Adventures in Middle England ……… from Leicestershire into the Cotswolds …no. 3 …. starting out

All adventures start somewhere and ours started in Market Harborough which my Wikipedia tells me is “a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire [with a] population of 24,779 in 2021”and was settled by the Saxons*

From the Grammar School, 2024

Just when that was is unclear, but like many such places it come into history after the Normans arrived, gaining a market in 1204 an extension to its church a century later and a grammar school in the early 17th century which stands on wooden posts which allowed the space below to be used as a market.

In the same century it was chosen as the headquarters by the Royalist army during the Civil War as the base for which to confront the Parliamentarian forces camped nearby at Naseby.  This turned out to be not so good, as during the Battle of Naseby the Royalists were defeated and the chapel in the town was used to house Royalist prisoners.

People watching in the square, 2024

None of which I knew as we sat in the town square, part of which was given over to a Turkish restaurant.

The sun shone, we ate under a leafy tree and I people watched.

The memorial, 2024

I now know heaps more about its history including the war memorial, and that “in 1950 the canal basin was the venue for a week-long National Festival of Boats, the first such festival organised by the Inland Waterways Association and marking the beginning of the revival of the canal network for leisure use”.*

There is plenty more, but I leave that to you to discover.

Location; Market Harborough

Pictures; Market Harborough, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Market Harborough,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Harborough