The Register of Ratlinghope

The Register of Ratlinghope, by
W. G. D.

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D. Fletcher
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Title: The Register of Ratlinghope
Author: W. G. D. Fletcher

Release Date: March 28, 2007 [eBook #20926]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
REGISTER OF RATLINGHOPE***

Transcribed from the 1909 Shropshire Parish Register Society edition
by David Price, email [email protected]

The Register of Ratlinghope.
Ratlinghope is a parish situate on the road from Shrewsbury to Bishop's
Castle, four miles west from Church Stretton and twelve miles south
from Shrewsbury, in the hundred of Purslow, rural deanery of Bishop's
Castle, archdeaconry of Ludlow, and diocese of Hereford. The
township of Gatten is in Ford hundred. Its area is 5,456 acres, of which
3,756 are 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 road, the Portway,
runs between Ratlinghope and Church Stretton, and is continued along
the crest of the Longmynd 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 pounds 11s. 1.5d., per
annum, were sold in May, 1546, to Robert Longe, citizen and mercer of
London. {ia}
In 1845 the manor and advowson of Ratlinghope were purchased by
Robert Scott, Esq., of Great Barr, M.P. for Walsall, and at his death in
1856 they passed to his son John Charles Addyes Scott, Esq., who died

in 1888, and on the death of his widow in 1907, their son, James Robert
Scott, Esq., became lord of the manor and patron of Ratlinghope.
Stitt and Gatten, two miles 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. W. E. M.
Hulton-Harrop, Esq., is lord of the manor of Gatten, which, he inherited
in 1866 from his maternal grandfather, Jonah Harrop, Esq.
The Church of St. Margaret, at Ratlinghope, is a small stone building,
consisting of nave and chancel, with south porch, and a wooden bell
turret. The original Church erected in the 12th century was no doubt the
Priory Church also. The Rev. D. H. S. Cranage says that the mediaeval
Church may have entirely disappeared, and that there are no details
which prove that the present building is not entirely of
post-Reformation date. {ib}
The south and only door was made in 1625, and erected by Humfrey
Bigge and Thomas Bright, then Churchwardens. The roof may be of
the same date. There are two fonts. In 1341, Ratlinghope Church was in
the Deanery of Clun. It was afterwards held to be in the Deanery of
Pontesbury. It is not named in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1534-5. Until
the dissolution of the Priory it was considered as extra-parochial and
extra-diocesan.
The Church was served by the Canons until the dissolution; and no
Incumbent seems to have been instituted by the Bishops of Hereford
until 1555. The following is the most