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

Tixover Tixover is on the southern boundary of Rutland. Most of the current houses in the parish are close to the south side of the A47. However the medieval village was nearly a mile to the south-west, where St Luke's Church now stands by the River Welland. The simple place-name has quite a complex meaning in Old English: 'the distinctive-shaped ridge where young goats are grazed'. Old English over was the name given to flat-top hill ridges which slope down in a curve (usually toward a watercourse). A leading place-name scholar thought overs looked like up-turned canoes. Often trees and houses obscure the distinctive shape, as at Market Overton and Cold Overton. Tixover was in Wrangdike Hundred. Aspects of Tixover's prehistory have been tantalisingly revealed by aerial photography. There is evidence for Bronze Age burial mounds, now ploughed away, and for Bronze Age or Iron Age 'triple ditches' which are probably associated with territorial boundaries. Iron Age ditches and enclosures were excavated in 1991. The Romans were here too, as the base of a timber bridge and the remains of a mosaic pavement (suggesting a villa site) were found to the south of the St Mary Magdalene's church. A second Roman villa is known on the north side of the A47. There was Roman iron ore extraction at Tixover and nearby Wakerley, Northamptonshire. An early eleventh century cross-shaft fragment is built into a garden wall at Tixover Hall and not accessible to the public. It is illustrated and discussed in Rosemary Cramp, Jane Hawkes and Joanna Storey Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Vol.15 East Midlands (British Academy 2026). The medieval village was nearer to the main road, and survives as extensive 'humps and bumps' can be seen between the A47 and the present village. Among the many attractive and interesting buildings in the small village is a dovecote in the grounds of Manor Farm that may be eighteenth century. St Luke's church   St Luke's church is on the north shore of the River Welland, remote from the village along an unmade track. Several early stone coffin lids are now in the churchyard. The oldest part of the structure is the main part of the tower, which is early twelfth century, topped with a fifteenth century parapet. Look out for the interesting gargoyle on the east side of the tower, which may be early twelfth century too. There is a later twelfth century south doorway and south arcade, and an early thirteenth century north arcade (unusually the south arcade is earlier than the north arcade). The chancel is also thirteenth century.   The eleventh century tower arch inside Tixover church. Inside there is an eleventh century tower arch and font (apparently mutilated at some later date), original medieval stone seats along the wall of the chancel, along with an aumbry, piscina and sedilia, and ancient glass (mostly imported from Europe) in a south aisle window. Behind the piscina is a stone carved with a geometrical design which was probably a late Saxon or early Norman grave marker. The 'poppy head' ends to the pews are seventeenth century. There is a curious corbel depicting a draped figure supporting the arch at the west end of the north arcade. Interestingly, this church is one of the few in Rutland that appears not to have been restored in any way during the nineteenth century, although a clerestory was inserted into the south wall sometime between 1800 and 1910. Three eleventh/twelfth century grave covers are in the churchyard, rather obscured by lichen and moss. Victoria County History page for Tixover. 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