Rutland
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- This article is about the county in England. For other articles on subjects named Rutland, see Rutland (disambiguation).
| Rutland
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background: white;">Motto: “Multum in parvo” (“Much in little”)</td></tr> | |
| |
| Geography | |
| Status | Unitary district Ceremonial county <tr><th>Origin</th><td>Historic</td></tr> |
|---|---|
| Region | East Midlands |
| Area - Total - Admin. council | Ranked 45th 382 km² Ranked 118th <tr><th>Admin HQ</th><td>Oakham</td></tr><tr><th>ISO 3166-2</th><td>GB-RUT</td></tr> |
| ONS code | 00FP |
| NUTS 3 | UKF22 |
| Demographics | |
| Population - Total (2005 est.) - Density - Admin. council | Ranked 47th 37,300 95 / km² Ranked 348th |
| Ethnicity | 98.1% White |
| Politics | |
 Rutland County Council http://www.rutland.gov.uk <tr><th>Executive</th><td> </td></tr> | |
| Members of Parliament | |
| Districts | |
| N/A | |
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 only towns in Rutland 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.
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.
Rutland is also home to two RAF bases - RAF Cottesmore and RAF Wittering.
Contents |
[edit] Etymology
The origin of the name of the county is unclear. In a 1909 edition of "Notes and Queries" Harriot Tabor suggested "that the name should be Ruthland, and that there is a part of Essex called the Ruth, and that the ancient holders of it were called Ruthlanders, since altered to Rutland",<ref>Tabor, Harriot (Feb 1909). "Rutland:Origin of the Name". Notes and Queries: 170.</ref> however responses suggest "that Rutland, as a name, was earlier than the Norman Conquest, and possibly derived from being a retreat of the Leicestershire RatCE. Its first mention, as "Roteland", occurs in the will of King Edward the Confessor ; in Domesday it is " the King's soc of Roteland", not being then a shire; and in the reign of John it was assigned as a dowry to Queen Isabella."<ref>W. B. H. (April 1909). "Rutland:Origin of the Name". Notes and Queries: 294.</ref>
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.
Rutland may be from Old English hryþr/ hrythr "cattle" and land "land", as a record from 1128 as Ritelanede shows.
[edit] History
Earl of Rutland and Duke of Rutland are titles in the peerage of England, derived from the traditional 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 at Belvoir Castle.
By the time of the 19th century it had been divided into the hundreds of Alstoe, East, 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.
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 9 parishes of Uppingham RSD in Leicestershire becoming the Hallaton Rural District, and the 6 parishes of Uppingham RSD in Northamptonshire becoming Gretton Rural District. Meanwhile, that part of Stamford RSD in Rutland became the Ketton Rural District.
Oakham was split out from Oakham Rural District in 1911 as an urban district. [1]
Rutland was included in the "East Midlands General Review Area" of the 1958-1967 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 be 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. <ref>Little Rutland To Go It Alone - No Merger with Leicestershire. The Times. August 2, 1963.</ref>
This victory was to prove only temporary, with Rutland being included in the new non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire under the Local Government Act 1972, from April 1, 1974. Under proposals for non-metropolitan districts Rutland would have been paired with what now constitutes the Melton district - the revised and implemented proposals made Rutland a standalone non-metropolitan district (breaking the 40,000 minimum population barrier).
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 April 1, 1997, with Rutland regaining a separate Lieutenancy as well as its council regaining control of county functions such as education and social services.
The council remained formally a non-metropolitan district council, with wards rather than electoral divisions, but has renamed the district to 'Rutland County Council' to allow it to use that name. This means the full legal name of the council is Rutland County Council District Council.
[edit] Politics
There are 26 councillors representing 16 wards.
Rutland formed a Parliamentary constituency on its own until 1918, when it formed part of the Rutland and Stamford constituency, along with Stamford in Lincolnshire. Since 1983 it has formed part of the Rutland and Melton constituency along with Melton Mowbray from Leicestershire.
[edit] Demographics
The population in the 2001 Census was 34,560 a rise of 4% on the 1991 total of 33,228. This is a population density of 87 people per square kilometer. 1.9% of the population are from ethnic minority backgrounds.<ref>Geographical Statistical Information. Government Office for the East Midlands. Retrieved on 2006-10-03.</ref>
[edit] 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. 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 (and also the Rutland Formation) is at the Castle Cement quarry just outside Ketton.<ref>The Geology of the Peterborough Area. Peterborough RIGS. Retrieved on 2006-10-03.</ref>
The highest point of the county is Cold Overton Park at 646 ft. (197 m).
[edit] Rivers
[edit] Economy
There are 17000 people of working age in Rutland, of which the highest percentage (30.8%) work in Public Administration, Education and Health, closely followed by 29.7% in Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants and 16.7% in Manufacturing industries. It is 348th out of 354 on the Indices of Deprivation for England, showing it to be one of the least deprived areas in the country.<ref>Geographical Statistical Information. Government Office for the East Midlands. Retrieved on 2006-10-03.</ref>
The Ruddles brewery was Langham's biggest industry until about 1985.
This 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.
| 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
[edit] Rutland Weekend Television
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.
[edit] Trivia
- 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.
- Following Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait in August 1990, The Independent featured a cartoon with the sign 'Rutland: Twinned with Kuwait'.
- A fictional battleship called the Rutland appears in the film Brown on Resolution. The implication of its name is that it is a rather small and inferior battleship.
[edit] Places of interest
| Key | |
 | National Trust |
 | English Heritage |
 | Forestry Commission |
 | Country Park |
 | Accessible open space |
  | Museums (free/not free) |
 | Heritage railway |
 | Historic House |
|
[edit] References
<references />
[edit] Bibliography
- Phillips, George (1912). Cambridge County Geography of Rutland. University press. ASIN B00085ZZ5M.
- Rycroft, Simon (1996). "'Landscape and Identity at Ladybower Reservoir and Rutland Water'". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 21 (3): 534-551.
[edit] External links
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