Ratley

What to see in Ratley

St Peter ad Vincula, St Peter in Chains, is listed Grade II*. The two records disagree on its age: Historic England's listing gives a twelfth-century chancel and a thirteenth-century nave and tower, while the county history dates most of it to the fourteenth century, begun about 1340, with a late fourteenth-century top stage to the tower and a fifteenth-century north porch. It noticed that the tower has two similar doorways at ground level, which suggests it was meant to be defended. Eight brass inscriptions on the west wall of the nave run from 1520 to 1726, and there is an oak chest of the early sixteenth century.

In the churchyard stands a fifteenth-century preaching cross, 3.7m high on two steps, with an octagonal shaft. It is a scheduled monument, and listed Grade II* as well.

On the south-western edge of the village is the earthwork of a motte and bailey castle, on a small hill where the ground falls away on all sides. Historic England's scheduling describes a mound 13m across the top, standing about 6m above its ditch, with two baileys. Excavations from 1968 to 1973 found the footings of a stone building and pottery of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. We found no statement of public access, so look from the public path that passes close by.

The Castle at Edgehill and Upton House

The Castle at Edgehill, Sanderson Miller's sham castle of the 1740s on the ridge, is now a pub with rooms, listed Grade II*, about half a mile west of the village. Upton House, the National Trust house with Lord Bearsted's paintings, lies about a mile and a half to the south-west. Viscount Bearsted, who had bought Ratley's manor too, gave Upton to the Trust in 1948. Edgehill and Radway covers the ridge and the battle below.

A morning in Ratley

Walk the lanes from the crossroads to the church, give the cross and the brasses half an hour, and look out for the castle mound on the south-western edge. Then walk up to the Castle at Edgehill for lunch and the view west. In the afternoon, Upton House is a short drive south.

Walks from Ratley

Our Edgehill Circular, 5.4 miles from the Upton House car park, follows the ridge to the Castle and returns through Ratley. In OpenStreetMap the Centenary Way, the Macmillan Way and the Battlefields Trail also pass close to the village. The Hornton stone quarried on Edge Hill along the parish's western edge is the stone of the houses here: Hornton stone and the ironstone villages explains it.

Food and drink in Ratley

The Castle at Edgehill is the checked pick, with Hook Norton ales and rooms. The Rose and Crown, Ratley's own Grade II listed pub on Featherbow Lane, closed in December 2024 and was bought by Dee and Norm Knight-Barrett, who have reopened it. When we checked in November 2026 its own site gave the kitchen as 12 to 2pm and 5 to 8pm from Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 3pm on Sunday and 12 to 2pm on Monday, with the pub closed on Tuesdays. Ring 01295 983045 to book.

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When to come to Ratley

Any clear day, for the view from the ridge. Upton House follows the National Trust's calendar, so check it before you combine the two. The anniversary of the Battle of Edgehill falls on 23 October.