The ruinous and disused church of St Mary in Arden is on the E side of Market Harborough, administrative centre of the Harborough district that forms the SE of the county. The present building was built in 1693-94 by Henry Dormer to replace a medieval church destroyed when its spire fell around 1660, and is a plain rectangular box with low gables at E and W. The medieval S doorway and porch were reused by Dormer; the porch Perpendicular and the doorway 12thc.

Dormer's church was in a bad state by the late-18thc; the floor unpaved and glass missing from the windows. In 1925 it was repaired and refitted, but after World War 2 the fittings were removed and the lead from the roof was sold. By 1958 it was on its way to becoming a more or less picturesque ruin.

Edward the Confessor held 9½ carucates in Great Bowden before the Conquest, and William I held it in 1086. Also in 1086 Robert de Buci held 3 carucates in Great Bowden from Countess Judith. Harborough is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, and perhaps did not exist at that time. The first mention of it is in 1190 when when King Richard granted lands in Great Bowden and Harborough (Haverberg) to William de Filgeriis. He was in possession until 1203 when King John granted the lands to William de Cantilupe. For the manorial history in the later period, see VCH, 5, 133-53. The chapel of St Mary in Arden was first mentioned in c.1220 when it was dependent on Great Bowden, but also had a dependent chapel in Harborough. VCH describes its status as 'doubtful'.

The date of the doorway is difficult to establish. The moulded capitals suggest late-12thc work, while the en-delit nook-shafts, heavy angle rolls and beakheads would be happier in the middle of the century. We therefore suggest that it is an old fashioned work of the end of the century.