Dotheboys Hall, Bowes

Dotheboys Hall is a large house on The Street in Bowes. It was formerly The Bowes Academy (aka Shaw's Academy), now divided into 7 flats. The house dates from the late 18th or early 19th century, with late 20th century alterations. It has a late 19th century coach-house attached. Dotheboys Hall and coach-house are Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England.

Dotheboys Hall, formerly the Bowes Academy, was a private boarding school for 200 boys run by William Shaw. Whist researching for a novel, Charles Dickens visited the academy on the 2nd of February, 1838. It's harsh and disgraceful conditions, were a key inspiration for Dickens' novel Nicholas Nickleby. The novel exposed the Academy and its cruel principal (as Wackford Squeers). The resulting public outcry eventually forced many such schools, including the Bowes Academy, to close down or reform.