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

Rutland's royal forests To even begin to understand Rutland's royal forests you need to realise that there were several royal forests, each with different boundaries. The first of these is not even documented but merely implied. By 1086 (and almost certainly for a few generations before) Rutland had been split in half. The northern half was administered as part of Nottinghamshire and the southern part was administered from Northamptonshire. Yet a sense of a coherent Rutland survived into the early thirteenth century and has remained ever since. The best guess is that the northern and southern parts were both part of a tenth century royal hunting estate. We can't use the word 'forest' yet as that is Norman French so not before 1066. Sometime after 1100 Henry I (~1068–1135) made most of Rutland south of the Gwash and a small part of adjoining Leicestershire into a royal hunting forest. But it didn't stay that way for very long. Parts of the forest were steadily 'disafforested' – a term which, at the time, meant that Forest Laws no longer applied and customary farming practices could be carried out. We know that the Leicestershire part of Rutland Forest was disafforested in 1235. Eventually only the south-western corner of Rutland remained under Forest Law. By the end of the fifteenth century it was no longer known as Rutland Forest but had become Leighfield or Lyfield Forest. And always pronounced 'Lyfield'. In 1630 King Charles I disafforested the remaining areas of forest and sold the land. Most of the woodland was quickly cleared. However Wardley Wood remained largely undisturbed until after 1945. The villages of Belton, Loddington, Launde, Withcote, Owston, Knossington, Braunston and Brooke are on the perimeter of a large area with no major roads, no villages and only a few farms (known as 'lodges'). These lodges are most likely the successors to the homes of medieval foresters. The area of Leighfield forest in the early nineteenth century. View the map in more detailed resolution here. Apart from fox coverts of the eighteenth and nineteenth century the area is no longer especially wooded. But royal forests were never especially wooded anyway. They were maintained to provide habitat for deer and game birds. Once the woodland had been disafforested' pigs, cattle and geese would also be allowed to feed. Very different to the ghastly close-planted conifers of the post-war Forestry Commission. Any discussion of Rutland's hunting forests must include a mention of Rockingham Forest to the immediate south of the Welland. Rockingham Castle was built by Henry II (1133–89) for three main reasons. Firstly to control the crossing of the Welland – and little doubt collect lucrative tolls. Secondly to protect the iron working, again very valuable. And thirdly to provide him with accomodation when hunting in Rockingham Forest. More about the medieval hunting grounds of Rutland in Rutland Record No.1. More about the deer parks of Rutland in Rutland Record No.14. Peter de Neville and his wrongdoing as Warden of the Forest of Rutland: Rutland Record No.18. More details of Ridlington's medieval deer park in Rutland Record No.23. A provisional list of the medieval woodlands of Rutland (excluding Leighfield Forest) c.1086–c.1540 in Rutland Record No.31. Leighfield Forest in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries: Rutland Record No.34. 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