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The ‘Victoria County History’, in its section on the parish of Arrow, tells of the building of Ragley Hall about 1680. The manor of Ragley had existed for many centuries before then but where was its manor house? VCH opines, ‘some of the fabric of the original house may be incorporated in the building’. One wonders whether some light may be thrown on this by a document we have recently copied, an original, hand-written manuscript by the Rev. Jeremiah Milles in 1743 at present held by the British Library at the British Museum. This is an account of the journey the cleric made from Ireland to Chipping Norton. In his travels he passed through Alcester and took the opportunity of looking at Ragley Hall:-
Upon an eminence commanding a most noble prospect of ye country round about stands Ragley house, a noble seat; or I should rather it a shell, built by the Earl of Conway; but never furnished; in which state it has continued ever since.........
......Behind this grand.. house is a small, irregular
building, which is ye present mansion house of Lord Conway; but he talks of putting this
Grand house in repair, and indeed it is a pity that so noble a situation and shell should
not be filled up in a proper manner.
Is the ‘present mansion house’ the old manor house of Ragley, undoubtedly of
timber? If so, VCH is probably wrong in thinking that the present Hall stands on the site
of the old manor house. If our interpretationis correct, then Ragley’s old house had
a longer life than has previously been supposed.
1. British Library, Add. Ms. 15776, ff. 166-174.
© Alcester & District Local History Society