Braydon

Braydon
Braydon  Braydon shown within Wiltshire
Shire county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Cricklade
Postcode district	SN5
Dialling code	01666
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	North Wiltshire
List of places UK England Wiltshire

Braydon is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, near Swindon, best known for sharing its name with Braydon Forest.

Its population was 50 in 2014 and was 48 in 1881.

History

Evidence has been found of prehistoric people, including a Neolithic axehead and a possible Palaeolithic flint tool.

In 903, the rebel Saxon Æthelwold of Wessex and the Viking raiding-army from East Anglia raided Braydon and the surrounding area.

In the Middle Ages, Braydon was a tithing of Purton and belonged to the Duchy of Lancaster, giving rise to the name of Duchy Wood, and passed to the Crown with the rest of the Duchy. Red Lodge was a royal hunting lodge until the land was developed in the 17th century. In 1826, the Crown exchanged Braydon for other land and it thus came into the ownership of the 3rd Earl of Clarendon, who had previously leased it. In 1829 the estate was sold to Joseph Neeld of Grittleton, at which time it consisted of 1,357 acres (5.49 km²) divided into several farms, called Battle Lake, Cock's Hill, Duchy, Maple Sale, Park Gate with Roebuck, Pound House, Raven's Roost, Red Lodge, and White Lodge. In 1901 the Neeld estate was broken up, and by 1910 about half of Braydon belonged to Mr J. E. Ward, whose granddaughter Elizabeth Ward owned Red Lodge, Pound and Coxhill farms in 2007.

In 1868, Braydon became a civil parish separate from Purton.

In 1887 Braydon was said to be "occupied chiefly by squatters, who led a wretched life".

In the 1880s the village gained a Methodist Chapel, and its records from 1889 to 1989 are now held in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre. The chapel is now served by the Methodist minister of Wootton Bassett. A school was also built in the later part of the 19th century but was closed in the mid 20th century.

Braydon Forest

In the year 688, Cædwalla, king of the West Saxons, granted Abbot Aldhelm of Malmesbury Abbey thirty hides on the eastern side of Braydon Wood (de orientali parte silve Bradon).

At its greatest extent, Braydon Forest covered about a third of the area of Wiltshire, but over the centuries most of it was slowly cleared.

Governance

With its tiny population, Braydon is considered too small to merit a parish council and has instead a parish meeting. Until April 2009, it was part of the district of North Wiltshire, but most significant local government functions are now carried out by the new Wiltshire Council unitary authority. At the parliamentary level, the parish is part of the North Wiltshire county constituency and the current member of parliament is James Gray (Conservative).

See also

• List of places in Wiltshire