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

Rutland's place-names Well first off let's deal with the name Rutland . It's from 'Rota's land'. Rota is a man's name, possibly a by-name ('nickname') from the Old English adjective rot meaning 'glad, cheerful, bright'. He probably lived in the eighth century or maybe just before. At that time the Old English word land had a much more specific meaning than later and denoted the home region of a person or a people. Rutland is adjacent to another such land – Framland, now Melton Borough. This is from 'Franni's land' so again another male personal name. Scribal errors changed the 'nn' to 'm'. Whether Rota and Franni (or just maybe 'Franna') were contemporaries is an open question. Both are monothematic names so usually from the earlier Anglo-Saxon era. Because there was so much Scandinavian settlement in Framland around the tenth century 'Framland' got corrupted to 'Framlundr' i.e. the Old Scandinavian word lundr meaning a 'sacred grove'. Indeed some of the oldest surviving written references spell it as Franlund. The mutation from Old English land to Old Scandinavian lundr has led some place-name 'experts' (ahmmm!) into mutating the personal name into the Scandinavian Fræna. But the parallels between Franni's Land and Rota's Land suggest that the name Framland was coined at least two centuries before the Scandinavian re-settlement of Framland Hundred, but no written records from that time have survived. I have compared Rutland with both Framland Hundred and the Vale of Belvoir in this online article Prehistoric land units in the Vale of Belvoir. Around the 1980s and 1990s lots of popular authors claimed that Rutland got its name from the red 'raddle' used by shepherds during the breeding ('tipping') season. Throughout the country place-name 'explanations' are awash with wonky nonsense seemingly invented in a pub after a few beers. We can be sure that red raddle is a red herring because the Old English word for red was read, pronounced like 'I am reading this sentence', so would not mutate to 'rut'. More reliable place-name explanations are integral to understand several aspects of Rutland's history. The web page on Rutland's rivers gives details of the river names. This web page includes a broad look at Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian settlement names and also discusses look-out names. Detailed information about the origins of village names are included in the village-by-village pages listed in the left-hand navigation column. We are able to learn from place-names because of Barrie Cox's remarkable 1994 book The Place-names of Rutland. 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