Bill's early memories
From an interview with Bill Gower
Bill's early memories of Canvey
Bill tells of some of his wartime memories plus the story of the gasman's shoes
Neighbourhood watch, the flood interview and the boy with the peg-leg
Bill and the vanishing doughnut
Bill tells how hard it was when he was young
1953 the canoe, bike and the first flood baby
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Bill Gower’s memories are a fantastic addition to the site. I was engrossed from the first word to the last. I certainly remember “Gower’s” removal vans on Canvey when I was a lad and “Pegleg” the barber. As an avid fan of Private Eye for the past 50 years, I was particularly struck by the story of Bill’s football teams’ goal keeper. Private Eye has reported, over the years, on the fortunes of the spoof football team Neasden AFC, of the North Circular League. prominent in that relegation plagued team is its goalkeeper, Wally Foot, “the legendary one-legged custodian of the uprights”. Knowing that Barry Fantoni had a large hand in the writing of this story, I emailed him a link to the item in the archive. he responded as follows : “Thank you so much, Tony. What a hoot. I shall forward it to Ingrams, who was the editor at the time and wrote Neasden with me. Hugely funny and astonishingly true! Baz”. I just think that this is such a wonderful example of how art can imitate life quite unconsciously and that even the best of comic brains cannot upstage events from real life.
My father John Johnson was a friend of Bill Gowers. John also having come to the island in the 1940’s to live, but having spent Summers there as early as the mid 1930’s. In latter years I had a few dates with Bill’s son Alan…I wonder if he remembers?
Jan,
Can you let me know the source of these recorded interviews with Bill . I know I did my interviews with him in 2009 but these must have been later and the stories are identical. Sounds a bit like BBC Essex. 🤔👍Graham.
Can’t remember Graham. Bill gave me a cd.
OK, Thanks Jan. G.🙂
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