Lived: East Anstey
Recording made: 2001
Length of recording: 2 hrs 10 mins
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ALAN BAWDEN
Born:
Eddington,
Wiltshire, 1930
Lived:
East Anstey
Recording made: 2001
Length of recording: 2 hrs 10 mins
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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.