Uppingham, Rutland
Historical Description
Uppingham, a small market-town and a parish in Rutland, situated on an eminence 6 miles S from Oakham, 12 WSW from Stamford, and 90 by road from London. The town has railway communication with the Stamford, Peterborough, and Market Harborough section of the L. & N.W.R., by means of a short branch line opened in 1894 to Seaton station, and is 3½ miles S from Manton and Uppingham station on the Leicester and Peterborough and Nottingham and Kettering branches of the M.R. It consists chiefly of one long street with a market-place opening from it, at one side of which is the church, is well lighted and paved, and has a good supply of water. It is the head of a union and county court district, has a well attended weekly market on Wednesday, and fairs for cattle on the second Wednesday in March and July. The chief glory of the town, however, is its famous grammar school, the foundation of which was laid in 1584 by Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, who also founded the school at Oakham. The original plan of the schools was designed on a liberal scale, and provided for the sending of certain of the scholars to the universities. The endowments also, which provide for certain poor pensioners, called the Bedehouse people, amount to about £3000 a year, and are administered by a body of governors who, under the provisions of schemes prepared by the Endowed Schools Commissioners in 1875, allot certain proportions of the net income to the two schools. The school buildings are of a very superior character, and the excellent management of the Uppingham school has given it a national reputation. There are two banks in the town, a head post office, and an institute founded in 1861 with a library and reading-room. There are manors belonging to the Earl of Gainsborough and the rector. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £750 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough. The church, which was well restored and enlarged in 1861, is a building of stone, partly ancient and partly modern, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, and an embattled western tower, surmounted by a lofty spire. Bishop Jeremy Taylor was once rector of the parish. There are Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. The charities, apart from Archdeacon Johnson's, are small. The workhouse, which stands on the Leicester Road at the west end of the town, is a building of stone, capable of holding 140 inmates. Area of the parish, 1463 acres; population of the civil parish, 2559; of the ecclesiastical, with Beaumont Chase, 2575. There is a parish council of fifteen members and a chairman. Beaumont Chase, formerly an extra-parochial tract, 1¼ mile from Uppingham, is now a parish in the Uppingham union. Acreage, 463; population, 16.
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 | Uppingham St. Peter and St. Paul | |
| Hundred | Martinsley | |
| Poor Law union | Uppingham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1571 and is in good condition.
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Uppingham:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1571-1883 | 1754-1812 | 1571-1931 | 1571-1984 |
Churches
Church of England
SS. Peter and Paul (parish church)
The church of SS. Peter and Paul, standing near the Market place, is an ancient building of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, north and south porches and an embattled western tower, with lofty spire, containing 8 bells, dating from 1772 to 1804, and a clock, provided in 1898 in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria: in 1861 the church was greatly enlarged and thoroughly restored at a cost of over £6,000, a new hammer-beam roof of oak, with beautifully carved figures of angels being placed over the nave and a new chancel roof of oak with angel corbels erected: the ancient pulpit is of oak richly carved: the font is of serpentine marble with oak canopy and the bench ends are elaborately carved: in 1893 a stained east window was placed in the chancel as a memorial to the Rev. the Worshipful William Wales M.A. rector here 1859-79 and sometime Chancellor of Peterborough, at a cost of £375: in the south aisle is a stained window, erected by Sergt. Robert Love to the memory of his wife and her sister, and there are several others: the organ was restored and enlarged in 1894, at a cost of nearly £400, and again in 1912, at a cost of £330: a burial ground was purchased and added to the churchyard in 1862. Bishop Jeremy Taylor was once rector of the parish and there are many entries in the parish register in his handwriting.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Uppingham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Uppingham (St. Peter and St. Paul))
- 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 Uppingham 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.