Collyweston is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

North Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire is one of two local authority areas in Northamptonshire, England. It is a unitary authority area forming about one half of the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire. It was created in 2021. Its notable towns are Ketterin ...

, about three miles southwest of

Stamford, Lincolnshire Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed ...

, on the road (the A43) to

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of Ket ...

. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 514.

Geography

The village is on the southern side of the Welland valley east of

Tixover Tixover is a small village and civil parish in Rutland. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 174, falling to 163 at the 2011 census. The village's name means 'ridge with young goats'. The second element derives from either th ...

. The

River Welland The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market ...

, at the point nearby to the northwest, is the boundary between

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

and Northamptonshire.

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways closed Ketton and Collyweston railway station in 1966. Collyweston is currently served by buses on the Stamford to

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

''via''

Duddington Duddington is a small village in Northamptonshire, England. It is by the junction of the A47 and A43 roads, and is southwest of the town of Stamford. The village is on the east bank of the River Welland which is the county boundary of Rutlan ...

route. The

Jurassic Way The Jurassic Way is a designated and signed long-distance footpath that connects the Oxfordshire town of Banbury with the Lincolnshire town of Stamford in England. It largely follows an ancient ridgeway traversing Britain; most of its route i ...

and

Hereward Way The Hereward Way is a long-distance footpath in England that links the Viking Way at Oakham with the Peddars Way at Knettishall Heath, near Thetford. The path takes its name from Hereward the Wake, the 11th-century rebel leader who fought again ...

pass through the village to the north, crossing the Welland at Collyweston Bridge, near Geeston. The

A47 road The A47 is a major road in England linking Birmingham to Lowestoft, Suffolk. Most of the section between Birmingham and Nuneaton is now classified as the B4114. From Peterborough eastwards, it is a trunk road (sections west of the A1 road ...

passes through the parish to the south, with Collyweston Great Wood to the south. The road from the A47, continuing in a straight line to the village is called Kingscliffe Road.

Nature reserve

The local Wildlife Trust has a fifteen-acre nature reserve at Collyweston Quarries where

Lincolnshire limestone The Lincolnshire Limestone Formation is a geological formation in England, part of the Inferior Oolite Group of the (Bajocian) Middle Jurassic strata of eastern England. It was formed around 165 million years ago, in a shallow, warm sea on the ma ...

was quarried, to the north of the A43. This has the

pyramidal orchid ''Anacamptis pyramidalis'', the pyramidal orchid, is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the genus ''Anacamptis'' of the family Orchidaceae. The scientific name ''Anacamptis'' derives from Greek ανακάμτειν 'anakamptein' meaning 'b ...

, common dodder,

greater knapweed ''Centaurea scabiosa'', or greater knapweed, is a perennial plant of the genus ''Centaurea''. It is native to Europe and bears purple flower heads. Greater knapweed is found growing in dry grasslands, hedgerows and cliffs on lime-rich soil. Upri ...

, common rock-rose, common bird's foot trefoil, and

clustered bellflower ''Campanula glomerata'', known by the common names clustered bellflower or Dane's blood, is a species of flowering plant in the genus '' Campanula'', belonging to the family Campanulaceae. It is the county flower of Rutland, England. Etymology ...

. Birds found there include the

European green woodpecker The European green woodpecker (''Picus viridis'') is a large green woodpecker with a bright red crown and a black moustache. Males have a red centre to the moustache stripe which is absent in females. It is resident across much of Europe and the ...

and

glowworm Glowworm or glow-worm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. They include the European common glow-worm and other members of the Lampyridae, but bioluminescence also o ...

s are found there in the summer. There is also an

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

at Collyweston Great Wood.

History

The villages name means 'West farm/settlement'. Colin is a pet-form of

Nicholas Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...

who held the manor in the 13th century. St Andrew's Church, Collyweston - geograph

Collyweston Palace, which had been the home of Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and mother of Henry VII, was dismantled in about 1640.

Margaret Tudor Margaret Tudor (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541) was Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She then served as regent of Scotland during her son's minority, and successfully fought to extend her regency. Marg ...

came to Collyweston in 1503 on her way to join her husband

James IV of Scotland James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...

. One of her attendants, Elizabeth Zouche married

Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare Gerard FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare (1487 – 12 December 1534; Irish: ''Gearóid Óg Mac Gearailt'', meaning "Young Gerald FitzGerald"), was a leading figure in 16th-century Irish History. In 1513 he inherited the title of Earl of Kildare an ...

at the palace. An alternative name for the village may be "Colyns Weston", in 1396. A pub there is called 'The Collyweston Slater', an

Everards Brewery Everards is a regional brewery based in Leicester and founded in 1849 by William Everard and Thomas Hull. It produces cask ales and owns over 170 tenanted pubs, mainly around the Leicestershire area. Its chairman is fifth generation Richard Ever ...

pub, on Main Road. New houses have been built down a road called ''Collyns Way''. The parish church is St Andrew's; it is a Grade II* listed building. In the late sixteenth century, the town gave its name to the manner of wearing the

mandilion A mandilion or mandelion is a loose men's hip-length pullover coat or jacket, open down the sides, worn in England in late sixteenth century. It was fashionable to wear the mandilion ''colly-westonward'' or ''Colley-Weston-ward'', that is, rotate ...

'Colley-Weston-ward' for unknown reasons.

Other Meanings

The term 'collywest' (or 'colleywest', or 'collywesson') is a derivative of Collyweston that may be used to describe either (1) anything a bit crooked, awry, wobbly, or generally disordered, or (2) opposite, wrong way, or contrary. It has been suggested that when slate had been quarried in Collyweston, they sold the nice even pieces but used the crooked poorer-quality pieces for their own homes. Hence, the village rooftops were especially disordered. In the northern US, the term 'galleywest' is widely held by their dictionaries to be a derivative of 'collywest'.

References

External links