Bowles Family

Canvey Island Essex

The Bowles Family and their houseboats in Benfleet Creek

If anyone can tell us more about the family and their ancestors please email me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alfred Bowles and Clara Lydiard’s marriage was registered in the December quarter of 1912 in the district of Wandsworth. Their son William E Bowles’ birth was registered in the June quarter of 1914 also in the Wandsworth District which covers Tooting.

 

William Bowles was born in Tooting in 1914, he moved to Benfleet with his parents when he was seven because of his severe anaemia. They hoped that the open air life and playing in the mud would make him well, which it must have done because he only died in 2005 aged 91 still fending for himself until the end.

 

The first houseboat William lived on in 1924 was called ‘Elsie’ and was sold to the army in 1943 subsequently it caught fire and was burnt out.

 

The second houseboat ‘Seven’ was built by William and his father in 1942 and was moored on a stretch of the creek called ‘Ben’ by the railway tracks. Several pictures of this houseboat can be seen below.

 

William’s son Robert recalls being told that his father (William) and William’s best mate Billy Buckmaster built some of the first wooden bungalows on Canvey in the early 1930s. Below is a picture of William and Billy on a motor bike in front of one of those bungalows.

 

The Houseboat moored on the stretch of the creek called the Ben by the railway tracks

The houseboat called Seven built in 1942

Another view of the houseboat Seven

William Bowles and his best mate Billy Buckmaster in front of one of the wooden bungalows they built on Canvey in the 1930s