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

Thistleton in about 1635 before Enclosure. North is to the left. Rutland in the seventeenth century Rutland remained a small agricultural county while the political and religious turmoil of the age affected everyone. The population of Rutland in 1665 has been estimated at between 12,300 and 13,700 people. source: Jill Bourne and Amanda Goode (eds), The Rutland Hearth Tax 1665 (Rutland Record Society 1991). The nobility The Harington family started the century owning one-third of Rutland and had considerable influence on the court of King James I. Other influential families included the Cecils (Earls of Exeter) and the Finches (Earls of Nottingham). The Civil Wars The major landowning families, as might be expected, remained loyal to the king during the Civil Wars. Most notable were the Noel family. However Parliamentary forces were strong in Leicestershire and had a significant presence in Rutland, establishing a County Committee under Thomas Wayte (the Parliamentarian Governor of Rutland) to govern and collect taxes. In 1644, Parliamentarians garrisoned at Burley-on-the-Hill set fire to the mansion, destroying all but the stables, as a strategic measure. Warfare came at great cost to farmers and villagers, who faced billeting of soldiers, confiscation of goods and high taxation. Reform and dissent As with the rest of the country, the mid-century Interregnum saw the imposition of severe Puritan practices, including two-hour sermons and the banning of Christmas festivities. This led to friction and the rise of nonconformist denominations, such as the Baptists and Quakers, who established meeting houses in the county. After the Restoration of the monarchy and Church of England in 1660 these strongly dissenting religious views did not disappear. Itinerant Anabaptists and other Protestant preachers stirred up the populace, leading to questioning of established authority. Enclosure As the seventeenth century progressed the process of enclosure steadily began to encroach on common lands and the traditional common field system. Pastoral farming, especially sheep, became more important than arable. Early in the seventeenth century Whitwell was partially enclosed, without an Act of Parliament. Other parishes followed suit by local agreements. When the use of Acts of Parliaments to facilitate enclosure became more typical Hambleton was the first parish in Rutland to be enclosed by an Act, in 1692. But it was another sixty years before the next Acts for Rutland, when Egleton and Tinwell were enclosed in 1756. Full details of Rutland’s Common Fields and their Enclosure. Ending as it started Towards the end of the century, after the decades of strife, a stable, land-based ruling class re-emerged. This included the construction of grand houses, such as the rebuilding of Burley-on-the-Hill which commenced in 1694 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