Brailsford () is a small red-brick village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the A52 midway between

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

and Ashbourne. The parish also includes Brailsford Green. The civil parish population at the 2011 Census was 1,118. The village has a pub, a golf club, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and a school.

Etymology

The name ''Brailsford'' was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Breilesfordham'', in which the two specific elements are

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

'' ford'' and ''ham'' ("homestead"). The first part of the name appears to be from a derivative of OE ''byrgels'' ("burial mound") but, as with Brailes (

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

), this element may be a

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic (; ; ), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, is a Celtic language historically spoken in Britain and Brittany from which evolved the later and modern Brittonic languages. It is a form of Insular Cel ...

compound name from the elements ''brigo-'' ("hill") and ''lisso'' ("hall, court").

History

Brailsford was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as being in the tenancy of Elfin (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:

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. 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"Pigot and Co's ''Commercial Directory for Derbyshire'', 1835

The parish (which has no dependent township) contained 724 inhabitants in 1821 and 780 in 1831. There are many fine houses in the district. Brailsford Hall was rebuilt for George Herbert Strutt in 1901 in a restrained Jacobean style by Hunter and Woodhouse of Belper. Culland Hall was built in 1939 to the designs of George Morley Eaton PRIBA of Derby for Col. Sir Edward Thompson.

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 Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

, 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

Brailsford parish church, or "half a church" as stated in the

''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. p.746—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 The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

, south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

and tower. There have been later modifications, such as the 14th century chancel arch. The tower is

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

-faced and diagonally buttressed with a

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

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 In Christian countries, a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...

is a mid-11th century Saxon cross, showing interlace and a human figure.Pevsner N and Williamson E (1978) ''The Buildings of England: Derbyshire'', revised edition, Penguin, Brailsford also has a small

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church; originally a Primitive Methodist chapel built in 1845, it was extended in 1914.

Local traditions

Many locals take part in the famous Royal Shrovetide 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

External links

Brailsford Saxon Cross
{{authority control Villages in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Civil parishes in Derbyshire Derbyshire Dales