Clipsham, Rutland
Historical Description
Clipsham or Kelpisham, a village and a parish in Rutland, adjacent to the boundary with Lincoln, 4 miles W by S of Little Bytham station on the G.N.R., and 9 NNW of Stamford, with a post office under Oakham; money order and telegraph office, Castle Bytham. Acreage, 1669; population, 178. Clipsham Hall, the seat of the Davenport-Handley family, is a fine mansion of stone in the Doric style. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; net yearly value, £217 with residence. The church (St Mary's), an ancient building of stone in mixed styles, has among its painted windows one made up of ancient glass removed from Pickworth, and is very interesting and in thoroughly good order. There was formerly a small chantry (St Nicholas').
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Rutlandshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Clipsham St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Alstoe | |
| Poor Law union | Stamford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1726, several volumes of an earlier period being missing.
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Clipsham:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1717-1812 | 1763-1809 | 1727-1837 | 1730-1812 |
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient building of stone in the Early English, Norman and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, nave with clerestory, aisles, north chapel, south porch and a western tower with broach spire, containing 3 bells: the nave is Norman, the chancel Decorated, and the aisles Early English, but one of the buttresses of the original Norman edifice remains on the west side of the tower: the north chapel retains some ancient stained glass, with the arms of the Neville family: there are also remains of an ancient chantry, dedicated to St. Nicholas, on the south side of the nave: in the church is a handsome marble monument to the Snow family, dated 1706, a brass to the Rev. Matthew Snow M.A. d. April, 1809, and other memorials to persons of the same name: the church was restored and the whole of the windows filled with stained glass in 1858, chiefly at the cost of J. N. Paget esq. and family: there are 250 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Clipsham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Clipsham (St. Mary))
- Kelly's Directory of Leicestershire and Rutland, 1928
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Rutland is online.
Maps
Online maps of Clipsham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Rutland, 1618-19 and The Visitation of Rutland 1681-2 are available to browse on the Heraldry page.