BRAILSFORD

'Brailsford' () is a small red brick village in Derbyshire on the A52 midway between Derby and Ashbourne. The village has a pub, a post office, a petrol station and a school. There are many fine houses in the district including two 20th century country homes: Brailsford Hall built in 1905 in Jacobean style, and Culland Hall.

Contents

History

Church

Ednaston

Local traditions

References

External links

History

Brailsford was mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Henry de Ferrers and being worth forty shillings''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.746.
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."^[1]

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

Church

Brailsford Church, or half a church as stated in the Domesday Book - 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 like 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 graveyard is a mid 11th century Saxon cross, showing interlace and a human figure.

Ednaston

The hamlet of Ednaston on the other side of Brailsford Brook has a manor built by Sir Edwin Lutyens, but it is not open to the public. Also nearby at Muggington is the interestingly named Halter Devil Chapel, built in 1723 onto the end of a farm house by Francis Brown, a refomed alcoholic, who one night attempted to halter his horse, mistakenly caught a cow, and thought it was the devil.

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. Pigot and Co's ''Commercial Directory for Derbyshire'', 1835
2. Image from Wikimedia Commons May 2007

External links

★ Brailsford Saxon Cross