My family and I moved to a village near Market Harborough in 2001, having lived in London for many years. I must admit I knew next to nothing about the area, but we were getting closer to the in-laws in north Leicestershire, and we knew some people nearby who’d done similar.

Plenty of the usual factors were at play- more space for your money, good local schools, and a better, rural way of life etc - but still I felt rather swept along so delayed joining the others for one last summer 'hurrah' in the capital.  As our daughters, who were four and two, respectively, at the time, now bloom into young adulthood, I’ve been trying to summarise how I feel the area has changed over these 18 years.

Some things have not changed. At least, I still often hear that “Harborough is on the up” or that it’s a 'desirable place to live' or is 'within commuting range of London', all lines an estate agent might come up with (and, boy, aren’t there a lot of estate agencies here, now?!).

Market towns in the East Midlands, (Stamford is another), seem to offer a good, vaguely exclusive yet affordable existence with numerous benefits. Certainly, Market Harborough is located in a perfectly central geographic UK position, and now the new station is done, train times to London will be under an hour. This must have improved the appeal, not just to young families and/or London professionals, but to businesses and retail brands who see growth, connectivity and opportunity.

Local designer lifestyle brand Joules is building a “world-class” headquarters on the Rockingham Road, next to its existing leased head office. The new 60,000 sq ft building will bring all of Joules’ UK-based head office teams under one roof for the first time, the design amplifying the brand’s heritage by putting product design and creativity at its centre.

Also, building work has started on the £5.2m Airfield Business Park, set to create more than 200 jobs, while nearby The Fabulous Group, based in the Harborough Innovation Centre, is a successful provider of out-sourced marketing and accounting support for all types of local business. The quality of bars and restaurants is rising, too.

The number of new housing estates, especially in once-small villages like Great Bowden and Thorpe Langton just out of the town, should suggest growth. Managed accommodation and retirement homes are appearing, too, reflecting the ageing population, while there are hints of an international, globalised profile as students from far and wide, based at Brooke House School, are regularly seen around in town.

Inevitably local services- be they shops or public transport or schools- are changing, often to suit an above national average household income in some newer households and homes. Disappointingly, the musical instrument shop ABC is now just another estate agent, willing to pay higher rents, as demand soars. The sports shop has gone, too, but there’s a Space NK!

The trends are generally positive. Local home-owners benefit from the desirability and demand, local services from the ever-improving socio-economic mix, yet local children may find it hard to buy properties in future, even though so many are springing up.

There seems to be a genuine overspill from town to places like Great Bowden, where the roads are full and the infrastructure will surely start to creak, making the rural locations further afield, or the sprawling new, rustic-style estates, more sought after.

Tom Lloyd-Jones: June 2019