Childrens Convalescent Home

A Memory of Budleigh Salterton.

My memory of Budleigh Salterton is spending a couple of months or so at a childrens convalescent home in the spring/early summer of 1955.
I revisited the town a few years back to find that the old childrens home building is now a hotel and named Tidwell Manor.
I was 6 years old, recovering from meningitis and to find myself in such a wonderous and tranquil part of the world was quite truly amazing. Especially as I'd been railroaded in from downtown Birmingham!
After breakfast (my first experience of flapjacks) some of us kids would lazily saunter down the holly-bushed lane opposite the home, skirt the side of the old fleapit picture house (now the site of the Council House) to arrive on the beach where a morning was spent simply skimming pebbles out to sea. Failing that it was every kid for himself on the swings and slides that were in operation in the front garden of the home.
One event I recall was an organised sports day for us on the field at the back of the home where local dignitaries like the WI etc attended and indulged in the egg and spoon and the sack and three legged races. This excitement for me was matched only by the arrival, by special delivery, of my first pair of National Health spectacles!
I was so pleased on my visit a while back, to find the farm next to the home still in operation and the cow dung smelling exactly as it used to.
I intend to visit Budleigh Salterton pretty soon and re-live some memories of that enchanted period in my childhood when it seemed that the earth, just for a couple of months, stood still.
If by any chance anyone can provide me with any information about the childrens convalescent home I'd be eternally grateful.
My e mail is  lauriehornsby@btinternet.com

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