Empingham Men’s Shed creates village history boards

A display celebrating a village’s history will be unveiled to mark 100 years since all of its properties were auctioned off.

Eight information boards are being unveiled at the village breakfast in Empingham Audit Hall on Saturday (September 7) at 10am.

The project was completed by members of Empingham Men’s Shed including Bob Willars, Andrew Coulcher, John Haward, Mac McCullough, Alan Danbury, Jonathan Roland and Neil Juggins.

Professor Bill Forster also played an important role in the project but died before it was completed.

Bob, who has lived in the village for 12 years, said: “I was aware of aspects of the history of the village from reading books, such as The Heritage of Rutland Water which has a section about Empingham. But I know information from books isn’t always accessible to everyone.

“We felt this would be something which adds real value to people who live in the village or who are visiting.”

From pre-Norman times to the modern day, the boards provide facts and snippets of the past spanning centuries.

To gather information members of Empingham Men’s Shed invited villagers to share their memories and any stories which had been passed onto them

One of the boards will look back on when the Ancaster estate, which owned Empingham, sold off all of the properties in 1924 to pay taxes and debts.

Another maps out important historic buildings in the village.

Empingham Men’s Shed members hope to put up the boards at different places around the village.