Market Overton is a village on the northern edge of 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 ...

(including Teigh) was 494 at the 2001 census, increasing to 584 at the 2011 census.

History

The village's name means 'Higher farm/settlement' of 'farm/settlement on/by a ridge'. 'Market' is recorded from 1200 and was added to show the village's early function as a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

. The parish church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. A

Grade I 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 Irel ...

, it contains a Saxon arch and some carved stone from the Anglo-Saxon era, but most of the existing fabric is in the Perpendicular style, dating from the late 13th and early 14th century. The church, in the Diocese of Peterborough, is part of the

Oakham 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 west o ...

team ministry. Hannah Ayscough, mother of

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

, was born in the village in 1623. The regicide Thomas Waite has been claimed to be a son of a village pub landlord. William Kitchen Parker, the zoologist, worked as a druggist's assistant to the village's doctor. The Market Store is a community shop, opened in May 2010. The village pub is the Black Bull Inn. There is a stocks with

whipping post The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. The pillory is related to the stocks ...

on the village green which was probably the location of the medieval market place.

Ironstone

There is a small industrial estate to the north of the village, where ironstone was mined from 1906-72 by James Pain Ltd, later becoming Stewarts & Lloyds then BSC Tubes Division. The brick terraced houses on the road to Thistleton were built for the workers. Access to the mine was by railway, which joined the Melton-Bourne railway at Pain's Sidings. More information is found at the Rutland Railway Museum.

Markon Engineering

The Markon Engineering company (derived from Stamford Engineering), was started in the village in 1959 by Messrs Fawkes and Knight, and moved to Oakham in 1960 then

Dalcross Dalcross, in the original Gaelic, Dealgan Cros, later shortened to Dealgros, is a location in the Highland region of Scotland. It is on the Moray Firth about 10 km (6 miles) east-north-east of Inverness and contains Inverness Airport, Dalcros ...

near Inverness in 1969. They made electrical generators and were taken over by Newage Ltd in 1987. Generators of the Markon name are now made by

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including fuel systems, controls, air ...

Generator Technologies, based in Stamford. They now make two-pole single-phase capacitor-type

alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Gor ...

s under the Markon name.

Geography

The village is on the eastern side of an escarpment overlooking the

Vale of Catmose The Vale of Catmose is an area of relatively low-lying land, much of which is flooded by Rutland Water, in western Rutland, England. The Catmose College (1972 - 2009 the Vale of Catmose College) is a school located in Oakham. Catmose is the name ...

. The area's subsoil is Upper Lias and

Inferior Oolite The Inferior Oolite is a sequence of Jurassic age sedimentary rocks in Europe. It was deposited during the Middle Jurassic.Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Middle Jurassic, Europe)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Pet ...

. Most of the civil parish lies to the north and the east, including part of

RAF Cottesmore Royal Air Force Station Cottesmore or more simply RAF Cottesmore is a former Royal Air Force station in Rutland, England, situated between Cottesmore and Market Overton. On 15 December 2009, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth announced that the ...

(now Kendrew Barracks), but not the main runway. The boundary crosses ''Teigh Road'' at Netherfields where it borders Teigh. South of Hall Farm, it borders

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, south-west of Norwich off the A11 road to London. The River Tiffey runs through. The parish, one of Norfolk's largest, includes rural areas to ...

and Leicestershire. The Oakham Canal passes through the west of the parish. The county boundary (and the Rutland Round) passes on the southern edge of Woodwell Head. It passes to the south of Pasture Farm and the southern edge of Cribb's Lodge (in Wymondham), where the parish boundary meets Thistleton. The former quarry extended into Thistleton at this point. The Rutland Round detours from the county boundary here through Leicestershire to meet the main road. Market Overton, Rutland - geograph

Virtually all of the road to Thistleton is in the parish. It passes near to Thistleton just west of Top Farm (and Sewstern Lane). The former quarry extended to just north of the airfield. It briefly borders Greetham inside RAF Cottesmore, then borders Barrow. The village does not border Cottesmore and is around above sea level.

References

External links

marketoverton.info Village website

RutNet

Market Overton Free Church

St Peter and St Paul's Church

Former iron quarry

Market Overton Cricket Club
{{authority control Villages in Rutland Civil parishes in Rutland