Glaston is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of

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 b ...

. The population of the

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 authorit ...

remained unchanged between the 2001 and the 2011 censuses. The village's name means 'farm/settlement of Glathr'. Glaston is about south of

Rutland Water Rutland Water is a reservoir in Rutland, England, east of Rutland's county town, Oakham. It is filled by pumping from the River Nene and River Welland, and provides water to the East Midlands. By surface area it is the largest reservoir in En ...

and is situated on the A47, east of

Uppingham Uppingham is a market town in Rutland, England, off the A47 between Leicester and Peterborough, south of the county town, Oakham. It had a population of 4,745 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 4,853 in 2019. It is known for its ...

. There are approximately 80 houses in total with one public house, The Old Pheasant (previously the Monckton Arms) on Main Road (A47), and a flooring warehouse, Glaston Carpets. There is an active

parish meeting A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...

that is held once a month and villagers are trying to get a bypass for the village. A rectangular pond is a cartwash of circa 1740, used for soaking cartwheels to prevent the wood shrinking from iron tyres and also for horses' hooves to prevent hardening.

St Andrew's Church

St Andrew's Church, Glaston, the Church of England parish church, is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

. In 1663 the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living ...

was given to Peterhouse, Cambridge by Bernard Hale, the Master of the college. Masters of Peterhouse were Rector of Glaston until 1867, when the rectory was detached from the headship by new college statutes. St Andrew's suffered from heritage crime in 2018 and is now on the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

Early history

Archaeologists working in the parish in 2000 discovered a late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

(c. 30,000 b.p.) faunal assemblage in association with an

Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

flint "leafpoint".

Wellington and Colley

Glaston has a connection with the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...

. Although his family adopted the name Wesley or Wellesley, their original name was Colley, and they were possibly descended from the English-born judge

Robert Cowley Robert Cowley is an American military historian, who writes on topics in American and European military history ranging from the Civil War through World War II. He has held several senior positions in book and magazine publishing and is the foundi ...

or Colley who came to Ireland about 1505-06. Robert was almost certainly born in Glaston, where the Colley family were Lords of the Manor from about 1400. Richard Colley ( – 1758), the grandfather of

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...

, changed his surname to Wesley in 1728 when he inherited estates on the death of his cousin, Garret Wesley but was supposed to add the last name of Wellesley not Wesley as Garrets father was Garret Wellesley so Richard could carry on the Wellesley Coat of Arms to get the inheritance, this is why the Duke & his brother corrected the last name from Wesley to Wellesley while in India. cites .

Colley Cibber Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling ...

(1671 – 1757), English

actor-manager An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...

, playwright and

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

was the eldest child of Jane née Colley, from the Glaston family. p. 4

References

{{authority control Villages in Rutland Civil parishes in Rutland