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

The boundaries of Rutland Two notable researchers independently established that a unit of land similar in extent to modern Rutland was first set out in the Bronze Age. The evidence is burial mounds – or 'barrows' – which were built by Bronze Age people on the hills forming the boundaries of what is now known as Rutland. As with other parts of Britian, such Bronze Age burial mounds are almost always on the watersheds which form the boundaries of territories. sources Charles Phythian-Adams, 1977, 'Rutland reconsidered' in Ann Dornier (ed), Mercian Studies, Leicester University Press. Charles Phythian-Adams, 1980, 'The emergence of Rutland and the making of the realm', Rutland Record, 1, 5–12. Barrie Cox, 1994, The Place-names of Rutland, English Place-name Society (pages xvi to xviii). Because of ploughing and other damage, not all of the Bronze Age burial mounds in Rutland have survived. Many are only known from historical records or crop mark photographs. One place where such mounds have survived is in the parish of Barrowden. And, yes, the settlement does take its name from the Old English for 'hill with burial mounds'. And Barrow elsewhere in Rutland also had a barrow. Throughout prehistory territories were divided by the hills and watersheds between them. In other words, land units equated to valleys. Rutland has rather more rivers than might be expected for its size. And, in more recent centuries one of those rivers, the Welland, is the south-eastern boundary. So clearly the Welland wasn't the boundary in the Bronze Age. Or indeed probably not before the seventh or eighth century as it is an Anglo-Saxon innovation to start using rivers as boundaries (see Hannah and Martyn Whittock, 2014, The Anglo-Saxon Avon Valley Frontier: A river of two halves, Fonthill). Win some, lose some Before the Welland became the boundary Rutland must have extended about four miles further south-east to the minor watershed between the Welland and the Nene. So the ridge where Colleyweston and Easton on the Hill are located. Although not a prominent feature in the landscape, differences in Iron Age coins and other finds confirms that this interfluve between the Welland and Nene was the boundary between the Corieltauvi (to the north) and the Catuvellauni (to the south). (Information from Jeremy Taylor's lecture 'The Welland Valley Survey: An Iron Age and Roman landscape in the making' given to Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 25 February 2010.) On this basis I am confident that the pre-Roman and Roman boundary of Rutland was the Welland–Nene watershed. In contrast to losing its most south-eastern parishes to Northamptonshire, in the seventh or eighth centuries Rutland expanded northwards. Previously the most northerly parts of Rutland were Teigh, Barrow and Greetham. Barrie Cox, in his Place-names of Rutland, thinks this northern acquisition was instigated by Rota and happened in the eighth century, but it could have been a little earlier. This expansion meant that Rota gained the economically-important ironworking sites at Thistleton and Clipsham. He also acquired/developed the market site at Market Overton (we're not quite sure when this market moved from the Roman small town at Thistleton but seems likely to have been at the time of this expansion of Rutland). Cox also notes that only in this new 'extension' to Rutland do parish boundaries respect Roman roads, indicating that previous land units had gone out of use. Defending Rutland's boundaries Barrie Cox's meticulous place-name research sheds light on a surprising number of now-lost defensive structures of the mid-Anglo-Saxon period. At this time Rutland was administered from Hambleton, then a well-defended hilltop settlement. Possible defensive sites in Barrow, Clipsham, Morcott, Teigh and Whissendine suggest most of Rutland's borders had defensive earthworks – and that they were planned to be equidistant. Cox considers that the Norman motte and bailey at Essendine is a successor to an early fortification as it is located in a gap in the otherwise equidistant defenses – and exactly where the river crossing demands a military presence. The Roman fort at Market Overton may well have been reused by Anglo-Saxons before becoming the site of the church. A minor place-name suggests a look-out post was located nearby on a hill overlooking Sewstern Lane. A Castle Dike is now just outside Rutland at Pickworth. But the kink in the border to exclude it reveals that it would originally have been part of Rutland. A Castle Hill in Beaumont Chase suggests the Eye Brook had adequate defences. Defences at the eponymous 'stone ford' over the Welland at Stamford would have been of strategic importance to Rutland. The historic crossing of the Welland a few miles upstream at Turtle Bridge is overlooked by the toot hyll ('look-out hill') which got charmingly corrupted to 'turtle'. North of Belton is a Twitch Hill which is another corruption of 'toot hill'. Wardley from the Old English weard 'to watch, ward' is clearly another look-out place in the south of Rutland. While unsure of the origin of Belton's name, Cox suggests it might be from Old English beal 'beacon fire' – so another type of look-out – with Littleworth being the garrison settlement (and from perhaps a little later, maybe as late as the tenth century, unless 'Littleworth' is a renaming of an earlier settlement). I have only briefly summarised Cox's much more detailed analysis. I think there are three things that are impressive about this summary. Firstly that Cox was able to delve so deeply into the place-name evidence and spot these clues. Secondly I'm surprised by how many of these obscure – and long-obsolete – place-names have survived, seemingly without many gaps in the original distribution. And finally, the Anglo-Saxons pulled out all the stops to make sure Rutland could not be easily attacked. Equidistant fortifications, supported by various types of look-outs, with several more major garrisons placed strategically. These more major military settlements clearly evolved into Norman castles, hence such names as 'Castle Hill' which would not have been the Anglo-Saxon name. When did Rutland exist? I have written the previous remarks as if Rutland was an unbroken entity from prehistory into the modern day. But that is not entirely true. The Domesday survey of 1086 does not mention Rutland. The northern part was included under Nottinghamshire and assessed using carucates. The southern part was included in Northamptonshire and assessed using hides (a term usually only used south of the Welland). But it's not that simple. The land-holdings of Queen Edith straddle that boundary, implying that the division had come about in the eleventh century or just before. The best guess is that the two halves of Rota's land had retained their identity by being part of a royal hunting forest. Documents relating to Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire confirm that Rutland was administered as two halves until 1162. Yet there was a Sheriff of Rutland by 1155. Only in 1204, when King John granted his queen, Isabella, the whole of Rutland as a dowry do we find the word 'Rutland' in a document. Yet for it to have reappeared in written form it must have been used orally more-or-less continually from the tenth century. It is simply not a name that could be coined in the thirteenth century. Only in 1227 is the first reference to Rutland as a county. Although popular parlance sometimes refers to Rutland as one of the shires (in large part because all it's neighbouring counties are indeed shires) strictly Rutland has never been a shire as it was not called that when the Old English word scir ('shire') was in use. The Norman French introduced 'county' to the English lexicon and 'shire' and 'county' became synonymous. But not all counties were once shires. The above account does raise the question: was Rota's land smaller than prehistoric and medieval boundaries of Rutland? However I think not because the 1227 usage infers that it is continuation of an earlier sense of Rutland predating the 'two halves' of the preceding centuries. And the presumed location of Rota's 'defensive palace' at Hambleton is central to a 'united' Rutland. And there is a local parallel for a unit of land being divided for administrative reasons – the Vale of Belvoir – as the southern parishes became part of Leicestershire (almost certainly in AD 950) while the remainder was included in the then newly-created Nottinghamshire. Why Rutland survived Once the changes had been made in the seventh or eighth centuries then the boundaries of Rutland remained unchanged. Remarkably, because in the tenth or eleventh century counties such as Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire were created around what then became the 'county town'. At that time Stamford was almost as important as Leicester, Lincoln, Derby and Nottingham. But there was never a Stamfordshire. Historians have yet to work out quite why. Best guess is that the powers that be in both Lincoln and Peterborough didn't want to lose a significant part of their territory. If Stamfordshire had come about it would have absorbed Rutland and much of South Kesteven as well as parishes towards Peterborough. Several centuries before counties were being created and Rutland was still being run from Hambleton then Stamford was much less important than later. We know that around the eighth century Stamford was part of the Hambleton estate. So part of Rutland. Why do we know this? Because the early church at Stamford was a daughter church. Its mother church was Hambleton. I've not been able to establish when this arrangement ceased. A realignment of dioceses in 1541 is one possibility. But maybe long before then. The disputed woodland We know that one part of Rutland's boundary wasn't well-defined. It was where the Leighfield Forest stretched from Rutland into Leicestershire. This was a royal hunting forest and therefore no one really needed to know where Rutland ended and Leicestershire started as, if the king wasn't fussed (as it was all his land), then no one else need worry. There certainly wasn't going to be a hedge or anything else to get in the way of the king and his courtiers coursing after deer. But things changed. The forest was mostly cut down and brushwood (which was valuable as fuel for cooking) took over. Sometime before 1086 woodland on the boundary between Rutland and Leicestershire near Cold Overton was referred to as flyteris from Old English flyt 'strife, dispute' and hris 'brushwood'. So a 'disputed wood'. In 1252 the Earl of Cornwall was given the right to make the land into a deer park. There is still a 'Flitteriss Park Farm' off Cold Overton Road. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. 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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