The New Murrey and Blue blog

You’ll never guess what Ranulf Racket was up to….!

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found at https://www.facebook.com/HiddenWirralTours/posts/wirral-in-ancient-times-was-a-forest-according-to-the-old-rhyme-trees-grew-all-t/1045495262288041/

In an excellent paper entitled ‘The Last Week in the Life of Edward the Black Prince‘, by Paul Booth, I have just come upon this medieval gem:

“ . . . Stanley [yes, one of them] and Lascelles had been shown in 1353 to be at the heart of what contemporaries called a ‘covin’, a circle of corrupt officials banded together for mutual profit and protection, which included the beadle of Wirral, Ranulf Racket . . . .”

Oh, come ON! A Racket involved in a racket? You couldn’t make it up!

(I’ve simply plucked the map of Wirral above as a suitable illustration.)

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  1. The Rise of the Stanley family. – murreyandblue

    […] Sir John Stanley KG (1350-1414) was the man who began their transformation into the magnate class. He was a younger son of Sir William Stanley of Stourton and his wife Alice Massey of Timperley. (Sir William was Master Forester of the Wirral, and had a nasty reputation for oppression and illegal acts.) […]

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