Brailsford () is a small red-brick village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the A52 midway between Derby 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 and a school. There are many fine houses in the district including two 20th-century country houses: Brailsford Hall built in 1905 in Jacobean style, and Culland Hall.

History

Brailsford was mentioned in the Domesday Book 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 Thurvaston is a small village in South Derbyshire. In 1970 the population (together with Osleston) was put at 200. This represents a general fall since 1871 when the population was just below 400. As at the census 2011 the population is now list ...

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.

Ednaston

The hamlet of Ednaston on the other side of Brailsford Brook has the grade I listed

Ednaston Manor Ednaston Manor is a country house in Ednaston, near Brailsford, Derbyshire, England. It was built in 1912–19 in a Queen Anne style by Edwin Lutyens, for William G. Player. It is a Grade I listed building. It was bought by free newspaper ...

, 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 memori ...

, 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''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 Brailsford () is a small red-brick village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the A52 midway between Derby and Ashbourne. The parish also includes Brailsford Green. The civil parish population at the 2011 Census was 1,118. The village has a pub ...

—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, such as the 14th century chancel arch. The tower is

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

-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

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

is a mid-11th century

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 ...

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 church; originally a

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

chapel built in 1845, it was extended in 1914.

Local traditions

Many locals take part in the famous

Royal Shrovetide Football The Royal Shrovetide Football Match is a "medieval football" game played annually on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in the town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire, England. Shrovetide ball games have been played in England since at least the 12th ce ...

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