Budleigh Salterton is a seaside town on the coast in East Devon, England, south-east of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

. It lies within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and forms much of the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

of Budleigh, whose ward population at the 2011 census was 5,967.

Features

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 A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

for bird watchers. It has a designated area for naturists. The village is crossed by the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...

, 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. The town has a male-voice choir, which performs for charity.

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, one also providing a local town service. Between 1897 and 1967, Budleigh Salterton was served by

a station , known professionally as , is a Japanese actor, creative director, and writer. He appeared in a number of Japanese TV dramas, including ''Mei-chan no Shitsuji'', ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'' and ''Zettai Kareshi''. Additionally, he was well kn ...

on the Budleigh Salterton Railway, built and operated by the London & South Western Railway, which ran from Tipton St Johns to Exmouth, which is now the nearest railway station at 8 km (5 miles).

Sports

Budleigh Salterton is home to the scenic East Devon Golf Club. 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. 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. In addition, there is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

club, a

rifle club A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically design ...

, and a games club offering tennis,

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

and other pursuits.

Churches

The Church of England in Budleigh Salterton originally took the form a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

under the parish of All Saints,

East Budleigh East Budleigh is a small village in East Devon, England. The villages of Yettington, Colaton Raleigh, and Otterton lie to the west, north and east of East Budleigh, with the seaside town of Budleigh Salterton about two miles south. Until ...

. As the population grew, this was replaced in the 1890s by what became the Parish Church of St Peter in 1901. The church was heavily damaged by enemy aircraft bombing on 17 April 1942, 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. The Roman Catholic Church is also dedicated to St Peter. 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 John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

. There is a Baptist church in the town, whose congregation dates back to 1843.

Notable residents

In birth order: *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. *

Charles Warrell Charles Warrell (23 April 1889 - 26 November 1995) was an English schoolteacher, and creator of the ''I-Spy'' books, a series of spotters' guides written for British children and first published in 1949. In his role as creator and publisher of the ...

, creator of the ''

I-Spy The I-SPY books are spotters' guides written for British children, particularly successful in the 1950s and 1960s in their original form and again when relaunched by Michelin in 2009 after a seven-year gap in publishing. Concept The I-SPY books ...

'' series of children's books, lived here from his retirement in 1956 until his death in 1995. *Writer Dame Hilary Mantel (1952-2022), author of '' Wolf Hall'' and '' Bring Up the Bodies,'' lived here.

In popular culture

In 2003, Budleigh Salterton featured in episode 3 of series 3 of ''Top Gear'' as the destination for a road test by Jeremy Clarkson of a Bentley Continental GT. An episode of the BBC series '' Blackadder the Third'' refers to the town. In addition, the town is mentioned in season 6 episode 1 of the Granada Television's '' Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series)''. It is also mentioned in Noël Coward's 1941 comedy ''

Blithe Spirit Blithe Spirit may refer to: * ''Blithe Spirit'' (play), a 1941 comic play written by Noël Coward * ''Blithe Spirit'' (1945 film), a British comedy film based on the play * ''Blithe Spirit'' (2020 film), a British-American comedy film based on th ...

''. The town features regularly in the BBC radio satirical series ''

Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off ''Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off'' is a BBC Radio 4 comedy written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby and Graeme Garden, produced by Pozzitive Television. Format and history The show follows the travel adventures of title character Giles Wemmbl ...

''.

References

External links

*
Budleigh Salterton Town Council website
{{Authority control Towns in Devon Beaches of Devon Geology of Devon Jurassic Coast Nude beaches Seaside resorts in England Civil parishes in Devon East Devon District