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DRAIiELOWE HALL, 



BURTON-ON-TRENT, 



SIR ROBERT GRESLEY, Bart. 



RAKELOWE HALL, the 

 home of Sir Robert 

 Gresley, is one of those 

 seats of ancient eminence which win the regard of all English- 

 men, for, if not here, at least hereabout, have dwelt the family 

 of the present possessor from almost the earliest times of 

 our Norman history. The hall stands in the rich meadow and 

 woodland country which borders the River Trent, some three 

 miles from Burton. A broad bend of the river fringes the 

 park, and opposite lies Staffordshire and the ancient way of the 

 Icknield Street passing on from Derby to Lichfield. Gresley, 

 some five miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and about four miles 

 from Drakelowe, a busy centre of industry in these times, is 

 the place from which the Drakelowe family took their name, 

 and some part still stands of the conventual church of 



Gresley Priory, for Austin Canon, which William de Gresley 

 founded in the time of Henry I. In that church is a monument 

 of Sir Thomas Gresley, 1699, which gives the very elaborate 

 heraldry of his progenitors. It was already a long line indeed. 

 Ralph de Toeni, the standard-bearer of the Conqueror, who 

 bore the banner on the field of Has' ings, is said by the 

 chroniclers to have been descended in the female line from 

 Malahulcius, uncle of Rol'.o, first Duke of Normandy. This 

 Ralph was a man of fame in his day. Ordericus says of him 

 that he gained great glory in the wars, and was reckoned 

 among the first of the Norman nobles for honours, wealth, 

 and long service. O.ie of his descendants, named Nigel, held 

 D .akclowe and oth?r manors and lordships in Derbyshire and 

 Staffordshire, and was the ancestor of the Gres'.eys. It was 

 Nigel's sin Will am w!io founded the Au'justinian priory at 



THE NEW TtRRAC.NQ AT DI< KKLOVVE HALL. 



