OAKHAM & RUTLAND LOCAL NEWS

OAKHAM CASTLE AND OAKHAM HORSESHOES

Oakham Castle

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 and according to Nikolaus Pevsner

(in his The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland):

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 attractively ornamented with Romanesque architectural details,

including six carvings of musicians. It is a Grade I listed building.

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 with a bandstand, skateboard area,

flower beds and a children's playground.

The park has some deep hollows which are remnants of the castle's

dried-up stew ponds (fishponds)

A Castle-class corvette named HMS Oakham Castle

was launched in July 1944.

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Oakham Horseshoes 

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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.

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.

Recent horseshoes commemorate visits by Princess Anne (1999),

Prince Charles (2003)

and Princess Alexandra (2005)