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Ridlington Ridlington is just over two miles north-west of Uppingham. The name is derived from 'Redel's estate'. In this instance the -ington seems to denote the estate of an absent noble landowner. By 1086 Ridlington was a royal estate. Previously it seems to have been part of the royal estate centred on Hambleton. Ridlington was in Martinsley Hundred. A local fieldwalking group surveyed all available fields in the parish between about 2016 and 2023. Finding a Palaeolithic hand-axe in December 2013 was quite a Christmas cracker! In 2018 the group found a good scattering of worked flint on the edge of the high ground near Park Farm, known to have been a Bronze Age settlement. A scheduled earthwork to the west of the village is sub-circular with an internal bank. It is undated but probably an early Iron Age hill fort or just maybe a twelfth century motte and bailey. More about a Romano-British ironworking site in Ridlington in Rutland Record No.16. There are good reasons to think that Ridlington, along with Hambledon, was one of the earliest churches in Rutland. It was a royal estate centre whose berewicks (dependencies) were Ayston, Belton-in-Rutland, Leighfield, Preston, Uppingham, Wardley and Wing. At the time – around the seventh and eighth centuries &ndash Uppingham was still a small hamlet. Only in the thirteenth century, after the granting of a market charter, did Uppingham gain importance at the expense of Ridlington. Twitch Hill Farm derives its name from an Anglo-Saxon 'toot hill' or look-out. It is on a road referred to as Toteshulgate ('toot hill road') in 1332. Starting before 1066 there was an annual pilgrimage between Ridlington and Uppingham. This presumably originated when Ridlington was a royal estate centre and had far more status than in later centuries. The Royal Forest of Leighfield included parts of Ridlington. More details of Ridlington's medieval deer park in Rutland Record No.23. The village was owned by the Harington family from 1553 until recent times. The older houses in the village are built from ironstone and have thatched roofs. SS Mary Magdalene and Andrew church The church is mostly thirteenth century. However it had fallen into ruin by the mid-nineteenth century and was rather unsympathetically restored in about 1860. Inside a Romanesque tympanum has been incorporated into the west wall of the south aisle. It depicts a lion, a griffin and an eight-spoked wheel. The lettering may say 'John'.   Ridlington tympanum.   The Harrington effigy. There is also an unusual three-sided font of about 1860, a seventeenth century alabaster effigy depicting James and Frances Harington (died 1614 and 1599), and a collection of old musical instruments used before the organ was installed in 1860. Victoria County History page for Ridlington. 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