AROUND THE TOWN AND OVER THE POND
A walk around Budleigh Salterton to interest transatlantic visitors. Every so often there’s a diversion which may inspire you to visit places like East Budleigh, Exeter, Sidmouth, Colyton or even places in the United States and Canada.
The walk is set out in parts. Here’s the eleventh part:
Still at the Raleigh Wall.
11. PACIFIST FANTASIES MEET 'COLONIAL ASSOCIATIONS' AND 'A FEAR OF THE PAST'
I was moved by theseemingly pacific character of Roger Conant. It seems to stand out in such stark contrastwith some of his brutal contemporaries, and I felt that this peace lovingDevonian deserved to be better known in his homeland. Could he even become apacifist icon?
Not only had he intervened to avoid bloodshed in 1625, but hehad cooperated in the peaceful transfer of power to Governor John Endecott. Andthen in his later years, as we read on the blue plaque in East Budleigh, hepetitioned for Beverly to be renamed Budleigh but accepted without question thedecision of the magistrates of the General Court in Boston.
In St Andrew’s Church, Colyton, where Roger’s grandparentsJohn and Anne Clarkeand perhaps even Roger himself had worshipped, I’d noticedduring a visit in 2022 a kind of Peace Chapel where a Prayer for Ukraine,composed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, was on display. It wasaccompanied by another prayer on the same theme by the Rev. Dr Sam Wells, Vicarof St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. The colours of Ukraine’s blue and yellowflag were displayed next to it.
I saw that the same Chapel also displayed the blue and redcolours of the Russian Federation’s flag.
Exeter Cathedral. Image credit:WyrdLight.com
Two years later, in 2024, I foundExeter Cathedral inviting families to book spaces on its Make Your OwnDelft Dove of Peace Workshops, using patterns traditionally used in DutchDelftware.
Advertisingthe 2023 Christmas Tree Festival at Salem Chapel
For many years, at Salem Chapel inRoger Conant’s birthplace of East Budleigh, a major winter attraction has been aChristmas Tree Festival.
The first Festival proved so popular that thetradition grew rapidly, progressing from around a dozen trees to over 50 in2016.
Salem Chapel, incidentally, has no connection with thecity that Conant founded. ‘Salem’, from the Hebrew word ‘shalom’, simply means‘Peace’, similar to the Arabic greeting ‘salamun alaykum’ that means ‘Peace beupon you.’There are Salem Chapels in various countries of the world.
Along with 20 or so otherorganisations in the East Budleigh area the Roger Conant Club, was invited toparticipate and decided to contribute a Christmas Peace Tree in view of Roger’sreputation as a peace maker.
To decorate the tree, pairs offlags represented those nations which do not have as happy a relationship witheach other as they might. Lower down, the decorations echoed the theme ofpeace, including names of recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.
‘Baubles’ were inscribed with anti-warquotations from well known or interesting figures from over the centuries, evenincluding East Budleigh’s own Sir Walter Raleigh. I discovered only recently that he tried to act as a peace maker between England and Spain just before the launch of the Spanish Armada.
A dove, made by our local artist John Washington, perched uneasily over thewhole thing. After its few days in Salem Chapel the Peace Tree was transferredto All Saints Church in East Budleigh in time for the Christmas services.
The Peace Tree could have been a schoolproject. Perhaps a few of the young visitors to East Budleigh’s Christmas TreeFestival or children in All Saints Church will have remembered that odd-lookingChristmas tree.
They may have recognised names of Nobel PeacePrize winners on the blue baubles.
Photo by Richard Allen
Someof them may have entered the art contest to design a Peace Poster organised byLions International. In 2023 it was a 12-year-old member of Budleigh SaltertonAdventure Group, Thomas Franklin, whose poster was chosen as the winning entryby the town’s Lions Club.
To quote from the Lions Clubs' website: 'For over three decades, Lions Clubsaround the globe have been sponsoring a very special art contest in schools andyouth groups. Creating peace posters gives children everywhere the chance toexpress their visions of peace and inspire the world through art andcreativity.'
Image credit: Clément Morin; www.nobelprizemuseum.se
Some of their teachers may even haveattended the Nobel Prize Teacher Summit, pictured above. At this event, since 2017, ‘teachers from all over the world meet Nobel PrizeLaureates, top scientists and peace activists around a theme of greatimportance in education.’
Perhaps a Devon student might one day edita peace-themed magazine.
David Loyn. Image credit: ImperialWar Museum. Andrew North Image credit:www.linkedin.com
They might interview journalists such asDavid Loyn or Andrew North, renowned for their work in conflict zones.
Image credit: Wikipedia
They might feature peace activists fromthe past like (clockwise from top left): Albert Schweitzer, HenrietteBeenfeldt, Coretta Scott King and Bertrand Russell.
Image credit: Wikipedia
Or even interview activists of today such as (clockwisefrom top left): Milan Rai, editor of theUK-based Peace News, musician Roger Waters, singer-songwriter Yoko Ono andbasketball player Malebogo Molefhe.
They could investigate Higher Educationcourses in areas such as Conflict Resolution or War Studies at places likeBradford University or King’s College, London, where a recent workshop on Conflict Resolution in Ancient and Modern showcasedthe fruits of collaboration between scholars in the Departments of Classics andDefence Studies.
Above, left: The Hiroshima Peace Memorial andThe Prayerbook Rebellion marker at Fenny Bridges, East Devon. Image credit:Wikipedia
They might decide to feature Peacememorials, some better known than others.
The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, and his wife meet Hitler duringtheir 1937 tour of Germany. Image credit: Wikipedia
Theymight ask awkward questions such as: ‘Was Edward VIII a peacemaker?’, ‘Docultural boycotts work?’, ‘Should Exeter City Council have detwinned itsRussian twin?’, ‘Should NATO never have been formed without Russia as an earlymember?’, ‘Would there be fewer wars if women ran the world?’
Top: Bradford Peace Museum, UK;The Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki, Japan.Image credit: www.creativetourist.com and www.visit-kyushu.com
The student might go on to found a PeaceMuseum, like the one in Nagasaki which ‘educates the public about the horrors of war and the importance ofstriving for peace’.It wouldbe a museum which would stage exhibitions about artists and authors who mightbe described as pacifist.
The ‘Guernica’ tapestry at theUnited Nations building, New York. Artist Pablo Picasso in 1962. Image credit: www.un.org and Wikipedia
People like Banksy, Vera Brittain, JacobEpstein, Erasmus, E.M. Forster, Goya, Aldous Huxley, Henry Moore, GeorgeOrwell, Picasso, Jonathan Swift, Voltaire. And so many more.
Such a student might even win a RogerConant Peace Prize.
Sadly, that seemsunlikely. It seems that schools are among the institutionsthroughout the country which claim to be ‘revaluating their associations withthe colonial past’ and would have reservations about using the Conant name.
Arms of Exeter School and The King’s School, Ottery St Mary showingthe years in which they were founded
Other names have become a causefor concern among teachers, including at Devon schools. While The King’s Schoolin Ottery St Mary is keeping the name of Raleigh for one of its four schoolhouses, Exeter School announced in March 2024 that it would be removing thenames of Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh.
The decision, it claimed,was ‘not an attempt to change or eradicate our history’ but, in the words of alocal news item, ‘formed part of a structural switch-up in the school's housingsystem’. Whatever that means.
Image credit: Wikipedia
According to the news item, Exeter School apparentlyadmitted that the initial discussion on removing the names took place when ‘statuesof historical figures were being toppled’. The most notable toppling was thatof June 2020 in Bristol, when the statue of Edward Colson, just visible in the above photo, was dumped into thecity harbour.
Perhaps the powers-that-be at Exeter School hadcome across this denunciation of Raleigh by an Exmouth lady called Elizabeth.‘Should East Devon be planningan event to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of its local hero SirWalter Raleigh?’ was the question asked on social media in the run-up to 2018?
The brutal reality of the slave trade:A plan of theBritish slave ship Brookes,showing how 454 slaves were accommodated on board after the Slave Trade Act1788. This same ship had reportedly carried as many as 609 slaves and was 267tons burden, making 2.3 slaves per ton. Published by the Society for Effectingthe Abolition of the Slave Trade. Image credit: Wikipedia
This was Elizabeth’s verydefinite answer: ‘Celebrate Walter Raleigh no chance he made his money from theslave trade along with Elizabeth a disgrace nothing to celebrate there alongwith the mayflower ship leaving from Plymouth a boat load of poor innocent men,woman and children set voyage for a disgusting life chained up whipped andbeaten and rape defo no and to work day and night poor slaves. America madegreat through the slaves along with Britain.’
Admittedly we’re talking social media.
Raleigh had been dead for two years when the Mayflower set sail for America with the Plymouth Pilgrims.
DevonChurchland website; All Saints Church, East Budleigh. Image credit: PeterBowler
But not so long ago you could read in the East Budleigh section for AllSaints Church on the truly excellent and scholarly Devon Churchland websitethat the Raleigh family’s most famous son is ‘Sir Walter Raleigh, oneof the first English colonisers of North America (along with being an earlyslave trader, a desperate nightmare to partake in).’
At least they were quick to amendthe statement when asked what evidence there was for it.
Image credit:www.downtownraleigh.org
Across the Atlantic, in the American state which has suchclose associations with Raleigh, there is a call to remove his statue in thecity named after him. In 2020 a petition was launched on the internet platformChange.org
‘Thename Sir Raleigh Walter brands our city with a stained legacy,’ it claimed. ‘Alegacy we cannot afford. While even today the City of Raleigh only offerswhat is Affordable to those whom they actually owe vs. stopping their PostColonial War on the Poor. The heirs to his conquest have tripled inwealth and expanded while the victims of enslavement are pushed out, forcedout, shut out and even incarcerated.’
The Orangery, Bicton Gardens. Image credit: www.geograph.org.uk
Incidentally, during a visit to Bicton Gardens I made a pointof looking at the façade of the Orangery. It includes three niches to honourLord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Walter Raleigh, the first twocontaining white marble busts on fluted columnular pedestals. But of thebust of Raleigh there was no sign.
Bob Newhart at the 1987 Emmy Awards. Image credit:Wikipedia
‘Nutty Walt’ by Mike Tingle. Image credit: www.brookgallery.co.uk
Whatever we learn about Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite therewill always be those who think of him as ‘nutty Walter’ immortalised byAmerican comedian Bob Newhart in ‘Introducing Tobacco to Civilization’. It’s a famous sketch based on Raleigh’s phoneconversation with the head of ‘The West Indies Company in England’. He thinks it unlikely that people will want tostick burning leaves in their mouths’.
Many people think of Raleigh as ‘just as a pirate who lost hishead’.
A well attended Elizabethan Evening was held in East BudleighVillage Hall on Saturday 18 May 2024 to honour the Raleigh and Conant families.
Whatever you think about those characters from the past,Roger Conant’s life makes a good story. I wrote some verses about him:
The Salter’s Song
In sixteen hundredand twenty-three,
A yeoman’s son fromEast Budleigh
Did wish his family‘Au revoir!
I’m off to findAmerica.’
In London town he’dlearnt his trade:
As salter he had madethe grade.
Now Roger Conant washis name;
We think he needs abit more fame.
His wife called Sarahjoined the ship
With baby Caleb onthe trip.
They sailed acrossthe ocean deep.
I don’t suppose theyhad much sleep.
And finally atPlymouth Bay,
Where previousPilgrims showed the way,
The Conant familycame ashore.
The year was sixteentwenty-four.
Now Roger’s skill wassalting fish
To make a decent kindof dish.
For just in case youhave forgotten,
No fridges meant yourfood went rotten.
Just north ofPlymouth is Cape Ann.
West Countrymerchants had a plan
To make the Cape afishing port
And maybe even builda fort.
And Roger was namedsupervisor.
They said of him‘There is none wiser!’
It was of course ajob promotion,
With splendid outlookon the ocean.
A major problem didoccur,
For Plymouth’sPilgrims furious were.
Their CaptainStandish did arrive.
The year was sixteentwenty-five.
This man was notedfor his ire.
‘Be gone!’ he said. ‘I’ll open fire!
That fishing stage isours by right.
We will not hesitateto fight!’
The fishermen deniedaccess.
It could have been abloody mess.
But hero Roger savedthe day.
His words of peacemade all ok.
Conciliation, thenand now,
Is always better thana row.
Diplomacy, a path topeace,
Will cause all stupidwars to cease.
In Massachusetts he’srenowned,
For this EastBudleigh man did found
A city where hisstatue’s fame
Does almost match thecity’s name.
It’s also known, I’veheard it said,
And in biographiesI’ve read,
That Roger Conant’speaceful vibe
Impressed theMassachusett tribe.
So Roger Conant,worthy chap,
Deserves, we feel, aspecial clap.
These verses doindeed attest:
‘Peacemakers are most surely blest.’
Now, finally, let’s move on from the Raleigh Wall toFairlynch Museum!
