The rural English town with colourful canal walks and half-timbered cafes

Wandering under willows towards a canal boat-filled quay, the uncrowded towpath is perfect for an autumn stroll. Market Harborough is far less busy than Stratford-upon-Avon, an hour’s drive away. Yet a record 2.78 million visitors came to Harborough district, which includes the town of Lutterworth and nearby villages, last year. One reason for the influx to this historic Leicestershire city – where package holiday pioneer Thomas Cook lived for nine years – says Carole Troake from Harborough District Council, is that the area is “in the heart of rural England, yet easy to get to”. It is just an hour by direct train from London or 30 minutes from Nottingham. The town and its surrounds have plenty of heritage to fill a mini-break. I met Carole in one of her favourite cafés, half-timbered Aldwinckles Coffee House, which has a hidden courtyard off narrow Church Street in the middle of town. A few steps away, the early-14th century spire of St Dionysius’ Church reaches nearly 50m into the sky above an ochre-walled half-timbered building on wooden stilts. This building is the Old Grammar School, built in 1614 to house a schoolroom and butter market. Charles I’s troops were held prisoner in the church after the 1645 battle of Naseby. Across the fields, in peaceful Great Bowden church, is a 15th-century wall painting of Judgement Day. The village, once an Anglo-Saxon royal estate, is even older than Market Harborough. A more modern claim to fame is that crisp company Golden Wonder was based in Market Harborough between 1968 and 2006.The Three Swans Hotel in Market Harborough How to get there and where to stay Nearest stations: Market Harborough has regular direct East Midlands Railway trains from London St Pancras and Nottingham via Leicester. Buses: X3 and X7 also run from Leicester and Northampton, and there is a decent network of local buses to surrounding villages, making it easy to explore without a car. Stay: I stayed right in the middle of town, at The Three Swans, with the church, museum and guildhall all on the doorstep. A wrought-iron, 18th-century sign above Harborough’s High Street marks the 500‑year‑old coaching inn with elegant, modernised bedrooms. There is a log fire in the Tudor-beamed bar and H2K botanicals in the bathrooms. Doubles from £100 B&B. Travelodge Market Harborough has accessible rooms and doubles from £30 room-only. For something more luxurious, Rushton Hall Hotel & Spa, 20 minutes’ drive from town, is a 15th-century country house within manicured grounds. Accessible and double rooms from £130. The best places to shop There has been a market in Harborough since 1204. When I visited the award-winning indoor market (open Tues-Sun), the butcher was selling lamb-and-mint or pork-and-apple burgers, and the greengrocer had piled up vines of tomatoes and fresh corn on the cobs. There is also a farmers’ market on the first Thursday and an artisan market on the last Saturday of the month. On Roman Way, behind the church, I followed the smell of coffee and fresh pastries to Garage Bakehouse (cheese and Marmite swirls were a highlight) and just beyond The Three Swans, found in Heaven at Home, a shop-cum-gallery full of prints and candles. The Village, also known as the Eco Village, is a community hub with a refill shop, café and crafts, near the train station. The best places for lunch At the top end of Harborough’s cornucopian dining options, must-book Ascough’s Bistro serves lunch from noon Tues–Sat. Almost everything is made on site, including cheese bread with thyme butter and lime sorbet. The business even distils its own gin. Weltons Deli on neighbouring Great Bowden’s village green offers salad bowls presented with Michelin-worthy precision: think a mix of micro herbs, toasted seeds, redcurrants and beetroot. The canals in Market Harborough in Autumn (Photo: John Mason/Harborough.gov.uk) Must-sees Harborough Museum, located in a Victorian corset factory, includes the Hallaton Treasure. This hoard of 5,000 Iron Age coins together with a 1st-century Roman cavalry helmet was discovered by local detectorists. Nearby on Adam and Eve Street, the big windows in Harborough’s corset factory building were to let in sunlight so workers could sew longer into summer evenings. The best place for an evening drink The Waterfront at Union Wharf overlooks a basin at one end of the canal, where coots paddle along. Autumnal cocktails and mocktails feature on its drinks menu. Where to go for dinner Everest Lounge serves carefully spiced dishes such as Tibetan ginger lamb or coconutty South Indian chicken chettinad with fennel and curry leaves. Over the road, Vault and Vine offers hearty Italian fare and perfectly seasoned risotto under its vaulted ceilings in a former bank. The picturesque Foxton locks in Leicestershire (Photo: Fazer44/Getty /Moment RF) Best autumn walks The 30-acre Welland Park, with adventure playgrounds, runs next to the river. Part of the town’s new tree trail, it is lovely in autumn, when oaks turn orange, poplars glow sunshine-yellow and the fine-leaved ash is claret-purple. Harborough district has 25 miles of canals and Foxton, four miles away, has Britain’s longest, highest staircase of locks. Built in 1814, this pretty flight of 10 locks lifts boats up part of the Grand Union Canal.I walked past herons and moorhens with wide views across miles of Leicestershire countryside.