Britain's longest lock staircase, a free museum holding the Hallaton Treasure and a £4 canal museum. Nine days out around Market Harborough with prices and opening times.

Harborough district took 2.78 million visitors in 2025, who spent £209.29 million and supported 1,865 full-time-equivalent jobs. Those are the council’s own record figures, published on 31 July 2026, and they are built on a small number of genuinely good places rather than one big attraction.

Nine of them are below. Every price and opening time was checked against the venue’s own site on 9 August 2026, and six of the nine cost nothing.

Foxton Locks: free, and the best thing in the district

A staircase of ten locks climbing the hillside at Foxton, the longest flight of staircase locks in Britain, Grade II listed and working for over 200 years. Watching a narrowboat work its way up or down takes the best part of an hour and is the sort of thing people stand and watch without meaning to.

Entry is free. Parking is not: £3 all day in the long stay car park (6.30am to 10pm), or £1.50 for an hour, £3 for two, £4.50 for four and £6 for eight in the short stay. Both car parks are free after 5.30pm. There are 11 blue badge spaces in the short stay car park and accessible toilets at both. Two pubs, two cafes, and day boat hire.

The towpaths are accessible, though the Canal & River Trust is honest that there are areas of uneven ground.

Foxton Canal Museum: £4, and the reason the locks are famous

Next to the locks, in a reconstructed boilerhouse, the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust museum tells the story of what stood here in 1900: the only transverse inclined boat lift in Britain, engineered by Gordon Cale Thomas, which carried boats sideways up the hill in 12 minutes against the best part of an hour through the locks. The lift is gone, but its remains are a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the museum is where the story is.

Adults £4. Children and carers free with a paying adult. Open Friday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm.

Harborough Museum: free, and it has the Hallaton Treasure

In the Symington Building on Adam and Eve Street, and free. The headline collection is the Hallaton Treasure, over 5,000 Iron Age coins and a Roman cavalry helmet, found in the district. There is also the Symington fashion collection, from the corsetry firm the building was built for, and local history that runs to an eccentric innkeeper and a pair of cursed shoes.

Open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 6pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Three exhibitions are running: Marston Trussell’s Forgotten Photographer to Saturday 26 September, Walking Through Time with the Leicestershire Fieldworkers to Saturday 31 October, and The Langtons to Saturday 14 November.

Welland Park: free, and freshly done up

The largest park in Market Harborough, and it has had money spent on it twice this year: tennis courts refurbished in June and £50,000 of new inclusive play equipment unveiled in July.

What is there: a large playground, three floodlit tennis courts, a skate park, outdoor fitness equipment, table tennis, rugby posts, gardens and a cafe. Parkrun runs Saturday mornings from 9am. Two car parks, one on Welland Park Road with 26 spaces plus 2 accessible, one at the Farndon Road end with 20 family-friendly spaces plus 2 accessible. Both have a four-hour limit.

Lutterworth Museum: the town where the jet engine was tested

Frank Whittle’s Power Jets ran its works at Lutterworth, and the museum has a Whittle W2/700 jet engine to show for it, alongside a Merlin engine from a wartime Hurricane. The other name attached to the town is John Wycliffe, who completed the first translation of the Bible from Latin into English in 1383 while rector here.

At High Point, 12D Market Street, LE17 4EH. Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10.30am to 3.30pm, and Sunday 1pm to 3.30pm.

Harborough Theatre: a volunteer theatre in the town centre

On Church Square, owned and run by Market Harborough Drama Society, a registered charity staffed almost entirely by volunteers. It puts on its own productions and hosts comedy nights.

Coming up: HA HA Harborough Comedy Night on Saturday 12 September at 8pm, The Unfriend by Steven Moffat from 22 to 26 September, and another comedy night on Saturday 24 October. There is an open day on Saturday 5 September from 10am if you want to see how it works, and auditions in September and October for anyone who fancies being in something.

Harborough Leisure Centre: pools, and an inflatable assault course

On Northampton Road, run by Everyone Active in partnership with the district council. Three pools including a 25-metre main pool, a teaching pool and a beach-entry pool, a gym with 115 stations, three studios, tennis courts, six indoor bowls rinks, a sports hall, a cafe and an Air-X inflatable obstacle course.

Open 6.30am to 10pm Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 8pm Saturday and 7.30am to 7pm Sunday. Prices vary by activity and are not published on the centre page; ring 01858 410115.

Farndon Fields: a farm shop that grows what it sells

Family-run since 1985, on the edge of the town, and unusual in that the produce is grown on the farm rather than bought in: over 40 varieties. There is a bakery, a grocery and a restaurant, The Farmer’s Kitchen, doing breakfasts, lunches and afternoon teas.

Open 8.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 4pm on Sunday and bank holidays. Free to walk round.

The Thomas Cook trail, from later this year

Thomas Cook lived in Market Harborough, and the idea that became the package holiday came to him on a 15-mile walk from the town to Leicester in June 1841. The first organised rail excursion followed a month later.

The council is putting a statue in Friendship Park on Northampton Road, opposite the railway station, and renaming it Thomas Cook Friendship Park. It will be the start of a heritage trail with suitcase markers, interpretation panels and QR-linked content around the sites connected with him. Funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Business Rate Economic Development money. No opening date has been published yet.

What it costs, at a glance

Cost of nine days out around Market Harborough Six of the nine are free to enter: Foxton Locks, Harborough Museum, Welland Park, Lutterworth Museum, Farndon Fields and the coming Thomas Cook trail. Foxton Canal Museum is four pounds for an adult with children free. Harborough Leisure Centre and Harborough Theatre charge by activity or performance and do not publish a single price. Parking at Foxton Locks is three pounds all day and free after half past five. Six of the nine cost nothing to get in Adult admission, checked against each venue's own site on 9 August 2026. Free Foxton Locks £3 all-day parking, free after 5.30pm Harborough Museum Tue-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-4 Welland Park Parkrun Saturdays 9am Lutterworth Museum Thu-Sat 10.30-3.30, Sun 1-3.30 Farndon Fields Mon-Sat 8.30-5.30, Sun 10-4 Thomas Cook trail Coming, no date published A fixed price Foxton Canal Museum £4 Adult. Children and carers free with a paying adult. Open Fri to Sun, 10am to 4pm. Next door to the locks, and the only place that explains the inclined plane: 12 minutes up the hill against an hour through the locks, and the only one of its kind built in Britain. Priced per activity Harborough Leisure Centre Swim, gym and classes priced separately. Ring 01858 410115. Harborough Theatre Priced per production. Book through the theatre's site. Neither publishes a single headline admission price, so we have not invented one. Check before you go. The theatre is run by volunteers, so seats go quickly on comedy nights. Prices and hours change. Every entry here was checked against the venue's own website, not a listings site.

Getting to them

Foxton Locks is about five miles north of Market Harborough and there is no useful bus, so it is a car or a long walk along the towpath. Everything else on this list except Lutterworth Museum is inside Market Harborough or on its edge.

If you are driving in from the north or east, note that Rockingham Road is being rebuilt from 17 August 2026 into March 2027 and Clarence Street is now one-way northbound: our roadworks and travel page has the detail. Coming by train, the station has 314 spaces and the fastest service from London takes 57 minutes, on the trains to London page.

A note on what we have left out

Two things you will find recommended elsewhere are not on this list, and it is worth saying why.

Wistow Maze is in the district and open through the summer, but wistow.com refused every connection we made to it on 9 August, from three different tools including a full browser, so we could not confirm this year’s dates or prices from the operator. We would rather leave it off than copy a price from a listings site.

The same rule applies generally. If a venue’s own site does not say it, we do not print it.

Frequently asked questions

What is there to do in Market Harborough for free?

Six of the nine places on this page are free to enter: Foxton Locks, Harborough Museum, Welland Park, Lutterworth Museum, Farndon Fields farm shop and, when it opens, the Thomas Cook heritage trail. Parking at Foxton Locks is £3 for the day, or free after 5.30pm.

How much does Foxton Locks cost?

Nothing to visit. Parking is £3 all day in the long stay car park, £1.50 to £6 in the short stay depending on length, and free in both after 5.30pm. The Foxton Canal Museum next to the locks is £4 for adults, with children free.

Is Harborough Museum free?

Yes. It is in the Symington Building on Adam and Eve Street and opens Tuesday to Friday 10am to 6pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm. It holds the Hallaton Treasure, over 5,000 Iron Age coins and a Roman cavalry helmet.

What is Market Harborough known for?

Thomas Cook, who lived here and came up with organised group travel on a walk to Leicester in 1841, and Foxton Locks a few miles north, the longest staircase of locks in Britain. Lutterworth, the district’s other town, is where Frank Whittle’s jet engine was developed.

Is there anything to do when it rains?

Harborough Museum and Lutterworth Museum are both indoors and free, the Foxton Canal Museum is £4, and Harborough Leisure Centre has three pools, a sports hall and an indoor inflatable course.

Sources

Everything here was checked on 9 August 2026 against the venue’s own website. Opening hours and prices change, especially over school holidays and bank holidays. Confirm before you set out.