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Ryhall Ryhall is located close to the eastern boundary of the county, about two miles north of Stamford. The name is from Old English ryge halh 'nook of land where rye is grown'. Presumably the 'nook' is the land within a bend of the River Gwash. Belmesthorpe is a daughter settlement of Ryhall and always been part of the parish. Ryhall was in East Hundred, formerly Witchley. In 2014–15 excavations close to a watersource by Trent and Peak Archaeology (now part of York Archaeological Trust) revealed Iron Age and Bronze Age material, including a barbed and tanged arrowhead and Iron Age pottery. They identified two distinct scatters of Iron Age features, including ditches and pits. The legend of a duplicated saint According to an oft-repeated legend, in the seventh century Ryhall was associated with two women – Tibba and Eabba – who initially had a reputation as wild hunting girls but later became Christian hermits. Tibba was related to the seventh century Mercian king, Penda, and her cell was where the church now stands. Legend holds that Tibba walked each morning up the hill to wash at a spring. This fits as there was an Anglo-Saxon meeting place known as Hale Green, on the brow of Stibbalswell Hill. Gatherings continued there on St Tibba's Day (14th December) until the nineteenth century. If the spring ever existed (see below) it is no longer there. After her death Tibba became the patron saint of falconers and wildfowlers, as a result of her earlier love of hunting. According to the locally well-known legend, Tibba had a cousin called Eabba who lived nearby. Indeed the aforementioned spring was known as St Eabba's Well. Yet 'St Eabba' is clearly a mishearing of 'St Tibba', so sometime after Tibba's death the supposed spring was, understandably, named St Tibba's Well but then misheard as St Eabba's Well. Which may later have become Shepherd Jacob's Well, probably in the nineteenth century. Although Shepherd Jacob's Well could have been a different water source. But that's not all! Supposedly St Eabba also gave her name to Stableford Bridge over the River Gwash on the spurious basis that Stableford is from St Ebba's Well ford. But the much more plausible origin of Stableford is that it is a corruption of Stapleford, from the Old English word stapol meaning a large carved wooden post, perhaps a preconversion icon. Stapleford is a fairly common place-name so clearly it was once customary for fords to be marked with stapols. To the east of Melton Mowbray is a village called Stapleford. And to the west of Nottingham is another Stapleford. Note that until the 1980s the local pronunciation for both these was 'Stapulfud'. But newcomers moved in and thought the place was named after a ubiquitous item of office equipment. In conclusion it's reasonable to assume Tibba was a real person. But Eabba is purely an erroneous invention. As some of you will already know, St Tibba's Hospital is the main medical facility at Wellsworth on the Island of Sodor. Yes folks, we're in the realms of Rev Wilbert Awdry's Railway Series, more commonly known as Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. I have not been able to glean any clues as to why Awdry favoured St Tibba for this dedication, other than it could not be confused with any real world hospital. In February 1987 the largest hoard of Civil War coins found in the twentieth century was discovered in the back garden of a house in Ryhall. More about the Ryhall hoard in Rutland Record No.9. Ryhall's historic buildings Although the late twentieth century additions make this one of the less attractive Rutland villages, there are still a number of stone-built houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The vaulted cellar of the Green Dragon Inn seems to have been part of the thirteenth century manor house. Also, to the north of the church is Ryhall Hall, a sixteenth century manor house, enlarged early in the eighteenth century, with a cast-iron balcony added about 1800. There is an attractive stone-built dovecote near the entrance. There is another dovecote elsewhere in Ryhall. Church Farm has the date of 1685 carved in relief on its chimneystack, following a precedent set by the stack of Old Manor Farm in 1679. Tolethorpe Hall is just to the west of the parish boundary &ndash see Little Casterton. St John the Evangelist's church   The decorative corbel table continues all around the exterior. This corbel table contains far more decorative carvings than any other church I have visited. St John the Evangelist's church is supposedly on the site of St Tibba's seventh century cell. The current building has a thirteenth century tower and broach spire. The rest of the exterior is mostly early fifteenth century. From this date come the many carved heads on the corbel table under the eaves, including a foliage-sprouting animal and human, lots of face-pulling heads, tongue pokers and what, for want of a better description, might be termed a 'bum poker'. Other figurative carvings include green men, dragons and mythical animals. Interesting carvings can be seen as hoodstops to doorways and the corbels which support the upper floor of the porch. The latter include a bat and a monkey. The presence of female heads wearing square headdresses dates these carvings to after about 1380, when such headgear became fashionable, and before about 1420, when they went out of fashion. Although it is possible that stonemasons were not as fashion-conscious as their wives and carried on carving them for a little longer.   A very simple foliage-sprouting human face on the corbel table.   Some of the more intriguing figures from the fifteenth century frieze around Ryhall church depict musicians and contortionists. Most probably part of a troupe of travelling minstrels who came to Ryhall each year for the annual fair.   This chap is playing a shawm, the rowdy precursor to the orchestral oboe. The next carving to the right is someone who seems to be tapping on a simple framedrum of the type known in Ireland as a bodhran.   This is plausibly a self-portrait by a master mason living around 1400. Clearly rather dapper facial hair was in fashion.   He is holding a mill bill (used for dressing millstones), mallet and what seems to be a miniature millwheel. Dressing millwheels was a skilled and difficult task yet needed to be done after about five tons of corn had been ground.   The lead inserts into drilled eyes had been renewed in the late 1980s as part of a restoration project. In due course the lead will degrade to white and fall out. Photograph taken in 2009. Inside the wide nave is flanked by attractive thirteenth century arcades. Of the same date are the chancel and tower arches. In the chancel is a splendid double sedilia dating from about 1330–40 (although the chancel may have been rebuilt about 1400). Note how the tops of the arches of the sedilia project forwards &ndash these are known to architectural historians as 'nodding ogee arches'. Look out for the wall monument to a vicar's son who died in 1696, aged 2 years 15 days, and the heartfelt eulogy.   Other sepulchral monuments include one with this winged skull and two others with a spiritus or 'soul effigy' – a cherub-like head with two wings. They were created in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Victoria County History page for Ryhall. 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