Budleigh Salterton

Budleigh Salterton is a seaside town on the coast in East Devon, England, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Exeter. It lies within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,^[1] and forms much of the electoral ward of Budleigh, whose ward population at the 2021 census was 7,671.^[2]

Budleigh Salterton
The seafront looking west towards Exmouth. The red cliffs are around 250 million years old.
Coat of arms
Budleigh Salterton Location within Devon
Population	6,575 (2012)
OS grid reference	SY066818
District	East Devon
Shire county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BUDLEIGH SALTERTON
Postcode district	EX9
Dialling code	01395
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Exmouth and Exeter East
List of places UK England Devon 50°37′42″N 3°19′14″W

The sea front, looking east towards Sidmouth

Blue plaque commemorating Sir John Everett Millais

Features

Aerial view of Budleigh Salterton and the surrounding countryside.

Budleigh Salterton lies at the mouth of the River Otter, where the estuary includes a bed of reeds and a grazing marsh, which form a haven for migratory birds and a Site of Special Scientific Interest for bird watchers. It has a designated area for naturists.^[3]

The village is crossed by the South West Coast Path, with clifftop routes eastwards to Sidmouth and westwards to Exmouth. The pebble beach and cliffs are part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

Facilities

Fairlynch Museum is housed in a listed, thatched marine cottage orné dating from 1811. It covers the history and geology of the region, and opened in 1967, offering exhibitions and a local archive. It possesses a large collection of period costumes.^[4] The town has a male-voice choir, which performs for charity.^[5]

It has a flourishing Classical Music festival in the summer ^[6] and a popular Literary festival in the autumn.^[7]

Transport

Budleigh Salterton lies on the B3178 secondary road; the B3179 ends on the western edge of the town.

There are regular bus links with Exmouth and Sidmouth, with less frequent services to Exeter.

Between 1897 and 1967, Budleigh Salterton was served by a station on the Budleigh Salterton Railway, built and operated by the London & South Western Railway, which ran from Tipton St Johns to Exmouth,^[8] which is now the nearest railway station at 8 km (5 miles). Large sections of the disused Exmouth to Budleigh branch line now serves as a cycle path.^[9]

Sports

Budleigh Salterton is home to the scenic East Devon Golf Club.^[10] Its 11-lawn croquet club (offering croquet, bowls and bridge), founded in the late 1860s, is one of the oldest and largest in the country.^[11] The first team of the Budleigh Salterton Association football Club plays in the South West Peninsula League Division One East and there is a second team, a ladies' team and a youth team.^[12] In addition, there is a cricket club, a rifle club, and a games club offering tennis, bowls and other pursuits.^[13]

Churches

The Church of England in Budleigh Salterton originally took the form a chapel of ease under the parish of All Saints, East Budleigh. As the population grew, this was replaced in the 1890s by what became the Parish Church of St Peter in 1901. St Peter's Church was built between 1891 and 1893 to a design by George Fellowes-Prynne. It was heavily damaged by enemy aircraft bombing on 17 April 1942, losing a great many of the stained glass windows by Percy Bacon & Brothers,^[14] but reopened in 1953. Today the Raleigh Mission Community at St Peter's, Budleigh Salterton, and All Saints, East Budleigh, are part of a joint mission with St Michael's, Otterton.^[15]

The Roman Catholic Church is also dedicated to St Peter.^[16] The Temple Methodist Church was completed in 1904 to replace a smaller chapel dating from 1812, which had been built by the bookseller James Lackington, an associate of John Wesley.^[17] There is a Baptist church in the town, whose congregation dates back to 1843.^[18]

Notable residents

In birth order:

• James Lackington 1746–1815, founder of Temple Methodist Church.^[19]
• The German-born English painter Hubert von Herkomer died here in 1914.
• Belinda Lee, actress in British films of the 1950s, was born here in 1935. Her father managed a hotel in the town.^[20]
• Charles Warrell, creator of the I-Spy series of children's books, lived here from his retirement in 1956 until his death in 1995.^[21]
• Writer Dame Hilary Mantel (1952–2022), author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, lived here.^[22]