Exton, Rutland

Exton Hall is an English country house on the western edge of the village of Exton, Rutland, England, standing in its own extensive park, and is the country seat of the Earls of Gainsborough.

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a church in Exton, Rutland. The Church of England parish church lies within the park of Exton Hall, slightly apart from the village. It is a large medieval church and contains an impressive collection of monuments, including work by Joseph Nollekens. It is a Grade I listed building.

Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, England, were made famous by Geoff Hamilton through the BBC television series Gardeners' World, which he presented from 1979 until his death in 1996. They are on The Avenue in Exton, a short distance north of Rutland Water. Geoff Hamilton began developing the garden in 1983 from what was then a ploughed field. It now covers 8 acres (3.2 ha), comprising 37 individual gardens and features. Previously, his garden was on the Barnsdale Hall estate, one mile to the south.

Whitwell is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population at the 2001 census was 41. At the 2011 census the population remained less than 100 and was included together with the neighbouring parish of Exton. It is located on the A606, about four miles (6 km) east of Oakham, on the north shore of Rutland Water with car parking off Bull Brig Lane. Whitwell Harbour is a popular sailing and water sports area and a pleasure boat known as the Rutland Belle operates from the harbour. Whitwell is one of the smallest villages in Rutland; it only has 19 houses, plus The Noel pub, the name of which comes from the Earls of Gainsborough, who were landholders in the area.The village's name means 'spring/stream which is white', probably meaning it was infertile.Whitwell claims to be twinned with Paris, France. In 1980, regulars from the pub, the Noel Arms wrote to the then Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac proposing the link and with a tight deadline for a response. As no answer arrived from the Mayor's office by the set date, the village unilaterally declared itself to be twinned and erected road signs to that effect. The original wooden signs were later replaced in metal by Rutland County Council.

The Church of St Michael and All Angels is a church in Whitwell, Rutland. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Exton and Horn is a civil parish in Rutland, England, formed in 2016 upon the merger of the historic parishes of Exton and Horn.

Greetham is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The village's name means 'homestead/village which is gravelly' or 'hemmed-in land which is gravelly'.The village is on the B668 road between the county town of Oakham and the A1 and on the north–south Viking Way long distance footpath linking the Humber Bridge and Oakham. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 609 increasing to 638 at the 2011 census.The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin are Norman, but the church today is largely as it was rebuilt in the 13th–15th centuries. The west tower and spire are 13th or 14th century and the south porch was built in 1673. The church was restored in 1897 by Jethro Cossins. The church is a Grade I listed building. It is on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register, at priority category: C – "slow decay; no solution agreed".Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust owns Merry's Meadows nature reserve, a SSSI in the parish that is important for species characteristic of unimproved grassland. East of the village just before the Sewstern Lane junction, just north of the B668 is Greetham Lime Quarry owned by the Dickerson Group of Waterbeach. Greetham has two pubs: the Plough and the Wheatsheaf, both on the B668. To the east is the Greetham Valley golf course. On the A1 near Stretton is a former pub, the Olde Greetham Inn, now owned by Construction Interior Design. The village well, of mid-19th century, has an inscription; "All ye who hither come to drink/Rest not your thoughts below/Remember Jacob's well and think/Whence "living waters" flow." It is Grade II listed.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the Church of England parish church in Greetham, Rutland. It is a Grade I listed building.

Cottesmore (often pronounced Cotts'more) is a village and civil parish in the north of the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. In terms of population it is the largest village in Rutland, and the third-largest settlement after Oakham and Uppingham. This is due in part to the presence of Kendrew Barracks (formerly RAF Cottesmore). The village's name means 'moor of Cott'.At the time of Edward the Confessor (mid 11th century), "Manors Cottesmore" was held, together with Greetham, by Saxon called Goda. Goda held 12 carucates of land, three of which were held in tax to the Danegeld. The King held three carucates in demesne and three socmen with 40 villeins and six bordarii held 20 carucates. Of the land held by the manor, one Goisfridus held half a carucate; he had one plough and eight villeins. Cottesmore also had 40 acres (160,000 m2) of meadow and a wood measuring a mile in length by seven furlongs in breadth. St Nicholas' Church, Cottesmore is a Grade II* listed building. The north aisle forms a RAF chapel, dedicated in 1949 to those who gave their lives while serving at RAF Cottesmore. A stained glass window was erected to the memory of Major General George Williams Knox CB (1838–1894). The colours of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards were gifted to the church by his widow and hang in the nave. The Cottesmore Benefice is part of the North Rutland Churches group.There are two primary schools in the parish: St Nicholas C of E (Aided) Primary School is in the village and Cottesmore Academy is on the military base. The Cottesmore Hunt takes its name from the village (although the kennels are not now in the parish). Sir William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale brought the foxhounds he had bought from Thomas Noel to Cottesmore in 1740. Three ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Cottesmore after the Cottesmore hunt. Prince Andrew, Duke of York commanded the minesweeper HMS Cottesmore (M32) from April 1993 until November 1994 and visited the village with members of his crew.

Oakham was a rural district in Rutland, England from 1894 to 1974, covering the north of the county. The rural district had its origins in the Oakham Rural Sanitary District, formed in 1875. Oakham RSD had an identical area to Oakham poor law union, and consisted of thirty-one civil parishes of which twenty-nine were in Rutland and two in Leicestershire. The Local Government Act 1894 redesignated the area as Oakham Rural District, at the same time transferring the Leicestershire parishes of Cold Overton and Knossington to Melton Mowbray Rural District. The rural district included the town of Oakham until 1911, when it was constituted as Oakham Urban District. The Rural District Council continued to be based in the town, however, at Catmose.

St Nicholas' Church is a church in Cottesmore, Rutland. It is a Grade II* listed building.The Cottesmore Benefice is part of the North Rutland Churches group.

Rutland (), archaically Rutlandshire, 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. Oakham is the largest town. Rutland has an area of 382 km2 (147 sq mi) and a population of 41,049, the second-smallest ceremonial county population after the City of London. The county is rural, and the only towns are Oakham (12,149) and Uppingham (4,745), both in the west of the county; the largest settlement in the east is the village of Ketton (1,926). For local government purposes Rutland is a unitary authority area. The county was historically the smallest in England, a fact reflected in the motto of the county council: Multum in Parvo, or "much in little".The geography of Rutland is characterised by low, rolling hills, the highest of which is a 197 m (646 ft) point in Cold Overton Park. In the 1970s a large artificial reservoir, Rutland Water, was created in the centre of the county. It is now a nature reserve, serving as an overwintering site for wildfowl and a breeding site for ospreys. The older buildings in the county are built from local limestone or ironstone, and many have roofs of Collyweston stone slate or thatch. There is little evidence of Prehistoric settlement in the county, though Roman habitation is suggested by the discovery of a large Roman mosaic and probable farming complex just west of Ketton. It was certainly settled by the Angles from the fifth century and later formed part of Mercia. It is not mentioned as a distinct county until 1179, and during the Domesday Survey was treated as part of Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire. During the High Middle Ages much of the county was forested and used as hunting grounds, a tradition which continues to the present with packs such as the Cottesmore Hunt. The county's main industry is agriculture, with wool being particularly important in the sixteenth century, and there is a limestone quarry near Ketton. Rutland bitter is a distinctive ale associated with the village of Langham.