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

Empingham Empingham is located at the east end of Rutland Water. The village's name means 'settlement of the people (-ingas-) of Empa'. It was in East Hundred (formerly Witchley). 'Empingham Reservoir' was the name of the reservoir during construction but it was changed to Rutland Water to preserve the name of the county which had recently merged with Leicestershire. The Gwash valley to the west of the present village is now mostly submerged under Rutland Water but was the focus of considerable late Iron Age activity. The construction of Rutland Water revealed evidence of a Roman villa that may have been reused as an early Christian chapel in the seventh or eight centuries, as burials of this date just outside the building are aligned east-west. Two other Romano-British farmsteads dating to about the mid-second to mid-fourth centuries have been excavated to the west of the present village. Evidence for extensive Anglo-Saxon settlement in the Gwash valley has been discovered plus various burials. These include a small late fifth to early seventh century cemetery discovered in 1967, and a larger cemetery of the same date excavated between 1974–5 in advance of the construction of Sykes Lane car park. The number of burials confirms that the area was quite densely settled at this time. Grave goods include amber beads, cowrie shells and ivory rings, showing that trading or social contacts extended as far as India or Africa. Empingham continued to have a substantial population during the Middle Ages. When Normanton village was cleared in the eighteenth century, the villagers moved to Empingham. Just east of the dam is a broad moat over a metre in depth, with a causeway at the western corner. To the south are two fishponds. These are associated with the now-gone medieval manor house. In 1470 an important battle during the Wars of the Roses took place north of the village, known as the Battle of Losecoat Field. At the east end of the main street is a house called The Wilderness which is an example of plainer seventeenth century design. The three-arch bridge over the River Gwash to the south of the church is late seventeenth century. The front of Prebendal House, to the south-east of the church was built about 1700.   Empingham dovecote in 2002. A circular stone-built dovecote stands in a field to the north of the village. Inside is room for no less than 700 birds. There's A Short History of Empingham online.   The Great Tower in 2009. In 1980 a very modern monument appeared on the shoreline of Rutland Water. Alexander's 9.3 metre high bronze sculpture called 'The Great Tower' was erected on the north shore of Rutland Water. At the time it was thought to be the biggest single-piece cast bronze sculpture ever made. The sculptor's full name was Alexander Charles Gain and he lived from 1927 until 2023. St Peter's Church In the 1930s Arthur Mee wrote: Set among fine limes and rich with an avenue of beeches and sycamores, with a river running drowsily by, [Empingham] has one of the most beautiful churches in the county. As Rutland has many exemplary churches, that's praise indeed. The oldest feature of this church is a tenth century grave cover is now inside the north transcept. It is thought to have been discovered in the churchyard in 1895. The stone is from Clipsham. The chancel and nave arcades are thirteenth century. Unusually the south arcade is older than the north arcade. Much of the rest is fourteenth century, including the impressive tower and steeple. The interior is largely thirteenth century, including the attractive sedilia and piscina, with some fifteenth century changes. Remains of old wall paintings survive over the south door and in the south transept. Some medieval glass survives in the upper parts of the east window of the north transept. I think it came from Pickworth church. But I've lost my notes about where I got that notion. Arthur Mee observed: The pulpit is 300 years old, and we imagine that Thomas Lovick Cooper, remembered on a wall tablet, must have preached from it to boys and girls who were still listening to him when the were old, for he was rector here for over 60 years, from 1831 to 1892. He was born in the first year of the century and lies in the churchyard. Not many writers these days can pull together so many parenthetical phrases in one sentence! Nor use 'the royal "we"' instead of 'I'. The church of St Peter was a Peculiar of the see of Lincoln. When the diocese of Peterborough was created in 1541, this church remained tied to Lincoln Cathedral and the title of a Prebend there. This church escaped drastic restoration because there was one 'very conservative' vicar for most of the nineteenth century. Victoria County History page for Empingham. 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