home page   what's new?   email bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk to request updates (please mention Rutland Village by Village) or to offer new information   Rutland Village by Village only WWW Village by Village Ashwell Ayston Barleythorpe Barrow Barrowden Beaumont Chase Belmesthorpe Belton-in-Rutland Bisbrooke Braunston-in-Rutland Brooke Burley Caldecott Clipsham Cottesmore Edith Weston Egleton Empingham Essendine Exton Glaston Great Casterton Greetham Gunthorpe Hambleton Horn Ketton Langham Leighfield Little Casterton Lyddington Lyndon Manton Market Overton Martinsthorpe Morcott Normanton North Luffenham Oakham Pickworth Pilton Preston Ridlington Ryhall Seaton South Luffenham Stoke Dry Stretton Teigh Thistleton Thorpe by Water Tickencote Tinwell Tixover Uppingham Wardley Whissendine Whitwell Wing This site sponsored by   Heart of Albion

Ayston Ayston church about 1790. Ayston is located about one mile north-west of Uppingham, near the A47 and A6003 junction. Thornham? Aethelstanstun? Ayston! Back in 1046 this little village had one of the longest names in Rutland: Aethelstanstun, the settlement ('tun') of Aethelstan. Before 1046 the settlement was known as Thornham, the settlement with notable quantities of thorny vegetation. We know this because a charter of 1046 has survived. It records Edward the Confessor giving Aethelstanstun to Aethelstan. Happily Rutland folk miss out the middle of words so Aethelstanstun contracted to Ayston. It was in the Hundred of Martinsley. Interesting this 1046 charter is the only Anglo-Saxon charter to have survived for anywhere in Leicestershire and Rutland. And it's only survived as twelfth century copy. The charter refers to a 'Thursley Brook', seemingly a watercourse flowing through a sacred grove (with a clearing in the middle) dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon deity Thunor. This is plausible as little more than five kilometres to the south, to the west of Eyebrook Reservoir, was a Holyoaks, presumably also a pre-conversion sacred grove. Holyoaks Lodge is shown on OS maps. One suggestion is that the woodland which became known as Beaumont Chase was 'the wood of Thunor' until renamed by the Normans. See Charles Phythian-Adams Rutland Record No.1 p8. Castle Hill To the south-west of the village is Castle Hill. The remains of a substantial Norman motte survive with a large bailey to the east; the other sides are protected by steep slopes. This was probably the base for the foresters responsible for Beaumont Chase. There is an article about Castle Hill in Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 1999 p22–23 but this is not online. However the HER listing provides lots of details and aerial photographs and there is an article about all Rutland castles in Rutland Record No.20. St Mary's church The nave is mostly thirteenth century, the tower is from the fourteenth and the chancel from the fifteenth. Also from the fifteenth century is a stained glass window depicting the crucifixion. The font is eighteenth century. Some restoration work was done in 1857 but the interior, with box pews, is mostly from about 1800. During work at the base of the tower in 2014–2015 burials were discovered which predated the fourteenth century tower. This thirteenth century double effigy, now badly weathered, is propped up against the wall in the north aisle. The two heads lie on pillows with the feet appearing at the other end. Ayston Hall Ayston Hall is a nineteeth-century two-storey house constructed of ashlar with a stone-tiled roof and a three-bay frontage. It stands in 2.4 acres (nearly one hectare) of garden and is Grade II listed. The house was built in 1807 by William Daniel Legg for George Fludyer. He had inherited the land from his mother, the widow of Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st Baronet. It became the seat of the Fludyer family and descended to the 5th and last baronet, Arthur John. On his death without an heir in 1922 the property passed to his nephew James Finch. In 2015 the property was sold for £2.5 million. Victoria County History page for Ayston. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland's royal forests Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society with free PDFs of over forty issues of the Rutland Record Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website