Welcome to the Great Bowden Village Website
The beautiful village of Great Bowden lies on the edge of the Welland Valley and has a past history dating back to Anglo Saxon times.
Great Bowden still enjoys a village way of life and to this day has retained itself by largely remaining within its ancient boundaries. Surrounded by attractive countryside and separation of settlements land, Great Bowden has a unique relationship with its larger neighbour, Market Harborough.
The village’s picturesque centre consists of beautiful greens, shops, pubs, the village hall and our historic church.
With a population of approximately 1000, Great Bowden has an active Parish Council, a variety of services, a host of clubs/groups, a pre-school and a primary school.
If you would like to know more about the history of Great Bowden and its Heritage, please visit the Groups page. The Historical Society or Archaeological & Heritage Group can provide a wealth of information.
Please view the current Village Newsletter which includes articles and news items from local residents.
Great Bowden Events Calendar
Select event for venue & further information. If you'd like an event added please tell us about it here
News & Information
Focsa - New Planning Application
The closing date for letters to the recent planning application closed on the 17th August.
We are awaiting further information.
PUBLIC INQUIRY
PLANNING APPLICATION 10/00120/OUT
LAND OFF BERRY CLOSE
The Parish Council have been notified that a Public Inquiry will be held in relation to the planning application that has been made by The Matthews Trust for outline planning permission for approximately 56 houses on the field at the end of Berry Close, for access in the first instance. The proposed dates for the Inquiry are 3rd and 4th November and it will take place in the Council Chamber at Harborough District Council Offices.
Everyone who has commented on the Application will receive a letter 6 weeks beforehand confirming the date and time of the Inquiry.
The Parish Council have been advised that the Planning Inspector prefers not to have numerous people repeating the same information and so the Parish Council are offering to co-ordinate the response of those residents who would like to speak to ensure that all points are covered.
If you intend to speak at the Inquiry and would like to co-ordinate your response with other villagers please get in touch with Sherry Clift, the Clerk to the Parish Council by phone on 07747 723115 or by e-mail at gbpc@callow.biz
GREAT BOWDEN HERITAGE & ARCHAEOLOGY
During June and July the Archaeological Section of Great Bowden Heritage carried out two weekend excavations in the village.
The first excavation was carried out over the weekend of 26-27th June in Christchurch Paddock which is the field next to Great Bowden Cemetery. The weather was extremely hot throughout and we had to do some work under the shade of parasols.
The earthworks in the field yielded some interesting remains including a beaten earth surface with some medieval pottery and in a second pit stone foundations and cobbled surfaces probably the remains of a barn. In this second pit the pottery was slightly later probably around 1500-1600. Two trenches in the hollow which runs in a L shape through the paddock revealed a cobbled surface and was probably an old track way.
The second excavation was in the field next to Great Bowden Village Hall known as The Strip. We were looking for the remains of an old barn which was there in 1891 but of which there is no trace visible today. We succeeded in finding some stone foundations but not sufficient to determine the actual size of the barn and again we found several areas of cobbles plus medieval and later pottery sherds.
This excavation was part of the nationwide Festival of British Archaeology and was open to the public along with a display of our current projects and tea and cakes in the Village Hall on the Sunday afternoon. We estimate that we had just under 100 visitors.
This now completes the group’s digging activities for this summer and we shall turn our attention to field walking when the crops are harvested. We may also experiment with the geo-phys resistivity meter we hope to purchase in the winter months.
Both the above digs were shallow and did not require much digging once the turf was removed. However the group is urgently in need of some more muscle and additional strong diggers before we can attempt to do deeper digs. If you are interested or know anyone who is and can give up the occasional weekend for a social event involving hard physical work, please get in touch.
Rosemary Culkin, Archaeology warden
View more Images of Christchurch paddock.
View more Images of the weekend excavations. 
Read all about it.
Since 2003, Great Bowden Heritage and Archaeology Group has been collecting evidence to illustrate the life
and times of the village before the Norman Conquest. We have built a picture from digs, field walking,
metal detection, local records and wider history, compiling three booklets to give you a flavour of the
village in those times.
Free copies have been donated to local schools, but there is a charge to the public to contribute towards printing costs.
£2.50 per booklet or a set of three for £5
Contact Liz Thomas on 01858 466003
LRWT Great Bowden Group - BATS
Monday 6 September 2010
Jennie Harris LRWT – briefing in the Village Hall, Committee Room, 7.30 p.m. to be followed by a tour of village bat sites. Numbers limited to around 12 and weather dependent.
Contact – John Hunt 01858 463646
More events
Wednesday 15th September 2010
'Re-wilding the Soar Valley' Michael Jeeves, Head of Conservation L.R.W.T.
Wednesday 20th October 2010
'The National Forest' Sam Lattaway
Wednesday 17th November 2010
'Re-introdusction of Raptors in Great Britain' Tim Mackrill, Rutland Osprey Project Officer
Wednesday 19th January 2011
'Rutland - Small but Beautiful' Richard Adams
Wednesday 16th February 2011
'Wildlife of Fineshade Wood' Dr Chris Andrews
Wednesday 16th March 2011
''The Wildlife of Bulgaria' David Goddard
Wednesday 20th April 2011
'Wildlife in Northants' Derek Larkin
Barnardo's Collection
Thank you to all those who contributed to the collection recently.
A total of £394.39 was raised and banked to the charity.
GBRT Skills Auction 2010
25 September 2010
The Village Hall, Great Bowden
GBRT Skills Auction 2010 - Place Your Bids NOW
Further information:
www.gbrecitaltrust.co.uk/auction
A History of Great Bowden School
A very interesting history of our school from 1839-2009 with archive material and photographs leading through to live memories and the present day.
To order a copy please click on the image below to view application form.
Books cost £6 (Book £5.00 + £1.00 P&P)
All proceeds go to the School and the Great Bowden Historical Society.
Lorries Using Village Centre
It is noticeable that heavy lorries are continuing to use the village as a through-route and in particular ignoring the lorry restriction on Dingley Road. The only way for the village to make an impact on this problem is to complain and the more people that do so the better the effect.
All that is required is to provide in written form to the Police Inspector, MH Police Station is a short note providing:
Date/time of incident
Description of lorry: type / colour of vehicle, owners name and if possible the registration number.
Direction of Travel: from or to Corby
Road being used: particularly Dingley Road
View up Station Road
Archive
* Population figures taken from the 2001 census give a total of 954 residents within Great Bowden Parish. Since 2001 new properties have been built on the site of the old Countryman pub as well as on Langton Road and more recently the conversion of Bishops House into apartments. Great Bowden Parish 2001 Census of Population.
The Village Web site
Great Bowden’s village web site was created by volunteers who are members of the Compass Group.
Information has been provided by groups and individuals within the village as well as suggestions which have shaped it into the web site we have today.
www.greatbowden.org hopes to provide information on groups and services within the village as well as information or links to, travel, tourism etc which may be of use. The much loved Village Newsletters are also available to view.
News items on meetings and events may be submitted to the details below for inclusion.
We endeavour to ensure the information on the site is up to date and accurate but if you do discover that there is a broken link or an error with information provided, please do let us know so that it can be addressed.
Contact us here or email greatbowden@aol.com
Documents available to download on this site are saved in PDF format. You will need Adobe Reader to view them. Click the link below to download the software.
