John Fothergill was a somewhat eccentric restaurateur and writer of cook books. A former landlord of the Spreadeagle, Thame and the Royal Hotel, Ascot, he was to become a well known figure in the district, after purchasing the Three Swans Hotel in the High Street.
He was educated first at Bath College, then St. John's College, Oxford. His attire was often a scrubby smock, and always a pair of silver bucked shoes, and his manner was such that people could easily take offense if they were unaccustomed to his dry sense of humour - even to the extent of seeming very rude to his customers! During his days at the 'Ascot hotel', he was famous for being able to knock up a good meal from very few ingredients.
Fothergill arrived in Market Harborough during November 1934 by car, along with four Chow dogs, four puppies and 25 budgerigars!
He was very much taken with the people and architecture of Harborough, and paid for the restoration of the Sun Dial on St. Dionysius Church, which was carried out by a Mr. Hinton in 1948.
He wrote this of the High Street in the town:
" The High Street is on a graceful curve like Regents Street so that you can't see the length of it. The hill going North is a really beautiful exit to the town."
He was to be landlord of the Three Swans for twenty years before his retirement, dying at the age of 81 years, and is now buried at a cemetery in Rugby.
A Programme about his life as an eccentric landlord was screened on BBC2 television in 1981, his character portrayed by Robert Hardy.
One of the bars in the older part of The Three Swans is named after him.