It trained from about 23:00 last night but only once through the dark hours heavily enough to wake us up. We were staying put in Market Harborough today so we were in no rush to get up. Even so we left the boat not long after our 'normal' time and headed down to town. We went down the back way to cut off the corner and as it is down terraced street sit is a little nicer than down the main road too.
The High Street has many nice buildings and the first we saw today was this galleried building. It is now just one of the many buildings in this area of the town that have been taken over by the Brook House College.
This building is the Manor House and takes its name from the when the steward of the Manor came to live here in 1772. It was later the premises of Richards and Son who were bespoke tailors for suits and clothes primarily for equestrian sports.
I love a 'ghost sign' but this one is still on the 'right' premises.
As can be seen the front of the building is pretty special too.
This property has a special mention as at Catherwood House was the pharmacist William Bragg in 1876. His nephew and son William Henry and William Laurence were jointly awarded the Nobel prize in 1915 for work on X-Ray crystallography.
Hands up who remembers Freeman Hardy and Willis.
We then spent more than an hour at the Symington Building Museum. There was a large display of the very important Hallaton Hoard. It has an unprecedented collection of Anglo Saxon coins and Roman Treasurers. It was some sort of a ritual site as there were many pig bones and trinket burials and and extremely rare Roman helmet as well as two guard dogs buried to protect the entrance. The Symington Factory was to make corsets and was where the liberty bodice for children was invented and produced. Other family members had a grocer's shop in the town and went to invent and produce Symington's soup powders and 'table cream'. They also perfected the method of making pea flour and won large contracts with the Army and made a fortune. My Mum always preferred Symington's soup powders to any other. The rest of the museum was a bit jumbled with everything on display with no real them, but lots of in formation.
This is the Harborough Theatre but it was originally the bike sheds for the Symington factory opposite!
This was the Symington factory club room. Just next door was a plaque where Thomas Cook lived in the 1830's. The pioneer of the Travel Agent.
We had a spot of lunch and then called into St. Dionysius Church. He was converted to Christianity in the 1st Century AD and was the first Bishop of Athens. It was originally not the parish church but just a church for pilgrims and so does not, and never has had, a graveyard. This Royal Coat of arms in the church is specially important as The Battle of Naseby was fought close by and this led to the downfall of King Charles I who had spent the night before in the town. 1660 was the arms for Charles II.
These are the gates to the Memorial Park that was opened in 1954 to remember the dead of WWII. You can see the names of those who were killed on the pillars. The gates themselves were salvaged from Gopsall Hall that was demolished in 1951. There were some nice stalls in the indoor market, but only a few food stalls. We bought a meat pie!
In the foreground is the Old Grammar School that was built in 1614 by local boy made good after heading to London to make his fortune. Robert Smyth paid for the building to educate 12 local christian boys. Below was the butter market. In the background is the roof tower of the Symington corset factory.
After lunch the rain had largely faded away, but there was only very sporadic sun, so this sundial on St. Dionysuis' was very accurate!
This building was built in the early 1800's and has been a solicitors office since the 1930's. I love the front bays as they look like crowns. Not sure who the people are but they look somewhat out of place.
This is the old Town Hall built in 1788.
At the top of the High Street is the Congregational Church that looks very classy with its classic columns and was built in 1844.
We did a bit of shopping and then waited until the Beershop opened at 5 before heading for refreshments. They have 16 beers and ciders on tap. There was one that I liked the look of until I saw it was 12% proof and £15 a pint. I did without a taste of that one. We then went to Pizza Express for our tea before walking back to the boat having completed around 61/2 miles around the town
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