The outwardly sleepy countryside of Northamptonshire conceals a dark secret at its heart.
As we pass through the quiet honey coloured stone village of Ashby St Ledgers note the timber framed gatehouse. This picturesque building is where the conspirators behind the Gunpowder Plot met to hatch the act of treason, which had it succeeded would have blown up Parliament. Elsewhere, our ride takes in the famed parkland, cosy churches and stately homes of this corner of England known, not without good reason, as the “Shire of Squires and Spires.