Great Bowden is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the Harborough district of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, England. It is north-east of and a suburb of

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Northamptonshire. The population was 24,779 at the United Kingdom census, 2021, 2021 census. It is the ad ...

, although originally the parish of Great Bowden included Harborough. The population is around 1,000, being measured at the 2011 census as 1,017. Places nearby include Market Harborough, Little Bowden, Sutton Bassett, Foxton and Thorpe Langton.

Anglo-Saxon origins

The village was included in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, under the name 'Bugedone' and was worth 40 shillings per year to the King. 'Bugedone', is a combination of the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

female personal name 'Bucga' and the word 'dun' (meaning 'a hill, a flat-topped hill, an open upland expanse'). It is one of the older villages in Leicestershire since it has

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

origins (it is older than the much larger

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

of Market Harborough, which lies nearby). Great Bowden was the centre of a large soke, which is known to have existed during the time of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

Parish

The first mention of a parish church in Great Bowden was in 1220. St Peter and St Paul, the current parish church, includes features from the 13th century, but it was considerably altered in the 15th century. In 1886-87 the building was restored by Talbot Brown and Fisher, architects from Wellingborough. The churchyard contain gravestones that date from the 17th century. Greatbowdenchurchweb

The Great Bowden parish historically included Market Harborough and parts of St Mary in Arden. In 1613, St Mary in Arden was unified with Market Harborough The

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

of Market Harborough was made a separate

in 1866. In 1879 Great Bowden, Market Harborough and Little Bowden were united as a

local government district Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts in 1894. Great Bowden remained a civil parish until 1927, but as an

urban parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

it had no parish council of its own, instead being administered directly by Market Harborough Urban District Council. The three parishes within the urban district were combined into a single parish of Market Harborough in 1927. Market Harborough Urban District and civil parish were abolished in 1974 and the area become part of the larger Harborough District. A new parish of Great Bowden, focussed on the village itself, was created in 1995 covering a much smaller area than the historic parish.

Education

The National school was built adjoining the parish church in 1839, and opened on 2 December 1839, In 1930, it became solely a primary school and older children were educated in Market Harborough. The National school building remained in use until the school relocated to Gunnsbrook Close in 1983. On 1 July 2012 the school became an academy.

Listed buildings

There are 73 listed buildings and structures.

Site of scientific interest

Great Bowden Borrowpit is a site of special scientific interest.

References

External links

Great Bowden Historical SocietyGreat Bowden village website
{{authority control Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Harborough District Areas of Market Harborough