Normanton, Rutland Genealogy

Guide to Normanton, Rutland ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
NORMANTON (St. Matthew), a parish, in the union of Oakham, hundred of Martinsley, county of Rutland, 5 miles (E. S. E.) from Oakham.

The Victoria County History of Normanton (1935) is available. It includes a history of the manor, church, advowson, and charities.

Additional information:

In the 1970s much of the parish was flooded by the construction of the Rutland Water reservoir.

St Matthew's Church is a grade II listed building, built in classical style. The tower and the western portico were built by Thomas Cundy Jr between 1826 and 1829, based on the design of St John's, Smith Square in Westminster, while the nave and apse were constucted in 1911, by J. B. Gridley of London. The building was once the private chapel for the Normanton Estate, but it was de-consecrated in 1970, and was to have been demolished as part of the reservoir construction, as its floor was below the proposed water level. Following a public outcry, the lower half was filled with stone and rubble, and a concrete cap constructed just below the level of the windows. An embankment was built around the church leaving it a prominent feature on the water's edge.The structure now houses a museum recording the history of Rutland Water.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Normanton parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Record Office for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and the Northamptonshire Record Office.

Poor Law Unions
Oakham Poor Law Union, Rutland

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Rutland Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain