History Society’s 2026 Annual General Meeting
The History Society’s 2026 AGM will take place on Tuesday, 31st March 2026 at 7 pm at Salcombe Rugby Club, Twomeads, Camperdown Road, Salcombe, TQ8 8AX. The bar will be open.

AGM Agenda

1. Welcome
2. Apologies for Absence
3. Minutes of 2025 AGM and Matters Arising
4. Annual Accounts and Adoption
5. Annual Report
6. Ships of Salcombe
7. Proposal to Merge with Salcombe Museum Society
8. Any Other Business

 

120 Years of Farming in the South Hams, an illustrated talk by Roger Tucker
Following AGM business, we are very pleased to welcome Roger Tucker to give an illustrated talk about farming in the South Hams over many generations. It will be great to hear from him.

Free to members. Non-members £5.00.

 

 

 

Salcombe Urban District Council
Salcombe Urban District Council – from its establishment pursuant to the Local Government Act 1894 until it was abolished on 1st April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 – was responsible for local governance and municipal services within Salcombe, including:

• public health and sanitation – street cleaning, waste removal, maintenance of hygiene standards and management of sanitation infrastructure such as drains and public toilets
• highways and public works – repair and upkeep of roads, pavements, and street lighting; provision and maintenance of public spaces (parks, gardens, and recreation grounds)
• Buildings and community services
• Planning (from 1st July 1948), recreation and open spaces
• Civic representation

Here are some images of S.U.D.C. workmen, who carried out the hard work around the town from snow and flood clearance to road-sweeping and road repairs including drainage. Sub-contractors supplied heavy machinery with operators while the S.U.D.C. workmen did the manual work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, 3rd May 2026 – Salcombe Crabfest

 

Visit our stand at Salcombe’s 10th Annual Crabfest organised by the Rotary Club of Salcombe on Sunday, 3rd May 2024. We will be located midway along Island Street. Our stand will display a wide range of historic photos of Salcombe – people and places – along with items from our archive and the Maritime Museum’s collection, and many history books about Salcombe to browse and maybe purchase.

Len Fairweather (1913-1990)

 

Len Fairweather was born in Salcombe in 1913, son of Alfred Fairweather (1876-1959), who ran a pioneering photography business in Salcombe (see Issue 35) and grandson of James Fairweather (1846-1912), Salcombe’s civic leader, campaigning journalist, educator, writer and publisher (see Issue 34).

During the Second World War, Len saw service in the Western Desert as a member of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He was the proprietor of the local dairy in Loring Road until his retirement in 1971.

A well-known resident, long-time trustee of Cliff House and founder member of Salcombe Maritime Museum and historian of Salcombe and its people, he frequently lectured on the subject, using photographs salvaged from his father’s photographic shop after the wartime blitz in Fore Street. The damage destroyed much of the stock and many plates and negatives were lost, but friends helped to search through the rubble and hundreds were saved. Len later recalled “my father had never destroyed a negative from the time he first started publishing postcard views, so we are fortunate and still have a good pictorial record of the area during these years.”

Because at that time the Museum did not have a permanent home, on his death Len gifted the Fairweather Collection – a priceless photographic record of the Salcombe and Kingsbridge area in the early years of the twentieth century – to the Cookworthy Museum in Kingsbridge.

Together with Muriel and David Murch, Len compiled several historical books about Salcombe and its harbour.

At a public meeting called by Len and David Murch on 27th February 1974 at Salcombe Yacht Club, the Salcombe Museum Society was founded and Len became Vice-Chairman and David became Chairman. In February 1975, the Society achieved charitable status. It took up an offer to rent Cook’s boatstore on Custom House Quay, and the Museum’s first exhibition opened on 21st June 1975. It was a huge success with almost 6,000 visitors during that summer.

Temporary summer exhibitions at Cook’s boatstore followed until the Society, having learnt that the boatstore was for sale and would be unavailable after that year’s exhibition, approached Salcombe Town Council with a request to lease the basement of Salcombe’s Old Council Hall in Market Street to display their exhibits, as well as the old Clerk’s office above for use as a research and library room. In 1990, the Museum committee voted to go ahead with the Town Council’s basement proposal.

Sadly, Len died in December 1990, aged 77, at his home in Herbert Road, and did not live to see the new Museum premises opened on 14th April 1992 at the Old Council Hall.

 

Images of farming and S.U.D.C. courtesy of Geoff Foale and the Society’s collection. Images of Len Fairweather courtesy of Roger Barrett and Salcombe Maritime Museum. Information about Len Fairweather courtesy of the late Tim Bass, Malcolm Darch, Roger Barrett and the Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette.