ALAN BAWDEN

CATALOGUE

RECORDING

SUMMARY

BORN: Eddington, Wiltshire, 1930

LIVED: East Anstey

RECORDING MADE: 2001

RECORDING LENGTH: 2 hours 10 minutes

Alan Bawden's father was born in Hawkridge but moved to Wiltshire. Alan was four when they came back, to East Anstey, and bought West Liscombe farm. War broke out a few years later. For Alan, and the evacuee boys living with them, it was an exciting time, with Americans camping on the moorland. A special train ran two or three times a week, taking thousands of rabbits to London, and his mother and sister went to knitting parties at Rhyll Manor.

The Americans built a projection box in Dulverton Town Hall and films were shown there, twice a week. He went to nearly every performance until it closed in 1960, keeping the tickets as a memento.

He worked with his father on the farm and does carpentry and gardening, and a bit of logging. He has written a diary for nearly 60 years and says it's the happy childhood memories which make him want to stay on Exmoor.

Alan Bawden died in December 2016.

Photograph by Mark J. Rattenbury