Thanks for taking the time to visit the ‘Row Yard's 4 Kipling’ JustGiving page.
During the winter of 1909-10, Jerome K Jerome and Rudyard Kipling met on holiday in and the two families became close friends. Both writers were at the height of their fame and celebrity and spent much of the holiday being pursued by ‘Kodak-fiends’, which Kipling, still a beginner on skis and skates, found irksome. The families enjoyed spending time with each other while Rudyard and Jerome enjoyed discussing politics and matters of the day.
The friendship continued on their return from holiday and even crossed into a professional capacity when Jerome edited ‘The Idler’ which Kipling contributed a number of pieces for. However, it was the connection with the family that was the most poignant. The two families got together in amateur theatricals: Jerome remembered Elsie and John Kipling as "jolly children" who played, respectively, a suffragette and a "costermonger's Donah", while their father doubled as "scene shifter and call-boy".
So it seems apt that 100 years later the work of Jerome K Jerome should inspire me to help the restoration of one of Rudyard Kipling's most famous children’s past times. In 1907, Rudyard Kipling won the Nobel Prize for Literature becoming the first British national to do so. With the money he received for this prize he completed a paddling pond in the gardens at Bateman's for his and many other children to enjoy. He also had built a small vessel pictured above to sail upon this pond and for the children to enjoy. The pond can still be seen at Bateman's and enjoyed by many people but the boat no longer exists.
The Premises Manager at Bateman's, along with his brother David and close friend Keith Holland will be re-creating the classic Jerome K Jerome novel ‘3 Men in a Boat,’ this July and hoping to raise enough money to re-create the boat that once sailed on the pond. Like the original book, we will set sail from West London and the banks of -Upon-Thames and travel in an original 1870's rowing skiff up the Thames to . Passing through the towns of , , Staines, Runneymede, Maidenhead, Marlow, Henley, and a total of 97 miles. The journey will all be completed by hand and will include our three intrepid explorers living on the boat in its entirety.
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