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A History of ExtonArticle by Meryl Hart with additional material by Paul Taylor
Exton (Ox Farm), the earliest known Park in Rutland, is mentioned in 1185 as a wooded farm, enclosed by an earth bank, topped by a wooden paling fence and used for hunting deer. At this time it belonged to David, Earl of Huntingdon. It was transformed by Royal license in 1639 into a medieval hunting park and by 1880 was mentioned as a "noble, existing park of 800 acres, with a herd of 400 fallow deer”.
Saxon and Norman ExtonExton was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. This was the record of the great survey undertaken for William the Conqueror of his kingdom for taxation purposes. It records that Earl Waltheof (Earl of Huntingdon) had 2 carucates of land taxable and land for 12 ploughs. His wife Countess Judith had 3 ploughs and 37 villagers with 8 ploughs. It also records 2 mills worth 13 shillings, meadows 6 furlongs long, woodland and pasture in places 5 furlongs long and 5 wide.
At the time of the Domesday survey Rutland or Roteland was not formed as a county. Exton was situated in the wapentake (the smallest local government unit) of Alstoe, which along with the wapentake of Martinsley was regarded as part of Nottinghamshire for tax purposes. Witchley the third wapentake of present day Rutland was regarded as part of Northamptonshire.
Rutland had originally been part of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia but after the Danish invasions in the 9th Century England was divided between the Danelaw in the North and East ruled by the Danes and southern England which remained under Anglo-Saxon control. Rutland was on the border of these two areas which probably explains why it was divided between English Northamptonshire and Danish Nottinghamshire at this time.
A Saxon Earl and a Norman CountessCountess Judith, recorded as the landowner of Exton in the Domesday Book, was the niece of William the Conqueror. She married Waltheof the Earl Of Huntingdon in 1070, four years after the Norman conquest. Waltheof was one of the Saxons who retained his position after the conquest but in 1075 Waltheof joined the Revolt of the Earls against William. However, the Earl was betrayed by his wife Judith and was beheaded the following year. King William tried to marry his niece off to Simon the 1st Earl of Northampton but she refused and had to flee abroad to avoid his anger. For a while all her lands were confiscated. Judith eventually got her lands back, holding estates in 10 counties. She founded two churches and the Abbey of Elstow in Bedfordshire.
Statue of Earl Waltheof at Croyland Abbey
William Dalby: benefactor of the poorIn 1392 William Dalby , a wealthy wool merchant of Exton, was given a Royal Commission to collect taxes in Rutland. In 1399, having moved to Oakham , he was granted license by Richard II to found a hospital to house the poor of that town in honour of St.John and St.Anne on the site of the present day home for the elderly.
The Battle of Empingham
The Battle of Empingham brought the Wars of the Roses close to Exton
In the Fifteenth Century the Wars of the Roses came close to Exton when the Battle of Empingham was fought nearby. King Edward IV had been defeated and captured in July 1469 at the Battle of Edgecote Moor by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. However, with the help and support of his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester he had regained power. Warwick
(often referred to as 'the Kingmaker') plotted to regain power by putting the King's other brother, George, Duke of Clarence on the throne.
When his family fell foul of Edward in 1470, Sir Robert Welles (8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby) turned to Warwick for help. Welles started fomenting rebellion in Lincolnshire, ready for a show of arms against the King. The unrest in Lincolnshire, prompted the King to act, and he started gathering men for his army on 4th March. Warwick and Clarence secretly encouraged the rebels, suggesting they would support an uprising while pretending to the King that they were raising an army to help put down the rebellion. On the 7th March the King heard that the rebels were marching towards Stamford with a large army, having recruited many men from the local counties, especially from Yorkshire.
Eventually Edward met the rebels close to the Great North Road about five miles North of Stamford on 12th March. The site of the battle is in fact closer to the present village of Pickworth than to Empingham and took place on the Eastern side of the current junction of the A1 at Pickworth near Tickencote Warren.
Edward positioned his men in a battle line to the north of Welles' army. Part of Sir Robert Welles grievance against the King was that the King held his father, Lord Welles prisoner. To intimidate the rebels the King had Lord Welles and his friend Sir Thomas Dymmock executed in view of both armies before battle commenced.
At this the rebels (estimated at 30,000) advanced with cries of 'a'Warwick' and 'a'Clarence'. However, Edward's army was well equipped with artillery and when a single barrage of cannon balls was fired the rebels broke and fled, pursued by the King's better trained and armed troops. Many were cut to pieces in a nearby wood, since named Bloody Oaks (a nearby service station on the A1 still bears this name).
The battle is often referred to as the Battle of Losecote Field. One explanation of this is that the fleeing rebels discarded their livery coats which would have identified them as rebels. However another explanation is that the battle takes its name from the Old English hlose-cot meaning "pigsty cottage". Forms of Losecote also appear as field names in other parishes in Rutland.
Both captains, Sir Robert Welles and his commander of foot Richard Warren were captured during the rout and were executed a week later on 19 March, although most of the rebels not slaughtered during the battle were subsequently pardoned. Warwick subsequently threw in his lot with the Lancastrian cause and was briefly successful in helping to them to overthrow Edward IV but he was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471.
The rise and fall of the Harringtons and the Princess of BohemiaFollowing the Norman Conquest the manor of Exton was owned by the de Brus family, passing by marriage to the Harringtons in the early 16th century, when John Harrington married Catherine Colepepper. The most powerful of the Harringtons, Rutland's most important family, was Sir John, created Baron Harrington at the time of the coronation of King James 1st. of England. Sir John had found favour with the new King when he entertained him at Burley House on his journey south from Scotland to take the throne of England on the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. The new King also had the chance to hunt in Exton Park before continuing his journey.
This elevation became a mixed blessing when he was made guardian of King James' daughter, Elizabeth. The high cost of entertaining her ruined him. He was driven to minting his own money, made of brass, but this was valueless, leading to the saying "not worth a brass farthing".
In 1612 Frederick, the Elector Palantine arrived in London to marry the Princess but within three weeks the Princess’s brother Henry, Prince of Wales had died of typhoid leaving his brother, the future Charles I as heir to the throne. The wedding was delayed until the following year. Lord Harrington, now 73 and in poor health was obliged to undertake his final duty in escorting the Princess to her new home in Heidelberg, Germany. After the Princess married the Elector Palatine she became the Queen of Bohemia. The avenue of trees leading to the Double Lodges gatehouses at the entrance to Exton Park is still known today as the "Queen of Bohemia's Ride". Sadly Lord Harrington died on his journey home. His son John, the second Lord Harrington, was saddled with debts of £40,000 and died himself soon afterwards from smallpox.
Sir John Harrington
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia
The Noels come to ExtonAfter the death of the second Lord, the estate was sold to pay creditors, being purchased by Sir Baptist Hicks in 1613. Hicks was a London mercer, money-lender and contractor for Crown lands. He was subsequently elevated to the title of Viscount Campden.
He died without a male heir and his daughter Juliana inherited the estate and her husband, Sir Edward Noel, succeded to the title of second Viscount Campden. The Noel family took over the estate and have kept it to this day.
The title derived from Sir Baptist Hicks’ purchase of another estate at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. The eldest son of the Earl of Gainsborough still holds the title of Viscount Campden.
By the sword divided: Rutland in the civil war
The Civil War divided many families including the Noels
During the civil war of the 1640s Rutland was occupied by Parliamentarian forces. The Exton Noels were staunch Royalists and Exton Park (along with neighbouring Burley Park, the home of the Duke of Buckingham) was confiscated by the Parliamentarian forces. Baptist Noel, the 3rd Viscount Campden continued to resist the Parliamentary forces, leading his cavalry troop, ‘the Campdeners’ in daring raids across Rutland and beyond from Royalist bases In Belvoir and Newark. For this he was heavily fined and briefly imprisoned by the Parliamentarians.
The 3rd Viscount’s uncle, Alexander Noel based at Whitwell was more pragmatic and maintained cordial relations with his Parliamentary neighbours, even marrying his daughter May to Abel Barker of Hambleton, an active member of the County Committee which governed Rutland in the name of Parliament.
Baptist Hicks
The creation of Exton Park and the LakesAfter the civil war Baptist, the 3rd Viscount was restored to his estates and laid out geometric areas of woodland, divided by avenues with formal gardens and a lake close to the house. It was his son, the 4th Viscount Campden, who was created the 1st Earl of Gainsborough.
It was somewhat later that the Noels created the two ornamental lakes in Exton Park. They were first recorded in 1730, though probably created earlier than this. About 1760 a series of cascades were created at the southern end of the lower lake, designed by Edward Switzer. The cascades have now disappeared but the lakes can still be viewed via the bridleways which cross Exton Park. At one time a third lake existed on the south side of the park but this has been drained for many years. The remains of the “lost village” of Horn can also be seen near to the southern end of the Lower Lake.
Fort Henry and the Bark Temple
Fort Henry and the Upper Lake
On the western shore of the Upper Lake stands Fort Henry built for Henry Noel, 6th Earl of Gainsborough (after whom the building is named) by William Legg of Stamford between 1786 and 1789. The lake was apparently used by the Noels for boating activities, including the re-enactment of naval battles, at that time. Fort Henry, designed in the latest ‘gothick style’, was a place where the Noels could entertain their guests and was used to celebrate family births, birthdays and marriages.
About fifty years after the construction of Fort Henry a rustic building called the Bark Temple was constructed some way up the bank behind the Fort. The Temple built of wood
and covered in bark and moss was probably erected as part of the celebrations for the marriage of Louisa Noel to Andrew Agnew in 1846. In the 1990s there were plans to restore the Bark Temple but funds from English Heritage were not available and the temple finally collapsed in the winter of 1997/98. Fort Henry, however, has been fully restored and although not open to the public, can be viewed from the eastern side of the Upper Lake. The Fort is now hired out by the Exton Estate for weddings and other events.
The building of the New HallThe Old Hall was lived in until 1810, when there was a serious fire destroying the South East wing. The present house dates from a William and Mary farmhouse which the whole new hall was built around. John Linnell Boyd made alterations to that house in 1811 and it was almost quadrupled in size in1850; the architect was C.A. Buckley.
In 1867 a Roman Catholic Church was built adjacent to the Hall to mark the Earl's conversion to the Catholic faith. Tradition says that squatters working on the Hall in 1841 built the cottages at Stamford End for themselves.
The legend of the Mistletoe Bough is said to have originated at the Old Hall. The story refers to the Christmas of 1700, when there was merrymaking at the hall. A young lady taking part in a theatrical performance was asked to lie in an oak chest, representing a coffin. Later when the chest was opened she was found to be dead.
Exton Old Hall 1860
Changes in 19th Century Exton
The ruins of Exton Old Hall
The new Exton Hall (the Catholic chapel is on the right)
Map of Exton in 1889
The mid 19th. Century brought many changes to Exton with the conversion to Catholicism of the 2nd. Earl in 1851. Between 1868-1869 a large Chapel was added to the East end of Exton Hall, and a private Chaplain was appointed. At the time the Earl's brother the Rev. Leland Noel, held the living of the C.of E. Church. In 1853 a new Roman Catholic school was built , the C.of E. children being educated separately in the "Old School", Oakham Road, both are now private homes.
There were geographical changes also at this time. Prior to 1860 there were cottages along the road leading to the Church and also along a second road leading from the Church connecting with the Oakham Road opposite the present day "Noel's Close". This area was known as Little Exton. Pudding Bag Lane was the main road through the Park to Cottesmore. However, the 2nd. Earl wished to clear the Park, and villagers were moved into the main village, making the village as we know it today and Pudding Bag Lane a cul-de-sac.
Exton in the 19th and early 20th Century
Inns
There were several ale houses in the village. The Fox and Hounds has been on its present site since 1840, others were situated at 1 High Street, 19 Pudding Bag Lane and 4 Oakham Road. All these have cellars. The original vicarage was at Yew Tree House, opposite the church. By special Act of Parliament, this was relinquished to the Patron, the Noels, in the early 19th Century, a new vicarage being built at Barham Court. This became a private house in 1938.
Barham Court, the former Exton rectory
Methodist Chapel
There was a Methodist Chapel in Top Street on the site of "Lyndons", this closed in 1905. A tin tabernacle made from the stable lads’ recreation hut was erected on the site of the Dairy in 1908, it closed in 1939.
Nursing Home
There was a nursing home at the end of Pudding Bag Lane, organised by Lady Agnes Noel and her sister, Lady Norah Bentinck, run by the nuns from the Catholic school for mothers and babies from the village and also for babies sent from London. This ceased during the Great War.
Schools
The earliest school is recorded in 1692, in a building on the site of 4 Oakham Road on the green reaching as far as numbers 13 & 14 The Green. This is still known today as School Yard.
There were several schools in the village, Roman Catholic and Church of England. The main C of E school was at 4 Oakham Road from 1840, the Roman Catholic school was situated in St Mary's from 1874. These were closed in 1967 and amalgamated into the new school in Garden Road.
Gas works
The gas works were built in 1870, to supply the Hall, Vicarage, School and a few houses on the banks of the brook in what is now Church farmyard. They closed in 1914. There was at least one fatal accident at the turn of the century, men being suffocated by gas.
The workhouse
This was in Number 9 Top Street built by Exton Estate as a refuge for the poor and destitute and was used until the opening of the Oakham Union Workhouse in 1836.
Water supply
The Town Pump, Exton
Public drinking water was only available from the Town Pump until the Grandfather of the present Earl put in stand pipes at the beginning of this century. The ram for this was at Hawkswell spring, in the spinney near The Brooks. This is still known as Ram Spinney. The shelter for the Town Pump can still be seen at the top of the High Street today.
The Horse Pond
The Old Horse Pond was filled in in 1960. It was situated in the dip on Oakham Road below the Old School. A horse-shoe shape, it was used for washing horses feet when they came off the fields, and for swelling the wood of the cart wheels in dry weather. Sheep were also washed here
Traders
In the early 20th century the village was mainly self sufficient. The Barnetts had been bakers since before 1845, and Mr Johnny Castle baked at 3 Malting Yard until 1955, the house serving as a shop. He then moved to the old butchers shop at 5 Stamford Road, put in modern ovens and continued baking until 1964. Another Barnett had baked at 1 High Street but ceased in 1914, when the building became a soup kitchen in the 1st World War.
The last blacksmith to work the forge in Blacksmith's Lane was Tommy Royce. He died a young man in the 1914 war. The last smith to work in the village was at the smithy behind 3 The Green - Amos Smith - who retired in the 1950's. There was a shop in the building now used as the Doctor's surgery run by the Stannage family, and another, "Choco Bottomley's" licensed to sell tobacco at 14 Top Street.
At the corner of Stamford Road/Blacksmith's Lane a slaughter house stood. This closed in 1950 and has now been converted to a private house Courtyard Cottage. The adjoining butchers and wet fish shop are also no longer in existence. At the end of Blacksmith's Lane on the site of the new houses was the threshing barn for the allotment holders.
The old stores and doctor's surgery, Top street
Post
Post arrived by horse drawn mail box from Oakham
War
During the Great War 118 men from Exton went to serve in the Forces, 1/5 of the population. 15 gave their lives for their country. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham dedicated the War Memorial on 4 October 1922.
During the 2nd World War incendiaries were dropped near the Double Lodges, The Grange, Top House, and across the fields as far as the brook. The Home Guard post was in the fish shop at the end of 5 Stamford Road.
Ironstone quarrying
In 1948 the Earl of Gainsborough gave the United Steel Company a lease to quarry ironstone at Exton Park. Success of this venture resulted in the purchase of Sundew, the world's largest walking dragline. This was so large that it arrived in pieces, being erected on a special site at Cherry Oak Corner, near Tunnely Wood. Sundew worked from 1957 - 1974, when mining ceased and Sundew walked to Corby to its final resting place. Sundew was scrapped in 1987 but its cab can still be seen in Rutland Railway Museum. Traces of the ironstone mining can still be seen in the Park, notably from the bridleway leading from New Field Road.
Exton war memorial
