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Whitwell Whitwell is situated on the A606, about four miles east of Oakham, on the north shore of Rutland Water. If you think the place-name means 'white well' you're spot on. Presumably the stream bed was pale-coloured gravel. Anglo-Saxons thought of white as a synonym for purity and even sanctity. (Note: As of early 2026 there's a totally bonkers interepretation of the place-name on the village's Wikipedia page.) Whitwell was in Alstoe Hundred. Evidence for Iron Age and Roman settlement has been found between the village and the shore of Rutland Water. See M. Todd, The Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Whitwell Leicestershire, (Leicestershire Museums 1981). There is also evidence for Roman iron working in the parish. The humps and bumps of the medieval village, to the south of the church, have been partly excavated by local archaeologists. See A.W. Adams, 'A medieval building complex at Whitwell, Rutland: interim report' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeol Hist Society Vol 56, 1980–81 (1982) p112–13. St Michael's church   Whitwell church in 2008.   St Michael's church, with its double bellcote, seen from the north is now perched above a retaining wall on top of a hill. One corner of the nave appears to be a survival from an Anglo-Saxon church. Other indications of an Anglo-Saxon origin come from the size of the nave. This is exactly what an mid-Saxon church would have looked like – just a single rectangular building. Any sort of chancel would have been added a century or more afterwards. The font is considered to be late twelfth century. When created it was square with bold decoration. At some unknown time the corners have been removed making it octagonal and removing much of the decorative carving. Medieval records indicate that Whitwell church provided holy water and sacrificial bread to many other churches in the area. This is entirely consistent with Whitwell being the earliest church in the area and continuing to be the 'mother church' even after other village churches had gained in status. There are no less than four piscinas – indicating there were once four altars – and also a squint. A medieval altar slab is now in the floor of the chancel, used as a gravestone for Daniel Nailer, rector who died 1689/90. Interestingly, there is a family of farmers called Naylor living locally. There are old wooden figures of St Michael and the Archangel Gabriel. This is a 'classic' combination originating around the tenth century. They are presumably pre-Reformation and, as such, remarkable survivors of the purge of all depictions of saints. Most wooden statues which displeased the iconoclasts were burnt. On the west side of the south doorway are two scratch dials. Among the unexciting Victorian glass introduced during the restoration of 1881 try to locate the fourteenth century stained glass depicting the Crucifixion. There are two aspects of this church which are unusual and not readily recognised. The first is that a stream flows underneath the chancel from a spring higher up the slope. This water source was the eponymous 'white well'. It is reasonable to assume that when the church was first built, as a single-cell structure, there would have been some sort of baptistry outside the east end. Sounds odd now. But this was typical of churches around the seventh and eighth centuries. Then fashions change and chancels need to be added to the east. Over the top of the watercourse previously feeding the baptistry. And, according to several people who have been there at the time, when standing in Whitwell chancel after heavy rain, water can be heard flowing under the chancel floor. It is piped to a conduit head at the side of the main road which has stonework dated 1850.   The 1850 conduit head. The church at Whitwick, Leicestershire, also has a spring rising under the chancel. The water still flows copiously and is piped to the nearby Grace Dieu Brook. Romsley in Worcestershire also has a spring underneath the chancel. Wells Cathedral in Somerset has several small springs rising up in what are now ornamental pools to the east of the chancel – these are the wells that give Wells its name. Canterbury had a free-standing baptismal church built to the east of the cathedral around 750. Back in 2012 Christine Buckley posted to the wells and spas email list that a churchwarden at Kilpeck in Herefordshire thinks a watercourse runs the length of the church. The present church is mostly early Norman. But the alignment is not accurately east-west, which is not typical of Norman churches. But does suggest that there was previously an Anglo-Saxon church on this odd axis, determined by the watercourse. Which brings me to the second oddity. Whitwell church is not aligned exactly east-west either. And is the only church in Rutland which aligns with sunrise on the feast day of its patron saint. Unfortunately a rather shoddy piece of research published back in 1984 did not take into account the fact that when looking at the sunrise from Whitwell church the event is significantly delayed by an intervening hill. And this is typical of sunrise alignments elsewhere. I have discussed the need to chose viewpoints where the sunrise is delayed in this way in a chapter of Ruminations from Elsewhere and also in a YouTube video. However neither of these use Whitwell as an example. The alignment of the church, if extended, points directly towards All Saint's church, Oakham, in the west and Great Casterton church in the east. For what it's worth Oakham church may also be aligned to sunrise on the feast of St Michael but Great Casterton is not. Victoria County History page for Whitwell. 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