County in England
Rutland
England's smallest historic county has a castle where lords pay a toll in horseshoes, a lake the size of a small city and a motto that means 'much in little'.
Key information
- County
- Rutland
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 41,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- About 150 square miles, making it England's smallest historic county
- Known for
- Rutland Water, Oakham Castle's horseshoes, ospreys, Uppingham and Oakham schools
- What locals are called
- Rutlanders
- Famous people
- Titus Oates, Jeffrey Hudson, Edward Thring
About Rutland
The castle where lords pay in horseshoes
Walk into the Norman great hall of Oakham Castle and the walls are covered in horseshoes, hundreds of them, some enormous, many gilded and painted with names. They are the product of one of England's oddest surviving customs: any peer of the realm who visits the town for the first time is expected to hand over a horseshoe. If he declines, the lord of the manor's officials may take one from his horse, or he can pay a fine to have one made. The tradition is said to go back to the lords of Oakham in the Middle Ages, and the collection now includes gifts from royalty and a long line of aristocrats. The hall itself dates from the late twelfth century and is one of the best-preserved examples of Norman domestic architecture in the country. The horseshoe is now Rutland's emblem. Rutland's county motto, Multum in Parvo, is a good summary of the place: a lot packed into a small space.
A lake that was built, and a church that was saved
Rutland Water is the county's showpiece, and it isn't natural. The valley of the River Gwash was dammed in the 1970s to supply thirsty towns in the East Midlands, and the reservoir filled over the following years. It covers more than 3,000 acres and ranks among the largest man-made lakes in England by surface area. The flooding swallowed farmland and a hamlet, but Normanton Church was spared. Its floor was raised and the base sealed against the water, and it now stands almost on the shoreline. It has become the most photographed building in the county and a symbol of Rutland. The lake is now a playground for sailing, fishing, cycling and walking. The 25-mile or so circuit around the shore is popular with cyclists.
The osprey comeback
Rutland Water also helped bring a bird of prey back to the English Midlands. Ospreys had been missing as breeding birds in England for generations. From 1996, young Scottish ospreys were moved to the reservoir in a reintroduction project, in the hope that they would return to breed. In 2001 a pair raised chicks there, the first time ospreys had bred in central England in many years. Since then the nature reserve has become a pilgrimage site for birdwatchers. For three decades the Birdfair at Rutland Water, which began in 1989, was a major annual event, often nicknamed the birdwatchers' Glastonbury.
The dwarf in the pie and other Rutland characters
Rutland's most remarkable native is probably Jeffrey Hudson, born in Oakham in 1619. He was said to be only about 18 inches tall when, as a child, he was served up at a banquet at Burley on the Hill inside a cold pie, as a surprise for Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. The queen took him into her household, and he became one of the best-known court figures of his day, serving as a royalist officer in the Civil War. Titus Oates, another Oakham native, went on to a much darker fame. He invented the Popish Plot of 1678, a fictitious conspiracy that led to the execution of a number of innocent men. In education, Edward Thring, headmaster of Uppingham School from 1853, built it into a leading public school. He was a pioneer of music teaching and gymnasium use in schools.
Stone, schools and a famous brew
Rutland is a land of golden limestone. Ketton stone, quarried in the county, was used for some Cambridge college buildings, and the villages and market towns here are built from the same warm stone. Oakham and Uppingham, the two market towns, are each home to a school founded in 1584. The county has a notable brewing history. Ruddles Brewery was founded at Langham in 1858 and became known for Ruddles County bitter. The Langham brewery closed in 1998. Today the Grainstore Brewery, in a former railway goods shed beside Oakham station, makes beers including Rutland Bitter. For fine dining, Hambleton Hall, on a peninsula that juts into Rutland Water, has held a Michelin star for decades.
Small, rural and proud of it
Rutland has no big city, no motorway through its middle and not many more people than a large village-turned-town elsewhere. The name is generally explained as meaning 'Rota's land', after a man of that name. In Domesday Book it was recorded as part of the dower land of Queen Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor. Locals are Rutlanders, and they take pride in a county that is small enough to cross in a short drive. Besides Oakham Castle and Rutland Water, you can explore the Rutland Railway Museum at Cottesmore, and Burley on the Hill, whose present mansion dates from the 1690s. It stands on the site of the earlier house where Jeffrey Hudson was presented in a pie in 1626; that house was destroyed during the Civil War. Stamford, just over the border, is the usual place to go for a bigger shopping trip.