The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Register of Ratlinghope, by W. G. 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 ccx074@pglaf.org

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