Last reviewed 22 September 2026 · A two-minute read · 43–1966
South Luffenham grew around its church and its railway cutting, a village marked by refusal as much as record: Rose Boswell, a Romani teenager, was denied a churchyard grave in 1794 and buried instead within the church, near the corner where a well was later disputed and where the Syston and Peterborough line ran from 1848 to 1966.
The short answer
Cutting Lane in South Luffenham takes its name from the railway cutting of the Syston and Peterborough Railway, opened in 1848 and closed in 1966, and stands near the corner well once disputed by the parish council and the church where Rose Boswell, a Romani teenager refused a churchyard grave, was buried in the south aisle in 1794.
The Farm. The farm is called "The Farm". The River Chater is in the foreground. — 2006 · Andrew Tatlow · CC BY-SA 2.0
Christmas 1793 to February 1794
The parish church took in a girl it had rejected
At Christmas 1793, a band of Romani travelers camped at the Follies, near Foster's Bridge, close to South Luffenham. Their leader was Edward Boswell, styled a "King of the Gypsies." His daughter Rose was seventeen. She was already dying of consumption, the disease people then called a slow wasting of the lungs.
The group could not move on. Rose was too sick to survive the jolt of a caravan. So they stayed through a bleak, cold winter on the heath outside the village. They waited for her to die or recover. She did not recover. Rose Boswell died on February 19, 1794.
Then the parish refused her. The churchwardens of Church of St Mary the Virgin, South Luffenham would not let her be buried in consecrated ground. In their eyes she was not a Christian. The churchyard was not hers to lie in.
The curate was a Reverend Bateman. He overruled them. He had her carried into the church itself and laid to rest in the south aisle. This space was usually reserved for the parish's own families. Word of it traveled. Weeks later, a marble slab arrived from London. Romani families from far away paid for it to mark her grave. It still lies in the church, 343 feet from where you stand. Its inscription is still just readable: "What grief can vent this loss, or praises tell, how much, how good, how beautiful she fell."
The churchwardens would not have her buried in the parish because she was not considered a Christian.
1571 to 1587
A dictionary-maker lost his post over his beliefs
The same church that later opened its south aisle to Rose Boswell once closed its own door on a man inside it. Robert Cawdrey became rector of the church in 1571. He wrote one of the first English dictionaries, the Table Alphabeticall. The book helped ordinary readers with hard words. His beliefs were the problem. Cawdrey held Puritan views. They did not match the official Church of England line. In 1587 he lost his post. The parish he had served for sixteen years pushed him out.
November 1904
A man got hard labor for stealing a loaf
In November 1904, a delivery man named Edward Berridge made his bread rounds through South Luffenham. A man named Charles Louth took a loaf from the cart. It was worth two and a half pence. The court did not weigh the theft against his hunger or his circumstances. Louth was sentenced to fourteen days of hard labor for one stolen loaf.
The village's grip on who belonged there did not loosen with time.
19 April 1913
Fire destroyed three cottages at The Square overnight
That grip showed itself again, this time in flame. On April 19, 1913, fire tore through three cottages at The Square, in the middle of the village. The cottages burned to the ground. Whoever lived in them lost their homes in a single night, with no warning and no say in it.
before the mid-20th century
The council refused to pay for a well's water
Even water in South Luffenham came with conditions. A well stood at the corner of Cutting Lane and Gatehouse Lane. It once fed the village through a pipe laid under the railway line. The well's owner asked to be paid for the water. The parish council refused him. Rather than pay, the council sank a new well of its own in the Hempyards. The old well went unused.
Rose Boswell's slab still lies in the south aisle, thirty paces from where you stand, the one claim on this ground the parish could not, in the end, refuse.
Read the ground you are standing on
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and Strata will dig the ground under your feet instead, wherever that is, in about a minute, with every source shown.
The parish church nearby was largely rebuilt in the 14th century, with its clerestory added in the 15th, and its record as a place of worship here reaches back to 1190.
The Grade I listed Church of St John the Baptist at North Luffenham dates to the 11th century, with its aisles and tower added over the following three hundred years.
A well at the corner of Cutting Lane and Gatehouse Lane once piped water to the village under the railway, until its owner demanded payment and the Council sank a new well elsewhere instead.
Cutting Lane takes its name from the railway cutting of the Syston and Peterborough Railway, which opened alongside it in 1848 and closed in 1966. Near its corner with Gatehouse Lane stood a well that once piped water to the village under the railway line.
Who was Rose Boswell?
Rose Boswell was the seventeen-year-old daughter of Edward Boswell, a man styled a 'King of the Gypsies,' who died of consumption on February 19, 1794, while her Romani band camped near South Luffenham through the winter.
Why did the parish refuse to bury Rose Boswell?
The churchwardens of St Mary the Virgin, South Luffenham considered Rose Boswell not a Christian and would not allow her burial in consecrated churchyard ground. The curate, Reverend Bateman, overruled them and had her buried in the church's south aisle instead.
What was here before the railway cutting?
The material given does not describe what stood on this ground before the Syston and Peterborough Railway cutting opened in 1848, which gave Cutting Lane its name.
Why did the council refuse to pay for the well at Cutting Lane?
The well's owner asked to be paid for the water it supplied under the railway line to the village, and rather than pay him, the parish council sank a new well of its own in the Hempyards, leaving the old well unused.
Who was Robert Cawdrey?
Robert Cawdrey was rector of the South Luffenham church from 1571, and the author of one of the first English dictionaries, the Table Alphabeticall. His Puritan beliefs led to his removal from the post in 1587.
