Pickworth is a

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 ...

and small 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 ...

. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 81. This remained less than 100 at the 2011 census and was included in the town of Stamford. The village's name means 'enclosure of Pica'. In the 13th century Pickworth was quite a substantial village, but by the end of the 14th century it was almost non-existent. It now comprises a small parish church, a disused

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel, a few large houses and a couple of rows of terraced and council houses. It lies in a landscape characterised by Rutland County Council as the clay woodlands of the Rutland Plateau (a Jurassic limestone plateau). At the southern boundary of the village is a crossroads leading to

Great Casterton Great Casterton is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is located at the crossing of the Roman Ermine Street and the River Gwash. Geography The village is approximately three miles to the north ...

about to the south, the

A1 road A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country. * A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar * A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës * A001 highwa ...

at Tickencote Warren to the west, Lincolnshire Gate and

Castle Bytham __NOTOC__ Castle Bytham is a village and civil parish of around 300 houses in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England. It is located 9 miles (15 km) north of Stamford and 9 miles (15 km) west of Bourne.The population was measured at ...

to the north and an unmaintained track to

Ryhall Ryhall is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is situated close to the eastern boundary of the county, about 2 miles (3 km) north of Stamford. The parish includes the hamlet of Belm ...

Heath to the east. All Saints' Church, Pickworth was built in 1821 and lies to the west of the village. The church is a Grade II listed building. Maps previously showed the spire of the demolished church under the name Mockbeggar to the west of the current village site. The remains of the old medieval village lie mainly to the west of the current village centre in an area referred to as Top Pickworth. The only visible remains, other than earthworks, is a stone arch. Just to the west of the village lie the remains of a

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime (material), lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this chemical reaction, reaction is :Calcium carbonate, Ca ...

. In 1817 this was the workplace of local poet

John Clare John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th ce ...

. About south-east is Walk Farm, formerly known as Walkherd Lodge, which was the home of Martha "Patty" Turner, who became John Clare's wife. Both the lime kiln and Walk Farm featured in a television documentary that was made about the poet in the late 1960s. About to the west of the village is the site of the Battle of Losecote Field in 1470. It has been claimed that the village was depopulated as a result of the fighting.

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{{authority control Villages in Rutland Civil parishes in Rutland

See also

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