HISTORY OF BOWL MAKER THOMAS ROYLE .....
I am just learning about the game of bowls. I recently obtained a pair of wooden bowls. Stamped in the wood of each bowl is the name "Thomas Royle, 191 Princess St. Manchester". Evidently they were made for a customer with the initals AT which are also stamped into the wood of each bowl, and engraved on the ivory disks on each side of the bowl.
Incidentally, unlike my two Thomas Taylor wooden bowls, the ivory disks are the same size on each side. I do note that on one side of each bowl, the ivory disk is slightly indented, whereas on the other the disk fits the rounded contour of the bowl. I wonder what that means?
Also, both bowls are stamped "Bias 2 Full" What does this mean, I wonder?
Response Number 1 :Posted by Wednesday, January 07, 2004 at 12:59:17 (EST):
Hi There John
Since this was posted 3 years ago I guess you have found out all that you want, here is a letter from the great grandson of Thomas Royle.
I inherited a set of mini carpet bowl about a year ago they were made by my granfarthers great uncle who worked at Thomas Royle the set is one of about 3 so we can gather and were only made as a show piece and not a playing item I have been trying to find out the value and more info but to no avail, should you hear something please let me know too.
Regards
Jason
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the photo, just received it. Do you have any idea of the name of the relative that worked for the Company?
As far as value is concerned, I don't know anyone specifically, but what might be of interest to you is that I spoke to Mother today and she remembers the miniature carpet bowls in the showroom, as far as she can remember, they were a promotional product, to advertise the company, and not a mainstream factory product. This would indicate to me that they were not mass-produced, therefore not that many of them around; this will obviously affect the value of them (upwards hopefully).
I not sure how much you know (or indeed are interested in) Crown Green Bowling, but each bowl has a Bias built into it, that simply means that if you bowled the bowl on a flat surface, it does not go in a straight line, for every 50 or so feet forward, it will bend 2 feet to the side (left or right depending which hand you bowl it from), that is where the skill of bowling comes in. To achieve this move to the side, a tiny amount of wood is sandpapered off one side in manufacture on a lathe, so infact the bowl is not perfectly spherical.
To ensure that all bowls were made to exactly the same spec. we had what I can only describe as 60 foot long snooker table (without the pockets) with a special ramp at one end that the bowl was rolled down, and at the other end, two long pencil-shaped weights hung from a frame; the bowl had to travel down the table and pass exactly between these weights without touching them before it could be stamped "2's Full Bias".
This table needed to be calibrated every so often (to ensure the hanging weights had not been moved) and it was done by rolling a special set of bowls, kept in a heavy teak case to prevent damage, down the "snooker table", and if they passed through exactly, the measurements were correct, these were known as the Exhibition Bowls and are the standard by which all the other bowls made were measured, and they (still in the teak case) are wrapped up very carefully in my loft, a gift from Granddad when he died.
Looking forward to the proper picture of your full set, the reason I asked for the name of your relative is that Mum seems to think she knew the names of most of the people who ever worked there, does the surname Harrop mean anything??
If you ever put your set in for auction, I would appreciate knowing what they made.
Look forward to your reply.
Regards
Myles
Response Number 2 :Posted by Monday, October 15, 2007 at 10:36:24 (EDT):
I TOO HAVE A SET OF THOMAS ROYLE BOWLS.
NUMBERED 1384.
BIAS 21, SIZE 5INS.
T401.
HAVE YOU ANY IDEA HOW OLD THEY COULD BE
CUSTOMER INITIALS D..E.B.
ANY FURTHER INFORMATION WOULD BE WELCOME
BOB KIRTON
SOUTHAMPTON
Response Number 3 :Posted by
I read with interest the messages about Thomas Royle. I too have a pair of his woods 2's full. They were made in 1905,or so I am told. I had them refurbished by Royle's at Red Mill, Manchester.
The reason for the concave disc is to tell the bowler which side is weighted. When bowling the first wood in an "end", the bowler declares whether he is bowling FINGER or THUMB. Ergo, if you declare "thumb", it means you are holding it with your thumb in the concave disc so the opponent will know how to bowl his wood. If he declares "finger", then little finger is located on the concave disc. Thumb is right biased and finger is left biased. Hope this helps.