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Thistleton Thistleton is in the north-east of Rutland. The village name is what it seems – a settlement renowned for its thistles. Thistles grow best on disturbed ground and old settlements. As the village acquired its name in early Anglo-Saxon times, these thistles were thriving on an old Romano-British settlement. Nettles also grow well in such locations and two other Roman settlements are at places now called Nettleton – one in Lincolnshire and the other in Wiltshire. A Roman villa was discovered in 1956 about half a mile south of Thistleton church. And far more substantial Roman remains were revealed by twentieth century ironstone extraction towards Market Overton. The cropmark of a Roman temple, seeming built over an Iron Age shrine, indicates that the Roman settlement was regionally significant.   The cropmark of the Roman temple. It has a 'guest suite' known as an incubatio which would have been used for therapies involving dream interpretation.   See Dream Incubation for more details. So far as can be established, a substantial Iron Age settlement developed here, based around iron working. Then a shrine was built near the centre. It's probably not a coincidence that the source of the River Witham is nearby. And also relevant to this shrine's location is that Thistleton is on the boundary of the northern and southern halves of the Corieltauvian region. Graham Jones has argued that Iron Age shrines at watersources on regional boundaries were associated with annual 'fairs' and markets that continue through later eras and become the feast days of Christian saints. (G. Jones Saints in the Landscape [Tempus 2007] p217.) While evidence is almost absent for Thistleton, just such annual gatherings plausibly go back to the early Neolithic. The only evidence for Thistleton is that it is on a saltway that may have originated as an early Neolithic transhumance route. The Iron Age residents of Thistleton had trading links to the east as a number of Iron Age coins were found. Note that Iron Age coins are typically found at late Iron Age towns in Lincolnshire, but not in Leicestershire. Excavations at Thistleton – a Roman town, villa and temple. The excavations were carried out by Ernest Greenfield for the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works in the late 1950s/early 1960s when extensive Roman buildings were encountered in Stewart and Lloyd's ironstone quarries at Thistleton. Initially, a villa was excavated and it then became clear that the next quarry was destroying a large Roman site, now identified as part of a Roman 'small town'. Finally, aerial photography located a Roman temple site in the very next field and the Ministry sent Mr Greenfield back to excavate that. source and recommended reading: Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society. Volume 93 (2019) p79–114. The Romans continued to work iron here and a small town developed. The Iron Age shrine was replaced by a Roman temple which in turn was rebuilt. A surprising number of skulls of dogs were recovered from the town, especially near the temple. Elsewhere in the Roman empire they were regarded as helping with healing as, apart from other possible reasons, their saliva is a good antibiotic so could help cure skin infections. A probable Roman road runs from the Fosse Way (modern A46) at Syston in Leicestershire, north-east along a ridge towards Frisby on the Wreak, where it turns east towards Thistleton. It was later a salt way. Most likely it originated as one of several Neolithic transhumance routes. Another Roman road known later as King Street Lane runs from Thistleton to Wycomb. The wealth generated by iron working made Thistleton into an important 'sub-regional' centre in the Iron Age, throughout the Roman era, and into the Anglo-Saxon period. Thistleton, Goadby Marwood (also a Roman iron-working town), Medbourne and Burrough Hill are equidistant Iron Age sites which are probably sub-regional centres. Their importance probably continued after the Roman occupation. The Romans would have established a market at Thistleton. But at some point before the eleventh century it had shifted to the border with Market Overton and by 1200 had shifted again to a field to the east of Market Overton church. The Iron Age shrine must have been the focus of large seasonal Iron Age 'gatherings' which would have included traders. While the Roman small town needed a weekly market, there would also have been larger seasonal 'fairs', just as there were in the medieval era at the time of saints' feasts. Plausibly the known Thistleton market (and its Market Overton successor) were the culmination of an unbroken tradition of seasonal fairs going back to the Iron Age. Tripoints In the neighbourhood are three large stones, at each of which the counties of Leicester, Rutland and Lincoln meet; one of them is in the parish of Edmondthorpe; another in the parish of Thistleton; and the third in the parish of South Witham. source: John Nichols, History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester Volume II part 1 p175. St Nicholas church St Nicholas church has a fourteenth century tower although the rest was rebuilt in 1879–80. The chancel is apsidal.   Thistleton church in 2001. Victoria County History page for Thistleton. 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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