(Part 01)
Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the North but it’s in leafy Shallowfield where our story takes place but it actually begins in the fringes of the busy town of Finchbottom in the village of Lower Gracewood on the other side of the Finchbottom Vale which nestles comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, those who are lucky enough to live there think of it as the rose between two thorns.
And it was in the Vale where Kevin Bush was born and raised in quiet and unexciting village near Finchbottom called Lower Gracewood and for the first 17 years of his life the Vale was his playground until the family moved.
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of the famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair.
There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean and third was in Purplemere,
But the most magnificent body of water in Downshire was Teardrop Lake.
Which was where Kevin, an 18 year old callow youth, first laid eyes on Rosie Byrne.
He had been living in Shallowfield for six months and as winter gave way to spring he had just begun to discover the treasures of Teardrop Lake and the surrounding Woodland.
It was the spring of what was to become the long hot summer of 1976, the summer against which every subsequent one has been compared.
He was up at one of his favourite places, up above the northern perimeter road in a patch of meadow in front of the row of derelict woodman’s cottages where the view of the lake was quite spectacular.
The lake was shaped like a teardrop, hence its name, and surrounded by ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forrest.
It wasn’t a huge body of water, just over two miles long and almost a mile at its widest point.
But it would shrink considerably during the summer drought.
It was as beautiful and unspoilt a place as he had ever seen which, was the reason he loved it so much.
And as he sat there admiring the view he couldn’t imagine a more beautiful sight and then Rosie strolled into view.
She was stunning and way out of his league of course he knew that right from the outset, he guesstimated her be four or five years older than him for a start and she was drop dead gorgeous into the bargain, with jet black hair, stunning green eyes and great figure.
But as she hadn’t seen him in the meadow he figured there was no harm in looking, so he did, until she and her dogs disappeared from view.
(Part 02)
Shallowfield’s fortunes had always relied largely upon forestry and agriculture for its survival.
In the post war years with rationing and a shortage of work a lot of people moved away, to Abbottsford, Abbeyvale and beyond and it only barely survived.
And the community around Teardrop Lake fared even worse.
Only a few of the houses around the Lake were thriving, a lot of the houses had been rented out and those that hadn’t were in a poor state of repair, some too such an extent they were little more than ruins.
But by the 1970s things were beginning to change, thanks mainly to tourism and an increase in leisure time.
More importantly these people had money in their pockets.
This trend was reflected by the fact that the derelict Shallowfield Lodge, which had been inherited by a young couple from Lincolnshire, Rob and Sheryl Brown, was being turned into a hotel.
Its completion formerly marked the rebirth of Teardrop Lake and by extension, Shallowfield.
It was as a result of the resurgence of Shallowfield that prompted Kevin Bush’s parents to leave Lower Gracewood and move to pastures new.
They also had aspirations for their son to become the first member of their families to go to University which he was set to do in September of 1976.
Having finished college nothing would have given him greater pleasure than to spend the summer on the lake frittering away his time, however that was not to be because he needed to earn some money.
Teardrop Lake and the surrounding woodland was privately owned and divided into twelve parcels each with one significant dwelling on it, although there were a number of cottages dotted around the woodland as well, some in use and some were not and some were near to collapse.
Only a few of the houses around the Lake were thriving, a lot of the houses had been rented out and those that hadn’t were in a poor state of repair, some too such an extent they were little more than ruins.
Things were changing though, there was a new optimism in the area and only two years earlier the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel Opened and it was the Hotel that provided him with a summer job and more opportunities to see Rosie.
Although he didn’t get to see her as much as he would have liked as she worked in the bar and restaurant and he was more of a general dog’s body.
When he was working inside the Hotel he was sometimes rewarded with the occasional glimpse of the lovely Rosie and on a few of those he was blessed with a smile.
But apart from seeing Miss Byrne working at the Hotel it also afforded him the opportunity to get out on the water in one of the Hotels Dinghies.
And that was how things would have continued for the summer had he not been invited to a house party at the home of the friend of a friend in Forestdean, but not being a fan of House parties he was inclined to say no.
(Part 03)
Kevin Bush was invited to a house party at the home of the friend of a friend in Forestdean, he wasn’t going to go at first, house parties weren’t really his kind of thing, but he allowed himself to be persuaded and as it turned out he was glad that he had changed his mind because one of the other guests was Rosie Byrne and he thought she was gorgeous but at the same time even more out of his league than ever.
He had only seen her either in her work clothes of short black skirt and crisp white blouse or walking her dogs around the lake in more practical garb but in her party clothes she was indescribably gorgeous.
All he could do was look at her with awe because there was no way she was going to give him a second look.
Rosie was four years older than him for a start and drop dead gorgeous into the bargain, with jet black hair, stunning green eyes a great figure, and he figured that there was no harm in him looking, so he did, at every opportunity.
However after a couple of beers he got brave and started to flirt with her and he was really chuffed that she flirted back, though Kevin actually thought she was just being a really good sport.
They kept up the mutual flirtation for a while and then Rosie asked for a refill of her glass so Kevin reluctantly went off to the kitchen.
He thought it was probably just a ruse to get rid of him because she had tired of the flirtatious converse but he didn’t mind, after all it had only been a bit of fun.
However much to his surprise and delight, not only had she not done a runner while he was in the kitchen, she was actually waiting for him in the hall and steered him expertly into the utility room and planted a hot wet kiss on his mouth.
After a few moments their mouths parted long enough for him to put the drinks down and get a short sentence out.
“I thought we were only flirting”
“You have a lot to learn about women” she said closing in on him again.
“Perhaps you could teach me then” he suggested
“Ok” she replied and leant her face towards him and gently touched her lips against his.
“A little more I think” he said
“You’d like me to teach you some more?” she asked smiling.
“Oh yes” He replied and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him then their lips met again and their mouths opened on contact.
He had never had a French kiss before and he desperately hoped she wouldn’t notice.
She pulled herself away from his over enthusiastic efforts and looked into his eyes and smiled.
“You're not a bad kisser” she said kindly
“You're obviously a good teacher” he told her
Her lesson in the art of kissing kept them in the cupboard for 20 minutes and when they emerged from the cupboard the party had rather taken off during their absence, Rosie announced she needed to spend a penny and he watched her walk away.
(Part 04)
He was amazed that Rosie Byrne had kissed him!
Apart from the occasional smile he hadn’t realized that she had even noticed him, but it transpired that she looked at him in the same lustful way that he looked at her.
But he began to doubt the evidence of that when her trip to the bathroom appeared to have been contrived so that they would go
their separate ways and as the party was by then in full swing their paths didn’t cross again, even though he searched high and low.
After midnight Kevin left the party, which was still going strong, to catch the last train home to Shallowfield.
As he walked towards the station, Kevin was reliving his encounter in the cupboard with Rosie and repeatedly pinched himself in case it were a dream.
He hadn’t walked more than one hundred yards along the road when a car pulled up to the curb in front of him.
“Hey lover” Rosie called as he passed alongside the car
“Do you want a lift?”
“Thanks” he said as he got in the car and Rosie drove away
“So where did you get to?” she asked
“I was going to ask you the same thing” he replied
“Well I got delayed because of the queue for the toilet” she said rolling her eyes “and when I finally got my turn and returned to the cupboard you were gone”
“Well I went to look for you” he said
“I thought you’d gone because you didn’t like my kissing” she said
“Oh you can rest assured on that point” he said
“Good answer” Rosie said
When they got into Shallowfield she drove passed the end of his road.
“I live the other way” he pointed out
“We’re not going to your house” she replied
“Where are we going then?”
“Just wait and see” she replied mysteriously
“Oh”
She continued driving and took the lane which led to Teardrop Lake, she then drove passed the Hotel where they both worked and followed the northern perimeter road and parked beside a patch of meadow in front of a row of derelict woodman’s cottages.
It was his favourite place on the Lake where the view of the lake was so spectacular although before that night he hadn’t seen it in the moonlight, it was also the place where he had first seen Rosie as she walked her dogs, and where he often watched her in secret.
Kevin turned and looked at her and she was smiling, apparently it wasn’t as secret as he believed.
Because Rosie knew that Kevin watched her walk by from the safety of the meadow, she thought it was quite appropriate that was where the next kissing lesson should take place on a picnic blanket she had packed in the car for just that occasion.
What Kevin hadn’t realised was that she had set her cap very firmly at him and it was her that made sure he was invited to the party in the first place so that she could get close to him.
It hadn’t been her intention to get him in the cupboard and snog him that was improvisation on her part because he hadn’t taken the hint and asked her out.
They made many more visits to the meadow that summer until he went off to Abbotsford University.
There were a lot of tears before he left amidst the promises that it was not the end of them and each of them doubted the resolve of the other.
But it was not the end, it proved to be instead a test of their mettle which they passed with flying colours.
She would spend one weekend per month visiting him in Abbottsford and he would visit Shallowfield once a month as well and at the end of his third year they were married and remained so for 40 years until her death.
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