Market Harborough, Leicestershire

 

Market Harborough is a town in the south-east corner of Leicestershire, just inside the border with Northamptonshire. It has a population of 23,000.

The town was founded around 1170 as one of the new towns established by King Henry II, and a market has been held here since 1204. A cattle market was held in The Square (which is actually a triangle!) until 1903, when it was moved to Springfield Street.

High Street leads away from The Square, being lined with a number of elegant Georgian houses, most of which have been converted to shops. Two buildings of note in High Street are the Parish Church of St Dionysius and the old Grammar School.

The church, built of ironstone, dates from the 14^th century. The spire, which rises to 161 feet above the ground, is a particularly fine example of a “broach spire”, namely one that has eight triangular faces that rise from a square base atop a tower. The church is also unusual, for a parish church, both for its dedication to St Dionysius and for not having a churchyard.

Market Harborough is close to the Civil War battlefield of Naseby, where, on 14^th June 1645, King Charles I was decisively beaten by the Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell. Charles held a council of war at Market Harborough before the battle, but after his defeat Cromwell occupied the town and announced his victory from the Bell Inn. The church was used to hold 4,500 Royalist prisoners overnight.

The timber-framed Grammar School was built in 1614. It stands on sturdy posts with an open ground floor, which served as a butter market. The school was the gift of Robert Smyth, who was born poor but journeyed to London to seek his fortune and managed so to do. One can still see the Biblical quotations, carved into the arches supporting the upper floor, that Smyth insisted on having made.

The building ceased to be a school in 1892 and it is now used as an exhibition centre.

Other notable buildings in the town include Brooke House, which was built in 1708, and Catherwood House (in The Square) which was built in the Gothic style in 1876 and was lived in at one time by Sir William Bragg (1862-1942) who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915 for his work on X-ray crystallography.

 © John Welford

 

 

Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire

 

Melton Mowbray is a town with a population of around 25,500, lying some 15 miles north-east of Leicester in the County of Leicestershire. It was formerly known as a centre for fox-hunting and also as the home of the Melton Mowbray pork pie, as well as being one of the towns where Stilton cheese is made. Fox-hunting is now banned in the UK, but pork pies and cheese are definitely legal and still very popular products of the area.

It is said that Melton Mowbray is the town that gave rise to the saying “painting the town red”. The story goes that in 1837 the eccentric Marquis of Waterford and his friends rampaged through the streets of the town after a day’s fox-hunting, armed with pots of red paint with which they daubed several of the town’s stone buildings, as well as an unfortunate lock-keeper.

Burton Street leads into the town from the River Eye, which changes its name to the Wreake after leaving the town. On this street may be found the Harboro Hotel, the Georgian front of which has changed little since it was one of the town’s main coaching inns.

Also on Burton Street is Anne of Cleves’ House, which was built in 1384 and given by King Henry VIII to his fourth wife after he divorced her in 1540. However, there is no evidence that she ever lived there.

The Bede Houses, on the opposite side of the street from Anne of Cleves’ House, date from 1640 and were founded by a wealthy townsman who endowed the houses for six elderly men and, in the 18^th century, room was made to accommodate six elderly women as well.

At the top of the street stands the gracious parish church of St Mary. It was built between 1170 and 1532, the oldest part of the church being the lower section of the 100-foot high tower. Inside, the church has a set of pillars and arches down each side of the transepts – a feature it shares with only three other English parish churches – and each transept has a rare brass candelabra dating from 1746. The church has a wealth of stained glass, most of which is Victorian, but some of it dates from the 14^th century.

A previous organist and choirmaster of the church was the conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967), who officiated here between 1914 and 1924.

Many people come to Melton Mowbray to sample and buy its famous pork pies, which were first made here in 1831. The pies are handmade according to a particular method for which the town claims the patent - it is illegal to make and sell a Melton Mowbray pork pie other than in Melton Mowbray!

Stilton cheeses also have protected status, as they are not allowed to be made outside the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, although they take their name from a village in Cambridgeshire! Melton Mowbray is one of the centres for its manufacture.

© John Welford