Greetham, Rutland

The main street of Greetham
Greetham
Greetham is located in Rutland
Greetham
Greetham
Location within Rutland
Area4.81 sq mi (12.5 km2) [1]
Population609 2001 census[2]
• Density127/sq mi (49/km2)
OS grid referenceSK9214
• London87 miles (140 km) SSE
Unitary authority
Shire county
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townOakham
Postcode districtLE15
Dialling code01572
PoliceLeicestershire
FireLeicestershire
AmbulanceEast Midlands
UK Parliament
WebsiteGreetham, Rutland
List of places
UK
England
Rutland
52°43′12″N 0°37′52″W / 52.720°N 0.631°W / 52.720; -0.631
Village well

Greetham is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England.

The village's name means 'homestead/village which is gravelly' or 'hemmed-in land which is gravelly'.[3]

The village is on the B668 road between the county town of Oakham and the A1 and on the north–south Viking Way long distance footpath linking the Humber Bridge and Oakham. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 609 increasing to 638 at the 2011 census.[4]

The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin are Norman, but the church today is largely as it was rebuilt in the 13th–15th centuries.[5][6] The west tower and spire are 13th or 14th century and the south porch was built in 1673.[5][6] The church was restored in 1897 by Jethro Cossins. The church is a Grade I listed building.[6] It is on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register, at priority category: C – "slow decay; no solution agreed".[7]

Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust owns Merry's Meadows nature reserve,[8] a SSSI in the parish that is important for species characteristic of unimproved grassland. East of the village just before the Sewstern Lane junction, just north of the B668 is Greetham Lime Quarry[9] owned by the Dickerson Group of Waterbeach.

Greetham has two pubs: the Plough and the Wheatsheaf, both on the B668. To the east is the Greetham Valley golf course.[10] On the A1 near Stretton is a former pub, the Olde Greetham Inn, now owned by Construction Interior Design.

The village well, of mid-19th century, has an inscription; "All ye who hither come to drink/Rest not your thoughts below/Remember Jacob's well and think/Whence "living waters" flow." It is Grade II listed.[11]

  1. ^ "A vision of Britain through time". University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
  2. ^ "Rutland Civil Parish Populations" (PDF). Rutland County Council. 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
  3. ^ "Key to English Place-names".
  4. ^ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  5. ^ a b Pevsner 1960, p. 301.
  6. ^ a b c Historic England (14 June 1954). "Church of St Mary, Church Lane (1073218)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  7. ^ "Church of St Mary, Church Lane, Greetham – Rutland (UA)". Heritage at Risk Register. Historic England. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  8. ^ "Merry Meadows nature reserve". Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. Archived from the original on 7 October 2006.
  9. ^ "Greetham Lime Quarry". Geograph.
  10. ^ Golf club
  11. ^ Historic England. "Village Well (Grade II) (1073219)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 March 2017.