Lyddington is a village in 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 len ...

in the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

of England. 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 authority ...

was 397 at the 2001 census, and had fallen to 366 at the 2011 census. The village's name origin is uncertain. Perhaps, 'farm/settlement of Hlyda' or 'farm/settlement with a noisy stream'.

Lyddington Bede House Lyddington Bede House is a historic house in Rutland, England, owned and opened to the public by English Heritage. The existing Grade I listed building is a part of a former palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, situated next to St Andrew's Church i ...

, owned by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, is a

Grade I 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 Irel ...

listed building incorporating parts of a medieval bishop's palace. In 1547 it was seized on behalf of the king from the

Bishops of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and N ...

and later passed to

Lord Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...

. In 1600 part of the palace was converted into an

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

and it continued in this use until 1930. The remains of the fishponds of the bishop's palace are nearby. St Andrews Church and Lyddington Bede House, Lyddington - geograph

St Andrews Church and Lyddington Bede House, Lyddington - geograph

St Andrew's Church is also Grade I listed. There are two public houses, The Marquess of Exeter and The Old White Hart.

Broadband connection

Residents of Lyddington raised £37,000 to offer 200 homes the super-fast broadband that BT could not deliver. The broadband connection was upgraded b
Rutland Telecom
using a technique called

sub-loop unbundling In the telephony business, sub-loop unbundling (SLU) is a type of unbundled access whereby a sub-section of the local loop is unbundled. In practice this often means the competitor placing a small street cabinet with a DSLAM, next to a telco local ...

and residents can now achieve broadband speeds of up to 25Mbit/s. This was the first time in the UK that Fibre to the Cabinet technology had been used in a rural village.

References

External links

Villages in Rutland Civil parishes in Rutland {{Rutland-geo-stub