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Market Overton Market Overton is a village on the northern edge of Rutland. Originally it was just Overtune, the settlement on a distinctive-shaped ridge. Old English over was the name given to flat-top hill ridges which slope down in a curve (usually toward a watercourse). A leading place-name scholar thought overs looked like up-turned canoes. Often trees and houses obscure the distinctive shape, as at Market Overton. The affix 'market' was added in 1200 to avoid confusion with Cold Overton which is less than ten miles to the south-west. Market Overton was in Alstoe Hundred. Market Overton has a long history. In 2007 archaeological excavations in Main Street recovered a concentration of Mesolithic flints, including pieces that could be refitted. These excavations also revealed part of an Iron Age and Roman settlement including dumps of flue tile and wall plaster suggesting a nearby high-status Roman building. A Roman pottery kiln had previously been discovered in a field just to the north. Two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are known in the parish, both contained gold and silver ornaments from around AD 600. Another of the finds was a unique Anglo-Saxon water clock made of very thin bronze which took just over an hour to sink when placed in water. Market Overton's importance comes, in part, from the proximity to the major Iron Age and Roman iron-smelting activities at Thistleton. However between Thistleton and Market Overton is the southern part of Sewstern Lane, seemingly already an important north-south routeway in Roman times. In Roman times Thistleton almost certainly held a weekly market, perhaps in the precinct of the Iron Age and Roman temples. However there are reasons to believe the market (either initially or later) was on the parish boundary between Thistleton and Market Overton. There's a detailed review of the archaeology of Market Overton in Rutland Record No.34. As Thistleton became less important during the Anglo-Saxon era then Market Overton took over as the trading place, where a market is first documented in 1200. Later the market was held in the field to the east of the church, which was also the location for an annual fair on 28th, 29th and 30th June.   A Victorian salt-glazed stoneware ink bottle recovered in the late 1980s from the site of Market Overton fair.   The stocks and whipping post on the village green are overlooked from a nearby building by the head of Sir Isaac Newton. His mother, Hannah Ayscough, was born in Market Overton in 1623. The stocks were last used in 1830. Photograph taken in 2001. A deer park was mentioned in 1269 but nothing is known about it. The village contains many attractive stone houses with a mix of thatched and stone roofs.   Along the road to Teigh is the wharf of the disused Oakham Canal (in use from 1802 until 1847) with stone- and brick-built warehouses (now houses).   Although the species is now rare in Rutland, two hybrid wytch elm trees flank the bus shelter to the east of the churchyard. A new house has been built next to these trees. It has been named The Elms. More about elms in Rutland in this 1991 article in Rutland Record No.11. SS Peter and Paul's church The tower arch inside the church of SS Peter and Paul is the best example of Anglo-Saxon architecture in Rutland.   The largest of the three ninth/tenth cross shaft fragments now incorporated into the base of the church tower. The stone was quarried at Clipsham.   The stile in the north-west side of the churchyard wall incorporates 'columns' that are reused Anglo-Saxon masonry, perhaps once the balusters of an earlier belfry. However they were found away from the churchyard so might be the remains of a high-status secular building. The font base is an early thirteenth century capital upturned; the font itself is made from a reused twelfth century capital. Be sure to take note of the early fourteenth century church door and ironwork. The nave is later fourteenth century and the exterior of the church looks almost entirely fourteenth century. The churchyard sundial was reputedly donated by Sir Isaac Newton. Victoria County History page for Market Overton. (Note that the earthworks referred to as a 'Roman camp' are now thought to be associated with a medieval village.) 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