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

Hello and welcome to Rutland village by village The pioneer landscape historian W.G. Hoskins penned these words in 1949. Remarkably, over the intervening seventy-plus years much of Rutland has remained mostly unspoiled, making its 'quiet charm' even more valuable. The biggest change since 1949 has been the loss of about three percent of the county to Rutland Water, completed in 1976. Important though Rutland Water has become for watersports enthusiasts, birdwatchers, anglers and cyclists, this little county has much more of interest. Miles and miles of quiet byways pass through attractive scenery and villages consisting of stone-built houses that are reminiscent of the Cotswolds. Every village is worth stopping at to explore. The county's churches are all of interest and many are of national significance. Harking back to the antiquarians of the eighteenth century, I have incorporated a wide variety of obscure and little-known facets of the villages' histories, together with the more significant aspects of the archaeological evidence. Most of the places described in this web site are on, or visible from, public rights of way. However please show full respect for private property and always follow the Countryside Code. Above all, 'Leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but photographs'. Back in 2002 I published a book called Rutland Village by Village. A free PDF is available online. This website is based on the book but I've added much more background about Rutland's history. And the black and white photographs in the book have been replaced with colour ones. There are two ways to explore this web site. In the left-hand navigation column on every page is an alphabetical list of the villages in Rutland. In the right-hand navigation column is a list of topics in approximate chronological order. This web site is a companion to a site about the Vale of Belvoir. Although creating this website was done to keep me distracted over the winter of 2025–2026 I am happy to include information and/or photographs from other people. Please email me bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk. Also email me if you think I've got something wrong or information is out of date. Highlights In total the two navagation columns on every page link to over a hundred other pages. If you find this a bit intimidating then here's some suggestions for where you might want to start. How long has Rutland been the size it is? What did the Anglo-Saxons do for Rutland? Where were Rutland's earliest churches? Does Rutland have the oldest foliage-sprouting carvings in Britain? Summoning St Michael in the eleventh century The legend of Ryhall's duplicated saint Why don't we call it 'The Battle of Pigsty Cottage Field'? Who were 'milestone inspectors'? How many Rutland villages once had quoits beds? And, just for fun, some bonkers Arthurian AI Acknowledgements Collective thanks to the authors of the many church and village guide books whose work made my original research back around 2001–2 much easier. Their modern-day successors have usefully compiled Wikipedia pages for every village in Rutland. Further research in 2025–6 was greatly assisted by the National Library of Scotland online Ordnance Survey maps and Historic England's Listed Buildings database. Thanks to the 'crew' of the Rutland Local History and Record Society for putting over forty issues of Rutland Record online as free-access PDFs. The authors of books and articles who assisted with the preparation of this web site are listed in this bibliography. Special thanks, in alphabetical order, to the late Jill Bourn for many helpful discussions about place-names and the Braunston carving; Barrie Cox for his exceptional study of Rutland place-names; Richard Ellison for casting a constructive eye over the geology page; Della Graham and colleagues for assisting with accessing books at Loughborough Local Studies Library; Jeremy Harte and Alby Stone for much-needed help with avoiding racial slurs; Richard Knox for invaluable assistance about Rutland's archaeology; the staff of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland for a consistently helpful and efficient service; the late Roy Palmer for his research into Rutland folklore; the late Arthur Mee for his descriptions of Rutland in the 1930s; the late A.R. Traylen for compiling twenty very informative booklets about Rutland villages in the mid-1970s; Tim Walker, owner of Walker's Books in Oakham, for suggesting there needed to be a guidebook specifically for Rutland – without that book there would not be this web site; Alastair Ward for his extensive comments and corrections to the first draft of my book. Bob Trubshaw Back to top of this 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 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