The oldest known human settlement in Ratby was at the Bury Camp on the edge of Ratby, an
Iron Age encampment dating back approximately 3,000 years. Later, the Roman army adapted the camp for use as a temporary fort in around 50 AD. The next oldest structure is the historic Church of St Philip & St James, called Ratby Church, built in four stages from the 13th century to 15th century and restored by Nicholas Joyce in 1881. The church was appropriated to
Leicester Abbey in 1291 and afterwards to
Nuneaton Priory. There are also some cottages dating back several centuries. For most of its history, Ratby was a small
agricultural village with a few farms and the open 3-field plan until enclosure in the 18th century. From 1346 till the 19th century Ratby was in the hundred of
Sparkenhoe. In the 1830s the inhabitants were mainly employed in frame-work knitting; the population at that time was 1025. The chief landowner was the
Earl of Stamford and Warrington who was lord of the manor and patron of the vicarage. The parish was enclosed in 1770. In the 20th century a war memorial called the "Angel of Peace" was constructed after the
First World War and unveiled in 1920 by the wartime
British Army Commander-in-Chief
Field Marshal Haig. ==Facilities==