This hidden gem has country inns, canalside walks, a stunning viaduct, the historic town of Market Harborough – and not a tour bus in sight
I
t was a chilly Sunday in November 2000 when the gods chose to smile on Ken Wallace. The retired teacher was sweeping his metal detector across a hillside in Leicestershire’s Welland valley when a series of beeps brought him up short. Digging down, he found a cache of buried coins almost two millennia old. He had chanced upon one of the UK’s most important iron age hoards, totalling about 5,000 silver and gold coins.
More than 25 years on, I’m staring at Ken’s find at the civic museum in the nearby town of Market Harborough. The now gleaming coins are decorated with wreaths and horses. They’re about the size of 5p pieces, but speak of a wild-eyed age of tribal lands and windswept hill forts.
Hidden riches are something of a local theme here. The treasure was unearthed close to the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire border, in a sloping, sheep-dotted landscape where the River Welland ribbons eastwards in no special hurry. The town (“people just call it Harb”, one of the museum staff tells me) is the main settlement in this stretch of the valley. I’ve come here on a short winter visit to see why the area – hills, villages, Harb and all – gets described as an unsung alternative to the Cotswolds.
