Buttercross

Market Harborough's High Street has a proper focal point in the Buttercross - a Grade II listed market cross that's been standing since the 14th century. It's a modest structure, truth be told, but it tells you everything about how market towns functioned centuries ago. Traders would gather round it, deals struck under its stone canopy, and the whole commercial life of the town revolved around this spot.

You can walk round it in about five minutes flat. There's no visitor centre or ticket booth - it's just there, free to look at, part of the streetscape rather than a roped-off museum piece. That's rather refreshing. The craftsmanship in the stonework rewards a closer look if you're into medieval architecture, and the inscriptions have stories to tell if you can make them out.

Historians and anyone interested in how England's market towns developed will find it worthwhile. It's the sort of thing that makes sense when you're already exploring Market Harborough's broader Georgian and Victorian heritage. Families with young children might find it underwhelming on its own - it's not interactive or dramatic - but as part of a town walk it slots in nicely.

If you're staying at Hidden Hideaway Glamping or Rural Relaxing nearby, you're minutes away. Pop down on a market day if you can - Saturday mornings especially - when the square's properly alive and you get a sense of what the Buttercross has always been about.