On the 6th October 1934 a baby girl was born to Morris Lloyd Jones and Emma nee Powell. They lived at 12, Westfields, Wotton Under Edge, Gloucestershire where she was baptised on 18th November 1934

Ann Rosalie Lloyd Jones.

The family moved to Dovercourt Road Bristol where they ran a greengrocers and lived above the shop. Ann helped in the shop and with deliveries on her bicycle but also had an on-going role from a young age in caring for her mother who had bipolar disorder, then called manic depression.

The war intervened and she was evacuated by the family to friends in Wotton, the Beakes. Molly was like a big sister to her and Norman Beakes the big brother she wished she had. Ann later taught mathematics and PE for a short while in Wotton.

She was successful at school becoming head girl.

She studied maths at Exeter University where she heard Roger singing and, so the story goes, it was love at first sound. Returning home from uni at the end of her first year on 20 June 1954, as she walked to her home from the bus stop she saw people had gathered. She thought it was to welcome her. However, sadly, her father had died suddenly.

30th March 1957 she married Roger Bowden, having 5 bridesmaids who all wore different colours under identical lacy material. Brought up in the Church of England tradition, in the car on the way to the reception she always claimed she tried to ‘swop’ the ‘obey’ for agreeing to be teetotal as his Methodist tradition dictated.

She moved to Sticklepath where she helped run “Bowden’s Haulage” and later Bowden’s hosta nursery, achieving Gold medals at the Chelsea flower show and a National collection. ( https://www.bowdenhostas.com still a family business in Sticklepath).

She was a very active member of the WI, and appeared on TV concerning a WI resolution she proposed. It was to ban cyclamates, sweeteners thought to cause cancer, which were used to sweeten children’s squash. She often helped out with village events, decorating the chapel at harvest, baking mince pies for the carols evenings, serving teas and coffees. She helped organise the flower show for many years, and won many prizes there for flower arranging and baking. She also enjoyed icing cakes.

She was awarded the M.B.E. for her years of work as a volunteer on the South West Electricity Board Consumer Council in 1986.

She was my mother, but her claim for a spot here is as a campaigner for a Parish of Sticklepath (and for the bypass). She was the first Chair of Sticklepath Parish Council when the Parish was formed in 1987.