The name of the town means "homestead or village of Oc(c)a" or "hemmed-in land of Oc(c)a".[3]
Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Oakham, at parish (town) and unitary authority level: Oakham Town Council and Rutland County Council. The town council is based at Rol House on Long Row.[4] The county council is also based in the town, at Catmose House.
Oakham was an ancient parish, and gave its name to the Oakham Hundred, one of the five historic hundreds of Rutland.[5] When elected parish and district councils were created under the Local Government Act 1894, Oakham was given a parish council and included in the Oakham Rural District. The parish was removed from the rural district in 1911 to become the Oakham Urban District, with the parish council being replaced by an urban district council. The urban district was abolished in 1974 and a new parish council established, taking the name Oakham Town Council.[6]
Women in the Oakham South East ward had the fifth-highest life expectancy at birth, 95.7 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016.[7]
The urban area of the town now extends into the neighbouring parish of Barleythorpe, to the north-west of the town centre.
Landmarks
Tourist attractions in Oakham include All Saints' Church and Oakham Castle. Another historic feature is the open-air market held in the town's market place every Wednesday and Saturday. Nearby is the Buttercross with an octagonal stone-slate roof and the wooden stocks – both Grade I listed structures.[8][9]
The spire of Oakham parish church, built during the 14th century, dominates distant views of the town for several miles in all directions. Restored in 1857–1858 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the church is a Grade I listed building.[10]
Only the great hall of the Norman castle is still standing, surrounded by steep earthworks marking the inner bailey. The hall dates from about 1180–1190. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, in his Leicestershire and Rutland volume of the Buildings of England series, noted; "It is the earliest hall of any English castle surviving so completely, and it is doubly interesting in that it belonged not to a castle strictly speaking, but rather to a fortified manor house." The building is decorated with Romanesque architectural details, including six carvings of musicians. It is a Grade I listed building.[11] The hall was in use as an assize court until 1970 and is still occasionally used as a coroner's court or Crown Court. It is also licensed for weddings.
The outer bailey of the castle, which is still surrounded by low earthworks, lies to the north of the castle. Known as Cutts Close, it is now a park. The park has some deep hollows which are remnants of the castle's dried-up stew ponds (fishponds).[12] A Castle-class corvette named HMS Oakham Castle was launched in July 1944.[13]
Oakham's horseshoes
Ceremonial horseshoes in Oakham Castle
Traditionally, members of royalty and peers of the realm who visited or passed through the town had to pay a forfeit in the form of a horseshoe. This unique custom has been enforced for over 500 years, but nowadays it only happens on special occasions (such as royal visits), when an outsize ceremonial horseshoe, specially made and decorated, is hung in the great hall of the castle. There are now over 200 of these commemorative shoes on its walls. Not all are dated and some of the earliest (which would doubtless have been ordinary horseshoes given without ceremony by exasperated noblemen) may not have survived. The earliest datable one is an outsize example commemorating a visit by King Edward IV in about 1470. Recent horseshoes commemorate visits by Princess Anne (1999), Prince Charles (2003) and Princess Alexandra (2005).[12]
The horseshoes hang with the ends pointing down; while this is generally held to be unlucky, in Rutland this was thought to stop the Devil from sitting in the hollow. The horseshoe motif appears in the county council's arms and on Ruddles beer labels, although it has been inverted to the usual position for the latter by current owner Greene King.
The museum is located in the old Riding School of the Rutland Fencible Cavalry which was built in 1794–1795.[14] The museum houses a collection of objects relating to local rural and agricultural life, social history and archaeology.
A statue of Elizabeth II by Hywel Pratley was unveiled on 21 April 2024, which would have been the 98th birthday of the late Queen. The 7ft (2.1m) tall sculpture on a limestone base was commissioned by the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland and funded through donations from businesses and members of the public, at the cost of £125,000.
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the Waltham TV transmitter.[18]
Oakham School is an English public school, founded together with Uppingham School in 1584. The original school building survives, north-east of the church. It has across its south front the inscription Schola Latina – Graeca – Hebraica A° 1584 and above its door a stone with an inscription in Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Oakham School is the owner of the town's former workhouse. Built in 1836–1837 by the Oakham Poor Law Union, it held 167 inmates until its conversion into Catmose Vale Hospital. It now contains two of the school houses for girls.
↑University of Nottingham - Institute of Name Studies School of English. "Key to English Place-names". Kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
