Martinsthorpe is a civil parish in the county of Rutland, located about four miles south of Oakham near the village of Manton. The village name means 'outlying farm/settlement of Martin'. It was once the site of a deserted medieval village and, for a time, was the only parish in Rutland to have no population.
One building remains in the parish: Old Hall Farmhouse, a Grade II listed building prominent on the ridge. This structure was originally part of the service wing of Martinsthorpe Hall, which served as a seat for the Earls of Nottingham, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, and the de Monfort family. Built in ca 1660, the building features numerous large inglenook fireplaces and historic alterations. After being unoccupied for several decades following the departure of the Goodyer family in the late 1950s, a programme of total restoration and renovation began in 2011. Now re-occupied, it has been named Martinsthorpe House.
An ancient route, perhaps a true ridgeway of the Bronze Age, comes westwards from Stamford and follows the limestone ridge by Edith Weston, Manton and Martinsthorpe. While it was once one of the parishes with nil population, Martinsthorpe now has a population of one.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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