Subject - Ruckley & Langley

We are Australian Ruckleys and visited the Ruckley village last year which we discovered by accident while searching the AA map.  We were on our way to our daughter's wedding in the Lake district and drove straight from Heathrow via the Ruckley Village and Much Wenlock.  We passed through it without knowing and asked a lady walking on the road where it was and she said that we had just come through it.  It is very small and we did not have time to stop and look around but also there was nowhere to ask about its origins.   We did research of the Ruckleys a couple of years ago  through our State
Library and found that there were many families of that name in the area.

We were just interested in the origins of the village and how and why it got its name.  While doing research of our family,  we found that our branch of the family actually originated in Switzerland and the name there was Ruggle and it was changed when the family came from St. Gallen in Switzerland to
Australia.  However we are still interested in the origin of the village of our namesake.

I thought that you may be able to give us some information or point us in the right direction if you are unable to help us.

Thanking you

Dawn Ruckley

The two tiny hamlets of Ruckley and Langley lie in one of the county's prettiest and most peaceful valleys immediately to the south of Acton Burnell. In fact, the impression is of being surrounded by hills, as if the visitor has found some tiny, long-forgotten kingdom in Shropshire.

Langley was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Languelege, the long lea. Ruckley did not get a mention but the origin is from the lea of Hroca. (Hroca being a personal name) Neither Ruckley nor Langley get a mention in three out of four books about Shropshire, and even when they do, little is said. But there are signs of a great past in the parish, so could it really be a long-forgotten kingdom?

First there is Langley Chapel, a simple stone structure standing alone in a field, but as to whom the chapel was dedicated has long been forgotten. It was built in 1564, which is not that old as many churches go in Shropshire, but inside it still has its original 17th-century furnishings, which make it important enough to be in the hands of English Heritage.

It was the last day of September when I made my first visit, and it was a gloriously warm day. Inside the chapel I sat for a while and listened to the still peace around me. It gave me the feeling of being a forgotten place, forgotten by all, that is, except for the end of summer flies buzzing against the windows.

A few yards down the road is the site of Langley Hall, former home of the Lee family. The present house is quite impressive, but even it stands a little in awe beside the former gatehouse of the Hall. It must be the largest gatehouse remaining in Shropshire, so what was the former Hall like in comparison? What was it like when the fortunes of the Lees and their mansion were at their peak? The chapel then would have been packed on a Sunday by the workers of the manor, together with the Lord and his family, for I suspect that in those days, church attendance, if not compulsory, was at least expected.

I searched through my 1871 Directory of Shropshire to seek a picture of the area in the last century, hoping to find some reference to a busy rural parish. But even 120 years ago Ruckley and Langley were little different to today. I did, however, find reference to the fact that King Charles, during his troubles, was for a short period concealed at Langley Hall. I wonder if he found time to reflect on what a wonderful, peaceful spot it was, and if he, like me, was loath to leave it and return to the comparative bustle elsewhere in the county.

To the south-west of Ruckley is Causeway Wood, the name apparently deriving from a stretch of Roman Road with a small bridge and a Roman bath. But I could find no reference to it on the Ordnance Survey map, nor in all but one book on Shropshire I looked in. Was there a Roman road in the area? From where to where did it run? And is there any visible signs of it left, for the book which gave me the information was dated 1949. It is yet another facet of Shropshire's past I have made a note of to investigate, if I can only find time.

That article first appeared in the Shropshire Weekly newspapers in 1989, and as a response to my
questions I received the following letters;-

Dear Sir,
I have been interested in your Parish Portraits and especially last week (3.11.89) on Ruckley and Langley. I was taken to see the Roman Causeway when in my teens before the war and the whole lane from below Causeway Farm up to the top of the hill towards Chatwall was made up of fine square stone sets about 10" thereabouts all beautifully fitted together. The Well was pretty well overgrown then so couldn't remember where it was when I used to visit the Causeway Farm when in the Min of Ag. 1955-64 and found the road had been tarmaced all the way except for a few yards just by the farm which had been left, but when I was up that road in the early 80s I found even that sample had been covered.

It is mentioned in "Shropshire" by (p 49) John Ernest Auden 1926 ( 4 edition) also my map of Ludlow (6 ed) has the road, bridge and well all marked (523985) I hope this information will be of interest to you.

M.H. Bigwood (Miss) - Gladestry, Herefordshire.

Dear Mr. Carrington,
I feel I must write to say that I very much enjoy your articles on local places in Shropshire, in the Journal. I was specially interested in part of your article on the Ruckley and Langley area. (Journal 3rd November)

In the last part of your article you mentioned a possible local road which might have been Roman, and if so, where it might have run.

I have enjoyed searching old tracks and lanes in Shropshire and happened upon an edition of Shropshire Folklore by Charlotte Burne (1883) and republished by E.P. Publishing 1973. In chapter 1 I read the following: "On the road between Acton Burnell and Cardington is a stretch of rude pavement, from two to three hundred yards in length, known as the Devil's Causeway. It once formed part of a Roman road leading to Wroxeter from Rushbury, and in the judgement of the Rev. C.H. Hartshorne, the local antiquarian authority, was never more than on an average thirteen feet wide."

To the south-east of Rushbury is Roman Bank, mentioned on the O.S. map, so maybe there were several roads used by people in Roman and later times.

Jeanne Webb - Bridgnorth

Ruckley, near Cardington, has a road containing paving stones now tarmaced over which, tradition holds, were part of the Devil's Causeway. This causeway is alleged to have been laid down by the Devil in a single night. An old belief holds that if you cross it at midnight you will meet the Devil mounted on a horse. Folklore decrees that if you have a good conscience you will not be troubled, but if you have committed evil, you will be attacked by the Devil and torn limb from limb.

A short distance from the Devil's Causeway is a spring that never dries up. It is known as 'Frog's Well' and is supposed to be haunted by the Devil in the form of a frog. - See also SW-3.html