Oakham

The destination for our weekend trip was "Rutland", England's smallest county. The only towns in Rutland are Oakham and Uppingham! It was cold weather and we were worried if trains would be delayed or cancelled, but to tell the conclusion first, everything was fine! We had good luck! We changed trains at Colchester, Norwich, and Ely. In Norwich, we had breakfast at a cafe. 

As we went to remote areas, it became snow deep. The view from the train window was white, white, white - snow scape everywhere. Snow covered everything with white and it was difficult to discern what they were, fields, farmland, park or wasteland... They seemed like white plains that go on forever!!

We got off the train at Oakham station. Oakham is a small market town in Rutland county. The origin of the name Oakham is an exception to the general rule that place names beginning with oak- or oke- have something to do with oak trees. It's the homestead of a long-forgotten man named Occa. We passed an eye-catching school shop. According to information, Oakham School is one of the major English public schools.

We walked around the town and went to the pub "Wheatsheaf" to have a lunch. It was quite a lovely atmosphere. Some local men at the next table were drinking over funny conversation and figuring out the answers to the crossword puzzle in a newspaper . Seemed like it's their routine stuff on weekend.

The house opposite the pub looked old with a thatched roof. Also All Saints Church is located around the corner.

 

On our way back to the station, I found Jeffrey Hudson's Cottage. Who is Jeffrey Hudson, by the way? According to Wikipedia and websites, Jeffrey Hudson (1619- circa 1682) was an English court dwarf, and famous as "Queen's dwarf" at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria. He only grow to a height of 18 inches and remained at that height until he was at least 30. Then he started to grow again but he never exceeded 3 feet 6 inches. The last stage of his life was unremarkable, he was sent to France as a servant, but captured by pirates and spent 25 years as a slave in North Africa before being ransomed back to England. After that he had various ups and downs, and he died in prison.

Jeffrey Hudson's Cottage

The question I had was about horseshoe. I saw many horseshoes anywhere, such as the pub, county flag etc. We didn't visit Oakham Castle nor Rutland County Museum, but the brochure say that royal horseshoes can be seen in side the castle. And I found the answer. 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! Nowadays it only happens on special occasions though. It's interesting!



Ceremonial horseshoes in Oakham

(picture source; wikipedia)

From the Oakham station, we took a taxi to the Barnsdale Hall Hotel in Rutland where we had a room reserved. To be continued to Rutland.