Description:Ralph Sheldon (1537 - 1613) was a rich landowner in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. He was also a courtier commuting via Oxford to London.
[This view is strongly disputed on the grounds of accuracy, as his attendance at Court was by summons and not by virtue of his position.]
In the 1580s he commissioned a set of four tapestry maps to hang in his new house at Weston, near Long Compton. The maps showed the counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, and were probably woven at the Sheldon tapestry workshop at Barcheston. The Warwickshire Tapestry Map is the only complete surviving map from the set.