Brailsford

Brailsford (52°58′16″N 1°37′26″W) is a small red-brick village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the A52 midway between Derby and Ashbourne. The civil parish population at the 2011 Census was 1,118.[1] The village has a pub, a post office and a school. There are many fine houses in the district including two 20th century country houses: Brailsford Hall built in 1905 in Jacobean style, and Culland Hall.

Brailsford village
Brailsford Hall
For the United States Supreme Court cases, see Georgia v. Brailsford. For persons named Brailsford, see Brailsford (surname).

Brailsford

Brailsford parish highlighted within Derbyshire
Population1,116 (2011)
OS grid referenceSK254414
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townASHBOURNE
Postcode districtDE6
PoliceDerbyshire
FireDerbyshire
AmbulanceEast Midlands

History

Brailsford was mentioned in the Domesday Book as being in the tenancy of Elfin[2] (possibly an Anglo-Norman rendering of the Saxon Aelfwine) who also held the nearby manors of Bupton, Osmaston and Thurvaston from the tenant-in-chief, Henry de Ferrers.

The Domesday survey of 1086 records the following for Brailsford:[3]

Land of Henry de Ferrers M. In Brailsford Earl Waltheof had 2 carucates of land taxable. Land for 2 ploughs. Now in lordship 2 ploughs. 24 villagers and 3 smallholders have 5 ploughs. A priest and ½ church; 1 mill, 10s 8d; meadow 11 acres; Woodland pasture 1 league long and 1 league wide.

Value before 1066, 60s; now 40s. Elfin holds it.

Elfin, through his son, Nicholas de Brailsford, is the ancestor of the Brailsford family, who are still numerous in the county and elsewhere today.[4]

From Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835:

"BRAILSFORD is rather a considerable village, in the parish of its name, and hundred of Appletree; situate on the main road between Derby and Ashbourne, equidistant from each place. Coaches to different parts of the kingdom are continually passing through here, and the support of the village is chiefly derived from that circumstance—there being no manufactures, nor any extensive trade existing here. The places of worship are the parish church, and a chapel for Wesleyan methodists; the former, which is situate, about half a mile from the village, is dedicated to All Saints, and the living is a rectory, in the patronage of Earl Ferrers."[5]

The parish (which has no dependent township) contained 724 inhabitants in 1821 and 780 in 1831.

Ednaston

The hamlet of Ednaston on the other side of Brailsford Brook has the grade I listed Ednaston Manor, built 1912–14 for W.G. Player by Sir Edwin Lutyens,[6] which is not open to the public. According to Pevsner, Home Farm and Ruck o'Stones Cottage are also apparently by Lutyens. Ednaston Hall and Ednaston House also stand in the village.

Muggington

Also nearby at Muggington is the Halter Devil Chapel, built in 1723 onto the end of a farmhouse by Francis Brown, a reformed alcoholic, who one night attempted to halter his horse, mistakenly caught a cow, and thought it was the devil.

Places of worship
All Saints', Brailsford

Brailsford parish church, or "half a church" as stated in the Domesday Book[7]—referring to its status as a shared church between Brailsford and the hamlet of Ednaston—is about half a mile from the village. It was originally built in the 11th and 12th centuries and consists of a nave, chancel, south aisle and tower. There have been later modifications, such as the 14th century chancel arch. The tower is ashlar-faced and diagonally buttressed with a Perpendicular west door and west window. It contains an octagonal font in the Perpendicular style, with the lower part of the base exhibiting the Tudor rose. In the churchyard is a mid-11th century Saxon cross, showing interlace and a human figure.[6]

Brailsford also has a small Methodist church; originally a Primitive Methodist chapel built in 1845, it was extended in 1914.[8]

Local traditions

Many locals take part in the famous Shrove Tide football match played in Ashbourne on two afternoons during February. An annual ploughing match takes place in Brailsford on the first Wednesday in October.

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  2. "The Domesday Book Online - Derbyshire A-E". domesdaybook.co.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  3. The Domesday Book, 1086
  4. Are You Called Brailsford?, Maxwell Craven, Derbyshire Countryside Magazine, 1985
  5. Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835
  6. Pevsner N and Williamson E (1978) The Buildings of England: Derbyshire, revised edition, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-071008-6
  7. Domesday Book: A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.746
  8. "Brailsford Methodist Church". Ashbourne Circuit. Retrieved 10 June 2015.

Further reading
  • Mosley, Jane (1979) Jane Mosley's Recipes [and] Jane Mosley's Remedies. Derby: Derbyshire Museum Service ISBN 0-906753-00-7
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