The mud walls of Great Bowden

Wartime Housewife's household sale last Sunday was in Great Bowden, a rather horsey village which, unlike my home of Little Bowden, has managed to keep itself separate from Market Harborough. This is, in part, because Liberal and Liberal Democrat councillors have put a lot of work in opposing development of the fields between

I thought I knew Great Bowden well, but thanks to the district council's village trail leaflet I was able to make some new discoveries.

The best of them is this splendid mud wall, which lines the path from the churchyard to the village's Nether Green. The leaflet says:

Mud walls need "strong boots and a good hat"; that is a stone or cobble plinth and a coping of thatch or pantiles. The mud boundary wall to the churchyard and the adjacent footpath were rebuilt in the 1980s with clay pantiles, hand made at Barton Upon Humber.

My best friend from school lived near the far end of this footpath in the 1970s, but I can't remember ever using this path. There was then a mushroom farm at the end of the path; in fact, I even wonder if there was a right of way along here in those days.

Lovers of mud walls should also visit Little Bowden and Tur Langton.