Countesthorpe
Countesthorpe photos (9 available)
Countesthorpe maps (2 available)
Map of Leicestershire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Leicestershire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Countesthorpe books (11 available)
- 9 photos on Countesthorpe appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Countesthorpe
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Countesthorpe and Leicestershire
Countesthorpe memories
Read and share memories of Countesthorpe and Leicestershire inspired by Frith photos
Countesthorpe
My name is Marlis Franz. I am German. In 1952, I was 15 years old, I visited my English penfriend in Countesthorpe together with my mother. We spent a wonderful time there. Going on holiday was not normal at this time and something special - particularly going to England.
My English girl-friend lived together with her parents in Countesthorpe, Station Road. When we visited her there was a post office in this house and a little shop. What a surprise when I saw the Countesthorpe photos and there was a photo "Countesthorpe, Station Road". I think it must be the house where the Fletcher family lived in when we visited them. I cannot forget the wonderful weeks we spent there ...read more here
Contributed by Marlis Franz
Leicestershire memories
Countesthorpe
My name is Marlis Franz. I am German. In 1952, I was 15 years old, I visited my English penfriend in Countesthorpe together with my mother. We spent a wonderful time there. Going on holiday was not normal at this time and something special - particularly going to England.
My English girl-friend lived together with her parents in Countesthorpe, Station Road. When we visited her there was a post office in this house and a little shop. What a surprise when I saw the Countesthorpe photos and there was a photo "Countesthorpe, Station Road". I think it must be the house where the Fletcher family lived in when we visited them. I cannot forget the wonderful weeks we spent there ...read more here
A memory of Countesthorpe contributed by Marlis Franz
Basset Street School
I remember this school so well, my first born went to this school in 1983 and so did my daughter, it's a shame they pulled part of it down. I remember walking the children over to what is now the infant school to use their swimming pool, later when they pulled some of the old school down the children were moved to the infant school in South Wigston, on the Countesthorpe Road, where all three of my children went, they then moved on to South Wigston High School where they had a real good head master, Mr Bothamy (sorry about the spelling).
A memory of South Wigston contributed by ruth carroll
South Wigston, Gloucester Crescent
I moved to South Wigston in 1978 as a newly wed, I lived on Marstown Avenue which then was a two way road, and very busy, and I remember using these shops all the time. I used to do my shopping in what is now called Jacksons and is a Sainsburys shop. I notice looking at the picture of the 1960s that not a lot has changed but the end shop on the left of the picture is now a fish and chip shop, all that keeps changing is the type of shop. I no longer live in South Wigston but do get to visit it still, and even now in 2008 things are very much the same.
A memory of South Wigston contributed by ruth carroll
Extracts From Countesthorpe & Leicestershire books
The original heart of this sprawling village, the battlemented tower is the complete surviving remnant of the
medieval church. The remainder of this oddly proportioned building was designed or altered by Henry Goddard,
a prolific Leicester architect, in the early 1840s. His son Joseph, a rather more talented designer, was responsible
for the city’s Clock Tower in 1868.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
Few buildings remain which pre-date the Enclosure Acts, effectively extinguishing the ties within rural communi-
ties in much of Leicestershire, and indeed the Midland counties. At the head of the street, the white cottage of
the later 16th century is one of few survivors, built prior to Enclosure in 1767. The remainder step down the street
in chronological order: later 19th-century shops, and the Bull’s Head Pub built around the turn of the century.
Countesthorpe is an industrialised village of very mixed architectural fortunes.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
The road extends to the now defunct railway line as 20th-century Countesthorpe balloons in an amoebic sprawl
westwards towards Cosby and Whetstone. In the residual hedgerows and trees lie clues to an 18th-century rural
landscape; the enclosures of the 1760s were hated by John Clare, the Northamptonshire poet, for its deleterious
effect on the lives of ordinary village people, and for its destruction of the open fields.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
The pinnacled and canopied Clock Tower, designed by Joseph
Goddard in 1868, dominates the forefront of the photograph,
while its four stoney local worthies, Simon de Montfort, William
Wyggeston, Alderman Gabriel Newton and Sir Thomas White,
Mayor of Leicester and mine host at the nearby Horse and
Trumpet, gaze down. Beyond Corts Limited can be seen the
dominant dome of the Opera House, demolished in 1960,
where each year the Christmas pantomime was staged and
appreciated with thunderous applause
by generations of children.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
The link between London Road and Gallowtree Gate, this
short north-south road is visually of the later 19th century. The
Grand Hotel of 1898 by Cecil Ogden (1858-1944) dominates
its southern end, while the rather exuberant Turkey Cafe of
1901 by Arthur Wakerley and the Victoria Coffee House of 1888
by Edward Burgess (fl.1886-1915) add that longed-for touch
of eccentricity and quality to an otherwise undistinguished
townscape. The shops to the left of the photograph retain their
excellent fronts with stall-boards and timber frames, a sight
which has become a rarity in a plate-glass world.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".