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Oakham Oakham is to the west of Rutland Water and in the Vale of Catmose (pronounced locally as 'cat-moss', not 'cat-moose'). Nothing suprising about the place-name. It's the settlement distinctive for oak trees. Which are not as common in Rutland as ash trees and, before the late 1960s, elms. There are also places called Oakham in Dorset, Gloucestershire, Shropshire and Warwickshire. The Soke of Oakham included the parishes of Oakham, Belton, Braunston, Brooke, Clipsham, Egleton, Langham and Wardley. Until the fifteenth century Oakham Soke was part of Martinsley Hundred. From an early date, however, it had its separate jurisdiction, which arose no doubt on account of its connexion with the Anglo-Saxon royal house, as dower land of Anglo-Saxon queens down to Edith, queen of Edward the Confessor. In 1428 the two hundreds were called the Hundred of Oakham with Martinsley, but by 1684 the Soke had been separated from Martinsley Hundred. The court of the Soke was apparently held at the castle. Since the end of the eleventh century Oakham has been the county town of Rutland, even though it is in the north-west corner of the county. Oakham archaeology The oldest evidence of settlement here is prehistoric multiple linear ditches and pit alignments. Earthwork north of Oakham Castle are possibly a Neolithic or Bronze Age ritual site. These consist of oval pits from the earliest phase followed by a circle of pits. To the north-west was the crouched burial of a 16 year-old boy with two flint knives under a small barrow surrounded by a ring ditch. Dated about 2,000 BCE. At the time it was excavated in 1986 it was the oldest burial in Rutland and Leicestershire – and may still be the oldest. In 2013 a development site on Barleythorpe Road revealed a number of shallow pits with a wide ditch which contained Late Neolithic or Beaker pottery and some nice flint including a chisel-type transverse arrowhead. There have been similar finds in Barleythorpe itself. In 2014 an Iron Age settlement was revealed with intercutting round houses inside rectangular enclosures. At least two other Iron Age settlements were previously known. In 2015 on Uppingham Road, Oakham, further stripping of a previously-excavated Iron Age site located more of a pit alignment and a roundhouse. At Braunston Road, Oakham, trial trenching by Cotswold Archaeology in 2023 has confirmed an Iron age rectilinear enclosure suggested by previous crop marks and geophysics. The finds included Middle to Late Iron Age pottery, animal bone and a quern fragment. In 2014 Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) discovered big chunks of early Roman pottery from a series of enclosures and associated ditches at Tesco's in Oakham. The foundations of an Anglo-Saxon building were discovered in 1994 ahead of building work in South Street. More details in Rutland Record No.16. East of Oakham, off Burley Road, early 2025 MOLA excavated an Anglo-Saxon pit with a knife and part of a bone comb. They also found what may be part of a stone mace head. There were also some undated shallow ditches in this area, and other large undated pits. There is a probable Roman enclosure and series of ditches across the site. A hoard of tenth century coins discovered in 1749 was described and analysed in Rutland Record No.41. Breaking news (March 2026) from Paul Wiggin: The recent discovery of a Roman villa in Oakham confirms the prediction that 1700 years ago, Oakham was a prosperous Roman farm estate, served by Corieltavi people from the nearby palisade hill fort (Oakham 'Castle' today). The Roman road to the villa – Via Villa – has mostly been changed into a residential street – Woodland View and public pathway. However, the section from the Oakham bypass to Dog Kennel Cottage is intact and people can still walk down the original Roman road and see the location of the Roman villa, up on the ridge, to the left today. More details when they emerge. After this page was written Paul Wiggin put together two free PDFs with detailed information about Roman Oakham and Anglo-Saxon Oakham. Chris Baker has written about a possible Anglo-Saxon church group at Oakham in Rutland and a possible ancient solar alignment in Oakham. Oakham Castle   Oakham Castle in 2001.   Oakham Castle in the late eighteenth century. The now-gone curtain walls are thought to be thirteenth century. The original motte-and-bailey castle was probably established in 1075 by William the Conqueror. The Earl of Wessex first held the castle in 1075 when it was a motte and bailey and started to rebuild in Clipsham stone in 1180. The first use of the great Hall as an assize court was in 1229. The castle never had to be defended. It had no military role and was not involved in the Civil War. By 1340 the motte mound had gone, replaced by a stone structure, and by 1521 the castle was reported to be in ruins. In 1621 The Duke of Buckingham had the ruins levelled leaving just the great hall. In 1944 Rutland County Council became responsible for upkeep of the great hall and in 1945 it was given statuary protection and listed in 1950. Once a major fortified administration centre, today little remains of the original castle above ground. All that survives above ground are the remains of the eleventhth-century motte and inner bailey, the late twelfth-century hall, parts of the thirteenth-century stone curtain wall, and the outer bailey known as Cutts Close. All of the rest has been lost. Oakham Castle owes its survival, as does a similar Norman great hall in Leicester, to its long-standing use as a court of law. Assizes were held here from 1229 until 1970. The last use as a magistrate's court was in 2001. Judicial executions took place outside the town at the end of Hangman's Lane and Gibbet Gate (now Uppingham Road) on a rise ironically called Mount Pleasant. The castle has been investigated by archaeologists several times, starting in 1918, again in 1953–4 and in 2012 Time Team arrived. ULAS began initial work in 2016 and in 2018 they set up a community dig. ULAS and local volunteers have continued to survey and excavate most years since. Details of Time Team’s 2012 investigations at Oakham Castle are in Rutland Record No.33. An overview of recent research at the castle is in Rutland Record No.39. Ground radar in about 2020 revealed the layout of the eleventh century castle, the walls, motte, fishponds, moat, an annex on the north side (which remains a mystery) and Cutts Close to the north (the bank to the north is Victorian). Excavations in 2021 revealed the foundations of extensive thirteenth, fourteenth and sixteenth century buildings to the east and west of the great court. These had been levelled in 1621. The kitchens included two large key-shaped deep hearths which were used for brewing beer. The buildings to the west side abutting the west curtain wall which were joined to the court by a covered way to the northern corner comprised accommodation for the castle lords and were contemporary with the great court. Some remained in use in the fifteenth century. Workshops and accommodation for servants and staff were to the north with the grounds of the bailey. North side kitchens showed evidence of high-level entertainment, including the remains of a sturgeon strictly reserved for royalty. The excavation director, Mathew Morris, uploaded a video about the archaeology of Oakham Castle. The capitals in the Great Hall may have been carved by the same masons who worked on Canterbury Cathedral. There is copious use of dog-tooth decoration. The figures on the ends of the gables outside are rare survivals from this era; they are said to depict a centaur and Samson with a lion. The unique custom of every peer passing through the town being required to forfeit a horseshoe may have something to do with William de Ferrers ('farriers') being the person who built the hall, although there is no record of the custom before 1470. In 1999 Tim Clough published the third edition of a booklet called Horseshoes of Oakham Castle. I have yet to read it. Discover 'The Case of the Missing Horseshoe' in Rutland Record No.6. Flitteris Park A rounded western projection of Oakham parish was enclosed as a 160 acre deer park in 1252. The boundaries had a double ditch (vallum) with an intermediate bank (fosse); presumably there was a timber palisade (pale) on top of the bank. The boundary earthworks are long gone but there is still a 'Flitteriss Park Farm' off Cold Overton Road. 'Flitteris' is from Old English flyt ('strife, dispute') and hris ('brushwood') so was a disputed boundary between Rutland and Leicestershire where locals in both counties collected firewood. More about Flitteris Park in Rutland Record No.11. Oakham's interesting buildings   Oakham Market Cross in 2001.   A set of stocks with five holes is now underneath the Market Cross. Photographed in 2001. Oakham market probably started in the eleventh century around the defended site that evolved into the Norman castle. The Market Cross, also known as the Butter Cross, is a polygonal timber structure supported by a stone pillar and surmounted by a sundial, probably built in the late seventeenth century. The town once had four other crosses but these are now all lost. A smaller version of the Butter Cross provides shelter for the town pump. The wool trade made Oakham wealthy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Flore's House by the pelican crossing on the main road is an important example of a late fourteenth century stone hall, with an original door and one hall window; parts of the roof are also original. In the fifteenth century the upper end of the hall was reconstructed and about 1600 a large cross-wing was added. At this time the hall was divided into two floors and fireplaces were inserted. The builder of the first house may have been the local notable William Flore or his son, also William, Speaker of the House of Commons who lived until 1427. The hospital of St John Evangelist and St. Anne was founded in 1398 by William Dalby, merchant of the staple of Calais. It was intended to support twelve poor men. Full details here. The house known as the Judges' Lodgings is early eighteenth century, as is Haynes House further west. The Grammar School was founded in 1584 by Archdeacon Johnson (who simultaneously founded Uppingham school) and is now a public school. The oldest school buildings are to the north-east of All Saints' church. Interestingly there were no additions to the school until the early twentieth century, with major expansion between 1965 and 1982. Older buildings converted for the school's use include the town gaol, the terminal of the canal, hunt stables and lodges, and the early nineteenth century rectory. The school's war memorial chapel has a tympanum carved in 1924–5 by Francis William Sargant, brother of the then-headmaster, depicting the risen Christ and reliefs of dead soldiers being mourned, all in fourteenth century Florentine style. More about Oakham School in Rutland Record No.3. Details of employment in 1850s Oakham in Rutland Record No.16. The signal box by the level crossing is famous for having appeared on the boxes of Hornby train sets and being the prototype for an 1/72 scale Airfix kit. It was constructed in 1899 by the Midland Railway using prefabricated panels made in its Derby workshops. It is a Listed building. Chris Baker has noted that, based on John Speed's map of 1610/1611, this signal box is on the site of the medieval Northgate cross. Before the railway was built Northgate was a large open area with the cross (on a plinth) near the centre. Presumably the space was used as a market place. Curiously and confusingly, Northgate is due west of the parish church. All Saints's church All Saints's church is essentially fourteenth century but underwent a radical restoration by one of the leading Victorian 'Gothic revivalists', Sir Gilbert Scott, between 1857–9, whose main change was to build the east window of the chancel in the 'Decorated' style of about 1300, whereas the rest of the building is in the more severe 'Perpendicular' style of the later fourteenth century. Unusually the early thirteenth century south doorway and late thirteenth century porch are seemingly the oldest surviving parts of the structure. The font is early thirteenth century and would have originally been supported on eight columns. It is now supported by what may have been either a Romanesque capital or the base of a fourteenth century churchyard cross.       The early fourteenth century nave arcades are decorated with unusual carved capitals including a foliate face, a dragon and various biblical scenes. On the outside look up at the north side of the tower where two gargoyles are pulling faces. The weathervane, which answers to the name 'Cock Peter', may have been made about 1430 and is certainly one of the oldest in England. As Arthur Mee put it back in 1937 it's 'as old as Agincourt'. Our Lady's Well   Our Lady's Well photographed in 1990. Our Lady's Well was once famed for curing sore eyes – providing that a pin was thrown in first. In 1291 indulgences could be obtained by visiting Oakham Church during its patronal festival and, for a price, joining a pilgrimage to Our Lady's Well. In 1881 the well was visited by the future Queen Alexandra. The well is to the north-east of the town, in a somewhat overgrown area between the Cottesmore road and a modern housing estate. Burley Road was known in 1636 as Lady Well Way. Oakham Canal The Oakham to Melton Mowbray canal opened in 1803. However it had quite a short life as a the railway between the two towns was opened in 1848. Both the canal and the railway brought renewed prosperity to the town, accompanied by growth of the school. Many of the older buildings in Oakham were replaced by nineteenth century brick brought in by the railway, although the red-and-blue brick houses facing each other in High Street are made from local brick. The predominance of brick-built properties makes Oakham seem more like a 'typical Midlands town' than other settlements in Rutland, where stone buildings predominate. Oakham stonemasons The canal also brought Swithland slate for roofing and gravestones. The research of Roderick Cave established that the Barlow family were based in Oakham and carving memorials which survive in several local churchyards. John Barlow was listed as stonemason/bricklayer in New Street, Oakham, in Pigott's Directory of 1828–9 and 1841. There is a memorial at Burley signed by John Barlow and dated 1841. In the same year, 1841, George Barlow is listed as a stonemason in Pigott's Directory of Northamptonshire living in Thrapston. Possibly he was John's son. T. Barlow is listed a stonemason in High Street in Pigott's Directory of 1841, and as stonemason/bricklayer in Slater's Directory of Rutland of 1850. Again possibly one of John's sons. T. Barlow signed a memorial dated 1855 at Langham and also signed a memorial at Oakham which does not have a legible date. Oakham's other treasures Oakham's lesser-known treasures include twelve man-hole covers in the town that bear the name of Thomas Crapper (1837–1910), the pioneer of Victorian sanitation.   One of the farm wagons in Rutland County Museum. The Rutland County Museum contains a wide range of archaeological and historical artefacts. The building was originally the riding school of the local volunteer cavalry regiment formed in 1794, and was converted to a museum in the late 1960s. The collection of horse-drawn agricultural implements and farm wagons is especially impressive. Victoria County History page for Oakham. 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

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