Wesleyan
The chapel at 19 Willoughby Road was a ‘cottage converted for services and opened 1892’ (G1). It was active until at least 1932 and has now been converted into a garage for a private house, with entrance from the side, off the drive, near the back.
In bygone days there were a number of farms around the parish, some employing up to 15 men. The hooves of the farm horses were tended by the village blacksmith, the last member of the trade retiring in the 1930s, while further up the same road were the premises of the village carpenter cum wheelwright cum undertaker. Few farms remain today, their stone barns and buildings having been converted into private houses.
A number of the older buildings show the prosperity of the village in 17th and 18th centuries. Priests House dates from 1627, and the manor house from 1687. Morcott Hall was the home of the Fydell Rowleys from around the end of the 18th century. It was said that when squire walked in his gardens, the curtains at the manor house next door had to be drawn. The Hall has been the site of a private boarding school since the early 1940s. The rectory was built in 1830. There used to be a bakery at the edge of the village which cooked the Sunday joints for families.
Gilson's almshouses were founded in 1612 - these have since been altered and reduced in number.
There was a time when the spiritual needs of the villagers were catered for by two chapels (Wesleyan and Baptist) and the church of St Mary the Virgin. The Wesleyan chapel is now privately owned while the Baptist chapel has been converted into the village hall. The church is the most complete Norman one in Rutland. Originally it consisted of a small nave and chancel, and the north and south aisles were added around 1150 and 1200.
In the late 19th century the village boasted five inns, of which only the White Horse remains today. At Christmas the rent dinner was held in the Crown, when tenants would pay the second half year's rent to the squire and the vicar collected his tithes. Morcott Feast was held annually with coconut shies, roundabouts, greasy pole climbing (for a pig) and dancing in the evening. Alas, this custom has long since lapsed.