Ragley Hall, Alcester, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

A mid-18th-century park landscaped by Lancelot Brown, with late 19th-century formal gardens and pleasure grounds laid out by Robert Marnock.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Ragley Hall is situated about 1km south-west of the village of Arrow, and some 2km south-west of the town of Alcester, on the west side of the B4085 road which leads from Arrow to Bidford-on-Avon. The roughly 340 hectare site comprises some 12 hectares of gardens and pleasure grounds, a lake of about four hectares and roughly 324 hectares of parkland. The site is bounded to the east by the B4085 road, and to the south-east and south by a minor road which leads from Wixford to Dunnington. To the south-west and west the site adjoins agricultural land on a ridge of high ground, while to the north-west and north the site is bounded by agricultural land. To the north-east the boundary is formed by the A422 road, Arrow Lane. The park is fenced to the east, south-east and south with a traditional timber pale. Ragley Hall stands on an eminence towards the centre of the site, with the ground dropping away on all sides. The park rises to ridges of high ground to the north-east, west and south, while there are extensive views in all directions from the Hall and pleasure grounds across the park to surrounding agricultural land. There are significant views east across agricultural land and to Oversley Castle, a late 18th-century folly constructed on a hilltop about 2.5km east of the Hall. The Castle was reduced in height and converted to domestic use in the early 20th century and is today (2000) partly obscured by trees.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

J Beeverell, Les delices de la Grande Bretagne V, (1707), p 872

L Knyff and J Kip, Britannia Illustrata I, (1707)

W Dugdale, Antiquities of Warwickshire (2nd edition 1730)

J P Neale, Views of the Seats ...IV, (1821)

P Toynbee (editor), Letters of Horace Walpole III, pp 65-6; IV, p 174

Country Life, 13 (2 May 1903), p 571; 55 (22 March 1924), pp 438-46; (29 March 1924), pp 476-82; 123 (1 May 1958), pp 938-41; (8 May 1958), pp 1006-9; no 10 (7 March 1996), pp 70-5

Victoria History of the County of Warwickshire III, (1945), pp 26-31

N Pevsner and A Wedgewood, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire (1966), pp 380-2

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 55, 237

D Barker, One Man's Estate The Preservation of an English Inheritance (1983)

Ragley Hall, guidebook, (Ragley Hall 1993)

G Tyack, Warwickshire Country Houses (1994), pp 166-72

Maps

H Beighton, A Mapp of Warwickshire, 1" to 1 mile, surveyed 1722-5, published 1729

H Beighton, A Map of Barlichway Hundred, surveyed 1729, published 1730

W Yates and Sons, Map of Warwickshire, surveyed 1787-9, published 1793

Plan of Ragley Park, early C19 [watermark 1822] (CR114A/190), (Warwickshire County Record Office)

Robert Marnock, Plan of garden steps at Ragley Hall, around 1873 (CR114A/238/3/50), (Warwickshire County Record Office)

OS Old Series 1" to 1 mile, published 1831

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1886; 2nd edition published 1905-6

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1886; 2nd edition published 1905

Illustrations

J Kip, Ragley in the County of Warwick the Seat of Popham Conway Esq, published 1707

Watercolour, Ragley Hall from the south-west, around 1800 (Aylesford Collection, Birmingham Reference Library Archive)

T Radcliffe, Ragley Hall from the west, around 1830

Archival items

The Seymour Conway family papers are held at the Warwickshire County Record Office (CR114A). They include estate records, early 19th-century surveys and reports on conditions of the gardens (CR114A/190 and CR114A/238), and late 19th-century correspondence and accounts from Robert Marnock (CR114A/238/1-4).
 

Description written: March 2000

Amended: May 2000, September 2000

Edited: January 2001