Oakham is the

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

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, east of

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west of Rutland Water and in the Vale of Catmose. Its height above sea level ranges from to .

Toponymy

The name of the town means "homestead or village of Oc(c)a" or "hemmed-in land of Oc(c)a".

Governance

Local governance for Oakham is provided for by the single-tier

unitary Unitary may refer to: Mathematics * Unitary divisor * Unitary element * Unitary group * Unitary matrix * Unitary morphism * Unitary operator * Unitary transformation * Unitary representation * Unitarity (physics) * ''E''-unitary inverse semigroup ...

Rutland County Council, which is based in the town. Oakham is a civil parish with a town council. Oakham, along with Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire and the rest of Rutland, has been represented at Westminster by the Conservative Member of Parliament Alicia Kearns since 2019. Having lain within the historic county boundaries of Rutland from a very early time, it became part of the non-metropolitan county of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

from 1974 to 1997. Historically, Oakham had been one of the five hundreds of the county. The town was in Oakham Rural District from 1894 to 1911, then Oakham Urban District from 1911 to 1974.

Demography

Women in the Oakham South East ward had the fifth highest life expectancy at birth, 95.7 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016. The urban area of the town now extends into the neighbouring parish of Barleythorpe, to the north-west of the town centre.

Landmarks

Tourist attractions in Oakham include All Saints' Church and Oakham Castle. Another historic feature is the open-air market held in the town's market place every Wednesday and Saturday. Nearby is the

Buttercross A buttercross, also known as butter cross or butter market, is a type of market cross associated with English market towns and dating from medieval times. Its name originates from the fact that they were located at the market place, where peopl ...

with an octagonal stone-slate roof and the wooden

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

– both Grade I listed buildings.

All Saints' Church

The spire of Oakham parish church, built during the 14th century, dominates distant views of the town for several miles in all directions. Restored in 1857–1858 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the church is a Grade I listed building.

Oakham Castle

Only the great hall of the

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 ...

castle is still standing, surrounded by steep earthworks marking the inner bailey. The hall dates from about 1180–1190. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, in his ''Leicestershire and Rutland'' volume of the Buildings of England series, noted; “It is the earliest hall of any English castle surviving so completely, and it is doubly interesting in that it belonged not to a castle strictly speaking, but rather to a fortified manor house.” The building is decorated with Romanesque architectural details, including six carvings of musicians. It is a Grade I listed building. The hall was in use as an assize court until 1970 and is still occasionally used as a coroner's court or

Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all Indictable offence, indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals lied to it by the Magistrates' court, magistrates' court ...

. It is also licensed for weddings. The outer bailey of the castle, which is still surrounded by low earthworks, lies to the north of the castle. Known as Cutts Close, it is now a park. The park has some deep hollows which are remnants of the castle's dried-up

stew pond A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and m ...

s (fishponds). A named HMS ''Oakham Castle'' was launched in July 1944.

Oakham's horseshoes

Traditionally, members of

royalty Royalty may refer to: * Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc. * Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family * Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...

and peers of the realm who visited or passed through the town had to pay a forfeit in the form of a

horseshoe A horseshoe is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toen ...

. This unique custom has been enforced for over 500 years, but nowadays it only happens on special occasions (such as royal visits), when an outsize ceremonial horseshoe, specially made and decorated, is hung in the great hall of the castle. There are now over 200 of these commemorative shoes on its walls. Not all are dated and some of the earliest (which would doubtless have been ordinary horseshoes given without ceremony by exasperated noblemen) may not have survived. The earliest datable one is an outsize example commemorating a visit by King

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

in about 1470. Recent horseshoes commemorate visits by Princess Anne (1999),

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

(2003) and Princess Alexandra (2005). The horseshoes hang with the ends pointing down; while this is generally held to be unlucky, in Rutland this was thought to stop the Devil from sitting in the hollow. The horseshoe motif appears in the county council's arms and on Ruddles beer labels.

Rutland County Museum

The museum is located in the old Riding School of the Rutland Fencible Cavalry which was built in 1794–1795. The museum houses a collection of objects relating to local rural and agricultural life, social history and archaeology.

Transport

The

Birmingham–Peterborough line The Birmingham–Peterborough line is a cross-country railway line in the United Kingdom, linking Birmingham, and , via , and Since the Beeching Axe railway closures in the 1960s, it is the only direct railway link between the West Midlan ...

runs through the town, providing links to Birmingham, Leicester, Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport.

Oakham railway station Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the we ...

is positioned about halfway between Peterborough railway station and Leicester railway station, at both of which passengers can board trains to London – from Leicester to London St Pancras or from Peterborough to

London King's Cross King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United King ...

. There are also two direct services to London St Pancras (one early morning and one evening), and one evening return service from London St Pancras, each weekday. The

Oakham Canal The Oakham Canal ran from Oakham, Rutland to Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It opened in 1802, but it was never a financial success, and it suffered from the lack of an adequate water supply. It closed after 45 ...

connected the town to the

Melton Mowbray Navigation The Melton Mowbray Navigation was formed when the River Wreake in Leicestershire, England, was made navigable upstream from its junction with the River Soar and the Leicester Navigation near Syston to Melton Mowbray, opening in 1797. Largely river ...

, the

River Soar The River Soar () is a major tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands and is the principal river of Leicestershire. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth. The river then flows north through Leicest ...

and the national waterways system between 1802 and 1847. Most buses in Oakham are operated by Centrebus including the Rutland Flyer to Melton Mowbray.

Education

Oakham School is an English

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

, founded together with Uppingham School in 1584. The original school building survives, north-east of the church. It has across its south front the inscription ''Schola Latina – Graeca – Hebraica A° 1584'' and above its door a stone with an inscription in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Oakham School is the current owner of Oakham's former workhouse. Built in 1836–1837 by the Oakham

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

Union, it held 167 inmates until its conversion into Catmose Vale Hospital. It now contains two of the school houses for girls.

Catmose College Catmose College is a secondary academy school on Huntsmans Drive in Oakham, Rutland. The catchment area covers the county town of Oakham and surrounding villages, although students are drawn from a wider area through parental choice. From 197 ...

, founded in 1920, is a state-funded

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Harington School Harington School is a free school sixth form located in Oakham in the English county of Rutland. The school is named after John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton and John Harington, 2nd Baron Harington of Exton, two notable peers in Rutlan ...

is a sixth form centre next to it.

Rutland County College Rutland County College was a post-16 (or sixth-form) college, based mainly in Oakham, Rutland, England. In September 2012 it opened on a new site in Barleythorpe on the outskirts of Oakham. However, the college was meant to move to its main camp ...

, previously Rutland Sixth Form College, has moved from the outskirts of the town 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 ...

Sports and recreation

Oakham United Football Club won the

Peterborough and District Football League 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 ...

in 2015 and gained promotion to the United Counties League First Division.Ambitious Oakham United looking to be top local side in the UCL Division One
Ambitious Oakham United looking to be top local side in the UCL Division One
, accessdate 18 February 2020. It currently plays in the . Oakham Rugby Football Club plays at the Rutland Showground. Oakham Cricket Club plays at the Lime Kilns off Cricket Lawns.

Notable people

* Stuart Broad (born 1986), cricketer *

John Furley Sir John Furley, CH, CB (19 March 1836, in Ashford, Kent – 27 September 1919, in Oxford) was an English humanitarian who worked to improve medical care both in wartime and at home. He was an active member of the Red Cross from its foundation, ...

(1847–1909), cricketer * Sir Jeffrey Hudson (1619 – c. 1682) became a royal court dwarf. * Tom Marshall – artist and photo colouriser, grew up in Oakham. *

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and giv ...

(1915–1968), a religious scholar, studied at Oakham School in 1929–1932. * Titus Oates (1649–1705), perjuror * Weston Stewart (1887–1969), Anglican bishop * Jonnie Peacock (born 1993), Paralympic runner

Twin towns

Oakham is twinned with: * Barmstedt, Germany * Dodgeville, Wisconsin, United States

Gallery

File:Oakham Church perspective corrected.jpg, All Saints' Church from footpath between Church Street and Market Place File:Oakham_Church_and_cottage.jpg, All Saints' Church seen from Northgate File:OakhamStocks.jpg, The stocks, under the Buttercross File:OakhamInscription.jpg, Inscription above the Old School door File:Oakham_Cutts_Close.jpg, Cutts Close park - looking southwest towards the original Oakham School building, with the bandstand to the right File:Hudson's Cottage, Oakham - geograph.org.uk - 65742.jpg, Plaque on Jeffery Hudson's Cottage File:Dean's Street, Oakham - geograph.org.uk - 23833.jpg, Dean's Street, a quiet back street

References

External links

Oakham Town CouncilOakham Town PartnershipDiscover OakhamAll Saints Church, OakhamRutland County CouncilOakham workhouse
{{Authority control Towns in Rutland County towns in England Civil parishes in Rutland Market towns in Rutland