Uppingham Rutland
Uppingham is one of the finest and most complete small market towns in England's smallest county, a Rutland town of warm ironstone and limestone buildings set on a ridge above the Eye Brook Valley whose combination of the traditional market square, Uppingham School with its significant architectural presence, the excellent independent shops and the surrounding Rutland countryside creates a destination of considerable charm and cultural richness. Uppingham School, founded in 1584 and one of the older English public schools, contributes substantially to the character of the town through both its buildings and the cultural investment it has sustained over centuries. The school chapel and the school buildings clustered around the centre of the town give Uppingham an architectural confidence unusual in a small market town, and the tradition of educational excellence has attracted a population with cultural interests that sustain the quality of the town's independent businesses. The market square with its traditional buildings, the Church of St Peter and St Paul and the surrounding streets of stone buildings provide a townscape of considerable quality and consistency. The proximity of Rutland Water, the largest artificial lake in England by surface area, provides excellent birdwatching, sailing and cycling immediately north of the town and completes an experience of Rutland's distinctive combination of historic townscape and managed countryside.