Rutland



Rutland is a of mainland, bounded on the west and north by , northeast by , and southeast by  and.

Its greatest length north to south is only 18 mi, greatest breadth east to west, 17 mi. It is the smallest (in terms of population) normal unitary authority in mainland England (only the is smaller), and is 348th of the 354 districts in terms of population. Normally thought to be the smallest English county, researchers on the TV panel show recently discovered, in collaboration with Rutland and the Isle of Wight councils, that the latter is in fact the smaller county - but only at high tide.

The only towns in Rutland are, the , and. At the centre of the county is the large, with a similar surface area to , and it is an important nature reserve serving as an overwintering site for  and is a breeding site for s. The town of  is just over the border in a protruding part of.

Rutland's older cottages are built from or  and many have roofs of   or. The county used to supply iron ore to steel works but these quarries closed in the 1960s. Agriculture thrives with much farming on the rich soil. Tourism continues to grow.

Etymology
The origin of the name of the county is unclear. In a 1909 edition of "Notes and Queries" Harriot Tabor suggested "that the name should be Ruthland, and that there is a part of Essex called the Ruth, and that the ancient holders of it were called Ruthlanders, since altered to Rutland", however responses suggest "that Rutland, as a name, was earlier than the . Its first mention, as "Roteland", occurs in the will of  ; in  it is " the King's soc of Roteland", not being then a shire; and in the reign of John it was assigned as a dowry to ."

The northwestern part of the county was recorded as Rutland, a detached part of, in the ; the south-eastern part as the  of Wicelsea in. It was first mentioned as a separate county in 1159, but as late as the 14th century it was referred to as the ' of Rutland'. Historically it was also known as Rutlandshire, but in recent times only the shorter name is common.

Rutland may be from hryþr/ hrythr "cattle" and land "", as a record from 1128 as Ritelanede shows.

History
Earl of Rutland and are titles in the  of England, derived from the historic county of Rutland. The Earl of Rutland was elevated to the status of in 1703 and the titles were merged. The family seat is at.

The office of was instituted in 1129, and there has been a  since at least 1559.

By the time of the 19th century it had been divided into the s of, , , and.

Rutland covered parts of three s and s : those of Oakham, Uppingham and. The of Rutland contained the entirety of Oakham and Uppingham RSDs, which included several parishes in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire - the eastern part in Stamford RSD was included in the Lincolnshire registration county.

In 1894 under the the rural sanitary districts were partitioned along county boundaries to form three s.  The part of Oakham and Uppingham RSDs in Rutland formed the  and, with the two parishes from Oakham RSD in Leicestershire becoming part of the , the 9 parishes of Uppingham RSD in Leicestershire becoming the , and the 6 parishes of Uppingham RSD in Northamptonshire becoming. Meanwhile, that part of Stamford RSD in Rutland became the.

was split out from Oakham Rural District in 1911 as an. 

Rutland was included in the "East Midlands General Review Area" of the 1958-1967. Draft recommendations would have seen Rutland split, with going along with  to a new administrative county of, and the western part be added to. The final proposals were less radical and instead proposed that Rutland become a single within the administrative county of Leicestershire.

This victory was to prove only temporary, with Rutland being included in the new non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire under the, from ,. Under proposals for non-metropolitan districts Rutland would have been paired with what now constitutes the district - the revised and implemented proposals made Rutland a standalone non-metropolitan district (breaking the 40,000 minimum population barrier).

In 1994, the, which was conducting a structural review of English local government, recommended that Rutland become a unitary authority. This was implemented on, , with Rutland regaining a and shrievalty as well as its council regaining control of county functions such as education and social services. It was not until November 2007, however, that Rutland residents regained the right to be a separate postal county: addresses from now on will be listed as being in Rutland, not Leicestershire.

The council remained formally a non-metropolitan district council, with s rather than electoral divisions, but has renamed the district to '' to allow it to use that name. This means the full legal name of the council is Rutland County Council District Council.

Under the Poor Laws, Oakham Union workhouse was built in 1836-7 at a site to the north-east of the town, with room for 100 paupers. The building later operated as the Catmose Vale Hospital, and now forms part of the. Workhouses website

Politics
There are 26 councillors representing 16 wards on.

formed a Parliamentary constituency on its own until 1918, when it became part of the constituency, along with Stamford in Lincolnshire. Since 1983 it has formed part of the constituency along with  borough and part of  district from Leicestershire.

Demographics
The population in the 2001 Census was 34,560 a rise of 4% on the 1991 total of 33,228. This is a population density of 87 people per square kilometre. 1.9% of the population are from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to 9.1% nationally.

In December 2006, published a survey which revealed that residents of Rutland were the 6th most active in England in sports and other fitness activities. 27.4% of the population participate at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes.

With a Total Fertility Rate of 2.81, Rutland is the county in England with the highest TFR. 

Geography
The particular geology of the area has given its name to the Rutland Formation which was formed from muds and sand carried down by rivers and occurring as bands of different colours, each with many fossil shells at the bottom. At the bottom of the Rutland Formation is a bed of dirty white sandy silt. Under the Rutland Formation is a formation called the Lincolnshire Limestone. The best exposure of this limestone (and also the Rutland Formation) is at the Castle Cement quarry just outside.

Rutland is dominated by, a large formerly known "Empingham Reservoir",  in the middle of the county, which is almost bisected by a large spit of land. The west part is in the.

The highest point of the county is at Flitteris (a farm east of ) at 197m (646 ft) above sea level. Grid Reference: SK8271708539 The lowest point is a section of secluded farmland near Belmesthorpe, 17m (56 feet) above sea level. Grid Reference: TF056611122

Oakham itself is built on an incline, and varies from 99m above sea level (Ladywell area) to 122m above sea level (Brooke School area).

Economy
There are 17,000 people of working age in Rutland, of which the highest percentage (30.8%) work in Public Administration, Education and Health, closely followed by 29.7% in Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants and 16.7% in Manufacturing industries. Significant employers include in Oakham and  in Ketton. It is 348th out of 354 on the for England, showing it to be one of the least deprived areas in the country.

The was  biggest industry until the brewery was closed in 1997.

In March 2007 Rutland became only the fourth County.

Other employers in Rutland include two bases -  and St George's Barracks (previously ), two public schools - Oakham and Uppingham - and two prisons - Ashwell and.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire and Rutland at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

includes hunting and forestry

includes energy and construction

includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Trivia

 * The castle in is little more than an old Great Hall, but features a large collection of horse-shoes. These have been presented over the years by royalty, and some are significantly more elaborate than others. The horseshoe features prominently on the County coat of arms.
 * Rutlanders were proverbially called Raddlemen.
 * The events in several books (like ' and ') are situated in Rutland, where the author lives.
 * The county's small size has led to a number of joke references such as , a solo television series by ex- man,.
 * In the first episode of the British comedy series , the title character claims that if he loses a battle "I'll be chopped to pieces...my genitalia stuck up a tree somewhere in Rutland". From this point on in the episode, there are continuous references to this notion.

Traditions
Rutland has many varied traditions.
 * Letting of the Banks (Whissendine): Banks are pasture land, this traditionally occurs on the third week of March
 * Rush Bearing & Rush Strewing (Barrowden): Reeds are gathered in the church meadow on the eve of St Peter’s Day and placed on the church floor (late June, early July)
 * Uppingham Market was granted by Charter in 1281 by Edward I.

Schools

 * (public school)
 * (public school)

The above Colleges are for pupils in years 7-11 (ages 11-16), they are not FE or Sixth Form colleges.