Ragley Hall

Has been described as a Certain Fortified Manor House

There are no visible remains

NameRagley Hall
Alternative NamesRagele
Historic CountryWarwickshire
Modern AuthorityWarwickshire
1974 AuthorityWarwickshire
Civil ParishArrow

In 1370 John Rous of Ragley exchanged with the abbey lands in Ombersley, Worcs., for land and rent in Ragley and Kingley. In Dec. 1381 he received a pardon for crenellating a house above the gate of his manor of Ragley without licence, and was given leave to crenellate the remainder of the manor. (VCH)

Gatehouse Comments

Presumably sited at location of Grade 1 listed C17 Ragley Hall, but grounds were landscaped by Capability Brown so any remains likely to be very scant. An uncited Wikipedia entry (accessed 16 April 2012) states "the Abbey sold Ragley to the Rous family who built an embattled castle thought to be on the site of what is the Rose Garden today." Quite the reason for thinking the medieval house was on a slightly different site than the Palladian House is unclear but not unreasonable. It would be misleading to think the pardon meant the crenellated gatehouse was unlawful, as such houses were routinely built without licence. However, for forms sake a pardon would be given when the prestigious grant for the whole manor was made. What this does mean is that there certainly was a crenellated gatehouse as Ragley in 1381, rather than just the intent to build such.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSP072555
Latitude52.1976699829102
Longitude-1.89751005172729
Eastings407200
Northings255530
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 343
  • Cooper, Nicholas, 1999, Houses of the Gentry, 1480-1680 (Yale University Press) p. 39
  • Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p. 65
  • Salter, Mike, 1992, Castles and Moated Mansions of Warwickshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 43
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 485
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus and Wedgwood, Alexandra, 1966, Buildings of England: Warwickshire p. 380-382
  • Salzman, L.F. (ed), 1945, VCH Warwickshire Vol. 3 p. 27 online transcription
  • Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  • Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 241, 418 online copy

Journals

  • 1971, The Archaeological Journal Vol. 128 p. 230-233
  • Chatwin, P.B., 1947-8, 'Castles in Warwickshire' Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society Vol. 67 p. 29-30

Primary Sources

  • Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1897, Calendar of Patent Rolls Richard II (1381-85) Vol. 2 p. 64 online copy