Burley-on-the-Hill is 2mi NE of Oakham in Rutland. The church is located just to the W of the early modern Burley-on-the-Hill House, the magnificent 17^th c. mansion stunningly situated high above and overlooking Rutland Water. The church of the Holy Cross originally consisted of a nave with a N aisle and a chancel. In the 13^th c. the S aisle was added and then the W tower in the 14^th c. In 1869-70, J. L. Pearson led a major restoration of the church including a complete rebuilding of the chancel, aisles and the exterior walls. The church was declared redundant in 1984 and came under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust in 1988. The N arcade of the nave, from the 12thc., is the earliest surviving part of the church.

Though Burley is cited in DB as belonging to Gilbert of Ghent, there is no mention of a church or a priest here in 1086. Sometime between 1173 – 1188, the lord of Burley, David de Armenters, gave the church of Burley to Nuneaton Priory in Warwickshire.

In later centuries this gift was confirmed by the descendants of David in 1246 and by the bishops of Lincoln, including, in 1283, by Bishop Oliver Sutton noting the appropriation of the church to the nuns, though he held the right of naming a vicar. In 1364, the owner of the manor of Burley, Anne le Despenser, endowed a chaplain to make daily prayers in the church at Burley for the king and queen, herself and others. The rectory and the advowson of the church stayed with the nuns until 1551 when they, along with the manor, were granted to Sir Thomas and George Tresham; the rectory and advowson then continued to descend with the manor.

The cutting back of the corners of the plinths and abaci are likely the work of Pearson’s 1869-70 restoration.

While Bay 3 of the arcade appears to be a later addition, the fact that the arch matches Bay 1 to the east implies that it was relatively contemporary.