Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a large suburban village and

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 ...

in the English county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

. It sits on the banks of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

, to the southeast of

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

of which it is a suburb. The village is mentioned in the comedic song "

The Vicar of Bray The Vicar of Bray is a satirical description of an individual fundamentally changing his principles to remain in ecclesiastical office as external requirements change around him. The religious upheavals in England from 1533 to 1559 (and then from ...

". Bray contains two of the eight three-

Michelin-starred The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of ...

restaurants in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and has several large business premises including Bray Studios at Water Oakley, where the first series of Hammer Horror films were produced.

Geography

The Fat Duck, High Street, Bray - geograph

The civil

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Bray is far larger than the village itself and includes a number of other villages and

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

s over an area of . It had a population of 8,425 at the 2001 census, increasing to 9,110 at the 2011 census. Bray is a large parish, although its area has shrunk considerably since

was detached. As well as the village, the parish contains a large number of villages and hamlets, often greens, which were originally scattered amongst the remains of the dense woodland of Windsor Forest that once covered the area. These include: Braywick,

Holyport Holyport (pronounced ''Hollyport'') is a suburban village in the civil parish of Bray (where at the 2011 Census the population was included), about 2 miles south of Maidenhead town centre in the English county of Berkshire. Etymology The nam ...

, Water Oakley, Oakley Green, Moneyrow Green, Stud Green, Foxley Green, Touchen End, Braywoodside and Fifield. Exclusive houses on the river between Bray and

Maidenhead Bridge Maidenhead Bridge is a Grade I listed bridge carrying the A4 road over the River Thames between Maidenhead, Berkshire and Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. It crosses the Thames on the reach above Bray Lock, about half a mile below Boulter's ...

have been referred to as

's 'Millionaires' row' in the national press. The flood risk of these houses has been decreased by the Jubilee River, a large drainage ditch dug between north

and

Datchet Datchet is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, located on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically part of Buckinghamshire, and the Stoke Hundred, the village was eventual ...

. Monkey Island, in the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

, is associated with the 3rd Duke of Marlborough, and houses two structures that he built and furnished with paintings of monkeys, and the architecturally

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Monkey Island

Hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

. The

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

shares the wide parish boundaries and is named Bray St Michael with Braywoodside.

Local government

Since the redistribution of parliamentary boundaries which took effect at the 2010 general election, Bray has been in

, the constituency of former Prime Minister

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

. In terms of local government, it is in the Bray electoral ward of the

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is named after both the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor, the borough also covers the nearby towns of Ascot and Eton. It is home to Wind ...

Amenities

Restaurants

Bray contains two of the eight three-

restaurants in the

: The Fat Duck is a restaurant run by chef

Heston Blumenthal Heston Marc Blumenthal (; born 27 May 1966) is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with u ...

in the centre of Bray. The restaurant opened in 1995, and has held a three-star Michelin Guide rating since 2004. In 2005, it was named as the best restaurant in the world by ''

Restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

'' magazineKates, Joanne, ''The Globe and Mail'' (11 February 2006)
The mad, magic chemistry of England's Fat Duck
/ref> and in 2008, 2009 and 2010, Best Restaurant in the UK, scoring a maximum 10 out of 10 in the '' Good Food Guide''. The Waterside Inn was founded in 1972 by the brothers Michel and

Albert Roux Albert Henri Roux (8 October 1935 – 4 January 2021) was a French-British restaurateur and chef. He and his brother Michel operated Le Gavroche in London's Mayfair, the first restaurant in the UK to gain three Michelin stars. He helped tra ...

after their success with Le Gavroche. It is currently run by Michel's son, Alain and Frederic Poulette. The restaurant has three Michelin stars and in 2010 became the first restaurant outside

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to retain all three stars for 25 years.

Transport

Bray sits on the banks of the

, south of

town centre and northwest of Windsor. The B3028 road runs through the centre of Bray, and the A308 (Maidenhead-Windsor road) runs between Bray and the adjoining suburban village of

. The

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

junction 8/9 is approximately from Bray, and

Maidenhead railway station Maidenhead railway station serves the town of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. It is down the line from and is situated between to the east and to the west. It is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway and the Elizabeth l ...

is away in Maidenhead town centre.

History

The first documented mention of Bray was as ''Brai'' 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.

Notable buildings

Parish church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of St Michael was built in 1293, supposedly to replace a

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

church at Water Oakley. It has a number of sculptures which may have come from the earlier church, including a damaged Sheela na Gig. It is best known to brass rubbers for housing the superb memorial brass of 1378 to Sir John Foxley, the Constable of Southampton Castle, and his two wives. One of the local cottages has a tunnel which it is believed leads to the church and served as an escape route for clergymen. The current Vicar of Bray is the Reverend Ainsley Swift.

Almshouses

The

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

Hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...

is a red-brick group of

almhouses An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

, founded in 1609 by William Goddard to house thirty-four of the aged poor of Bray and six of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, to which he belonged. A full-size

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of Goddard stands over the entrance. Jesus Hospital is now run by The

Donnington Hospital Donnington Hospital is a series of almshouses at Donnington in the English county of Berkshire, run by the Donnington Hospital Trust. It was established in 1393 by Sir Richard Abberbury the Elder. The original site on the Oxford Road is now ...

Trust having been transferred from The Fishmongers Company in 2010.

Notable people

* Sylvia Anderson – Co creator of the Thunderbirds Puppet Series and voice of

Lady Penelope Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is a fictional character introduced in the British 1960s Supermarionation television series '' Thunderbirds'', which was produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. The character also appears in the film sequel ...

Ian Bairnson Ian Bairnson (born 3 August 1953 as ''John Bairnson'') is a Scottish musician, best known for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project. He is a multi-instrumentalist, who has played saxophone and keyboards, although he is best ...

- Scottish musician *

(b. 1966) – The TV chef runs The Fat Duck and

The Hinds Head The Hind's Head, also called The Hinds Head, is a gastropub in Bray, Berkshire. The pub dates from the 15th century, and was converted into a restaurant in the 1920s. It was awarded a single Michelin star in the 2013 edition of the Michelin Guid ...

restaurants in Bray * Rolf Harris (b. 1930) – Australian artist, musician, TV presenter, convicted of sexual assault * Carol Kirkwood - BBC Weather presenter lives here *

George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, (6 November 1892Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: ''901''; Laufende Nummer: ''150'' – 8 April 1938), born Prince George of Batten ...

(1892–1938) – buried in Bray Cemetery *

Sir Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the U ...

(b. 1935) – journalist and TV presenter * Tony Prince (b. 1944) – Disc Jockey *

Regenbald Regenbald (sometimes known as Regenbald of Cirencester) was a priest and royal official in Anglo–Saxon England under King Edward the Confessor. His name suggests that he was not a native Englishman, and perhaps was German or Norman. He first a ...

- Chancellor of King Edward the Confessor and King William the Conqueror was vicar of Bray

Literature

The Singing Vicar of Bray

The village features as the home of the eponymous "

" in a satirical 18th-century song of that name. The titular character frequently changed his religious principles in order to remain in office throughout various reforming upheavals in the English church. The story was turned into an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

in 1882 and a film in 1937.

Edward Lear

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal ...

makes reference to Bray in ''More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc'': "There was an old person of Bray,
Who sang through the whole of the day
To his ducks and his pigs,
Whom he fed upon figs,
That valuable person of Bray."

Nearest places

References

External links

Royal Berkshire History: Bray
{{authority control Villages in Berkshire Populated places on the River Thames Civil parishes in Berkshire Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead