{{Short description|Village in Rutland, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use British English|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox UK place |country =England |official_name =Little Casterton |region=East Midlands |static_image_name=All Saints, Little Casterton - geograph.org.uk - 1496381.jpg |static_image_caption=All Saints' Church, Little Casterton |area_footnotes=<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_table_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_AREA_A&u_id=10148042&c_id=10001043&add=Y |title=A vision of Britain through time |accessdate=14 March 2009 |publisher=University of Portsmouth}}</ref> |area_total_sq_mi = 1.92 | population = 148 | population_ref = 2001 census<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rutland.gov.uk/ppimageupload/Image27657.PDF |title=Rutland Civil Parish Populations |accessdate=14 March 2009 |publisher=Rutland County Council |date=2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012204902/http://www.rutland.gov.uk/ppimageupload/Image27657.PDF |archive-date=12 October 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> |population_density= {{convert|77|/sqmi|/km2|abbr=on}} |os_grid_reference=TF020100 |coordinates = {{coord|52.6785|-0.4919|display=inline,title}} |post_town=STAMFORD |postcode_district =PE9 |postcode_area=PE |dial_code=01780 |constituency_westminster=Rutland and Stamford |london_distance={{convert|83|mi}} SSE |unitary_england=Rutland |lieutenancy_england=Rutland |shire_county=Rutland |website= }}

'''Little Casterton''' is a small village and civil parish in Rutland, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 148, increasing to 218 at the 2011 census.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11125671&c=Little+Casterton&d=16&e=62&g=6384801&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1466850799986&enc=1|title=Civil Parish population 2011|accessdate=25 June 2016|publisher=Office for National Statistics|work=Neighbourhood Statistics}}</ref> It is about two miles (3&nbsp;km) north of Stamford on a minor road that runs to the south of the River Gwash between Great Casterton and Ryhall.

The village's name means 'farm/settlement which was/near a Roman site'.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Rutland/Little%20Casterton |title = Key to English Place-names}}</ref>

The parish church is dedicated to All Saints and is a Grade II* Listed Building.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1361524|desc=Church of All Saints|grade=II*|accessdate=3 July 2018}}</ref> The east and west windows are by Christopher Whall and are in memory of former tenants of Tolethorpe Hall. The east window of 1911 depicts St Hubert, Christ in Majesty and St Francis and is in memory of Hubert Francis Christian Harrisson. The west window features St George and dates to 1919.

About half a mile to the north-east is Tolethorpe Hall, a 17th-century mansion. Since 1977, it has been used as the location of an open-air Shakespearean theatre, the Rutland Theatre of the Stamford Shakespeare Company.

The Little Casterton Working Weekend is held in the village each September. Veteran and vintage agricultural machinery is showcased in a working context. Combines, tractors and other equipment demonstrate harvesting, threshing, ploughing and other activities.

==The Rutland Dinosaur== In June 1968, the Rutland Dinosaur, a specimen of the sauropod dinosaur ''Cetiosaurus oxoniensis'' was found in the Williamson Cliffe quarry in the parish. It was calculated to be around 170 million years old, from the Aalenian or Bajocian part of the Jurassic period.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?action=displayCollectionDetails&collection_no=27876 |title=1968 Williamson Cliffe brick-pit, Rutland: Late/Upper Bajocian, United Kingdom |publisher=The Paleobiology Database}}</ref> It is one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons found in the UK, being fifteen metres long. Since 1975 the remains have been in Leicester Museum & Art Gallery.

==Notable people== Robert Browne (1550s – 1633), the founder of the Brownists, was born at Tolethorpe Hall.

A rector Thomas Nowell Twopeny was later the Archdeacon of Flinders in Australia. His sons, born in Little Casterton, Edward Nowell Twopeny and Richard Twopeny were prominent in Australia.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Little Casterton}} * [http://www.knight-ltd.co.uk/lcww.htm Little Casterton Working Weekend]

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Category:Villages in Rutland Category:Civil parishes in Rutland