Bradwell is an ancient village and modern district in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England, situated approximately north-west of

Central Milton Keynes Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right, with a town council. The district is approximately long by wide and occupies some of the highest land in ...

. 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

that is part of the

City of Milton Keynes The City of Milton Keynes is a Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Regions of England, Regio ...

. 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 Bradwe ...

, a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

, founded in 1155 and dissolved in about 1540, but the abbey and its immediate environs were always a separate

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

. The village name is an

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 ...

language 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

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 sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 p ...

in 1223. It is believed to contain the oldest

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuning (music), tuned bell (instrument), 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 ...

bells still in use, two of 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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 Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

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, visu ...

. 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 pl ...

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

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, 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 rail corr ...

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, situated roughly north of Central Milton Keynes. The toponym ''Stanton'' is derived from an Old English term for "stone-built farmstead" and the ''bury'' e ...

CP) and

New Bradwell New Bradwell is (mainly) an Edwardian era village, modern district and civil parish in north-west Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of Central Milton Keynes. Together with Wolverton (on the other side of the West Coast ...

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

Sport and Leisure

Bradwell has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes association football, 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 ...

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 motorsport discipline using 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 full-size motor ...

track (not in Bradwell parish).

Demographics

The demographic profile 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 (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 Englan ...

, 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