MARKET HARBOROUGH , fifteen miles southeast of Leicester, is an unassuming provincial town that once prospered from its position at the junction of the turnpike roads to Leicester, Nottingham and London. Consequently, the predominantly Georgian High Street's Three Swans and Angel hotels were originally coaching inns, and the square and solid brick Town Hall was designed to help local traders sell their wares - with butchers on the ground floor and cloth merchants up above. Just off the High Street, the triangular Market Place is overlooked by the church of St Dionysius , whose striking tower is in stark contrast to the dumpy ironstone nave down below. Here, also, is the Old Grammar School , an early seventeenth-century, half-timbered structure mounted on stilts to protect locals from the rain. From 1908 to 1974, the large Victorian building standing directly behind the grammar school on Adam & Eve Street was a factory owned by the Symington family, who designed the world's best-selling corsets. The factory has been redeveloped and now houses both the council offices and the town museum (Mon-Sat 10am-4.30pm, Sun 2-5pm; free), which has an intriguing display of Symington corsetry. The tourist office (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm & Sat 9.30am-12.30pm; tel 01858/821270) is here, too.

There are frequent services from Nottingham, London and Leicester to Market Harborough's train station , fifteen minutes' walk east of the town centre. More conveniently, buses stop a couple of minutes' walk from the Market Place, on Northampton Road, a southerly continuation of the High Street. For food , Aldin's Tea Rooms , on the High Street near the Market Place (closed Sun & Mon), serves home-made food.