The history of Ragged Lands can be divided into three parts. Firstly the history of the plot of land called Ragged Lands that the eponymous house was built on; secondly, the history of the house; and thirdly, the history of the College for Lady Gardeners that operated there.

In 1682 John Trevor, then owner of the Glynde estate, purchased Trevor House and a barn, garden, orchard and two acres of land near Glynde church from John Symons of Beddingham, husbandman, son and heir of the late William Symons of Glynde, blacksmith. Included in the purchase was half an acre in Glynde lying in a field called Racketland.

An estate lease for the Great Farm at Glynde of 1697 included two acres of land called Ragged Lands, part of 373 acres of farmland let to Thomas Attree of Ringmer.

In 1717 Attree drew a map of the manor of Glynde and this shows that Ragged Lands was part of a field of over ten and a half acres divided into five pieces, mostly owned by the estate but with half an acre belonging to the vicarage and another half acre belonging to John Balcombe.

Balcombe’s land was bought by John Kidder and was, in turn, purchased by Richard Trevor, Bishop of Durham and owner of the Glynde estate, in 1759. In the same purchase Trevor bought the house now called Hampden House and conveyed the house for the new vicarage at Glynde. The conveyance included 2½ acres in Ragged Lands to form part of the church glebe lands to be used for the upkeep of the vicar.

By 1838 the tithe map of Glynde shows that the name Ragged Lands was given to the whole of the field divided into four parts in 1717 but now in just three parts. The west and east parts were owned by the Glynde estate but the central part was owned by Frederick Ellman, who had bought the glebe land from the church in 1832.

In 1847 Henry Otway Trevor, owner of the estate, bought this parcel of land from Ellman and for the first time the whole of the field called Ragged Lands was in the possession of a single owner.