A memorial bench to honour Bryan Dudley Stamp for his many contributions to Bude is ready for unveiling and a date for a small ceremony will soon be decided.

The town council’s heritage and culture committee last year decided a memorial bench with Mr Dudley Stamp’s name and plaque should be prepared.

After discussion, with former town councillors and people who knew Mr Dudley Stamp, the Castle’s reading room is to be renamed the Bryan Dudley Stamp Room with a plaque to show its new title.

Mr Dudley Stamp’s contributions to the town are many and varied, with his legacy prominent throughout Bude.

He was elected to Bude-Stratton Town Council in 1979, and was chairman in both 1982 and 1983. He represented many of the council’s committees, and attended his last meeting on April 5, 1999.

A member of the Bude Museum Committee, Mr Dudley Stamp was a key figure in guiding it from a small amateur folk exhibition to full registration and being recognised as the top local authority museum in North Cornwall.

For this, he received a framed commendation from North Cornwall District Council in 1999 — ‘Outstanding Service to the Bude-Stratton History Museum’.

Following an initial meeting with Michael Gurney in 1989, he spearheaded the Goldsworthy Gurney Bi-Centenary Exhibition, eventually launched in 1993. It travelled widely, throughout Cornwall before going national and heading to Wales, where the exhibition was used to expand the story of Gurney and his steam carriage.

Mr Dudley Stamp developed an excellent relationship with Peter and Michael Gurney, who donated various artifacts to the council, including the valuable model of the Gurney Steam Carriage, which was especially made.

This led to the restoring and renaming of the then council chamber, and eventually a Gurney Day. He was subsequently the person the BBC approached when they put together a programme based on Bude Light.

Mr Dudley Stamp also wrote many books on Bude and Stratton, which the museum held, and he was often the first port of call for many researchers.

He also organised celebrations to commemorate 100 years since the railway arrived in Bude, and the erection of a plaque in Bulleid Way — site of the old railway station — was one of his many ideas.

Mr Dudley Stamp was very much involved with the return visits of the American Rangers stationed at Bude during the Second World War prior to D-Day. He also played an important role in the town council’s D-Day and VJ-Day commemorations in 1994 and 1995.

He was the inaugural chairman of the Bude Action Team, established in 1992, and through this was pivotal in the town council’s purchase of the nationally important Stamford Hill battle site — having been one of the driving forces behind the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Stamford Hill by the Sealed Knot for some years.

For many years, Mr Dudley Stamp was a member — and later president — of the Bude Area Tourist Board and a member of the carnival committee, as well as a long-term member of Bude Canal Society, Canal and Harbour Society and Canal Trust.

It was the renaming of the A39 — the Atlantic Highway — that probably gave Mr Dudley Stamp the most pride.

A concept originally raised in 1988, he travelled far and wide to press his case, knowing the ‘branding’ would raise the profile of the A39 and the towns on it, as well as tempting people to use the coast road rather than the main trunk road.

His hard work paid off in 2002, when an official opening ceremony was carried out by the then North Cornwall MP Paul Tyler.

The heritage and culture committee last Thursday heard an update on the bench and plaque from promotions, marketing and events manager Andrew Morgan: “The bench has now been completed, with the plaque on the bench too, and the separate plaque to go above the reading room — Bryan Dudley Stamp room — door is also ready. Now we just need to sort a date for the unveiling, and we’ll do teas, coffees and biscuits in the café afterwards.”

The committee resolved to hold the official unveiling of the bench and renaming of the Castle’s reading room at a date yet to be decided and Mr Morgan to contact the invitees.

The town council’s recreation committee last year decided the bench will be positioned on the right side of the Castle green if walking towards the Castle from Ergue-Gaberic Way.