Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

was serving in Palestine during the Great War and was bivouacked in citrus orchards along with the horses in his care. Michael Falcon enjoyed returning to the county of his father’s birth and walking across the fells of Cumberland, but he had two major hobbies at Burlingham House which gave him great pleasure. One involved the preparation and care of turf for cricket pitches and lawn tennis courts. He was a great believer in the use of soil collected from the nearby Acle marshes. He constructed two tennis courts at Burlingham, which were his pride and joy. Sybil Edwards remembers that these courts had superb surfaces and were a scene of much enjoyment for family and friends alike. Michael Falcon spent hours weeding his courts, removing daisies, moss, plantains and clover. He also ‘exported’ his expertise, being responsible for the preparation of cricket pitches at places such as Britannia Barracks, close to Norwich Prison, on a hill overlooking the city. His other hobby was the cultivation of fruit trees: he took great care in selecting the varieties of fruit that he grew so that the apple, pear and peach seasons were unusually long. He was enormously proud of his harvest which was a source of great enjoyment, especially when rationing reared its ugly head. 56 Elder Statesman: 1930-1939 95 Michael and Kathleen Falcon at Loweswater, Cumberland in 1937. In the garden at North Burlingham in 1933; note the Norfolk jacket. 56 Whilst Falcon was tending his fruit trees at Burlingham House, just down the road was an organisation called the Burlingham Demonstration Station whose purpose was the development of new varieties of fruit. This seems to have been a coincidence and Michael Falcon had little direct contact with it.