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  1. #1
    CarlTheDruid
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    Default Bow Bridge Street, Leicester

    I would love to know where Bow Bridge Street (Augustine Friars) was in relation to existing roads in the area. Surely St Augustine Road and Duns Lane was already there in the census year of 1871 where this street name is marked?

    I know of the iron Bow Bridge (which was demolished late 2009) in the area but that was constructed in the early 1900s so there must have been a bridge there before; hence the street name. A stone bridge? What for?

    My Fisher family lived at No 11. A cabinet maker and a milliner. Next door neighbours held fascinating jobs; wool sorter, shoe maker, retired publican, teacher, domestic servant, estate agent and surveyor, canal labourman.

    Does the street or its line still remain?

    This is when genealogy comes alive for me; when I get a feel for where those people wree and the lives they lived.

    Any help would be most welcome.

    Thank you.

  2. #2
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    Bow Bridge St. was a short extension northwards of the old Duns Lane which was a shorter street than it is now. The modern map now calls the land where Bow Bridge St was part of Duns Lane (i.e. the most northerly section of Duns Lane). Its northern end was at Bow Bridge which is where St. Augustine Street crossed the Old River Soar. It was overlooked by the railway viaduct of the Great Central Railway and the new channel of the River Soar was just to the east. So it was effectively an island with the old and new rivers on either side and the railway over the top (nice place to live!).

    The railway was closed in the mid 20th century and the viaduct was dismantled. The line of the old river was subsequently filled in and may now be culverted beneath the developed land. None of the old builidngs are there now as the area has been completely redeveloped over the years. Bow Bridge St had just a few buildings on both sides being only about 200-300 ft. long.

    My source is a copy of the 1902 OS map. So the street was still there and named as such over 30 years after the 1871 census.
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

  3. #3
    CarlTheDruid
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    Thank you Tony I really appreciate your reply as I used the iron Bow Bridge many times in my cycle commutes to work in Leicester and only recently discovered that I had ancestors who lived there in Bow Bridge Street. I know the area well so I can clearly imagine the layout you described.

    The building which housed the Pump and Tap pub from 1988, was a house dating back to 1828 (according to an article in ThisisLeicestershire.co.uk), so this building would have been around before the building of the iron Bow Bridge in 1879, when I guess Bow Bridge Street and the original viaduct was demolished to make way for progress.

    In turn the iron Bow Bridge and the Pump and Tap were demolished in 2009 to make way for a sports centre for the nearby De Montfort University.

    When I read of these things I can't help that in genealogy, the joy of mysteries unveiled and ancestors discovered is met with sadness, in that in time all things must pass away as land and properties fall to the next generation to do with it what they will and make their own mark in history.

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    You're welcome and thanks for the reference to the Leicester Mercury articles some of which I've just been reading (what a pity the photographs are so small). I was born in Leicester and spent my first 23 years there before moving south. I worked in the City centre during the early 1960s and travelled in by Midland Red bus from Leicester Forest East where my parents had moved during the severe snow of 1947, much commented on in the LM articles. The bus route used to cross the river a bit further south than Dun St. arriving in Newark St. from where I walked the rest of the way. As quite a young kid I was allowed to cycle in the 4-5 miles to the public swimming pool at Vestry St. off Humberstone Gate. Can you imagine parents allowing their kids to do that today?

    As you say, Leicester has changed enormously, especially since I left in 1968. I seldom go back but had to recently for family reasons and was quite charmed by the area round the back of the High St (the south side), which is much as I remember it except for the shops and bars which are all quite different. I sat in Town Hall Square and ate lunch thinking what a multi-cultural city it now is.
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

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    CarltheDruid

    Your reply somehow found its way into Bo Peep's mailbox but she kindly forwarded it to me anyway. Not sure how that happened and neither is Bo Peep.

    Anyway, it seems that we may have more in common than a common Leicestershire childhood and subsequent "emigration" from the county as an adult. My most distant ancestors on my paternal side that I have discovered so far seem also to have been in Hambleton for a couple of generations going back to the late 17th century. In fact father and son were parish clerks there. They would undoubtedly have been astonished to see the new reservoir there and the loss of so much land that they would have known intimately. They came to Leicester via Northamptonshire several generations later.

    I also fished in the cut near the power station where the fish liked the warm water!
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

  6. #6
    CarlTheDruid
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    Hi Tony

    Having taken time to scrutinise the 1902 map I now realise that Bow Bridge Street was much further up the Duns Lane than I had imagined as I had mistaken it for the current New Park Street; almost opposite the old iron bridge position and forming a corner with Duns Lane at the Rum Runner which used to be a pawn shop - Case's Corner.

    Interesting that we both have ancestors who travelled to Leicester from Hambleton. I wonder if there were many who did this as Leicester began to thrive; or some other reason? I know I have ancestors who were children of the family in Hambleton who are not apparent in further census sheets for Hambleton - taken into other families or young deaths? They did not move to Leicester with the rest of the family and were too young to marry.

    My paternal surname is Fisher and I have traced then back to a Thomas Fisher (carpenter/joiner), born in West Deeping, Lincs, who married Mary Bull, daughter of a John Bull; a farmer born in Hambleton, Rutland. It seems that John moved in with Mary and her father and eventually the couple inhabited and took over the family home; allowing John Bull to live out his days there with them. John Thomas's son then travels to Bow Bridge Street (what a change!) in Leicester as a cabinet maker and later retired back in Hambleton, so the house there must have been available for his retirement.

    John William Fisher, his son, stayed in Leicester and his son was Leslie Fisher. Leslie's son, John George Kenneth Fisher was my father (1934-93). I never knew him as he left my mother on the year of my birth; 1960. A strange end to a winding story.

    Do we have common ancestors at all?

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    Hi CarlTheDruid

    At first sight it doesn't seem that we are connected genetically. None of the names you mention are in my tree. However, the details of the Vines families in Hambleton are slightly sketchy and while I've followed up all branches I could soem go missing, like yours, so I assumed that they died but that their burials are either missing or they moved elsewhere. I'll keep an eye open in future for Fishers and Bulls.

    By the way I got a bit mixed up with Johns and Thomas' above. I assumed that you meant that Thomas moved in with Mary and her father not John? Also who was John Thomas?

    How sad never to have known your father.

    All the best
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

  8. #8
    CarlTheDruid
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    Quote Originally Posted by tony vines View Post
    Hi CarlTheDruid
    By the way I got a bit mixed up with Johns and Thomas' above. I assumed that you meant that Thomas moved in with Mary and her father not John? Also who was John Thomas?
    Sorry - I totally confused myself with this as well!

    Thomas Fisher of West Deeping married Mary Bull, daughter of a John Bull; a farmer born in Hambleton, Rutland. John moved in with Mary and her father and eventually the couple inhabited and took over the family home; allowing John Bull to live out his days there with them.

    They had a son called Thomas who later was known as John Thomas (later census) who moved to Bow Bridge Street in Leicester as a cabinet maker and later returned to retire in Hambleton. I presume the Bull family cottage that was originally inhabited by his father in law was still there for him to return to.

    I think I know what I mean now!

    Onto the business of genealogy - I am to return in a few days to Leicester to plant a tree on my mother's natural burial site and I will stay with my half sister in Boston, Lincs. On my way through Leicester to Boston I plan to take in Hambleton to feel the spirit of the place and to do some systematic searching of any graveyard that may be attached to the local church(es).

    Does anyone know if there are still the original graveyards attached to the parish churches there and if so does anyone want me to look out for other names than the ones I will be seeking? Tony - do you have any you think may be there? I will be taking digi camera pics so could email them across to anyone who is searching in this area.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by CarlTheDruid;3758land
    . John moved in with Mary and her father
    What I meant was surely you don't mean John - that was her father's name - you mean Thomas.

    There is a church in Hambleton with what appears to be a well tended graveyard but the nearby Normanton Church (now across the water on the south bank of the reservoir) is partly under water (it has a museum inside that might interest you). Obviously if you come across graves for the name Vines (could be spelt Vine or Vynes) I would be very interested in a picture. However I suspect that they would have to be 17/18th century stones so might be hard to find and/or read. The church will be on your right as you get to the centre of the village from Oakham.
    "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke

  10. #10
    CarlTheDruid
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    Hi Tony - sorry to confuse, yes Mary's father was John, but I meant John Thomas Fisher (Thomas became known as John Thomas in a later census in Leicester) I should have said that John thomas returned to Hambleton.

    I wonder if John Bull had such an impact on Thomas (his son-in-law) that Thomas took upon himself the name of John or whether he had always been John Thomas, or was it to distinguish Thomas from his father who was also Thomas? I guess I'll never know.

    I also have a Ellen Baggott who was known as "Nelly". She later had a daughter and called her Nelly. There must have been a reason, but mere records can never really show us the true people our ancestors were. I find it all fascinating.

    I'll get back to you with my findings in Hambleton, but if they were buried lower down the valley I may need diving equipment!

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