Empingham Methodist Church
Main Street, Empingham, Rutland
01780 762282
Village History
The name is Saxon and means the home of Epa's people. When Sykes Lane car park was made 132 Saxon graves were unearthed, and the first settlements were by the river Gwash. Traces of Romano-British houses were found when the dam was built and the de Normanvilles had their moated Hall near the water. In 1086 there were 12 water mills in the village. The last to be in working order was at the end of Mill Lane.
The last owner of the estate, which comprised most of the village, was the Earl of Ancaster who sold his properties in 1924. The Audit Hall where tenants paid their rents then became village property.
At the other end of Audit Hall Road are the old School House and the old School, now a private house. The Earl's ancestors built the school in 1838 and enlarged it in 1872.The present school was officially opened in 1973. Empingham has had a school since 1692.
Petty Sessions were held at the White Horse Inn on alternate Mondays. Across the road stood the Toll Cottage. Tolls were collected until 1871. The cottage was demolished when the road was widened.
The farmhouse at the Exton corner was the Crown Inn, and it is said that the stocks were at the cross roads. The large building in Main Street called The Wilderness was the parish workhouse from 1794 to 1834.
In 1470 a battle was fought between Yorkists and Lancastrians at Horn Field just within the Empingham borders. It was much later called Losecoat Field because the defeated Lancastrians were said to have thrown off their identifying surcoats in their flight. In fact the word Losecote means a pigsty. The name also occurred in Braunston.
In 1769 John Bowland was hanged at Empingham corner on the Great North Road. The Ordinance Surveys called the spot 'Bowland's Gibbet. A gibbet was still there in 1900 and it was said that the last man hanged there stole sheep.
An interesting old name to survive is Vechery or Vachery Bridge which crosses North Brook on the Viking Way. A vachery was a cow pasture in which some cottagers had some rights. The pastures extended from the bridge towards the village.
The largest house in the village is Prebendal House. There has probably been a house on the site for nine hundred years. It belonged to a canon of Lincoln called the Prebendary of Empingham and was for his use when he visited. Much of the time it was rented to others. At the time of the Enclosure of 1795 the Prebendary exchanged it for some of the Heathcote lands. In 1843 the Prebendary ceased to have rights here, but there is still a titular Prebendary and a stall in Lincoln Cathedral bearing the name Empingham.
The first meeting place of the Wesleyan Methodists was a house at the top of Church Street, licensed for worship in 1821. About 1830 they moved to an old butcher's shop on the site of what is now 18 Main Street. The present building dates from 1899.
It is long since Empingham had its own butcher, baker, blacksmith, miller, shoe maker, saddler, carpenter, wheelwright, maltster and stone mason.More information
More information can be found in the 56 page 'History of Empingham' by J.E.Swaby. Oakham Library should have a copy.
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