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Book cover showing a man in a flat cap and suspenders holding a small model boat, sitting in a chair with a dog beside him.

Autobiography of Bill Bowles, Mole Catcher, Three Holes

9 Oakdene, Flaggrass Hill Road nr March

History of Flaggrass Hill

1939 Flagrass Farm Hill Road

William T Bowles, b 1911, agricultural labourer

Ella M, b 1916

Harry, b 1881, assist son on farm

Mary E, b 1880

Kenneth H H, b 1917, mole trapper

The Bowles family had lived at Three Holes, Upwell.

Bill Bowles’s autobiography describes in detail his life at Flaggrass including the method of mole catching. A farmer once bet 10s him that he couldn’t clear his land within a week. He did but the farmer wouldn’t pay. So Bill let loose on his land as many moles as he could find. Once he caught an albino mole.

Newspaper clipping with a headline and portrait of an elderly man with a pipe holding metal tools, beside columns of text.

Retirement of mole catcher Bill Bowles, 1976

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