This is the Stowmarket Bowls Club which was at the Fox Hotel in Ipswich Street and was the forerunner of the Rookery. The photograph was taken in the early 1900s and the original still hangs in the Rookery.

Can any Stowmarket historians identify any of the people in the photograph? We think the person seated on the extreme left is one of the Thurlows and we think the tall man standing right of center at the back was a vicar.

Notice the man on the floor between the legs of the seated bowlers! What was his job? Presumably he wasn't a member out of favour! Was he the green keeper or an administrator of some kind? The boys in the front were used to collect the woods and carry out other errands for the bowlers. Life was easy in those days!