St. Mary in Arden Church (Market Harborough)
St. Mary in Arden is a ruined church in the attractive old market town of Market Harborough in Leicestershire.
It is situated in Great Bowden Road, a few minutes walk from the town centre, and around the corner from Market Harborough Station.
St. Mary's has actually suffered the indignity of being ruined twice. The original mediaeval church was "beat down by the fall of the steeple" in about 1660.
In the years leading up to this, the church had acquired a reputation for unlawful marriages, and for the unsavoury character of those who performed the ceremonies, so the falling of the steeple would have been seen as divine wrath.
This church was rebuilt by Henry Dormer in 1694, but the renewed version is now also ruinous and open to the sky.
The South porch of the original church is still in place, with a Norman inner doorway.
There is a 14th century effigy of a lady, whose identity is unknown, on a monument, as well as a number of excellent Swithland slate headstones in the former churchyard.
There is a continuing tradition at St. Mary in Arden. Each Ester Eve, since 1807, a service has been held at the grave of William Hubbard. He died in 1786, and left one guinea in his will for the choir from St. Dionysius Church to sing by his headstone each year.