Rutland
This article is about the county in England. For other articles on subjects named Rutland, see Rutland (disambiguation).Rutland is traditionally
England's smallest
county and is bounded on the west and north by
Leicestershire, northeast by
Lincolnshire, and southeast by
Northamptonshire.
Its greatest length north to south is only 18 miles, greatest breadth east to west, 17 miles. It is the smallest (in terms of population) normal unitary authority in mainland
England (only the
City of London is smaller), and is 348th of the 354 districts in terms of population.
The two principal towns are
Oakham, the county town, and
Uppingham. At the centre of the county is a large reservoir,
Rutland Water, with a similar surface area to
Lake Windermere, which is an important nature reserve, serving as an overwintering site for
wildfowl and a breeding site for
Ospreys. The town of
Stamford is just over the border in a protruding part of
Lincolnshire.
The highest point of the county is
Cold Overton Park at 646 ft. (197 m).
The county's small size led ex-
Monty Python man,
Eric Idle to name his "solo" series
Rutland Weekend Television. The most successful spin-off of this is
The Rutles which mentions Rutland frequently as an in-joke. The castle in Oakham is little more than an old Great Hall, but features a large collection of horse-shoes. These have been presented over the years by royalty, and some are significantly more elaborate than others.
The Ruddles brewery was Langham's biggest industry until about 1985.
Rutland's older cottages are built from white limestone and many have roofs of Collyweston slate. The county used to supply iron ore to
Corby steel works but these quarries closed in the 1960s. Agriculture thrives with much wheat farming on the rich soil. Tourism continues to grow.
Main article: History of Rutland.
The north-western part of the county was recorded as Rutland, a detached part of
Nottinghamshire, in the
Domesday Book; the south-eastern part as the
wapentake of
Wicelsea in
Northamptonshire. It was first mentioned as a separate county in
1159, but as late as the
14th century it was referred to as the '
Soke of Rutland'. Historically it was also known as Rutlandshire, but in recent times only the shorter name is common.
By the
19th century it was divided into the
hundreds of
Alstoe,
East,
Martinsley,
Oakham and
Wrandike. In
1894 it was divided into three
rural districts,
Oakham Rural District,
Uppingham Rural District and
Ketton Rural District.
Oakham was split out from Oakham Rural District in
1911 as an
urban district. [
1]
The four district councils were abolished, and the
administrative county was made a
non-metropolitan district of Leicestershire in the
local government reorganisation of
1974. It was restored to top-level authority status by popular demand on
1 April,
1997, as part of the
local government reform. There are 26 county councillors representing 16 wards.
''See the
list of places in Rutland.and
List of civil parishes in RutlandPlaces of interest*
Barnsdale Gardens*
Lyddington Bede House*
Rutland Railway Museum*
Rutland Water*
Tolethorpe HallRivers*
River Chater,
*
River Eye,
*
River Gwash*
River WellandThis is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire and Rutland at current basic prices
published (pp.240-253) by
Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| 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
Following
Iraq's invasion and annexation of
Kuwait in August
1990,
The Independent featured a cartoon with the sign 'Rutland: Twinned with Kuwait'.
*
Rutland Community Website*
Rutland County Council*
Online Dating for the Singles Of Rutland*
Rutland Weekend Television
