Brafield-on-the-Green is a

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 authorit ...

and small village in

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. The villages name means 'Hill-top open country'.

Location

Brafield is about south-east of Northampton, in the shire

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

known as "Northants" along the

A428 The A428 road is a major road in central and eastern England. It runs between the cities of Coventry and Cambridge by way of the county towns of Northampton and Bedford. Together with the A421, (and the A43, M40 and the A34), the eastern se ...

road about north-west of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

. A section of Brafield sits within a conservation area.

Brafield Stadium

Brafield Stadium known as

Northampton International Raceway Northampton Shaleway also known as Brafield, is used for BriSCA F1 Stock Cars, BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars, V8 Hotstox, and various other forms of oval motor sport including National Hot Rods, Banger racing, Saloon Stock Cars, Ministox and Reb ...

hosts

BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars is a class of single-seater stock-car-racing in the UK with custom-built cars, with races conducted on walled oval tracks of either shale or tarmac of approximately a quarter-mile in length. The cars are of an open w ...

. As early as 1949, local entrepreneurs staged midget car racing at the stadium, as part of a national attempt to introduce the sport from the US. It also hosted

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

. The team known as the Flying Foxes took part in the Southern Area League in 1954. The team was renamed the Brafield Badgers and interspersed individual meetings with matches against reserve sides from British League tracks. The Speedway closed for good at the end of the 1967 season.

References

External links

Official village website
Villages in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District Civil parishes in Northamptonshire {{Northamptonshire-geo-stub