Bowles Boys

Narrator:

Peter Deering was seven when he first came to play here.

Peter Deering:

… as I lived just on the hill outside the gates here I used this garden and the fields around as the 

playground.

MUSIC: Hide & Seek Rag (McConnell - ATV 8B 43) FADE IN AND UNDER

Narrator:

Bowles was happy for Peter and his local friends to come here and play games or fish. In winter, when the river and the lake froze over, they skated.

Peter Deering:

… All the equipment was kept in a cupboard under the stairs here, including the skates …And there was always a rush … to get the best bit of gear, especially if you could get Bowles’s own skates, which were permanently fixed to a pair of boots (otherwise you had to get a pair that you clamped onto your shoes).

MUSIC: Up and end

Narrator:

But it was not all fun and games. The boys, usually about three of them, were put to use, helping out in the garden, as Peter remembers.

Peter Deering:

... we would just come over anytime, morning or afternoon, and the drill was to come in, pull three weeds from the front drive here, which was a custom for everyone that came no matter who they were.

SFX: A SINGLE WHISTLER

Peter Deering:

And we’d walk in the front door and whistle, and if Bowles was in the house he’d whistle back. and if he didn’t whistle back then we’d proceed into the garden, whistling until we heard a whistle back. And then we’d join in with whatever he was doing: weeding, replanting or just trying to find something.

SFX: A SINGLE WHISTLER & A WHISTLED RESPONSE

[……..]

You’d walk though the garden with him and he’d say oh there’s such-and-such a thing here that should just be coming into bloom… and sure enough there would be… he always walked with his hands behind his back … And his coat, a raincoat generally, which had long torn strips hanging from it, tied up in a knot at the bottom and a slouchy, trilby hat. Generally he wore a pair of flannel trousers and a tweed jacket. He always wore… a bow tie.