Essendine is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

at the eastern end of the county of

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 l ...

in the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area tradi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, located 5 miles (7 km) north of Stamford and 6 miles (10 km) south of Bourne. The population of the

at the 2011 census was 448. It lies on the West Glen, close by the earthworks of a small castle. The village's name means 'valley of Esa'.

Geology

Most of the village is on Blisworth Limestone or Upper Estuarine Series

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

, though the church and castle are on river

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

. In the parish generally, the soils are shallow and well drained with limestone brash. There is some clay which is naturally rather poorly drained and occasionally waterlogged. It produces the wheat, barley, sugar beet and some potatoes usual in eastern England

Buildings

The small church has a notable

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

tympanum over its south door. It is built within the remains of the Castle, which appears to have been a very early Norman bailey later developing into a strongly fortified manor. The village is dominated by a large industrial site, once the factory of

Allis Chalmers Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial sett ...

, later

Fiat-Allis Fiatallis (1983 to early 2000s, Fiat-Allis 1974 to 1982), was a brand of heavy equipment (also called construction equipment, earthmoving equipment, or engineering vehicles), such as loaders, bulldozers, backhoes, scrapers, and graders. It bega ...

. After closure various buildings were rented to a variety of small enterprises, and there are a large number of small businesses to be found to this day. Controversially two substantial fires occurred there in a short time.

The railway

Essendine railway station was on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain runni ...

. The railway line and station opened in 1852 and the station closed in 1966. The line is still very busy. The station also became the main line terminus of the short Stamford to Essendine line (via Belmesthorpe) which opened in 1856. The Bourn and Essendine Railway (old spelling) opened on 16 May 1860. On 3 July 1938, north of Essendine and just over the border in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...

at Milepost 90¼, LNER Class A4 locomotive number 4468 ''

Mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

'' set the land speed record for a steam locomotive, reaching 126 mph, unbeaten to this day. A commemorative sign was erected by the track near the milepost in 1998.

References

* Anon. ''British Geological Survey, 1:50 000, Sheet 157, Solid and Drift edn. (1976). * Anon. ''Soils England and Wales Scale 1:250 000. Sheet 4.'' (1983). * Rhodes, J. ''Bourne to Essendine'' (1986) .

External links

A photograph of the church
The castle earthworks are among the trees.
Essendine
Open directory listing for this village. * Extensive early history of the village. {{authority control Civil parishes in Rutland Villages in Rutland