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Burley on the Hill Burley on the Hill is two miles (3 km) north-east of Oakham. The 'on the Hill' is an attempt to differentiate Burley House (at Burley on the Hill) from Burghley House near Stamford and Burley Park to the west of Loughborough. The name describes a stronghold (burh) near woodland (leah). The village was of substantial size until 1375 when it seems to have been almost entirely destroyed by fire. The settlement was in Alstoe Hundred. Indeed the meeting place for Alstoe Hundred was in the parish and the moot mound, sometimes refered to as 'Mount Alstoe', survives. It is the only moot mound to have survived in Rutland and Leicestershire. Alstoe is a contraction of 'Alfnoth's stow'. 'Stow' denotes a meeting place. Earthworks from the deserted medieval village of Alstoe survive nearby. The moot site for the Alstoe Hundred has survived between Burley and Cottesmore. This is the Historic England listing. In 2025 MOLA completed an excavation at Burley. Finds included Roman field systems and an area containing a pit with some Anglo-Saxon finds, including a fragment of a comb and a possible knife. An Anglo-Saxon barrow complex and high-status finds were discovered about 2017. Two medieval moated sites are known, as is a medieval deer park. Burley House Before the extant Burley House there had been a previous mansion which burnt down in 1646. Based on late seventeenth century printed references and surveys which followed its destruction this mansion originated as a fine late Elizabethan house built by Sir John Harington (1539/40–1613) that was enlarged and reorientated by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628) soon after 1620. Full details in Rutland Record No.18.   The present Burley House was built between 1694 and 1708. It adopted the Palladian style about twenty years before that style really caught on. In terms of grandeur it was comparable to Chatsworth and Petworth. Much of the original interior was destroyed by fire in 1908. Restoration was undertaken a few years later in an imitation seventeenth century style. By the late twentieth century it had been split up into several separate dwellings. Around 2010 I was able to visit one of them – very sumptious it was too. This article has all the griff. The south-facing windows now overlook Rutland Water. Indeed the great landscaped avenue leading south was halved in length when Rutland Water was flooded. The perimeter wall to Burley House is six miles long and follows the boundary of the medieval hunting park. The pioneering landscape gardener, Humphrey Repton, was commissioned to work at Burley House. More about Humphrey Repton at Burley in Rutland Record No.9. Sir George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea (1752–1826), lived at Burley House and was Lord Lieutenant of Rutland for many years and also an influential figure in the history of cricket. He helped establish inter-county matches and was the prime mover of setting up the MCC in 1787. Lots more about Burley House in Rutland Record No.10. The Cherry Blossom smithy Burley's old forge in 2002. On the village green is a modest building, formerly the village smithy. It is supposedly the inspiration for Henry Longfellow's poem 'The Village Blacksmith'. In the 1920s a photograph of the building featured i advertisements for Cherry Blossom boot polish. The last blacksmith to use the smithy, William Chambers, died in 1930. His main task had been to look after the horses associated with Burley House. Holy Cross Church Burley church in 2001. Holy Cross church was all but rebuilt during the restoration of 1869–70; the tower was restored in 1913. The north arcade dates from about 1180–90, and the south arcade is early thirteenth century. The font is fifteenth century. The clock is an important example of seventeenth century craftsmanship. There's a fifteenth century double effigy and a rather sentimental female effigy of 1813. In the churchyard is a gravestone depicted with mason's tools. There are curious carvings on the reverse of this and some other gravestones. Victoria County History page for Burley. 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