Market Harborough to Thirsk to London

My experience with Enterprise has been they will drive you to the station after you return the car.

Can I suggest you lower your expectations of the English Heritage Castle at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Apart from the really cool name of the town, and the exceedingly cool motor car and motorcycle track of Donington Park, and the seriously cool name of the nearby village of Barton-in-the-Beans, Ashby has never done a lot for me despite having lived just down the road for several years. The castle was properly slighted during the Civil War (see the photos on the English Heritage website) and, compared with other castles such Kenilworth, I wasn't particularly impressed. Your mileage may vary, of course, and you may love it.

You can't get to Victoria Station from north of the river, especially not from Yorkshire. Every main line station in London serves a different part of the country, with slight overlaps between neighbors.

To Market Harborough (home to a nice canal walk, near the Foxton Lock Staircase, and home to a good auction house and a few nice shops, and very near a major battlefield during the Civil War at Naseby) the only train line that will work is East Midlands Trains who only serve St Pancras International in London.

From Yorkshire the station is either via Sheffield to St Pancras International on East Midlands Trains or a much faster run from York on Virgin East Coast into Kings Cross or occasional trains from Thirsk on Grand Central Railway also into Kings Cross.

Tube from both Kings Cross and St Pancras at the joint station Kings Cross St Pancras on the Victoria Line to Victoria.

Victoria Station only goes south from London serving South London and then Surrey and Sussex and parts of Kent and parts of Hampshire.

You could go from Market Harborough to Thirsk by train if you decided that way, in just over 3 hours; first bit 14 minutes changing at Leicester, second bit 33 minutes to Derby (but watch out for the Derby rebuild works depending on your travel day), and then 1:23 to York and finally changing onto the Grand Central to Thirsk which takes just 22 minutes.

Northallerton would be easier to drive into than York simply because it’s smaller and the traffic less busy in the morning commute. But against that you have more choice of car rental companies and trains back to London at York.

Taking the train to Thirsk isn’t really practical because a) the station is tiny and a fair distance from the town and b) you still need a car to get around.

Thank you for the advice. We just love to "soak in" the history of places like Ashby; plus I'm an avid amateur genealogist and the place plays a role in my family history. We don't have especially high expectations. We just want to visit it while we're so close.

I think I'm leaning toward Northallerton. It is only a 19 minute drive from where we are staying in Thirsk, the advance tickets are actually less than from York, and it gets us to London only 45 minutes later than if we took the longer drive to York for the train that leaves at the same time. Besides, coming from the U.S., we aren't that keen on driving where there is lots of traffic and we are trying to get somewhere specific on a deadline. We have some experience driving in the U.K, but that was 10 years ago.

Neither of the Enterprise offices in Leicester as indicated by their site is particularly close to the railway station, being situated in Aylestone and Belgrave. I daresay they will pick you up. Aylestone might be better as although it is to the south it is closer to the M1 junction. so might be easier to navigate from. If so take care not to drive in the bus lane that starts just outside.

Market Harborough as far as I can see only has local car hire companies, not national ones.