Last Resting Place...

William J Owen Rowbotham or Bill Owen or Compo

Being the anniversary of Bill’s death it seemed appropriate to re-visit his last resting place; one he chose himself as an adopted Yorkshireman.

A short walk up a steep hill in Holmfirth brings you to St Johns Church, Upperthong,  where Bill Owen is buried.  His final resting place is marked by two gravestones, one from his widow Kathy and another from his son Tom and family.  When you stand there it is a place of peace and quiet with only a faint noise of urban life coming from the town down the hill and it is no wonder that Bill chose this because it is very special and yet very ordinary.   A special pathway has been created  to the stones together with a place for flowers etc which is just as well since during the short time I was there three or four groups of people – fans, maybe friends or simply some who were curious – came and stood and reflected on the life of this amazing man.

Apart from his years of devoted acting as Compo his was a life enriched with all aspects of a fine career in acting mostly here but also in the USA.   How many of our friends from the USA realize that Bill starred on Broadway in a play with Katharine Hepburn for example.  I commend to all his autobiography entitled Summer Wine and Vintage Years (A Cluttered Life) published in the UK in paperback by Robson Books Ltd in 1995 as this makes fascinating reading. His many achievements as an actor, playwright, musician, author and keen follower of politics demonstrates quite what a crowded and busy life he led. 

The book is not solely full of Summer Wine material as it deals with his whole life, much of which was spent doing other things as an actor including films and television; but there are quite enough Summer Wine bits to enthrall readers.  Many such tomes are written by ghost writers and little remains of the original character.  This is not the case here as those of us fortunate enough to have met Bill can soon realize, from his way of pausing in a sentence, to add a point or emphasis, is punctuated  with comments and asides (as I have done deliberately in this sentence!) – and that was how he talked when enthusing about our favourite show.  He always called Summer Wine “pure gold” and that can certainly be the correct term used to describe this book . 

It is quite a climb up to St John’s Church but one which will reward visitors; the sound of the trees, the solitude, the view over the Holme valley and an enhanced opportunity to reflect on what Lindsay Anderson says about Bill in his foreword to the book: …..”the undaunted progress of William John Owen Rowbotham, the little London boy of Acton Green, to Bill Owen, one of Britain’s best and best-loved actors.” And in Bill’s own words …..” I have been with this clutter long enough now, my wellies are back in the woodshed, and the garden looks better for my absence.  So I call a halt to these ramblings of mine, hoping that they will find their way into a volume which, at some time in the future may be discovered in a dusty loft, waiting to fall into the hands of a reader keen to know more, but saddened that their generation never savoured the unique bouquet of Last of the Summer Wine…..”

One final point to visitors; the church itself tends to be locked up but if you return to the town you will soon find many places where collecting tins for the Bill Owen Memorial Fund may be found and I urge you to make a donation to help build the proposed statue of Compo in the centre of Holmfirth.  Not only will this be a fitting tribute to an excellent actor but also a way of marking the long association which the whole Summer Wine team have had with this fascinating Yorkshire town.

Gerald D Hayne
July 2004

Editor's Note: Many thanks Gerald for writing this lovely and quite moving piece about Compo's Final Resting Place in Holmfirth, and submitting the photographs. We get many emails asking for details and photos of the location, and this will be much appreciated by all our readers, particularly those planning a visit. 

For details on how to donate to the Statue Fund, please click here.