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

Roman Rutland Rutland's Roman roads and other significant first to seventh century sites as known in the early 1990s. Based on Cox 1994 and superimposed on a coloured contours basemap. Note that many more sites and burials have been discovered since this map was prepared. I am including it primarily because it shows Cox's postulated Roman road system. Roman roads in Rutland The Roman Ermine Street (later the Great North Road and now the A1) slices through the north-east of Rutland. Another Roman road, now known as Sewstern Lane or The Drift, branches from Ermine Street in Greetham parish and heads for the border at Thistleton. This later became a drovers' route and has mostly remained as a trackway. A third Roman road led west from Thistleton to Market Overton, Teigh and Whissendine then on to the Fosse Way at Syston. In the far south of Rutland a branch from the Gartree Road heads east from Medbourne to Caldecott, then on over the Welland to join Ermine Street at Water Newton. Notably few parish boundaries follow Roman roads. This implies the land units predate the Roman invasion. Roman settlements in Rutland Archaeological investigations often uncover features indicative of domestic settlement and agricultural activities, such as ditches, postholes, and the remnants of possible walls. Finds typically include pottery sherds, animal bone, iron working slag, and stone, providing evidence of local production and trade. The continuity of occupation into the Roman period is evident at many sites, where Iron Age ditched enclosures were often re-used or built over. Great Casterton The village of Great Casterton straddles Ermine Street. A Roman fort was established shortly after the 43 CE invasion to protect a strategic river crossing. This developed into a staging post (mansio), which was enclosed by a stone wall in the late second century, and then evolved into a medieval market town. We have no clues as to what name the Romans gave to this settlement. Thistleton Roman small town This site in Thistleton has revealed evidence of Roman occupation, including buildings, pottery kilns, quarries and a cemetery, indicating extensive iron-working and associated domestic activities. Crop marks indicate a Roman temple built on the site of a late Iron Age shrine with 'dream incubation' guest accomodation alongside, in a very similar arrangement to the Roman temple at Lydney in Gloucestershire. Source: Peter Liddle and Jeremy Taylor, 2019, 'Excavations by Ernest Greenfield of a Roman temple complex at Thistleton, Rutland 1960–63: An overview', Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol.92 p79–114; online at https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3245739&recordType=Journal As with Great Casterton there is no surviving evidence of the Roman's name for Thistleton. The Thistleton Roman temple revealed by crop marks. 'A' is the temple and 'B' is a guest suite or incubation. Gwash valley Rescue archaeology in the 1960s, ahead of the construction of Rutland Water, uncovered a Roman farmyard. Finds included a rare Roman wooden sandal and a unique square stone well. Tixover Roman villas The base of a Roman timber bridge and part of a mosaic pavement (suggesting a villa site) were found to the south of the St Mary Magdalene's church at Tixover. A second Roman villa is known on the north side of the A47. 'The Rutland Roman villa' A Roman villa complex was discovered during 2020. It is situated on a south-aspect slope close to the River Chater on the boundary of Ketton and South Luffenham parishes. This discovery has been hailed as one of the most significant British Roman finds in a century and fundamentally altered the understanding of Roman life in the region. This villa is plausibly the centre of a Roman estate which controlled the whole of what we know think of as Rutland (and possibly parishes now in the north of Northamptonshire) and evolved into an Anglo-Saxon estate centre at Luffenham. The site was first identified when the landowner's son found unusual pottery and tile fragments, which, combined with satellite imagery, revealed clear crop marks. Subsequent excavations were conducted by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) in partnership with Historic England, leading to the site being protected as a scheduled monument in 2021. The Achilles and Hector mosaic. The centerpiece of the villa is a large (11 metre by 7 metre) mosaic, believed to have been the floor of a triclinium (dining room). What makes this mosaic exceptional is its depiction of scenes from Homer's Iliad, specifically the duel between Achilles and Hector. This is the only known example of this specific mythological scene in a Roman mosaic in Britain and one of only a handful in all of Europe, indicating the wealthy owner's knowledge of classical literature. Ground-probing radar survey of the Ketton Roman villa. Geophysical surveys and further excavations in 2022 revealed a sprawling complex far beyond the main villa building, including other structures like an aisled hall, a bath suite with hypocaust (underfloor heating) systems, and boundary ditches. Fragments of polished marble and painted wall plaster suggest a high level of opulence. Overall the finds suggest the villa was occupied from the mid-late 3rd to the late 4th century CE, with some post-Roman activity, including human remains interred after the building was no longer a villa. Other Roman settlements in Rutland Other Roman villas have been identified in the parishes of Clipsham, Empingham, Great Casterton, Ketton, Ryhall, Thistleton, Tinwell and Whitwell. A possible villa is in Essendine parish. Recovery of pottery sherds and isolated burials suggest that much of Rutland was farmed during the Roman period, especially the soils overlying the Northamptonshire sands and the Marlstone. However this does not mean that at any one time all the land was being used for arable or even for grazing. Likely fields would be allowed to return to 'fallow' before being intensively grazed (and, at almost the same time, intensively manured) then brought back to arable. Only the south-west of Rutland seems to have been forested during the Roman era as, indeed, it has been until very recent centuries. Finds from some of these sites are displayed at the Rutland County Museum in Oakham. After this page was written Paul Wiggin put together a PDF with detailed information about Roman 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

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 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 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 Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland