All Saints Church : Oakham

The tower of All Saints rises above Oakham's market square with the kind of quiet authority you don't see much anymore. This is proper Perpendicular Gothic - all soaring windows and stonework that's been weathering English weather since the 14th century, though most of what you see went up later.

Step inside and you're hit by scale. The nave stretches back further than you'd expect from the outside, with some genuinely fine medieval glass if you know where to look. There's a memorial to Jeffery Hudson, one of Charles I's court dwarfs - sounds daft, but the craftsmanship on that thing is superb. The font's medieval, the roof timbers are hefty oak, and the whole place has that particular smell of old stone and centuries of candle wax that you can't fake.

It's a working church, so you'll catch it as locals do - quiet, unmusey, real. Come on a weekday morning if you want it to yourself. The churchyard's worth a wander too, with some decent Victorian stonework among the graves.

This works brilliantly if you're based at Greendale Farm Caravan & Camping Park nearby - it's a five-minute walk from the town centre, so you can combine it with proper exploring of Oakham itself. The market square's lively enough, and there's decent eating options about. Don't expect a visitor experience though; it's a church first, tourist attraction second. That's rather the point.