Melton Mowbray is a Leicestershire market town with one claim that is not trying to be fashionable: this is pork pie and Stilton country. The town calls itself the Rural Capital of Food, and for once the label has some weight. Its best day out is a mix of food shops, a handsome parish church, a small museum that takes local trades seriously, and countryside close enough to reach without much planning.
Start in the compact centre, where Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe sells the hand-raised pies that made the town famous. St Mary's Church gives Melton its best building: a large medieval church with a tower whose earliest stonework reaches back to the Norman period. A few streets away, Melton Carnegie Museum ties the food story to fox hunting, farming, markets, and the old Great North Road.
The town is not as rich in sights as Leicester or Lincoln, but it has a strong flavour of its own. Burrough Hill is the best nearby open-air stop, with Iron Age earthworks and big views across rolling Leicestershire. If you are nearby with a spare day and an appetite, Melton is worth the detour.