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Ranton Abbey

Ranton Abbey or Ranton Priory was an Augustinian Priory in Ranton, Staffordshire, England, built c.1150 by Robert fitz Noel of Ellenhall. Ranton was dissolved by the Act of 1536. Only the 14th century tower and part of the south wall remain, although the cloisters and other parts are known to have still been standing in 1663. The ruins of Abbey House stand adjacent. The priory flourished in the 13th century as a subordinate house to Haughmond Abbey . Ranton Abbey "was founded by Robert and Celestia Noel of Ellenhall about 1150 for Augustinian canons from Haughmond. In 1820 Thomas, 1st Earl of Lichfield, built a large house, a hunting lodge or weekend retreat, adjacent to the abbey...all that remains of the abbey is the large imposing tower and a little of the nave wall with a Norman doorway decorated with roll moulding. The house...is now in ruins...it was accidentally burned down in 1942, during the Second World War, when troops of Queen Wilhelmina's bodyguard were quartered here." According to William White in his 1851 History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire: Ranton, or Ronton, is a small scattered village, five miles W of Stafford, comprising within its parish the scattered hamlets of Extolls, Long Compton, Park Nook, and including 320 inhabitants, and about 2670 acres of land, belonging chiefly to the Earl of Lichfield, and Francis Eld, Esq, and the former is lord of the manor, which, at the time of the Norman Conquest, was held by Goderick, a Saxon nobleman, and afterwards by the Noels and Harcourts. Swynfen Jones, Esq, and a few smaller owners have estates in the parish. About a mile W of the village is Ranton Abbey, an extra parochial liberty of 700 acres belonging to the Earl of Lichfield. The ancient abbey was founded by Robert Fitz-Noel, in the reign of Henry II, for regular canons of the order of St Augustine. Considerable remains of the abbey are still standing, including a lofty well-built tower, and the outer walls of the church. The abbey liberty contains 28 inhabitants and the Abbey House which is the seat of ED Moore, Esq.

Ancient High House

The Ancient High House is an Elizabethan town house located on the main street in Stafford. The house was constructed in 1594 by the Dorrington family, from local oak, which anecdotally came from the nearby Doxey Wood, and is the largest timber framed town house in England. Many of the original timbers bear carpenters marks indicating that the frame was pre-assembled on the ground and the joints numbered to aid the on-site construction. Some timbers have additional joint housings cut into them, which would suggest that they have been reused from an even earlier structure. It was not unheard of for a building to be dismantled and rebuilt at a different location hence the expression to up-sticks, which means to move house. At the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, a member of the Sneyd family of Keele Hall, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, was renting the building. Charles I visited Stafford and stayed at the Ancient High House on 17 and 18 September 1643, not long after raising the Royal Standard at Nottingham, the feudal signal to call his loyal subjects to arms this act was seen as the start of the English Civil War. Having made the High House his temporary headquarters, the King talked to his advisers and dictating letters and military orders for the forthcoming campaign . While in Stafford the King attended St Marys Collegiate Church, an account being made by a local woman for the strewing of flowers along his route to the church. There is a story that while walking in the garden of the High House with the King, Prince Rupert fired two shots through the tail of the weather vane of St Marys in order to demonstrate the accuracy of a continental Horse Pistol. The weather vane was removed several centuries ago, and so the story cannot be verified, although the pistol Prince Rupert is said to have fired was far more accurate than most of the weapons then in use. In May 1643, the Kings enemies, the Parliamentarians, captured the town and in the following January, the newly established Committee of Stafford ordered: that the High House of Mr Dorringtons in tenure of Mr Lees shall be forthwith assigned to Mr Roberts the Provost Marshall to habite in for the securing of the better sort of prisoners... These prisoners were Royalists. The main room of the house would have been the central room on the first floor, and it is here that guests, including King Charles I and Prince Rupert, would have been entertained. Today a tableau represents the scene during the visit of the King who stayed as a guest of Captain Richard Sneyd. The King was accompanied by his nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who was already an accomplished military commander. The structure was weakened by renovations to the ground floor in the 19th century. This work included the knocking-through of a stone fireplace to create a corridor and the removal of one of the corner posts, which lead to a splaying of the overhanging upper storeys. A second chimney was demolished to create more space, this taking place following the advent of electricity when the rooms were presumably kept warm in winter by portable heaters. The Ancient High House is now largely a historic house museum with a collection of period room furnishings and displays, including the English Civil War, Edwardian and Victorian eras. Three galleries feature changing art, photography and history exhibitions. The museum is operated by the Stafford Borough Council and entry is free of charge. The Staffordshire Yeomanry Museum is housed in the attic floor, and features uniforms and artefacts of the Staffordshire Yeomanry. The Ancient High House adjoins Shaws House and the Swan, both of which have Elizabethan origins, while close-by may be found St Chads Church and the Collegiate Church of St Marys, Stafford.

William Salt Library

The William Salt Library is a library and archive, in Stafford, Staffordshire. Supported by Staffordshire County Council, it is a registered charity, administered by an independent trust in conjunction with the Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service, which also operates the county archives from an adjacent building. The core of the library is the large collection of printed books, pamphlets, manuscripts, drawings, watercolours, and transcripts built up by William Salt , a London banker. Collected during Salt's lifetime, the collection was donated to Staffordshire after his death, and the library opened in 1872. It moved to its present Grade II* listed building in Eastgate Street in 1918. The Eastgate Street building was a house completed in 1735. The library continues to collect and preserve printed material relating to Staffordshire and represents a major source for local and family history in Staffordshire. The library's holdings are available for consultation by the public free of charge. The library is supported by the Friends of the William Salt Library. As well as raising funds for the library to enable it to purchase items for the collection, the Friends also help in practical ways, such as packaging and cleaning items in the collection. Colin Dexter undertook much of the research for his eighth Inspector Morse novel The Wench is Dead at the library. Dexter recalled that he spent "a good many fruitful hours in the library" consulting contemporary newspaper reports of the murder of Christina Collins, on which the novel was based. He subsequently became patron of the library's 135th anniversary fund-raising appeal.

Eccleshall Castle

Eccleshall Castle is located in Eccleshall, Staffordshire, England . It was originally built in the 13th century. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade II* listed building. The land was reputedly granted to St Chad, the medieval Bishop of Lichfield. In 1200 Bishop Geoffrey de Muschamp was granted by King John a ‘licence to crenellate’ a castle. As Eccleshall was conveniently situated on the main road between the centres of the Lichfield diocese in Chester, Lichfield and Coventry it was an ideal location as a diocesan base. This original castle was replaced by a larger castle in 1305 by Bishop Walter Langton, Chancellor of England. At the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret of Anjou, Queen consort of Henry VI, took refuge within the castle after the Battle of Blore Heath in 1459. In June 1643 the castle was besieged by Sir William Brereton and his Parliamentary forces encamped around the church. Their guns caused considerable damage to the walls but the castle held out, with Bishop Robert Wright sheltering within. When the Parliamentary forces finally took the castle on August 30 they found that the bishop had died of a heart attack during the siege and most of the defenders were either drunk or had gone into town drinking in the taverns. The castle was slighted to prevent future use as a stronghold but enough of the building, including an unusual nine-sided tower, together with the moat walls and medieval bridge, remained to be used as a prison for Royalist gentry. The castle and its grounds were confiscated and sold, but bought back again by the diocese. The present house, still known as Eccleshall Castle, was built amongst the ruins in 1693 by Bishop Lloyd, incorporating fragments of the slighted 14th-century structure, and was also occupied by successive Bishops of Lichfield. In the 18th century the gatehouse was demolished and the moat drained. The last Bishop to live there was Bishop John Lonsdale, who died in the house in 1867. The Castle is now in private hands and closed to the public, although the gardens are occasionally opened to raise money for local Eccleshall Charities as well as for occasional weddings. It has been the home of the Carter-Motley family for more than a hundred years.

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