brian Lemin of New South Wales, Australia. The 11½ cm long wooden bobbin is carved with the initials MR and the date 1662.

Fairlynch's curator of lace Sue Morgan says “It came into the museum's collection in the 1990s and its origin is unknown.
However, style and decoration are typical of an East Devon trolly-lace bobbin made for a lace-maker with the initials MR in 1662.”

Museum chairman Trevor Waddington commented “It was made just two years after the Restoration of King Charles II and four years before the Great Fire of London. If only these objects could talk!”

Recently Christine Hadley, who curates the Fairlynch toy collection, re-discovered the Fairlynch Pig and has made this short video of him (or her).

He was made in about 1930 by the French automaton company Roullet et Descamps in Paris. He is about 30cm long covered in pink chamois leather with glass eyes.  He walks, nods his head and grunts!

A long-awaited booklet about the history of Fairlynch is now available with the publication of The Making of a Museum, edited by Fairlynch Trustee Michael Downes.  Based on a 1987 study of the museum building itself, the new title has been brought out to mark Fairlynch’s 50th anniversary and chronicles the development of a much-loved Budleigh institution from its beginnings up to the present day.

At over 50 pages and lavishly illustrated with almost 100 images, The Making of a Museum is a tribute to the original founders of Fairlynch as well as a story of determination and vision. It was a story crowned by many achievements.  One of the most notable was persuading the Tate Gallery to allow on two occasions the showing in Budleigh of Millais’ original painting ‘The Boyhood of Raleigh’.

The booklet is available from the Museum shop, price £5.00. All profits go to Fairlynch. ​