'The Boyhood of Raleigh', part of the Tate Britain collection
Just
over 50 years ago, on 27 July 1967, Budleigh Salterton acquired its own museum
thanks to the efforts of a group of enthusiasts led by local residents, among
whom were notably Priscilla Hull and the three Gawne sisters, Elizabeth, Aalish
and Joy.
The
statue of Sir John Everett Millais by Thomas Brock at Tate Britain
With
the recent launch of an appeal to bring Tate Britain’s ‘The Boyhood of R
Fairlynch Museum, one of Budleigh's best loved buildings
It soon became clear after the Museum’s opening in 1967 that
‘The Boyhood’ would be a star attraction. Obtaining Millais’ masterpiece in
1969 and 1970, and on a further occasion in 2000, was largely due to the
efforts of Priscilla Hull. She recalled in an article that she wrote for the Western
Morning News some 30 years later how a chance conversation about the
painting had been the stimulus.
A visitor to the Museum had suggested: ‘You really ought
to have the picture here — but of course THEY would never let you!’ she
recalled. ‘This was said to me —
co-founder and chairman of the Museum, and my husband, the Secretary — and it
lit a fuse.’
The Octagon, Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton
The quest for the Millais painting rapidly became a
crusade, she explained. ‘We felt we were highly deserving. It had been
conceived on our doorstep, and its centenary was imminent.’ Indeed it was next
door to Fairlynch, at the building known as the Octagon, that the painter had
stayed when he began work on his masterpiece in 1870.
A poster for the 1970 exhibition
On 9 July
1969, the
Raleigh Exhibition opened. Millais’ ‘Boyhood
of Raleigh’, on loan from the Tate Gallery as Tate Britain was then known, was
in pride of place. The Exhibition, which ran until 12 October, took up two
floors of the Museum.
The Millais painting was only one of
the many exhibits in the Exhibition, which was accompanied by a six-page
brochure. This listed artefacts on display, ranging from mundane objects like
buttons and coins to valuable portraits of Elizabethan and Jacobean figures.
Rare documents included the original
letter from Raleigh seeking to buy his birthplace, Hayes Barton, at East
Budleigh. Period artefacts included weaponry, an original scold’s bridle and an
executioner’s axe. New World items included plants, shells and textiles from
Central and South America and even some Virginia tobacco, grown in the Budleigh
area by a Major General A. Whiteside.
Tate Britain, London Image credit: Tony Hisgett
Acknowledgements included the Director
of the Tate Gallery, the Master of the Armouries at the Tower of London, the
Directors of the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Albert Memorial
Museum, Exeter, Curators of the John Judkyn Memorial, Bath, and Dartmouth
Museum, the Commanding Officer of the Royal Marines Training Camp at Lympstone,
the Carnegie UK Trust, the SW Area Museums Council, the Museums and Libraries
Committee of Devon Country Council and the Crime Prevention Officer for Devon and
Cornwall Constabulary.
To
read correspondence of this time in Fairlynch Museum archives is a
throught-provoking experience. It was a stressful time for all concerned. One
is left in awe of the immense efforts which these good-hearted volunteers made
to achieve their goal. It was not plain sailing. For four months, it seems,
there was a breakdown of communication between the Friends of Fairlynch and the
Museum’s management: the latter were totally focused on the task of bringing
Millais’ painting back to Budleigh.
A letter from Mrs M.D. Evison, Secretary of the Friends
of Fairlynch, dated 27 August 1969, summed up the tense situation. Writing to Gordon
Hull, Secretary of the Management Committee of the Museum, she noted:
‘At a meeting of our
Committee on August 26th the first item on the Agenda was that of liaison with
the Management Committe, and there was a feeling of extreme disappointment at
the lack of replies to our letters dating back to April 17th.
It is appreciated
that the current Exhibition, which has been such a great success, must have
given much work to all concerned. It is because of this that our Committee
feels it is not too early to consider following on with equally good
exhibitions.
Our Committee,
therefore, would welcome replies to correspondence within a reasonable period
of time, as it is most essential that the views of the Management Committee are
constantly available to enable us to continue the work which at present is
progressing most satisfactorily, with our membership now standing at 104.’
Letters may have gone
astray, and there had obviously been been mutual misunderstandings according to
Gordon Hull in his reply dated 2 September 1969:
‘I thought that I had
cleared the various previous points in conversation with you,’ he explained. ‘But,
as you say, life has been so busy, and so much has had to be done by so few of
us in order to get, and keep, the Raleigh Exhibition going, that other things
have inevitably been put aside.’
He then suggested a meeting of the Chairman and
Secretaries of the two Committees on 15 September 1969.
Happily,
the situation was resolved, with only one resignation from the Committee of the
Friends of Fairlynch. Margaret Aldred, a
member of the original Committee, felt ‘very strongly indeed’ as she explained in her letter of resignation, that
she no longer had ‘the slightest
confidence in certain aspects of the management of Fairlynch Museum’.
Children from Drake's School, East Budleigh visit Fairlynch to see Millais’ ‘Boyhood of Raleigh’ painting in 2000
In
spite of such difficulties, the 1969 Raleigh Exhibition was a triumph. By the following
year, visitor numbers had jumped from around 3,000 to 12,000 – an extraordinary
achievement. The triumph of this first showing of Millais’ ‘Boyhood of Raleigh’
at Fairlynch no doubt contributed to the success of the Museum Trustees in
securing a second loan of the painting in 2000.
Would
you like to see history repeating itself? Would you like to help bring ‘The
Boyhood of Raleigh’ back home to Budleigh?
Click on www.fairlynchmuseum.uk and help our 2018 Millais appeal to grow in time for the 400th anniversary of the death of one of Devon’s best known historical figures.
Continued at http://raleigh400.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/fifty-years-ago-boyhood-at-budleigh_61.html
FOR THE RALEIGH 400 CALENDAR OF
EVENTS WORLDWIDE
IN 2018 CLICK ON
http://raleigh400.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/raleigh-400-calendar-of-events-in-2018.html
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