Tourism organisation predicts return of the Great British Holiday

A leading south west tourism organization headed by a Budleigh Salterton resident is calling for the industry to join together to build a better showcase for the region, claiming this is the best way to stimulate and revive the Great British Holiday tradition.

Left: Great Sloncombe Farm, Moretonhampstead, is one of the many West Country bed & breakfast businesses promoted by Cartwheel Holidays.

According to Cartwheel Holidays, a leading non-profit tourism firm exclusive to the West Country, the industry needs to link together all the elements that draw visitors to the region such as quality accommodation, locally sourced food, fun activities and local heritage, rather than promoting them separately if it’s to make the most of the holiday-at-home boom predicted this year.

In response to the changing economic climate, Cartwheel has just re-launched its website in an expanded format featuring not only its 570 accommodation listings, but also details of farm shops and farmers markets across the region where visitors can buy locally produced food, numerous attractions and activities, plus information about the region’s counties and towns.

It’s all about promoting the whole experience of the West Country,” says Gina Woodcraft, chief executive of Cartwheel Holidays which celebrates its 10th birthday this year. “Everyone’s feeling the pinch, but visitors are more likely to be drawn to the region if we share our local knowledge and make it easier for them to imagine and believe they will have a good holiday experience before they even book.

“Currently the tourism industry is very accommodation focused, but this is only a small part of the experience potential visitors to the West Country are after. If we can become more integrated, show and deliver the whole experience they’re after, it will encourage people to return year after year. I believe this is our best chance to revive the Great British Holiday indefinitely.”

Covering Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset, the Cartwheel website is believed to be the only one of its kind offering integrated holiday information across the region. It’s hoped this and others like it, if they’re developed, will help address the £400m hit taken by the wider economy due to the drop in visitor spend in the region last year, mainly through a fall in secondary spending on eating out and visiting attractions.

“We know visitors love being signposted to good food and fun activities, as it helps them make the most of their stay,” continues Gina Woodcraft, who lives on Exmouth Road. “By putting more information in one place, people can get a better feel for the area and the authentic West Country experience quickly and easily. This will encourage bookings and, once they’re here, help visitors find places that they otherwise wouldn’t know about.”

Food and drink organisation Taste of the West supports this approach and has provided Cartwheel with a comprehensive list of farm shops and farmers markets for the new website. “I think this approach makes a lot of sense,” says John Sheaves, chief executive of Taste of the West. “If we can get more people enjoying our delicious local food and drink during their stay here, it gives them even more reason to return. There’s no denying it’s one of the reasons people love visiting the region.” Above: Cartwheel is actively promoting West Country Farmers' Markets such as Budleigh's.

Cartwheel has grown steadily since the early days and now offers more than 570 independently owned properties to chose from, mainly in rural and countryside settings. This demonstrates how the region’s small tourism businesses are making more effort to market themselves professionally, which means they are well place to survive the economic slump.

Other new features on the Cartwheel website include searches by county, by town and also by niche, including fishing breaks, business breaks, pet friendly and toddler friendly breaks. In response to market demand there is now a new 'last minute deals' availability search with links to google maps.

Cartwheel’s primary aim is to offer visitors a true taste of rural life with the opportunity to enjoy the experience of a working farm or relax in idyllic surroundings in the countryside. “We select businesses that are family run and encourage the sourcing and serving of local food,” says Gina. “Cartwheel actively supports the protection and conservation of our landscape and wildlife habitats. We believe that the adoption of green tourism activities will enrich the holiday experience.”

For more information visit http://www.cartwheelholidays.co.uk/

Praise for local landscape gardening firm

“Pleasant, efficient, hard working and fairly priced” is how one Exmouth Road resident has described the service provided by L M Landscapes and Garden Maintenance, based in Exmouth. You could hardly ask anything more in order to see your dream garden take shape and flourish, and in a fraction of the time that it might take you on your own to achieve that longed-for result you wanted.

L M Landscapes and Garden Maintenance has been in business for five years now. Owner Leroy Morley lived originally in Northamptonshire and moved to Exmouth ten years ago. “I started with a few pieces of garden equipment and one van,” he explained. At Bicton College, he achieved a National Certificate in Horticulture and City & Guilds certificates issued by the National Proficiency Test Council. “The business has now expanded, enabling me to recruit a team of local skilled people to assist in supplying a service that we are proud to be part of.”

Below are just a few of the specific jobs the company has carried out. “We offer free quotations, design advice and planning to help our customers to achieve their dream garden projects.”

“This project entailed a large patio area, using Natural Stone paving, with steps leading to the rear gate. A new lawn complements the colours in the natural stone paving. A new timber shed, fencing and gate completed the appearance the customer was looking for.”

“After laying new turf and planting more shrubs this garden started to take shape. With regular garden and lawn maintenance visits, the garden will always look its best.”

“With our experience we offer a garden design service and built this rear garden after discussions with the customer on their requirements. We have also carried out projects with customers using their own plans.”

Leroy and his team stress the importance of providing a professional, personal service and strive to reach a high customer satisfaction level. His customer base is both regular and one off specific jobs. Whatever the nature of the work, he believes that maintaining the high standards of his service will ensure that that his customers continue to recommend him.

For further information, contact:
Leroy Morley ( NCH - NPTC )
L. M. LANDSCAPES & GARDEN MAINTENANCE
3A Byron Way.
Exmouth.
Devon.
EX8 5SB

Tel (h): 01395 266599
Mobile: 07791217166
Email: lmgmain@tiscali.co.uk

LOW MAINTENANCE LANDSCAPES.
PATIOS, DRIVEWAYS, WALLS, PATHS.
TREE WORK & TURFING.
FENCING & DECKING.
GARDEN DESIGN.
HEDGE & GRASS CUTTING.
CONTRACT MAINTENANCE.

On Budleigh Beach

Dear Sir Walter, dear Sir Walter,
Poet, scholar, soldier, courtier.
Although I write to you in verse
I’m sure you’ll think it must be worse
Than any lines you wrote to please the Queen.
Nay, worse than any you have ever seen.

I write to you from Salterton,
That place where you had lots of fun
Beside the sea four centuries ago,
And where the view down on the beach
Goes further than the eye can reach,
To blood-red sunsets, distant lands of fame,
Of plants and beasts and such wild things and ships
As we can only dream of. Yet your name
For many people stands for nothing more
Than bikes, roll-ups, and naturally chips.

And Budleigh, with its pebbles known as buns,
Down where that naughty lively river Otter runs
Into the sea, is, so many say,
A town of wealthy pensioners, nothing more,
“Famed for its elderly population” reads Wikipedia, for
Long ago that ‘witty’ playwright Noel Coward
Described it as a place of potted palms and monumental bores
Who live life on the golf course, and of course that soured
The reputation of the place,
For bitchy comments oft destroy a cause.

Yet thanks to Mr Millais and his painter’s easel
You’ll say, I hope, that Coward was a weasel
Who’d never seen that masterpiece
In oils which captures so exactly children’s dreams,
Where your and Master Gilbert’s portrait seems
To say that life on Budleigh beach beside the wall
Is pure and innocent and full of fine belief
Such as they say Man had before the Fall,
Before he twists and turns and prostitutes himself
In search of happiness which often turns to grief.

For so you found, that London town, antithesis of Devon,
Cut short your age of innocence, seduced you out of Heaven.
A life of intrigue, war and politics
Took you from walks beside the Otter
To face the spite of Jacobean rotter
James the First, the Scottish king who coward-like
In fear of Spain agreed to see you dead.
While you with brave advice to “Strike man, strike!”
Lay willing victim on the block
Before you lost your head.

So please Sir Walter, if you’re there
And by some chance you hear my prayer,
Do look at this iconic spot.
Go see the state of Budleigh’s wall.
It isn’t very grand at all.
There is a small blue plastic plaque.
But couldn’t there be something better?
And when I saw the lack
Of screws attaching it
I thought I simply had to write this letter.

© Michael Downes 2009

Snowstorms hit waste and recycling collection

While Exmouth Road and the Budleigh area are seeing brilliant blue skies today with not a snowflake in sight it’s a different story further inland, with roads made hazardous by blizzards and icy conditions.

The severe weather forced East Devon District Council’s waste and recycling contractors to cancel all collections yesterday.

There were no landfill waste collections in Budleigh Salterton and Littleham. EDDC spokesman Nick Stephen advised: “Householders should put out their bins for collection on Monday of next week, when they will be collected – weather permitting!” Above: Snow has affected many of Devon’s roads inland.

Recycling boxes in Budleigh Salterton were not be emptied yesterday for similar reasons. Householders have been asked to keep their boxes until Friday of next week (13 Feb), when they will be emptied. This is not a normal recycling day for these areas, but contractors will collect on that day, weather permitting.

The next collection will be on the following Friday (20 Feb), when collections will return to the normal fortnightly cycle.

EDDC have said that their REACT team will be out and about in the district, concentrating on picking up any split litter bags that they find. “Dog waste bins may not be emptied according to the normal schedule. But Council teams will also be out and about emptying any dog waste bins that are full or overflowing.”

Councillor David Cox, EDDC’s Portfolio Holder StreetScene, said: “We apologise to residents for any inconvenience they may experience as a result of these changes.” He explained that the exceptional weather conditions meant that there was a combination of reasons why the Council’s waste contractors could not be working yesterday. “Some crews cannot get to the depot and lorries can’t get out of the depot,” he said. “If they did get on the road, they may not be able to get to many homes Even if they could collect the waste, many waste tips are closed. The roads to waste and recycling centres are treacherous and some are impassable.”

EDDC’s Nick Stephen added: “We hope to be able to return to normal service as soon as weather conditions allow.” Above: All clear on Exmouth Road

National Bird watch on Exmouth Road

Left, Goldfinches on Janet Parrish's bird-feeder.

Exmouth Road’s Janet Parrish writes: Some of you may have heard that last month the RSPB held their annual nationwide bird watching exercise, in which members are asked to choose one hour over the last weekend in January to record the birds that land in their gardens. The rules are that the birds must land and not merely fly overhead and you may only record the total number of birds of each species seen in your garden (or indeed park, or wherever it was you chose as a location) at one time. For

instance two blackbirds must be on your lawn to count as 2. Two more half an hour later will not count as 4!

So………As a staunch member of the RSPB for over 30 years, your scribe set to work with binoculars and a full bird table to see what could be done. It was a fairly unsuccessful morning. You cannot control who visits your garden or unfortunately, explain to them that they ought to turn up to be counted.

For instance; on the 'dummy run' that I conducted with video camera poised on its tripod, as well as the usual blackbirds, robins, pigeons, crows, rooks and gulls, (yes, they all count) I recorded several small flocks of goldfinches 4 - 6 in a group; long tailed tits crammed together around the seed-feeder, so tightly that some had to wait in the camellias for their turn; blue and great-tits as well as both the resident blackcaps. These latter I thought had become residents, but according to a birding friend, migrate here from Germany, while our summer dittos fly south. Above right, the robin arrives to join the goldfinches.

What happened on the day? The robin arrived bright and early and true to form, launched into its regular impression of a humming bird, as it raided the seed feeder hanging at the 'feeding station.' (RSPB term for your bird table or, nowadays, your rather up-market wrought iron pole with various curlicue hangers and expensive add-ons.) After quite a while a blackbird began picking its way across the lawn. The hour was going very slowly. Another long wait and a coal tit deigned to feed from the peanut feeder nearer the kitchen window. Hm… three birds in one hour is not going to look good on my return. Perhaps I should try looking elsewhere in the garden. Left, Robin with the wind up.

Right, the coal-tit. Upstairs through the bedroom window, hurrah, a wren was busying itself foraging around the steps. Well that is four birds altogether. Shocking count. I know we have a rich diversity of birds and other wildlife here. In fact in the past we have boasted everything but wild boar and hedgehogs. Where were the song thrushes that only last week were feasting on the vast snail population? I know they do, as they use the edge of the path outside the back door for an anvil. Why were there no pigeons even, which together with the herring gulls are the scourge of every one's back yard? Most days a crow can be seen swaggering around with an eye to the main chance, to say nothing of the magpies. There is a large rookery only about 500 metres away, so why no rooks? Not so much as a ripple! The pheasant usually includes a walk through our garden as a matter of routine. He stayed resolutely in the field. Rats!! He cannot be included………..or can he??

Left, magpies are regular visitors. I'm getting desperate. Time is ticking on. At the 11th hour great news, there is our blackcap; just the male. They were both around last week. This is becoming a fishy story; 'They were all here last week and they have got away'. The equivalent of the gardener's cry, "You should have seen it last week." Just as I am thinking, "I have chosen the wrong day at the wrong hour in the wrong year" a chaffinch shows up, skulking in the rhododendrons, too close to focus the binoculars. I nearly missed him. Then, O joy, one blue tit on the peanuts and a goldfinch on the niger seed. Well, could be worse. Also two, TWO dunnocks, gleaning around the base of the feeding station. Well that brings the count to a more acceptable level of nine. Time is nearly running out. As if to take pity on me or perhaps to taunt me, four long-tailed tits arrive and cluster around the peanut feeder. Finally one solitary pigeon flaps noisily into the holly tree. Any other day and..….yes you guessed it, there would be at least three if not more.

So I have 11 species out of ….Oh I should think at least 20. Why did the woodpecker fail to turn up to be spotted? Answer, waiting until this morning - February 4th - to put in an appearance. What were the nuthatches up to? Hatching a plot to keep a low profile. Greenfinches? Gone off to greener pastures. Above, the pheasant on his regular walk through the garden.

OK, I didn't expect the green woodpecker. He only comes in when the ants are active. I didn't expect a visit from the peregrine falcon or the sparrow hawks, but it would have been a great coup. Buzzards? Yes, all these have been known to land in our bit of green space. Tawny owls too; once during the day when they were trying to teach their youngster to fly and hunt and not sit on the washing line looking gormless. Of course the warblers will not be here yet, but the chiffchaff has been known to over-winter here in the past. I shall keep my eyes peeled for anything unusual, including the other creatures that have been seen here. Deer, badgers foxes and rabbits will not be counted by the RSPB, of course, but it is rather a privilege to know they use this area, although a bit of a pain, as they all do damage to what I rather fondly regard as 'my garden.' Above, the green woodpecker.

Oh well, as far as birds are concerned, there is always next year.

Text and photos © Janet Parrish 6 February 2009

St Peter’s Music 2009

Applications are now welcome from music-lovers for St Peter’s Music Concerts 2009 season tickets, writes Exmouth Road’s Chris Parrish. The tickets entitle the holder to entry at all eight concerts taking place between March and October this year.

The tickets cost £75 for the whole season but must be purchased before 1 March 2009.

As usual the series of concerts, now in its 15th year, features a varied programme with music ranging from choral works next month to a fascinating recital in October based on the tuba and its musical antecedents. Celebrated musicians who will be playing include the pianist Peter Donohoe and the London Concertante, regarded as one of the finest chamber ensembles in Europe.

Right: St Peter's Parish Church, Budleigh Salterton

Below: St Peter's, interior

St Peter's Music was started in 1994 by the then Vicar, The

Reverend Robert Gibbs and the Director of Music, Sylvia Pritchard. The intention was to provide regular concerts, mainly, but not exclusively, chamber music, to enable local residents to enjoy serious music without the need to travel to Exeter. Since then the organisation has changed little and the aim not at all. There is some emphasis in the programming to feature young musicians. Exeter School has been included for several years and Wells Cathedral School and the Purcell School have played on a number of occasions. We have also welcomed the Takacs Quartet, pianists Paul Lewis and John Lenehan as well as the Chamber Ensemble of St Martins in the Field in the last few years.

To apply for tickets, send your cheque made payable to St Peter's Music and a stamped addressed envelope, to St Peter's Music, 12 Exmouth Road, Budleigh Salterton, Devon EX9 6AQ. Season Tickets are not transferable and entitle the named holder to entry to each concert in the season. In addition season ticket holders are entitled to a complimentary glass of wine or fruit juice during the interval of each concert at which refreshments are served.

For more information see http://www.stpetersmusic.org.uk/page1/page1.html

New roof for Fairlynch Museum thanks to funding from airport sale.

Fairlynch Museum, one of the few thatched museums in the country, is to get a new roof thanks to a grant of £12,000 by Devon County Council from funds allocated from the sale of Exeter International Airport.

The Grade II listed building is owned and occupied by the Budleigh Salterton Arts Centre and Museum and houses an extensive collection of material of local interest including quantities of Honiton lace most of which was made in the cottage industry of East Devon and items relating to the Jurassic Coast.

This year the museum will host an exhibition of dresses designed by the internationally famous designer Zandra Rhodes and 'Curious Curves', an exhibition of underpinnings on loan from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

The museum is built of cob and thatch and a new roof is needed to protect the local archives. Recent heavy rainfall has caused damage. The total cost of the re-thatching is £30,000 and it is to be carried out by a local master thatcher.

The bid for money from the County Council's Invest in Devon Green Fund was supported by Budleigh Salterton County Councillor Christine Channon. Devon County Council had previously sold Exeter International Airport for £60 million, and after first paying £12 million to cover existing borrowing against their previous investment in the airport, the Council had £48 million available for local projects. The money available was divided in funds - all targeting areas of improvement.

Councillor Channon said: "I am very pleased that money from the sale of the airport is being given to help the Trustees of the Fairlynch Museum repair the roof. The museum is a little gem in East Devon and it is most important that it is preserved. "

The Chairman of Budleigh Salterton Arts Centre and Museum, Sonia Stone, said: We can't thank the County Council or Christine Channon enough. Without the grant from DCC the thatching would have been put on hold to the detriment of Fairlynch. Now this beautiful building will be protected from rain, wind and snow for the benefit of both the local community and visitors to Fairlynch."