Bradwell is an ancient village and modern district in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England. It has also given its name to a modern

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

that is part of the

City of Milton Keynes The City of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority area with both borough and city status, in Buckinghamshire. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region. The borough abuts Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the remainder o ...

. The village was adjacent to

Bradwell Abbey Bradwell Abbey or Bradwell Priory is a Scheduled Monument, urban studies site, district and former civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The site was once the location of a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155. Historic Brad ...

, a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...

, founded in 1155 and dissolved in about 1540, but the abbey and its immediate environs were always a separate ecclesiastical parish. The village name is an

Old English language Old English (, ), 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 was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th cen ...

word and means ''broad spring''. 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 the village was recorded as ''Bradewelle''. There was an YHA

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ba ...

in the village (near the church and Bradwell Bury), at : the YHA closed it during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and terminated its lease in 2021.

Civil Parish

The parish of Bradwell consists of the Bradwell village grid square, along with Bradwell Abbey, Heelands, Rooksley, and Bradwell Common. The parish had a population of 9,657 according to the 2011 census. The parish is bounded by the railway line or the A5 to the west, Monks Way to the north, Portway to the east, and Dansteed Way to the south. St. Lawrence's Church is a Grade II*-listed building, dating from the 13th century, and receiving its first

vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

in 1223. It is believed to contain the oldest

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

bells still in use, which were cast in 1297 by Michael de Wymbish of London. Adjoining the sports field is the Bradwell Conservation Area, which is centered on St Lawrence's Field and is administered by the parish council as a nature conservation area. On Vicarage Road is the Bradwell Memorial Hall, built as the village's war memorial after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. On Primrose Road is King George's Field in memorial to

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

with a children's play area.

History and heritage

Bradwell Village

Bradwell Bury beside the parish church is a moated site and the remains of an associated manor house which once formed part of a more extensive monument: it is

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. The nearby Bradwell Castle mound is also a Scheduled Monument. Bradwell House and the Church of St James are Grade II* listed; there are a further 25 buildings and structures listed as Grade II.

Bradwell Abbey

Bradwell Abbey is a Scheduled Monument, urban studies site (and a modern district). The site was once the location of a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155. The only remaining ecclesiastic building, the Chapel of St Mary, is a Grade I listed building. There are a further five Grade II listed buildings or structures on the Abbey grounds.

Bradwell railway station

Bradwell railway station Bradwell railway station was a railway station on the Wolverton–Newport Pagnell line. It served both Bradwell and the new village of New Bradwell in Buckinghamshire. The station, which consisted of a brick-built station building, and single p ...

, which was on the Wolverton–Newport Pagnell branch line, served Bradwell fron 1867 to 1964. In the present day, the former railway line (now a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

that is part of the redway network) forms the boundary between Bradville (in

Stantonbury Stantonbury is a district and civil parish of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The toponym ''Stanton'' is derived from an Old English term for "stone-built farmstead" and the ''bury'' element from the French family who held it in 1235. ...

CP) and

New Bradwell New Bradwell is (mainly) an Edwardian era village, modern district and civil parish in north-west Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Together with Wolverton (on the other side of the West Coast Main Line), it was built primarily to hous ...

CP; the station platform is on the New Bradwell side.

Sport and Leisure

Bradwell has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

team Old Bradwell United F.C. who play at Abbey Road, where there is a large sports field with a cricket pitch and several football pitches. The Old Bradwell Tennis Club is also affiliated to the Bradwell Sports and Social Club which has the use of these facilities. Bradwell Bowls Club enters competitive teams in the local league.Bradwell Bowls Club
/ref> Rooksley, at the western edge of the parish, has an important

Karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

track (not in Bradwell parish).

Demography

The demography of Bradwell electoral ward is given at .

References

External links

Bradwell Parish websiteBradwell Abbey and City Discovery Centre
(located within the parish)
'Parishes : Bradwell'
–

Victoria History of the Counties of England The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

, A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 283–288.
Old Bradwell Tennis Club

Bradwell Memorial Hall
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Areas of Milton Keynes Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire