Ratlinghope
Encyclopedia
Ratlinghope is a village and civil parish in Shropshire
, England
. It is situated four miles (6 km) west from Church Stretton
and twelve miles (19 km) south from Shrewsbury
.
Historically it is located in the hundred of Purslow
. For Church of England
purposes it is in the rural deanery of Bishop's Castle
, archdeaconry of Ludlow
, and diocese
of Hereford
.
It is said that it is sometimes pronounced "Ratchup" by the locals, though none of the locals currently do so - the shortened version is thought to have been created by the post office. The village is scattered around a valley in the hills of the Long Mynd
and Stiperstones
, an AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty). The population is around 100.
Castle Ring, the earthwork of Ratlinghope Hill, is the fort described by Mary Webb
in her novel "Golden Arrow".
, the Portway, runs between Ratlinghope and Church Stretton, and is continued along the crest of the Long Mynd in a north-easterly direction. In the neighbourhood are some British camps and tumuli.
Ratlinghope, in Domesday
Rotelingehope, means the hope or valley of the children of Rotel, Rotel being the Saxon name from which the County of Rutland
was called. At the time of the Domesday survey, Rotelingehope was a manor of two hides
, which were waste, and was held by Robert fitz Corbet of Earl Roger de Montgomery
. In Edward the Confessor
’s reign, Seuuard had held it. Robert fitz Corbet was a younger brother of Roger, the builder of Caus Castle
; he left two daughters, his heirs, Sibil (or Adela), and Alice. Sibil, who had been one of Henry I's
mistresses, married Herbert fitz Herbert, whilst Alice became the wife of William Botterell. Before 1209 Ratlinghope was acquired by Walter Corbet, an Augustine Canon, and a relative of Prince Llewelyn ap Jorwerth
, who gave him a letter of protection. Walter Corbet founded here a small cell or priory of Augustinian Canons of St. Victor, in connection with Wigmore
. Nothing is known of its history, but at the dissolution
there was a Prior and 29 Canons; and the possessions of the Priory, valued at £5 11s. 1½d., per annum, were sold in May, 1546, to Robert Longe, citizen and mercer of London
.
In 1845 the manor and advowson of Ratlinghope were purchased by Robert Scott
, of Great Barr, Member of Parliament
(MP) for Walsall
, and at his death in 1856 they passed to his son John Charles Addyes Scott, who died in 1888, and on the death of his widow in 1907, their son, James Robert Scott, became lord of the manor and patron of Ratlinghope.
Stitt and Gatten, two miles (3 km) north-west, were members of the Domesday manor of Ratlinghope. Between 1204 and 1210, William de Botterell confirmed a moiety of Stitt to Haughmond Abbey. Robert Corbet, of Caus, also gave to the Canons of Haughmond his culture of Gateden, and an assart situate near their culture of Gatteden. There was a church at Stitt in the reign of Henry II
, but since the dissolution of Haughmond Abbey
nothing more is heard of it, and its district with Gatten was annexed to the parish of Ratlinghope. At the start of the 19th century, W. E. M. Hulton-Harrop was lord of the manor of Gatten, which he inherited in 1866 from his maternal grandfather, Jonah Harrop
On 29 January 1865, the Rector of Woolstaston, the Reverend Edmund Donald Carr, was walking from Ratlinghope in order to attempt a second Sunday evening service at another church when he was caught in a blizzard, lost for 22 hours, snow-blinded and almost dead. He emerged in the Cardingmill Valley and must have crossed Wild Moor and Hiddon Hill, some of the wildest country, in his desperate search and struggle to survive. His account of the ordeal "A Night In the Snow" has become well-known in Shropshire. It causes amusement in summer, with its tale of the reverend gentleman sheltering beneath a dead and frozen horse and plummeting down near-vertical snow glissades clutching his bible, but is a memorable reminder of the dangers of this area in Winter.
In 1906, the last known sin-eater
in England was buried in Ratlinghope.
In 2005, the village acquired a further degree of fame when it became the main filming location for the BBC
sitcom Green Green Grass.
The village now boasts an annual music festival nearby usually held in August by a local farmer.
Farmer phil's is a festival run by the family who allow camping a few days before and a few days after the festival ends with prior permission
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated four miles (6 km) west from Church Stretton
Church Stretton
Church Stretton is a small town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The population of the town was recorded as 2,789 in 2001, whilst the population of the wider parish was recorded as 4,186...
and twelve miles (19 km) south from Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
.
Historically it is located in the hundred of Purslow
Purslow
Purslow is a hamlet in Shropshire, England, on the B4368 between the towns of Clun and Craven Arms.Purslow was originally a hundred and there is a pub in the village called the "Hundred House". There is also a manor house which has existed in some form since the twelfth century. It is believed the...
. For Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
purposes it is in the rural deanery of Bishop's Castle
Bishop's Castle
Bishop's Castle is a small market town in Shropshire, England, and formerly its smallest borough. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,630. Bishop's Castle is east of the Wales-England border, about north-west of Ludlow and about south-west of Shrewsbury. To the south is Clun...
, archdeaconry of Ludlow
Ludlow
Ludlow is a market town in Shropshire, England close to the Welsh border and in the Welsh Marches. It lies within a bend of the River Teme, on its eastern bank, forming an area of and centred on a small hill. Atop this hill is the site of Ludlow Castle and the market place...
, and diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
of Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
.
It is said that it is sometimes pronounced "Ratchup" by the locals, though none of the locals currently do so - the shortened version is thought to have been created by the post office. The village is scattered around a valley in the hills of the Long Mynd
Long Mynd
The Long Mynd in Shropshire, England, is a part of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is south of the county town Shrewsbury, and has an area of over 22 square kilometres , most of which takes the form of a heathland plateau. Most of the land on the Long Mynd is owned by...
and Stiperstones
Stiperstones
The Stiperstones is a very distinctive hill in the county of Shropshire, England. It is a quartzite ridge formed some 480 Million years ago. During the last Ice Age the summit stood out above the glaciers and was subject to constant freezing and thawing which shattered the quartzite into a mass of...
, an AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty). The population is around 100.
Castle Ring, the earthwork of Ratlinghope Hill, is the fort described by Mary Webb
Mary Webb
Mary Webb , was an English romantic novelist and poet of the early 20th century, whose work is set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and people which she knew. Her novels have been successfully dramatized, most notably the film Gone to Earth in 1950 by Michael...
in her novel "Golden Arrow".
History
Its area is 5456 acres (22.1 km²), of which, at the turn of the century, 3,756 were arable and pasture, 200 woodland, and about 1,500 common. The population in 1901 was 197. The surface is hilly, and the soil is sand and clay, on a rocky subsoil. An old Roman roadRoman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
, the Portway, runs between Ratlinghope and Church Stretton, and is continued along the crest of the Long Mynd in a north-easterly direction. In the neighbourhood are some British camps and tumuli.
Ratlinghope, in Domesday
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
Rotelingehope, means the hope or valley of the children of Rotel, Rotel being the Saxon name from which the County of Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
was called. At the time of the Domesday survey, Rotelingehope was a manor of two hides
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
, which were waste, and was held by Robert fitz Corbet of Earl Roger de Montgomery
Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury
Roger de Montgomerie , also known as Roger the Great de Montgomery, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury. His father was also Roger de Montgomerie, and was a relative, probably a grandnephew, of the Duchess Gunnor, wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy...
. In Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
’s reign, Seuuard had held it. Robert fitz Corbet was a younger brother of Roger, the builder of Caus Castle
Caus Castle
Caus Castle is a hill fort and medieval castle in the civil parish of Westbury in the English county of Shropshire. It is situated up on the eastern foothills of the Long Mountain guarding the route from Shrewsbury, Shropshire to Montgomery, Powys on the border between England and Wales.- History...
; he left two daughters, his heirs, Sibil (or Adela), and Alice. Sibil, who had been one of Henry I's
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
mistresses, married Herbert fitz Herbert, whilst Alice became the wife of William Botterell. Before 1209 Ratlinghope was acquired by Walter Corbet, an Augustine Canon, and a relative of Prince Llewelyn ap Jorwerth
Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great , full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales...
, who gave him a letter of protection. Walter Corbet founded here a small cell or priory of Augustinian Canons of St. Victor, in connection with Wigmore
Wigmore
Wigmore is a village and parish in the northwest part of the county of Herefordshire, England. It is located on the A4110 road, about west of the town of Ludlow, in the Welsh Marches...
. Nothing is known of its history, but at the dissolution
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
there was a Prior and 29 Canons; and the possessions of the Priory, valued at £5 11s. 1½d., per annum, were sold in May, 1546, to Robert Longe, citizen and mercer of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
In 1845 the manor and advowson of Ratlinghope were purchased by Robert Scott
Robert Wellbeloved Scott
Robert Wellbeloved Scott, born Robert Wellbeloved was the Liberal Member of Parliament for Walsall, England from 1841 to 1847....
, of Great Barr, Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Walsall
Walsall (UK Parliament constituency)
Walsall was a borough constituency centred on the town of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system....
, and at his death in 1856 they passed to his son John Charles Addyes Scott, who died in 1888, and on the death of his widow in 1907, their son, James Robert Scott, became lord of the manor and patron of Ratlinghope.
Stitt and Gatten, two miles (3 km) north-west, were members of the Domesday manor of Ratlinghope. Between 1204 and 1210, William de Botterell confirmed a moiety of Stitt to Haughmond Abbey. Robert Corbet, of Caus, also gave to the Canons of Haughmond his culture of Gateden, and an assart situate near their culture of Gatteden. There was a church at Stitt in the reign of Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, but since the dissolution of Haughmond Abbey
Haughmond Abbey
Haughmond Abbey at Haughmond Hill in Shropshire, otherwise known as the Abbey of Saint John the Evangelist, was founded in about 1100 AD. A statue of St John with his emblem can be found carved into the arches of the chapter house. His image also appeared on the Abbey's great seal.-History:The...
nothing more is heard of it, and its district with Gatten was annexed to the parish of Ratlinghope. At the start of the 19th century, W. E. M. Hulton-Harrop was lord of the manor of Gatten, which he inherited in 1866 from his maternal grandfather, Jonah Harrop
On 29 January 1865, the Rector of Woolstaston, the Reverend Edmund Donald Carr, was walking from Ratlinghope in order to attempt a second Sunday evening service at another church when he was caught in a blizzard, lost for 22 hours, snow-blinded and almost dead. He emerged in the Cardingmill Valley and must have crossed Wild Moor and Hiddon Hill, some of the wildest country, in his desperate search and struggle to survive. His account of the ordeal "A Night In the Snow" has become well-known in Shropshire. It causes amusement in summer, with its tale of the reverend gentleman sheltering beneath a dead and frozen horse and plummeting down near-vertical snow glissades clutching his bible, but is a memorable reminder of the dangers of this area in Winter.
In 1906, the last known sin-eater
Sin-eater
The term sin-eater refers to a person who, through ritual means, would take on by means of food and drink the sins of a household, often because of a recent death, thus absolving the soul and allowing that person to rest in peace...
in England was buried in Ratlinghope.
Filming location
Ratlinghope appears in an episode of Dalziel and Pascoe.In 2005, the village acquired a further degree of fame when it became the main filming location for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sitcom Green Green Grass.
The village now boasts an annual music festival nearby usually held in August by a local farmer.
Farmer phil's is a festival run by the family who allow camping a few days before and a few days after the festival ends with prior permission
External links
- The Register of Ratlinghope, by W. G. D. Fletcher from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
, giving details from the parish registers from 1755–1813