Moreton-in-Marsh – Things to see and do

Moreton-in-Marsh started as a Saxon settlement around the church but was redeveloped as a market in the 1220s. 

King Charles I granted the town a market charter in 1637, which is still exercised every Tuesday when over 200 stalls create the Cotswolds’ largest open-air street market. The market is held off Moreton’s extensive High Street, part of the Roman road, the Fosse Way. 

The development of turnpike roads in the 18th Century increased Moreton’s prosperity and many fine buildings on the High Street date from this period. Interesting historical features in the town centre include a 16th-century curfew tower on the corner of Old Street, where the bell was rung each night until the 1860s to tell people to return to their homes.

The Redesdale Hall, built in 1887, is a striking building in Moreton town centre which is available for community use. In 1941, a bomber flight training school opened on a site off London Road, just outside Moreton, and was responsible for training air crew flying Wellington bombers during the Second World War. 

Although RAF Moreton-in-Marsh ceased to be operational in the late 1950s, in 1968, the site became the base for the Fire Service College, which is now one of the world’s leading operational fire and rescue training facilities. 

The Moreton-in-Marsh Show is held each year on the first Saturday in September and is a major celebration of farming and country life, past and present.