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

Wing Wing is situated south of Rutland Water on a lane connecting Preston with Morcott. Unusually for Rutland the place-name is not Anglo-Saxon but Anglo-Scandinavian for '(a very large) field'. This suggests that there was no significant settlement here until perhaps the eleventh century. Wing was in Martinsley Hundred. Near the well-known maze there was a prominent burial mound. But little else is known about the archaeology of the parish. There were once windmills each side of the Glaston road to the south of the turf maze. Part of one of the mill mounds survives in a roadside hedgerow. The main part of the village comprises stone-built houses dating from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. There have been few changes since the 1880s. There is a detailed account of the life of Amelia Woodcock – the so-called 'Wise Woman of Wing' – in chapter 30 of Sheila Sleath and Robert Ovens' book The Heritage of Rutland Water. Wing maze The village is best-known for its turf maze, now surrounded by a wooden fence, on the roadside at the south-east of the village. More correctly it is a 'unicursal labyrinth' as it is not possible to get lost in these 'mazes'. Only eight such turf mazes have survived in Britain, although many now-lost examples have been documented, including one on Priestly Hill near Lyddington. The first documented reference to the Wing labyrinth is in 1631, although it is reasonable to suppose that these turf mazes originate in the late medieval era. Given the need for regular maintenance and recutting, the survival of turf labyrinths for so many centuries is quite remarkable.   Oldest-known photograph of Wing maze from Arthur Mee's Kings England series. The Leicestershire and Rutland volume was published in 1937.   Wing maze in 2006.   The Wing maze has the same design as a tile labyrinth on the floor of Chartres Cathedral, and another British turf maze at Alkborough in Yorkshire. Drawing based on a plan published in 1858. At some English labyrinths a spiral dance called Troy Town was performed at Easter. It has been said that the church adopted the pre-existent labyrinths 'to ward off evil spirits, which could only travel in straight lines.' In A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare wrote: The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud; And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. Taken out of context, this suggests that such mazes were obsolete in Shakespeare's time. In fact, the image is part of a section bemoaning the wetness of the summer (what's new) and, anyway, the play is set less in the sixteenth century than the 'once upon a time' of all good fairy tales.   There is a modern stone-paved labyrinth nearby at Pilton. source: labyrinthsinbritain.uk/map-of-uk-labyrinths-mazes/ SS Peter and Paul's church The church of SS Peter and Paul has a south arcade built about 1150. The north arcade and a chancel arch (decorated with heads) is later twelfth century. Also Romanesque is the doorway inside a porch built as part of the restorations of 1875 (when the chancel was rebuilt) and 1885. Victoria County History page for Wing. 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