erected Rutland village by village: Edith Weston

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Edith Weston

Edith Weston is on the south-eastern shore of Rutland Water and is home to the main sailing club and has a fishing lodge.

Locally the name is pronounced as 'Edi Wesson'.

Edith Weston originated as part of the royal manor at Ketton. As it is west of Ketton it became known as 'west tun'. The village is also named after Eadgyth ('Edith') of Wessex (1029–1075), the queen of Edward the Confessor and sister of Harold Godwinson. On Edith's death in 1075 William the Conqueror retained Rutland for himself and created a royal forest in half the county.

Pauline Stafford has written a lucid account of Queen Edith's life and kindly allowed me to include it as part of this web site as a free PDF.

Edith Weston was in Martinsley Hundred.

The base of a medieval cross survives in the centre of the village. Photograph taken in 1999.

The so-called Domesday Oak can be seen from the path running along the shore of Rutland Water, in the garden of 'The Limes' to the north-east of the church, although it probably does not date back to 1086.

Edith Weston Priory was a small alien house of Benedictine monks founded about 1114. The parent house was Abbey of Saint-Georges, Boscherville, France.

A history of the Benedictine house published in 1908 is available online.

The priory was one of two in England belonging to Abbey of Saint-Georges. Avebury Priory in Wiltshire was founded around the same time.

Like all alien houses, control and revenues passed to the Crown in times of war with France. During one of these periods the priory closed. The last known prior was in 1361, and by 1394 the church and manor had been sold to St Anne's Priory, Coventry, which did not reinstate any clergy. The probable site is now on the shoreline of Rutland Water at NGR SK925055. Three small fishponds thought to have originated with the priory are shown on the 1884 OS map to the north-west of the Hall, but these were destroyed when Rutland Water was created.

One of the oldest buildings in this attractive village is the Old Rectory, built in 1626. A subsequent rectory, an elegant stone building of about 1800, is now called Ladycroft.

Edith Weston Hall was a former country house built in an Elizabethan style by the architect Lewis Vulliamy for the Rev Richard Lucas in 1830, replacing the Old Hall which stood near the church. It was damaged by fire in 1920, was restored in 1924 and demolished in 1954.

Edith Weston features in Alan Sillitoe's 1984 novel Down From the Hill, with the main character stopping off in the Wheatsheaf for a shandy.

Apparently Down From The Hill describes a six day cycle across Britain by a seventeen year old. He returns in middle age to repeat the journey in a car, but it is a futile process. The past has gone.

source

Witchley Hundred moot site

To the east of Edith Weston here is still a Whytchley Warren Farm next to a triangular arrangement of lanes.

Alstoe Hundred was formerly Witchley Hundred, so this triangle of land was almost certainly the moot site. The moot site for the Gartree Hundred was also in such a triangle of land. Indeed the 'gar' of Gartree probably refers to the triangle as it has the literal meaning of 'spear(-shaped)' as 'triangle' is not used in English until the late fourteenth century.

One of lanes forming the gar or triangle is a probable Roman road running south from Empingham and on to North Luffenham, Morcott and Barrowden then crossing the Welland at Turtle ('toot hill' or 'look-out hill') Bridge.

A panorama of the gar near Whitchley Warren Farm (the building in the distance on the right). The third road runs behind the hedge and in front of this former farm.

'Whichley' is from the 'woodland (clearing) of the Hwicca'. As there are four place-names within thirty miles which derive from Hwicce (Whissendine itself; Wichly in Whissendine; Whitchley in Edith Weston; Whiston, Northamptonshire) then it seems likely they share the origin of Hwicca/Hwicce. But it is not a personal name, it is a 'folk-name' or 'tribal name'.

The 'ley' is from Old English leah. So Witchley Hundred is named after the meeting place: 'the woodland clearing of the Hwicce folk/tribe'.

St Mary Church

The Grade I listed church still reveals much of its late twelfth century origins, including some decorative carving on capitals and elsewhere. Parts of the chancel arch also date to about 1170 although it was rebuilt in 1250.

The north arcade was probably built 1190–5.

The tower and graceful octagonal spire are fourteenth century, with bold bug-eyed gargoyles on the corners of the tower.

In 1865 the chancel was rebuilt with an impressive vaulted roof.


 
An old stone altar slab is now in the north aisle. Was this first erected during Queen Eadgyth's lifetime? Or is it even older?


 
The marble memorial by John Rysbrack to Sir Gilbert Heathcote.

The memorial to Sir Gilbert Heathcote was previously at Normanton and moved when the church was deconsecrated during the construction of Rutland Water. Sir Gilbert was a founder of the Bank of England and Lord Mayor of London in 1711. At the time of his death in 1733 was reputed to be the richest commoner in England, leaving a fortune estimated to be £700,000.

The single-hand turret clock made by John Watts in the late seventeenth century (but not as early as 1658, as often stated) is now in Rutland Museum, Oakham, and has been restored to working order.

There's a detailed account of the turrent clock in Rutland Record No.13.

The organ is by Samuel Green of London and dated 1787.

The stained glass includes work by Paul Woodroffe and Hugh Arnold.

The churchyard contains some excellent seventeenth century box tombs.

Victoria County History page for Edith Weston.

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