Great Bowden

Great Bowden is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire. It is north-east of and a suburb of Market Harborough, although originally the parish of Great Bowden included Harborough. It has a population of around 1,000. It is the site of Great Bowden Hall.

The village was included in the Domesday Book, under the name 'Bugedone' and was worth 40 shillings per year to the King, who held it.

Places nearby include Market Harborough, Little Bowden, Sutton Bassett, Foxton and Thorpe Langton.

Anglo-Saxon origins

'Bugedone', the village's name at the time of the Domesday Book, is a combination of the Old English female personal name 'Bucga' and the word 'dun' (meaning 'a hill, a flat-topped hill, an open upland expanse'). [cite book |last= Bourne |first= Jill |title= Understanding Leicestershire & Rutland Place Names |year= 2003 |publisher= Heart of Albion Press |location= Wymeswold |isbn= 1-872883-71-0 ] It is one of the older villages in Leicestershire since it has Anglo-Saxon origins (it is older than the much larger market town of Market Harborough, which lies so nearby).

Great Bowden was the centre of a large soke, which is known to have existed during the time of Edward the Confessor. [cite web |title = Victoria County History, A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 5, Great Bowden |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22040 |accessdate = 2007-06-20 ]

Fox hunting - The Fernie Hunt

The village was one of the centres for fox hunting in Leicestershire. The Fernie Hunt had been founded in 1853, by Sir Richard Sutton, as a South Leicestershire Hunt to rival that based in Quorn. [cite web |title = Fernie Hunt |url=http://www.geocities.com/ferniehunt/fernie_main.htm |accessdate = 2007-06-21 ] Many 'hunting boxes' were created in the village by converting old houses or building new ones (Welham Bush Farm was originally built as a 'hunting box'). This new hunt's popularity was helped by the presence of John Henry Stokes, the principal horse dealer in Europe, who built a house in the village (Nether Green Lodge). [cite web |title = Victoria County History, A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 5, Great Bowden |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22040 |accessdate = 2007-06-21 ] In 1920 the 'Fernie Hunt Stables' were built in Great Bowden, and village became the Hunt's official home.

External links

* [http://www.bigfern.btinternet.co.uk/books/greatbowden.htm Great Bowden]
* [http://www.greatbowden.org Great Bowden Village website]

References