Just some of the blue plaques you can admire in Budleigh
Salterton
I always enjoy reading inspiring stuff about the achievements
of people from the past, like the 19th century inventor Hezekiah
Conant of Dudley MA whom I wrote about on this blog.
Sometimes it’s a newspaper obituary, sometimes a blue plaque on the wall of a building, like the ones that we have in the UK.
East Budleigh, where Roger Conant was born, is much older than the town of Budleigh Salterton, where I live. Until the late 18th century people were scared of living on the coast because of the threat of being abducted by pirates from North Africa and sold into slavery.
Since those days Budleigh Salterton has grown and now has eight times as many inhabitants as little East Budleigh.
Even though it’s quite young, our town has been home to many interesting historical figures, and some of them are remembered on the blue plaques you see here. Many more blue plaques could be added. I’m working on it!
They don’t seem to have blue plaques in the US, but with a bit of googling I found the wonderful Historical Marker Database which boasts of recording ‘Public history cast in metal, carved on stone or embedded in resin’. Currently it lists 163084 markers and no doubt there are more at https://www.hmdb.org/
East Budleigh has no blue plaques, though it does have a red one on the High Street marking this ancient holly tree.
How about one for Roger Conant? What do you think?
