Market Harborough
Market Harborough in Leicestershire is an attractive market town on the River Welland whose combination of the medieval grammar school building with its remarkable open ground floor designed to shelter market traders, the handsome parish church of St Dionysius and the Georgian and Victorian commercial architecture creates one of the most rewarding and least visited market town experiences in the East Midlands. The town has strong associations with the Civil War, having been the staging point for Charles I's army before the decisive defeat at Naseby in 1645.
The Old Grammar School of 1614, raised on timber pillars to allow the market to shelter beneath it, is one of the most unusual medieval educational buildings in England, its combination of educational and commercial functions in a single structure reflecting the medieval understanding that the two activities were complementary.
The Canal Museum at Foxton Locks a few miles away provides an outstanding example of the narrowboat canal heritage of the East Midlands. The combination of the town heritage and the Foxton Locks visit creates a rewarding day in the Leicestershire countryside.