Bradninch

Bradninch
Devon
Bradninch from Cullompton Hill
Location
Grid reference:	SS9903
Location:	50°49’60"N, 3°25’0"W
Data
Population:	1,916  (2001)
Local Government
Council:	Mid Devon

Bradninch is a small town and former manor in Devon, found about three miles south of Cullompton. Much of the surrounding farmland belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall.

In 2012, in research of 2,400 postcodes in England and Wales which took into account 60 separate factors of interest to young families, Bradninch was found to be the fifteenth most family-friendly location in the country.

Name

The place-name 'Bradninch' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as 'Bradenese'; the name is thought to mean 'broad oak' or 'broad ash'. Seventy-nine different spellings of the name of the town have been recorded.

History

Early history

Bradninch dates back to before the 7th century and at some time there was almost certainly a Norman or Saxon fortress on Castle Hill. There are no physical remains, and no known primary documentary references, but the likely site was surrounded by a number of 'castle' field names on the tithe map. It would have been unusual for Bradninch not to have had a castle given its status in the mediæval period.

Bradninch was the caput of a feudal barony granted by William the Conqueror (1066–1087) to William Capra, who is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as holding this manor. The barony escheated to the crown and King Henry I (1100–1135) granted it to his illegitimate son William I de Tracy (d.circa 1136). He left one daughter and sole-heiress Grace de Tracy who married John de Sudeley, They had two children: Ralph de Sudeley (d. 1192), the eldest, who became his father's heir, and Sir William II "de Tracy" (d. post 1172), who inherited his mother's barony of Bradninch and assumed her family name in lieu of his patronymic. He married Hawise de Born and had a son William III de Tracy (d. pre-1194), one of the four knights who assassinated Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in December 1170.

Modern period

Following the execution of Charles I in 1649, an Act of Parliament provided for the sale of the honour, manor and borough of Bradninch and on 24 March 1650 it was sold to Thomas Sanders and John Gorges as trustees for the new Commonwealth. The sum paid was £19,517 11s 10 1/4d (£19,517.59p). The manor was returned to the Crown at the time of the Restoration in 1660.

The town was largely destroyed in a fire in 1666 (the same year as the Great Fire of London).

The town used to be served by the Hele & Bradninch railway station at Hele, which is now closed, leaving no station closer than 9 miles away.

Parish church=

The parish church is dedicated to St Disen, a unique dedication in the British Isles, who is considered to have been an Irish missionary saint. Previously this church was dedicated to St Denis or St Dionysius, and some confusion has arisen with some believing the attribution to St Disen to have been a romantic invention of one of the 19th century vicars of the parish, Rev. Croslegh.

The church is a 15th-century church. It possesses a finely decorated screen showing the unreformed zeal of the Victorian "high church" movement; in the panels at the screen's base are nearly 50 paintings of saints and biblical scenes. Another screen in the church is simpler, with panels of various saints, including an unusual one of St Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata.

Sights about the town

Notable buildings in the town include Bradninch Guildhall (on which the Bradninch eagle is depicted), The Castle Hotel, the manor house, Earlsland House, Comfort House, and the parish church.

Bradninch from castle Hill

Books about Bradninch

The best known book about the town is by Charles Croslegh. He became vicar of Bradninch in 1897 and wrote a 360-page history of the town entitled "Bradninch, being a short historical sketch of the honor, the manor, the borough, and liberties, and the parish".

Other books have been written about the history of Bradninch and Hele by Anthony Taylor and by Paddy Nash.

Royal connections

The Bradninch 'eagle' seal - an eagle displayed sable on a shield argent - was given to the burgesses of the town in about 1120 by the illegitimate son of Henry I, Arthur Reginald (Earl of Cornwall and Lord of Bradninch), when, by his letters patent, he incorporated the town and borough of Bradninch.

In 1337 King Edward III bestowed the first English dukedom on his eldest son, also called Edward, (and later known as 'The Black Prince'), naming him the Duke of Cornwall and Baron of Bradninch. Since then, the Monarch's eldest son has been the Lord of the Manor of Bradninch. The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, currently holds the title.

Much of the farmland around the town still belongs to his Duchy of Cornwall estate.

Miscellany

Bradninch was the last town in England to punish someone by placing them in stocks. On 2 November 1866 Cornelius Pippet, a cooper was convicted of drunkenness and placed in stocks for 6 hours. The stocks are part of the town's historical memorabilia kept in the Guildhall.

It was in Bradninch, in 1702, that George Boone III, grandfather of the American pioneer Daniel Boone, joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Outside links

• The Bradninch Town Council
• Information on Bradninch  from GENUKI
• Description in Devon County Council / Devon Libraries Local Studies Service
• History of Bradninch
• Bradninch shown on a map of the county of Devon, 1765