Bed and breakfast availability
Empingham b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Empingham and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Empingham, Rutland. Rutland is at its loveliest in this large, attractive village with a splendid church on the road from Oakham to Stamford. The three churches of Empingham, Exton and Ketton, which all lie near to one another, would be hard to match for beauty and interest.

It is worth stopping at Empingham to study St Peter's: well proportioned, with a handsome tower, spire and west front, largely 13^th-century, with 14^th- and 15^th-century alterations. Considerable traces of medieval colour remain, and some fragments of ancient glass. The chancel has such a beautiful double piscina and triple sedilia that even those who usually look away at the mention of such details should try to find somebody knowledgeable enough to point them out.

Nobody should leave Rutland without making time to stay at Exton, about 3 miles North West, since this thatch and limestone village and the fascinating monuments in the Church of SS. Peter and Paul cannot be appreciated in a hurry. The best approach, particularly lovely when the may blossom is out, is North from Empingham along a small secondary road, which gives a splendid view from the South of Burley-on-the-Hill, and thence along Barnsdale Avenue, thickly lined with chestnuts, limes, ash, birch, beeches and sycamores, to 1,000-acre Exton Park. The Old Hall, now in ruins, was probably built by Sir James Harington in the time of Elizabeth I, and was destroyed by fire in 1810. It was the home of the Noels, Viscounts Campden, Earls of Gainsborough. The New Hall was completed in 1852. The church, accessible to the public, was struck by lightning in 1843 and was somewhat drastically rebuilt in 1850.

It is not, however, the building, but the monuments inside which will attract the visitor — marvellous English sculpture from the 14^th to the 18^th centuries.: Nicholas Grene. c. 1379, John and Alice Harington, 1524; the splendid tomb of Robert Kelway, 1580, erected by his daughter and her husband, the first Lord Harington, who are depicted kneeling with their daughter, Lucy; the tomb of their son, Kelway Harington, aged 21 weeks; the appealing epitaph to Sir James and Lady Lucy Harington, 1591; the exceptionally beautiful tomb of Anne, grand-daughter of the first Lady Harington, 1627; the monument to 18-year-old James Noel, “grave, discreet, and wise” and his two baby brothers; Gnnling Gibbons's colossal statue to the 3^rd Viscount Campden, for which he charged £1,000, 1683; the Nollekens to the Countess of Gainsborough, 1771, and Lt-Gen. Bennett Noel, 1766.

Do not miss the angel seated at the organ on the tower screen and the helmets, sword, gauntlets and spurs in the nave arcade.

You should also walk round the village on the east side of the park to see the excellent buildings dating from the 16^th century, beautifully grouped on all sides, the well with its stone roof and eight brick pillars, the 14 sycamore trees on the green, and the glimpses of old-world gardens and green hills behind.

Nearby cities: Peterborough

Nearby towns: Bourne, Oakham, Melton Mowbray, Stamford

Nearby villages: Barrowden, Bisbrooke, Braunston, Burley, Careby, Carlby, Casterton, Castle Bytham, Clipsham, Collyweston, Cottesmore, Counthorpe, Creeton, Duddington, Easton on the Hill, Edith Weston, Edmondthorpe, Egleton, Empingham, Essendine, Exton, Great Casterton, Greetham, Hambleton, Harringworth, Ketton, Kings Cliffe, Liddington, Little Bytham, Lyddington, Manton, Market Overton, Morcott, Normanton, North Luffenham, Oakham, Preston, Ryhall, Seaton, South Luffenham, South Witham, Stockerston, Stretton, Thornhaugh, Tickencote, Tinwell, Upper Hambleton, Uppingham, Wakerley, Wansford, Wittering, Wymondham

Have you decided to visit Empingham or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Empingham bed and breakfast (a Empingham B&B or Empingham b and b)
• a Empingham guesthouse
• a Empingham hotel (or motel)
• a Empingham self-catering establishment, or
• other Empingham accommodation