Buckfastleigh’s unique Museum and Archive Centre, The Valiant Soldier, is now open again, with free entry to those with a TQ11 postcode.
For visitors to the area there is an entry fee of £5 per adult, children under 16 are free and seniors and students entry is £4 per person.
Opening days and times are: Wednesdays to Saturdays, from 11.30am to 4pm.
We invite you to step back in time and glimpse a little of Buckfastleigh’s history. The Valiant Soldier was a family home as well as a pub. The bar and lounge area, its scullery, kitchen, parlour, bedrooms and bathroom will bring to mind how life was lived in our grandparents’ day.
The ‘D Day in Buckfastleigh’ exhibition has been updated to: ‘Buckfastleigh, a new Normal?’. Then by 2022 the exhibition planned is ‘Health and medicine in Buckfastleigh and the local area, from the time of the Black Death to Covid’. We would be glad to hear from anyone who has information or stories from the latter part of that period, ie after WW2. Also let us know if you have any historical medical artifacts that would be of interest. An item the Valiant plans to include in the display is an old enema kit!
We now have a virtual tour created for those unable to access all parts of our museum and the experience can be enjoyed via a virtual reality headset or watched on a large screen display. A brief version can be seen on the website (http://www.valiantsoldier.org.uk/).
Although we have a dedicated team responsible for the Valiant we would welcome more volunteers to assist with staffing, for which training will be given. We are still trying to get to grips with technology and need some expert help with our website, which is in need of updating. Please call me if you are interested in helping in any way.