Great Bowden
Great Bowden maps (2 available)
Map of Leicestershire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Leicestershire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Great Bowden books (13 available)
Market Harborough Town Walk Guide
Paperback
Melton Mowbray Town and City Memories
Paperback
Uppingham Photographic Memories
Hardback
- 1 photos on Great Bowden appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Great Bowden
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Great Bowden and Leicestershire
Great Bowden memories
Read and share memories of Great Bowden and Leicestershire inspired by Frith photos
Be the first to add a memory of Great Bowden.
You can also read memories of nearby places in Leicestershire below.
Leicestershire memories
Alma Friston nee Oldfield
I was born in Smeeton on April 23rd 1935. I remember staying with a Mr and Mrs Webb. As you approached Smeeton there were cottages on the left hand side, we stayed in the last one next to a lane. The cows came up this lane everyday for milking, quite often straying on to the garden, it was our job to shoo them away. Down this lane was a chapel which was on the left hand side, I remember singing here. We lived in Leicester during the war, having moved from Smeeton and Kibworth Harcourt.
I remember the grocery shop run by Miss Terry, we bought Jelly Dummies to suck on.
Lots of memories walking in the fields and smelling violets ...read more here
A memory of Smeeton Westerby contributed by Alma Friston
School uniform
When I passed the 11 plus exam I was selected to attend Kibworth Grammar School. The only place that you could get the uniform was the little shop in the photo to the right of the monument in the Square. This meant a trip by train from Wigston to Kibworth. This was quite feasible in the days before Dr Beeching closed all the railway stations. I remember the uniform cost my Mum a fortune and I only attended for one term as my Dad who was in the army was posted to Germany for 3 years. There I went to another school requiring yet another uniform.
A memory of Kibworth contributed by Richard Child
George Lynns grocers
My dad, Maurice Marsden, started work at the age of 14 in Lynns shop in 1937, after serving in the RAF and Fleet Air Arm during the war. He returned to the shop to work and finished up as manager. The shop closed in the 70s.
A memory of Kibworth contributed by graham marsden
Just a Kibbuth Lad
For those who have never been to our village called Kibworth, it is worth noting locals call it "Kibbuth". You live in either "Top Kibbuth"- Kibworth Harcourt or "Bottom Kibbuth"- Kibworth Beauchamp. I myself personally, have lived in both and almost on the boundary of both parishes. For almost the past 40 years (man & boy), I have spent many a happy hour living, playing and working here. Some of my earliest reminiscences are of taking a pair of shoes to be repaired at Old Joe Nourish's cobblers shop on the Leicester Road (just at the end of the Rose & Crown (now Raitha's) car park.
On arrival at his shop, you would press the thumb catch on his ...read more here
A memory of Kibworth Harcourt contributed by Wayne Coleman
Extracts From Great Bowden & Leicestershire books
This photograph shows this Domesday village, now much consumed by the tentacles of Market Harborough’s suburbs, with its large irregular green and attractive houses, some dating back to 1567 and 1664, and Stone House in main Street to 1671. The stumpy spire of the mainly 15th-century church of St Peter and St Paul pokes above the rooftops, readily identifiable by its high lucarnes.
An extract from from"Leicestershire Photographic Memories".
A pleasant, traffic-free scene with the horse and cart unattended, patiently waiting for the master’s return from Illsley the
saddlers. The post office is on the left then Corney Manufacturing Jeweller. Amongst other businesses is the chemist beyond
the Crown Hotel and opposite, the family firm of Matkin’s printers, who from 1881 to 1941 published an almanac listing
people and occupations in town and county. Flore’s House protrudes in the distance - one of the oldest houses in Oakham
dating from the 14th century.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".
This classic view has All
Saints’ spire behind the
shops with the famous
Butter Cross (at least 300
years old) in the middle.
Hart and Smith next to each
other seem to sell just about
everything anyone could
want - postcards, wooden
hoops, newspapers, parasols, toys
and groceries. Glaziers, the
well-known family draper,
milliner, outfitter and
clothier is opposite the
Butter Cross selling trilby
hats at 3s 11d, boys suits
from 7s 11d and a galaxy of
other goods.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".
Until 1880 this area was the
butchers’ shambles, then
replaced by the pump (in the
shelter, foreground). There
are milk churns on the cart
outside F W Hart ‘Family
Grocer, Tea and Provision
Merchant’. Note the errand
boy’s bike propped up
against the gas light. There is
a motorbike and sidecar up
in the corner near the Butter
Cross. Could it be the one
bought for the police station
in 1926? A boarding house of
Oakham School is behind the
pump surrounded by railings.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".
On the left are RDC houses
perhaps built in the 1950s.
Further down, a large barn
and an old house beyond. A
local character, Miss Barrow,
lived in Ancaster House
where she was well known
for her vegetable garden.
She kept her Rolls-Royce in
the barn. The house on the
right looks like a former
estate cottage of which there
are many in the village.
Empingham is in the
limestone area and now we
begin to see more stone
walls, as in the photograph.
An extract from from"Uppingham Photographic Memories".