Rutland
Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west.
Rutland has an area of and had an estimated population of in, the second-smallest ceremonial county population after the City of London. The county is rural, and the only towns are Oakham in the west and Uppingham in the south; its villages include Cottesmore in the north and Ketton in the east. For local government purposes Rutland is a unitary authority area. The county was the smallest of the historic counties of England.
The geography of Rutland is characterised by low, rolling hills, the highest of which is a point in Cold Overton Park. Rutland Water was created in the centre of the county in the 1970s; the reservoir is a nature reserve that serves as an overwintering site for wildfowl and a breeding site for ospreys.
There is little evidence of Prehistoric settlement in Rutland; however, a Roman mosaic and probable farming complex is located west of the village of Ketton. The area was settled by the Angles from the 5th century and later formed part of the kingdom of Mercia. Rutland was first mentioned as a distinct county in 1179, and during the High Middle Ages much of it was forested and used as hunting grounds. The wool trade was important during the 16th century. The older buildings in the county are built from local limestone or ironstone, and many have roofs of Collyweston stone slate or thatch. Rutland's main industry is agriculture, and there is a limestone quarry near Ketton.
History
Etymology
Rutland is referred to as Roteland in the Domesday Book. The name means "land belonging to Rōta", with Rōta being an Old English personal name that meant 'the pleasant or cheerful one'.Early history – 1974
and Duke of Rutland are titles in the peerage of England held in the Manners family, derived from the historic county of Rutland. The Earl of Rutland was elevated to the status of Duke in 1703 and the titles were merged. The family seat is Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire.The office of High Sheriff of Rutland was instituted in 1129, and there has been a Lord Lieutenant of Rutland since at least 1559. Oakham Castle was built –1190 and is "one of the nation’s best-preserved Norman buildings" and is a Grade I listed building. By the 19th century it had been divided into the hundreds of Alstoe, East Rutland, Martinsley, Oakham and Wrandike.
Rutland covered parts of three poor law unions and rural sanitary districts : those of Oakham, Uppingham and Stamford. The registration county of Rutland contained the entirety of Oakham and Uppingham RSDs, which included several parishes in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire – the eastern part in Stamford RSD was included in the Lincolnshire registration county. Under the Poor Laws, Oakham Union workhouse was built in 1836–37 at a site to the north-east of the town, with room for 100 paupers. The building later operated as the Catmose Vale Hospital, and now forms part of the Oakham School.In 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894, the rural sanitary districts were partitioned along county boundaries to form three rural districts. The part of Oakham and Uppingham RSDs in Rutland formed the Oakham Rural District and Uppingham Rural District, with the two parishes from Oakham RSD in Leicestershire becoming part of the Melton Mowbray Rural District, the nine parishes of Uppingham RSD in Leicestershire becoming the Hallaton Rural District, and the six parishes of Uppingham RSD in Northamptonshire becoming Gretton Rural District. Meanwhile, that part of Stamford RSD in Rutland became the Ketton Rural District.
Oakham Urban District was created from Oakham Rural District in 1911. It was subsequently abolished in 1974.
Plans for reorganisation
Rutland was included in the "East Midlands General Review Area" of the 1958–67 Local Government Commission for England. Draft recommendations would have seen Rutland split, with Ketton Rural District going along with Stamford to a new administrative county of Cambridgeshire, and the western part added to Leicestershire. The final proposals were less radical and instead proposed that Rutland become a single rural district within the administrative county of Leicestershire. There was fierce local opposition to the plans, with even the local Conservative Party branch campaigning against it; the campaign included successful publicity stunts such as mounting a pretend battleship called HMS Rutland on a lorry and shooting fireworks at the offices of Leicestershire County Council, where the commissioners were based.On 1 August 1963 the Minister of Housing and Local Government, Sir Keith Joseph, announced that the proposed merger with Leicestershire would not be implemented, citing Rutland's case as "unique", while the opposition alleged that cancelling the merger was a purely political consideration seeking to appease Tory voters in Rutland who did not want to see their county lose its status. The historian Alexander Hutton suggests that the 1962 by-elections in Orpington and Leicester North East caused the Conservative government to reverse their decision regarding Rutland.
District of Leicestershire (1974–1997)
Rutland became a non-metropolitan district of Leicestershire under the Local Government Act 1972, which took effect on 1 April 1974. The original proposal was for Rutland to be merged with what is now the Melton borough, as Rutland did not meet the requirement of having a population of at least 40,000. The revised and implemented proposals allowed Rutland to be exempt from this.Unitary authority (1997–present)
In 1994 the Local Government Commission for England, which was conducting a structural review of English local government, recommended that Rutland become a unitary authority. This was implemented on 1 April 1997, when Rutland County Council became responsible for almost all local services in Rutland, with the exception of the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and Leicestershire Police, which are run by joint boards with Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council. Rutland regained a separate lieutenancy and shrievalty, and thus also regained status as a ceremonial county.Rutland was a postal county until Royal Mail integrated it into the Leicestershire postal county in 1974. After a lengthy campaign, and despite counties no longer being required for postal purposes, Royal Mail agreed to re-create a postal county of Rutland in 2007. This was achieved in January 2008 by amending the former postal county for all of the Oakham post town and a small part of the Market Harborough post town.
Geography
The particular geology of the area has given its name to the Rutland Formation, which was formed from muds and sand carried down by rivers and occurring as bands of different colours, each with many fossil shells at the bottom. The formation has also preserved a well-preserved specimen of the sauropod dinosaur Cetiosaurus oxienensis at Great Casterton, currently on display at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery. At the bottom of the Rutland Formation is a bed of dirty white sandy silt. Under the Rutland Formation is a formation called the Lincolnshire limestone. The best exposure of this limestone is at the Ketton Cement Works quarry just outside Ketton.Rutland is dominated by Rutland Water, a large artificial lake formerly known as Empingham Reservoir, in the middle of the county, which is almost bisected by the Hambleton Peninsula. The west part is in the Vale of Catmose. Rutland Water, when construction started in 1971, became the largest man-made lake in Europe; construction was completed in 1975, and filling the lake took a further four years. This has been voted Rutland's favourite tourist attraction.
File:Northamptonia Bedfordia Cantabrigia Huntingdonia Rutlandia Atlas.jpg|thumb|Hand-drawn map of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Rutland by Christopher Saxton, 1576
The highest point of the county is at Cold Overton Park at 197 m above sea level close to the west border. The lowest point is close to the east border, in secluded farmland at North Lodge Farm, northeast of Belmesthorpe, at just 17 m above sea level ; this corner of the county is on the edge of The Fens and is drained by the West Glen.
Rivers
- River Chater
- Eye Brook
- River Gwash
- River Welland
Economy
The Ruddles Brewery was Langham's biggest industry until it was closed in 1997. Rutland bitter is one of only three UK beers to have achieved Protected Geographical Indication status; this followed an application by Ruddles. When Greene King, the owners of Ruddles, closed the Langham brewery it was unable to take advantage of the registration. However, in 2010 a Rutland Bitter was launched by Oakham's Grainstore Brewery.
It is 348th out of 354 on the Indices of Deprivation for England, showing it to be one of the least economically deprived areas in the country.
In March 2007 Rutland became only the fourth Fairtrade county.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire and Rutland at current basic prices with figures in millions of pounds sterling.
| Year | Regional gross value added | Agriculture | Industry | Services |
| 1995 | 6,666 | 145 | 2,763 | 3,758 |
| 2000 | 7,813 | 112 | 2,861 | 4,840 |
| 2003 | 9,509 | 142 | 3,045 | 6,321 |
includes hunting and forestry
includes energy and construction
includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Components may not sum to totals due to rounding.
As far as the National Health Service is concerned Rutland is generally treated as part of Leicestershire.