Let’s get the pronunciation out of the way first. It’s HAR-bur-uh. There’s been a market here since 1204. Back in those days mostly farm animals and produce were bought and sold. The modern police station is on the site of the old pig market. Who says that city planners don’t have a sense of humor?

The town museum is housed along with the library in an old corset factory. This was Paula’s favorite corset.

They had several more in the display cases.

However, Market Harborough’s major contribution to feminine underwear was the liberty bodice, an alternative to the corset that you did not actually have to be strapped into.

I hate to think what would happen if you tried to market a product these days using children in their underwear tying each other up.

It’s a two room museum, one room full of Roman and iron age finds from a nearby dig, and the other full of a mad jumble of whatever they can stuff in the cases. Oh, look, a pair of wellies with dogs on them.

A wood carving that got a broken nose when it fell off a church roof and landed on a pew.

A canal boat water jug.

17th century bean bags.

Were they for juggling? I’d like to think so. The were found in the local church which is dedicated to St Dionysius the Areopagite. Believe it or not there are not one but four christian saints named after the pagan god of drunken sex.

Let’s take a look at the Roman and iron age stuff.

This is probably my favorite denarius, first because it was minted by Julius Caesar to pay his troops, and secondly because it has an elephant on it. A denarius like this was one day’s pay for a Roman soldier.

This is the best Roman helmet I have seen.

It was lifted from the earth in a block of soil, and it took more than three years of work to clean it. It was probably worn by an important cavalry officer.

This is a side plate for covering the cheek.

Look at the rider. No saddle, just a blanket, and no stirrups. Stirrups did not make it to Europe till several hundred years after the Roman conquest of Britain. It made fighting on horseback a lot more difficult, since a good shove and you would fall off. The Romans were much better at infantry.

All the finds are from the Hallaton Treasure, an important iron age site discovered in 2000. It included thousands of coins…

… a silver cup that had been stabbed to death…

… and a ladle.

Nobody is quite sure why all that treasure was there. One theory says that it was left as tribute to a god. Nothing of the god remains except the glass eyes that were perhaps once part of a wooden statue.

OK, I know what you are thinking. What about skulls? Surely it’s not real archeology unless there is a skull or two there. Well, there are no human skulls in the museum, but there is a doggie skull.

Three dogs were buried around the treasure. Perhaps they were to act as spirit guardians to the treasure, or perhaps iron age folks liked their pets just like we do.