Ratley, Warwickshire
Historical Description
Ratley, a village and a parish in Warwickshire. The village stands under Edge Hill, near the boundary with Oxfordshire, 4 miles SE of Kineton, and 5¼ SW of Fenny Compton. It has a post office under Banbury; money order office, Avon Dassett; telegraph office, Kineton. The parish contains also the hamlet of Upton. Acreage, 1729; population, 371. The manor was known at Domesday as Rotelei, and belongs now to the Earl of Jersey. Stone is extensively quarried. Nadbury camp, on Edge Hill, was a British encampment. Upton House is the chief residence. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £100 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is ancient, and the churchyard contains a preaching cross. There are Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Warwickshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Ratley St. Peter | |
| Hundred | Kington | |
| Poor Law union | Banbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Warwickshire County Record Office hold the following registers for Ratley:
| Baptisms | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|
| 1701-1979 | 1701-2002 | 1701-1924 |
Most of the records prior to 1911 have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.co.uk
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Ratley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1848 (Ratley (St. Peter))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Warwickshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Ratley are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Warwickshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Warwickshire 1619 is available on the Heraldry page.