Bobby Baker

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Summary

Based on an interview recorded on 24 February 2014. It reflects the interviewee’s life and memories at that time.

Bobby Baker was born in 1945 and grew up in Fownhope, the village he still calls home no matter where life has taken him. His early years were spent at Tump Cottage, opposite the village pump, living with his grandmother Susan Davies and a bustling household of aunts and uncles. He recalls a close-knit community where everyone knew each other and a village alive with trades, shops, and character.

Bobby loved his days at Fownhope School, remembering his teachers fondly — especially the formidable Mrs Fanny and the kindly Miss Powell. Despite his family’s roots in market gardening, he admits he “hated gardening,” preferring maths, English, and above all, music. His musical talent emerged early after being caught playing the piano at home — his grandmother promptly arranged lessons, setting him on a lifelong path. He played at village concerts organised by Joyce Wallace, in local pubs such as the Highland Home and The Moon, and even at Sufton Court’s last debutante’s ball. Later, he performed in bands across Hereford, the Midlands and Weston-super-Mare, where he settled after serving in the RAF.

His memories of village life are full of warmth and humour: fishing trips gone wrong, choir practices with the vicar “Chiggy” Chidnall, and the camaraderie of friends like Connie Townsend and the Soulsby family. Although he spent fifty years away, returning to Fownhope felt like coming home. Yet he laments the loss of the old village spirit — the time when “everyone was a brother or sister, an uncle or an aunt.” For Bobby, the Fownhope of his youth remains vivid and cherished: a place of laughter, music, and belonging that shaped his life forever.