The Register of Ratlinghope

Excerpt

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.