TEN FAMOUS FACES OF THE OTTER VALLEY (AUTUMN 2025)

East Budleigh, birthplace of Roger Conant, along with Budleigh Salterton, are both located at the southern end of East Devon’s River Otter. Here are some of the famous people who lived at places in the Otter Valley between Ottery St Mary and Budleigh Salterton. See if you can match the faces to the descriptions below.

A. East Budleigh-born Sir Walter Raleigh (c.1552-1618) played a leading part in English colonisation of North America. He made political enemies during his life-time but was admired as a republican by 18th century American patriots for his criticism of tyrants.

B. East Budleigh-born Roger Conant (1592-1679) sailed to America c.1623, founding the cities of Salem and Beverly. Conant is celebrated as a peacemaker for his diplomacy in a potentially violent confrontation in 1625 between West Country fishermen and an armed force from Plimoth Colony led by Captain Myles Standish.

C. The achievements of Lieutenant-General John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) included composing the first documented Valentine card in the USA and serving as lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, the first British colony to abolish slavery. Budleigh Salterton was his summer residence while he commanded defence forces against invasion by Napoleon.

D. Born in Ottery St Mary, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) has been described as a founder of the artistic and intellectual Romantic Movement in England. His poems ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ have inspired many artists, including such works as a Ken Russell film and an Iron Maiden song.

E. Lady Louisa Barbara Rolle (1796–1885), was celebrated as a plantswoman. ‘This lady is a remarkable woman, without equal or like in England,’ wrote an American visitor to Bicton’s gardens in 1864. ‘She is a female rival of Alexander the Great.’

F. Over 20 marine sponges are named after the Budleigh-born scientist Henry John Carter FRS (1813-1895). Praised by Charles Darwin for his research, he retired to Budleigh Salterton where the entire British Museum sponge collection was sent to him by rail for cataloguing at his home on Fore Street Hill.

G. Vice-Admiral George William Preedy CB (1817-1894) retired to Budleigh Salterton having captained HMS Agamemnon, the warship which helped to lay the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858. He is buried in East Budleigh where his bravery is commemorated by a fine stained glass window in All Saints’ Church.

H. Ottery is twinned with the Japanese city of Otari, not just because of the similarity of names. The diplomat Sir Ernest Satow GCMG, PC, (1843-1929), a key figure in 19th century Anglo-Japanese relations, lived in Ottery from 1907 until his death and is buried there.

I. The naval surgeon, zoologist and explorer George Murray Levick (1876-1956) survived the Antarctic winter with a group of polar explorers, part of Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. He was noted for treating WW1 veterans’ and children’s ailments along with giving survivalist lessons during WW2 before he retired to Budleigh Salterton.

J. Twice winner of the literary Booker Prize, Dame Hilary Mantel DBE, FRSL (1952-2002), lived from 2012 in Budleigh Salterton, the town having touched her imagination since seeing it as a 16-year-old, on a baking-hot day, looking ‘like a Mediterranean town’.

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