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

Queen Isabella, owner of Rutland from 1204. Rutland in medieval times While I have noted that Rutland originated as a Bronze Age land unit there is a slight complication that around the eleventh century it was not regarded as a single, independent administrative area. For example, Oakham manor held lands in both Rutland and Leicestershire, while places in both Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire held significant, and sometimes overlapping, interests in Rutland. In 1086 the manor of Lyddington – which included Caldecott, Snelston and Stoke Dry – was held by the bishops of Lincoln. But it was listed in Domesday Book as part of the Witchley Wapentake of Northamptonshire. Rutland reappears as an entity in 1155, then as a county in 1204, when King John gave it to Queen Isabella. At the end of the thirteenth century Rutland mostly comprised of royal hunting grounds owned by noble families. By the end of the fifteenth century the forests had reduced and the parishes owned by gentry making money from the wool trade. Oakham and Uppingham had become the two most important settlements. Royal forests See the separate page on Rutland's royal forests. Castles Oliver Creighton wrote about the medieval castles of Rutland in Rutland Record No.20 and included this map: Here's the links to relevant villages: Beaumont Chase, Burley, Essendine, North Luffenham, Oakham and Woodhead. Moated houses The foresters and gentry lived in houses surrounded by moats. Originally this was to protect the occupants from animals such as wolves, and from vagabonds. But in time moats became more of a 'status symbol'. While none of the houses have survived the earthworks sometimes have. I've not attempted to compile a list of known moats but I am aware of one south-west of Empingham, another at Essendine, one east of Hambleton (which is now under Rutland Water), and one north of Whissendine. And the forests were good for pigs A document from about 1347 relates to the Sherriff procuring one hundred sides of bacon to provision the king's army. Other counties provided corn or oats or beef. Clearly it was known in London that there were plenty of pigs in Rutland. And the extensive woodlands would have provided excellent feeding areas for herds of swine. The king offered to pay four shillings per side. But the records reveal that householders only received three shillings. Clearly the Sherriff was making a profit. Indeed we cannot be sure the householders actually received the agreed sum of three shillings. Once collected they were briefly stored in Oakham before being sent by cart (with an armed guard) to Yaxley where they were taken along the River Nene to what was then Bishop's Lynn (later King's Lynn). The Rutland bacon was then shipped to the Earl of Derby and his men, stranded in Gascony during a set-back in the Hundred Years War. Abundant details in an article in Rutland Record No.19. The Battle of Empingham One of the most dramatic events in Rutland was on 12 March 1470 when a decisive battle in the Wars of the Roses took place near Empingham at Tickencote Warren. Forces under Sir Robert Welles rebelled against Edward IV. The King took Welles's father hostage, and ordered Welles to disperse his men. Sir Robert refused, so Edward killed the older Welles within sight of the rebel army, and ordered his men to attack. The rebels were put to flight. The battle site, near the Great North Road, is still called 'Bloody Oaks' today. Since the nineteenth century it has been called the 'Battle of Lose-Coat Field'. According to folklore, many of Welles' men were wearing jackets displaying Warwick's and Clarence's livery, and when the rout began, not wanting to be caught wearing such identification, many discarded their garments. The battle was thus called 'Lose-coat'. This story has no historical basis. Contemporary accounts refer to the battle site as 'Hornfield' (Horn is an adjacent hamlet) and do not use the name Losecoat or anything comparable. The origin of 'lose-coat' is Old English hlose-cot 'pigsty cottage'. Forms of Losecote also appear as field names in other parishes in Rutland. A field at the site of the battle seems to have acquired that name, which later spawned the false 'lose coat' etymology. Noble families The de Brus and Harington families held estates at Exton, Burley on the Hill and Normanton. Monasteries There were only ever two monastic houses in Rutland and one of those was minor. At Edith Weston a Benedictine priory was established about 1114 but it remained small. In 1394 it was closed and sold to the Carthusians. The only significant monastery in Rutland was the Augustinian priory at Brooke. It was founded by Hugh de Ferrers sometime before 1153. Although closed around 1536 extensive earthworks are still visible. See the Dissolution in Rutland. 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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