CONANT AWARD FOR EAST BUDLEIGH SCHOOL (AUTUMN 2025)


 

Photo: Michael Downes 

On 22 July 2025, the Vicar of Budleigh, the Reverend Martin Jacques, presented book tokens to five children from Drake’s School in East Budleigh, chosen by their teachers as the first recipients of the annual Roger Conant award at their end of term leavers’ service.

A gift of £500 from the village’s Roger Conant Club to enable the awards was made earlier in the year to the Parent, Teacher and Friends Association (PTFA) of Drake’s School, pictured above, and the money will be awarded as prizes over the next few years to pupils who best represent the School’s values. 

Drake’s Church of England Primary School, pictured here, is named not after the Tudor explorer Sir Francis Drake but after Joan Drake. She was the first wife of the father of Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtier who, like Roger Conant, was born in East Budleigh.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW DID THE CONANT COURIER START? BEVERLY MA JOURNALIST PAUL LEIGHTON EXPLAINS. (WINTER 2025)

Image
The front page of the first issue of The Conant Courier (Autumn 2025) When I heard there was a new newsletter having something to do with Beverly, I got a little nervous. Could this be competition for The Beverly Beat?  Then I found out the newsletter was from across the pond — and I’m not talking Kelleher’s. The new publication is called The Conant Courier, and it’s based in Devon, England, the birthplace of Roger Conant.  Roger Conant is the answer to the first question any self-respecting Beverly trivia contestant should be able to answer — Who was the founder of Beverly? READ MORE AT  https://thebeverlybeat.substack.com/p/roger-that
Read more

THREE CHEERS FOR UNTIDINESS! (AUTUMN 2025)

Image
 ‘Wow!’ exclaimed our 12-year-old grand-daughter Lucy as she saw the shambles of more than 80 years of clutter hidden in our garage. She settled down to explore. We both agreed that every family home should have something similar—a museum of untidily stacked curios and unfamiliar objects to surprise and delight visitors, especially children. Lucy’s reaction reminded me of how, as a child, the sister of a well known composer described her feelings as she explored the ‘rambling and dilapidated’ property at 31 Station Road in Budleigh Salterton. Budleigh artist Joyce Dennys had suggested that the family move to the town at the outbreak of World War Two, and then seek a permanent home away from the London bombs. ‘The house was thrilling!’ the sister recalled in Anthony Meredith’s biography of her famous brother, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.  ‘I used to sneak about, taking everything in, and I went up to the attic once and it was full of assegais, masks and marvellous red-leather vo...
Read more

FROM SALEM COMMON TO CONFLICT: THE FIRST MUSTER AND THE PEQUOT WAR PANEL AND DINNER (WINTER 2025)

Image
Roger Conant and his fellow settlers at Naumkeag in the 1620s have been recorded as enjoying a harmonious relation ship with the indigenous people of the area. Sadly, the state of harmony did not last.   In 1636, a decade after the founding of what we know as the cities of Salem and Beverly came the two-year Pequot War.  Image courtesy of www.salemstate.edu   Veterans Hall at the Ellison Campus Center at Salem State University was the setting last November for what was described as ‘an evening of reflection, history, and community’ inspired by the complex issues arising from such tragedies of America’s past. The two-hour program followed a dinner based on a menu inspired by ‘Indigenous foodways’, described as the holistic and interrelated cultural food systems of Indigenous peoples, encompassing traditions, beliefs, and practices connected to their local environments.   Salem was designated the birthplace of the National Guard in 2010 by Ma...
Read more