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

Lyddington Lyddington is situated in the south of Rutland. The name is first recorded in 1086 as Lidentone. This seems to be a stream-name hlyda ('the loud') one' with tun ('settlement'). However the later spelling suggests Lidentone was a contraction of the Old English male personal name, Hlyda, with ingtun ('the settlement of the followers/descendants of Hlyda'). Seemingly the name Hlyda and the adjective hlyde were cognate, making Hlyda a nickname denoting him as 'the loud one'. For many centuries the name was spelt as 'Long Liddington'. Lyddington was in Wrangdike Hundred. According to oral lore recorded in the early 1970s, locals are known as 'Lithers'. An Anglo-Saxon coin minted about AD 800 was found at the site of the deserted village of Snelston. Within the parish is Prestley Hill, first recorded in 1249. This is from the Old English preost with leah 'woodland of the priest(s)' (i.e. woodland for the endowment of clergy) and is comparable to Prestwold near Loughborough, with wald also denoting woodland. The village is overlooked by a ridge (which also overlooks the River Welland) from Barrowden to Seaton via Lyddington. History of the Manor The Manor of Lyddington cum Caldecott, which included Stoke Dry, Snelston, and Caldecott, was held by the bishops of Lincoln in 1086 and was then in the Witchley Wapentake of Northamptonshire. Thorpe by Water was incorporated later. By the middle of the twelfth century, the bishops had established a residence for themselves at Lyddington. With excellent hunting available nearby in Rockingham Forest, fertile soil and rich pasture, it soon became a favourite place for the bishops and their friends to stay, especially at Christmas. Over the next three centuries they cultivated the land, enlarged their nearby park in which they built fishponds, extended the buildings and created a place fit for Henry VIII and Katherine Howard to visit in 1541. Snelston was first mentioned in 1243 and seems to have still been a small village as late as 1548. A hunting lodge there is mentioned in 1753. The A6003 now passes through the site although this was newly constructed around 1780 when the turnpike was constructed. In 1547, succumbing to pressures on the Church at the Reformation, Bishop Henry Holbeach handed the Manor to the crown, together with almost half the estates of the diocese of Lincoln. The following year, it was given to Gregory Cromwell and his wife Elizabeth for their joint lives. When Gregory died in 1551, it was granted to William Cecil, though he did not actually receive it until Elizabeth died in 1568. From then until the end of the manorial system in 1925, the Manor remained in the hands of the Cecil family of Burghley House, Stamford. William Cecil became the first Lord Burley in 1571. His eldest son Thomas was made the first Earl of Exeter in 1605 and Henry Cecil, the tenth Earl, was made Marquess of Exeter in 1801. The collection of manuscripts at Burghley House is known as the Exeter Archive. source: lyddingtonhistory.org.uk/index.php/the-manor Lyddington has a long, very attractive main street of houses built from local ironstone. Many of these are seventeenth and eighteenth century, such as the priest's house of 1626 to the south of St Andrew's church. Honeypot Spring survives only as a street name. A turf maze similar to that at Wing once existed on Priestley Hill. Oral history collected in the early 1970s states that it was cut in 1880. But this could be a mis-remembering of an older maze being recut. Another now lost turf maze is known to have existed in Leicestershire at Medbourne. All three villages lie within eight miles of each other. Lyddington's stonemasons The research of Roderick Cave has revealed evidence for many of the eighteenth and nineteenth century stonemasons with workshops in Lyddington. They all signed gravestones in Lyddington and nearby parish churchyards. They would have also been building and repairing houses, barns, field boundaries and other stone-built structures. John Clarke fl. 1767–1841. Joseph Clarke fl. 1766–1843. Robert Clarke fl. 1778–1871. Robert Clarke jr. fl. 1813–57. Henry Baker, Hugh Clarke, Joseph Clarke, Robert Clarke and Thomas Clarke are all listed as stonemasons in Pigott's Directory of 1841.   The stump and base of a medieval cross were re-erected on the village green in 1930. It had been pulled down in the 1840s by drunken railway navvies. Photograph taken in 1999. Along Scales Dyke in Lyddington a camp for the Women's Land Army was created in 1939. Subsequently it was used as a prisoner of war camp. The Bede House   The Bede House in 2018. The only property in Rutland in the guardianship of English Heritage is the Bede House. This was built in the fifteenth century (probably between 1436 and 1449 by Bishop Alnwick) as an opulent manor house – sometimes grandly termed a palace. At least part of it may have been rebuilt in 1490. A substantial property existed here earlier, as a filled-in moat that may be twelfth century has been discovered, and the house was referred to in 1320. Permission to build defences here was granted by the king in 1336. What has survived is only part of the original complex, perhaps just the southern part of a much larger arrangement around a courtyard. The construction is local limestone with Collyweston 'slates'. Painted glass from the mid- and late fourteenth century survives. After the Reformation the house was owned by, among others, Lord Cromwell and William Cecil (Lord Burghley). In 1602 William Cecil's son, Thomas, converted the building to an almshouse for twelve poor men and two women. It is the 'bede house' because those who lived there were expected to pray ('biddan') for their benefactor. Around 1860 part of the almshouse was used as a school for a hundred pupils. A purpose-built school opened in 1870. It remained in use as an almshouse until 1930. For no less than twenty years between 1945 and 1965 the Ministry of Works undertook a lengthy restoration. Also of interest is the octagonal turret with a footpath through it between the Bede House and the church. This was built as a gazebo to look over the medieval formal gardens by Bishop Smith between 1496–1514. About 200 metres to the north-east of the churchyard the now-dry bishops' fishponds can be discerned.   Lyddington in 1884. The church is marked in red, with medieval fish ponds to the north-east.   The fish ponds in 2005. St Andrew's church St Andrew's church is unusual as it is aligned from north-east to south-west. The tower and chancel are 1320–40. Earthenware jars high up in the walls of the chancel are an early experiment in acoustics. The rest of the building is fifteenth century, apart from the vestry of 1849.   One of the monstrous fifteenth century corbels supporting the nave roof. Originally it would have been quite garishly painted. Two coffin lids of the thirteenth or fourteenth century now stand under the tower. The memorial brass to Edward Watson (died 1520) was rather 'new fangled' in its day as the inscription is in 'modern' Roman lettering rather than the 'Black Letter' script typical of the time. The remains of wall paintings are fifteenth century but they defaced were during the Reformation. In the north aisle windows the tops of windows include original fifteenth century glass depicting human faces. The unusual, perhaps unique, 'wrap around' communion rails were installed in 1635 and represent a compromise between those who thought the 'altar' should be in its traditional position at the east end of the church and the more radical protestant ideas of the time who argued that the 'communion table' should be near the middle of the church. The aisles and nave are populated with numerous animal and human grotesques. These are fifteenth century, apart from the pair facing each other at the chancel end of the nave, a foliate face and portrait of the Bishop of Peterborough. These were carved by Simon Todd in 1991 to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Diocese of Peterborough.        Simon Todd's corbels. 'Rev Bill' is holding the top of a crozier. Not, as a churchwarden waggishly suggested, a mobile phone. The former Bishop of Peterborough and father of Radio 1 rap DJ Tim Westwood, the Rt Rev Bill Westwood, has died aged 73. The bishop, who retired in 1995, died on Tuesday following a stroke, said the Church of England's Peterborough Diocese spokesman, Paul Needle. During his career, Bishop Westwood became well known as a media commentator, regularly appearing on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme's Thought for the Day slot and writing newspaper articles. His 1989 attack on the 'idle, whingeing, dishonest' Boswell family of the hit BBC sitcom Bread, while he was a member of the Broadcasting Standards Council, received wide coverage. In 1996, an ecclesiastical court ruled that St Peter's Church, in Oundle, Northamptonshire, could erect a gargoyle of the bishop, despite the objection of some parishioners. […] Bishop Westwood was theologically and politically conservative, and once described himself as the only bishop to support Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. source: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/448470.stm 15 September 1999 When I gave a talk about medieval carvings in Lyddington church in 2018 I recall that 'Rev Bill' was very fondly remembered by parishioners. On the exterior of the tower look for 'face pulling' gargoyles. Victoria County History page for Lyddington (with extensive details of the Bede House). 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