Market Harborough
Henry II created Market Harborough to serve as a central market town for the surrounding countryside, its first recorded mention being in a document of 1203. A general market is still held here on Tuesdays and Saturdays, accompanied by a cattle market every Tuesday. Despite being a small market town located in a reasonably remote backwater, Market Harborough has nonetheless witnessed the ebb and flow of English history lapping at its door.
During a three-day span in 1645 the balance between King and Commonwealth swung crucially around Market Harborough. On the eve of the Battle of Naseby the streets and square were filled with Royalist soldiers. At the end of the three days the church was overflowing with Royalist prisoners. Charles I, roused from sleep at nearby Lubenham to hear that Fairfax had marched from Northampton to Naseby, rode into Market Harborough to hold a Council of War. The rashness of the Cavalier leader, Prince Rupert, prevailed and the Royalist troops left their entrenched position to confront the New Model Army. At midday battle commenced and their fate was sealed. By nightfall the Royalist army was routed, the king a fugitive, his troops dead or imprisoned and his throne lost. While Charles fled to Leicester the local church was packed with wounded prisoners and the victorious Oliver Cromwell set out in some detail a letter to the Speaker of the House, describing the destruction of the King's army. Charles I passed through the town twice more, on his futile journey to link-up with the Scots, who in turn failed him, then again as a prisoner being trundled south to keep an appointment with the executioner.
The Church of St Dionysus stands today as it did when Charles I cast a last reproachful glance its way in the 17 th cent, built almost on the pavement of the square, its solid tower splendid in its proportions. The church is of early 14 th century origin but the nave arcades and most of the windows, with their fine tracery, are 15 th century. The broach spire of St Dionysus is one of the finest in England, rising up 161ft it overlooks the chequered paving of the Market Square and the vast tracts of countryside beyond.
The most famous attraction in the town is the former grammar school, founded by a local businessman Robert Smythe in 1613. This gloriously half-timbered black-and-white building has an open ground floor, which once served as a butter market. The upper storey is supported on round wooden arches with sturdy pillars resting on stone piers. Today, although both schoolboys and market women have long fled the scene, this attractive old building remains Market Harborough's little gem.
On a hillside near the station is the humble church of St Mary-in-Arden, built in 1693 to replace the former church ‘beat down by the fall of the steeple'. Alas, now, this ancient church stands in ruin, being nothing much more than a nave and porch. A Norman doorway with beak-head ornament has survived, as has the almost completely defaced figure of a woman who worshipped here some 600 years ago.
Industrial development has not destroyed the town's wealth of fine Georgian architecture, including the principal hotel the Three Swans Inn. The inn sign remains a magnificent example of 18 th century wrought-iron work. Harborough Museum recalls its medieval past, when the town was both a market place and staging post for coaches and wagons.