Towcester

What to see in Towcester

St Lawrence's church is listed Grade I. It is mainly of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, restored in 1835 to 1836 and by J. L. Pearson in 1883, with a three-stage battlemented tower and old studded doors in its west doorway. Go in for the tomb of William Sponne, chaplain to Henry VI, rector of Towcester and Archdeacon of Norfolk, who died in 1448. His restored effigy lies on a table tomb, and below it is a cadaver, the carved corpse that medieval tombs used as a reminder of death.

The raised sanctuary sits over a stone-vaulted crypt. The mid-nineteenth-century chancel arch reuses two Romanesque shafts, and there is a painted Pelican in her Piety on the back wall of the south chapel, and monuments to Jerome Farmore, who died in 1602, in alabaster, and to Mary Hastings, who died in 1686. We found no published opening hours for the church.

Sponne left more than his tomb. The Chantry House at 88 Watling Street East, listed Grade II*, was built in the fifteenth century for the two priests who served his chantry at St Lawrence. The chantry was suppressed at the Reformation, and in 1552 the trustees of Sponne's charity bought the house back for a grammar school, which stayed until 1866. It has had considerable eighteenth- and nineteenth-century alterations, but the gateway in its forecourt wall is fifteenth century. It is a private house: see it from the street. Sponne School, the town's secondary school, still carries his name.

Bury Mount, on the north-east side of the town and overlooking the River Tove, is the motte of a castle probably built soon after the Conquest. Prince Rupert had it levelled to take guns when he refortified the town in November 1643. It is a scheduled monument, and it has been cleared of trees, reshaped and given a spiral ramped walkway to the top, with a new footbridge over the Tove to the meadows to the east.

Watling Street was a coaching road, and its inns show it. The Saracens Head is an early eighteenth-century coaching inn with older origins, listed Grade II, and was known for a time in the nineteenth century as the Pomfret Arms. In chapter 50 of The Pickwick Papers, Sam Weller recommends it for a good little dinner, ready in half an hour. It is still an inn. The Town Hall on Watling Street was built in 1866 as a corn exchange.

Towcester Museum, in White Horse Yard at 163 to 165 Watling Street, tells the town's story from Roman times, with volunteer guides. Its own site gives its hours as Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, closed on Sundays and Mondays. We could not confirm a current admission price, so check with the museum before a special trip.

Towcester and Silverstone

Towcester is the nearest town to the circuit, about 5 miles away by road from the Saracens Head. For the 2026 Grand Prix, Silverstone gave fan taxis no access or drop-off in the villages round the circuit, and made Towcester Racecourse the nearest taxi drop-off and pick-up point, with a pre-booked shuttle bus of about 15 minutes to the gates. Our British Grand Prix guide has the 2026 arrangements, and our guide to where to stay for Silverstone compares the Saracens Head, the Travelodge on the A43 and the rest. We found no race-week rates published by either Towcester hotel, so book early and ask.

Motor racing has older roots here. Lord Hesketh ran his Formula One team from his family's Easton Neston estate on the edge of town in the 1970s, with James Hunt driving: the story is in Motorsport Valley. Easton Neston is private. Towcester Racecourse (opens in a new tab) on London Road holds greyhound racing five days a week, afternoons from Friday to Sunday and evenings on Monday and Tuesday, with free entry booked in advance. It has had no horse racing since May 2018, and its site says jump racing returns on Wednesday 20 October 2027.

A morning in Towcester

Park at Sponne Arcade or the Tove car parks. Start at the museum when it opens at 10am, Tuesday to Saturday, then walk along Watling Street to St Lawrence and Sponne's tomb, and look at the Chantry House gateway on the way. Climb Bury Mount, cross the Tove footbridge to the meadows, and come back for lunch on Watling Street. Two to three hours covers it at an easy pace.

Walks from Towcester

The meadows beyond Bury Mount are the short walk. The long one ends nearby: the Knightley Way runs about 12 miles, on the county's figure, from Badby by Fawsley to Greens Norton, just north-west of Towcester. Walk it one way with a lift back, or do the last stretch from Greens Norton into town.

Food and drink in Towcester

Watling Street has the pubs. The Brave Old Oak, in a 300-year-old building, opens daily from 11am, but its kitchen stops early, at 7pm most days, so it suits lunch or an early supper. The Saracens Head serves until 9pm, 9.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 8pm on Sundays, and has cask ale. Both are on our list with their details.

For local food, the Towcester Country Market (opens in a new tab) is held every Thursday from 9am to 11.30am at the Sawpits Centre off Richmond Road, and the town council lists a farmers' market on the second Friday of the month, 9am to 1.30pm, in the Sponne Arcade car park. Both listings date from 2025, so check the council's What's On page for the next one.

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When to come to Towcester

Any weekday suits the town, and Thursday has the country market. Avoid the British Grand Prix weekend in July, and the other big Silverstone weekends, unless you are going to the circuit: the roads and the hotels fill.

On parking, West Northamptonshire Council proposed charges for Towcester in its 2026 budget, the town council objected in January 2026, and the plans were dropped: the council's notice of July 2026 says its Towcester car parks stay free. Tove Short Stay has a three-hour limit from 8am to 6pm on weekdays, and the Market Square car park is closed.