Crown bowls on the Kingstanding green

Both my father and my mother were bowlers and played in the pub teams. Most pubs had bowling greens in those days. At the Kingstanding the green was off to one side, near the King’s Road. The men’s and women’s team were separated unlike today when they are mostly mixed. They played crown bowls. I remember summer evenings spent at the green. At one end were a range of brick buildings which I assumed was an equipment store. Level with the top was a flat grassy area where we children used to play whilst our parents were busy on the green. I remember one occasion when several of us children ventured round the side to the back of the pub where there was access to the living quarters above, but we were chased away by the landlord. My parents were not rich, but we had a comfortable home, and I never felt deprived. I don’t think special clothes were worn for crown bowls, people would not have been able to afford them, but there must have been a room where the bowls were kept, and footwear would have been important on the green, as it is now, but perhaps ordinary flat shoes were worn. In the photograph my father and his partner are wearing ordinary clothes, and it looks like lace-up shoes. You can see the small round mat under his back foot!