GenUKI Contents

Bedfordshire

EATON BRAY

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"EATON BRAY, a parish in the hundred of Manshead, county Bedford, 3 miles west of Dunstable, its post town, and 4 south east of Leighton Buzzard. A castle formerly stood here, supposed to have been built about the 13th century. The chief employment of the people is in the manufacture of straw-plait. The village is considerable. The living is a vicarage (with parsonage and glebe) in the diocese of Ely, value £189, in the patronage of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. The Baptists and Wesleyans have each a chapel, and there is a National school for boys and girls. Mrs. Ann Macnamara is lady of the manor."

[The above was transcribed (and edited) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868]
by Colin Hinson ©2023

The following information was transcribed by Craig Pickup from Kelly's Bedfordshire Directory, 1940

• "EATON GREEN, a hamlet in the parish of Eaton Bray, county of Bedfordshire, ¾ mile north west of Eaton Bray."
• "HONEYWICK, a small hamlet in the parishes of Eaton Bray and Totternhoe, county of Bedfordshire, 2 miles west of Dunstable."
• "MOOR END, a hamlet in the parish of Eaton Bray, county of Bedfordshire, 1 mile south of Eaton Bray."
• "VALENCE END, a farmhouse in the parish of Eaton Bray, county of Bedfordshire, 2 miles south east of Eaton Bray."

Census

• The 1851 Census Index for Eaton Bray can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 6, Book 2 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.

Churches

• There are photographs and a description of the St Mary's on the Bedfordshire Parish Churches website.
• There are photographs and a description of the St Mary the Virgin in Edlesborough on the Bedfordshire Parish Churches website.
• The following Churches have their own websites:
  • The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Eaton Bray

Church History

• Church of England
  • The church of St. Mary the Virgin is an edifice in both the Early English and Perpendicular styles, presenting many interesting features, and consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches and a plain western tower containing 5 bells : the chancel is Perpendicular ; the nave arcades Early English ; the north aisle mixed, with an embattled reredos : the centre light of the east window in the south aisle is blocked and filled with a fine Perpendicular niche, below which is a richly wrought reredos of the same date in ten compartments : the south door retains some magnificent wrought iron scroll work, of late Early English or Early Decorated origin, supposed to have been the work of Leighton, the famous blacksmith : the Early English font consists of a circular basin on a central column, with four attached shafts : at the west end of the south aisle is some late sculptured work, with scrolls, with the shield of Edmund, Lord Braye, impaling his arms with those of his wife Jane (Hallighwell), the royal arms of the Tudors, some badges and the Braye crest, a hemp-brake : there is a fine old tomb with brass effigy to Lady Jane Braye, wife of Sir Edmund Braye (first Baron Braye), 1558, and eleven children : and an inscribed brass to Jane, daughter of Edmund, Lord Braye, 1539. The register dates from the year 1559. [Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
• Non-conformist
  • Here is a Wesleyan chapel, built 1795 and restored 1864, and a Baptist chapel, built in 1835 and enlarged in 1851. [Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]

Church Records

• Church of England
  • The parish record transcripts for St. Mary are available on microfiche for the period 1559-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.

Gazetteers

• A transcript of the EatonBray parish entries from Samuel Lewis's 1831 Topographical Dictionary of England,
• A transcript of the EatonBray parish entries from Samuel Lewis's 1835 Topographical Dictionary of England,
• A transcript of the EatonBray parish entries from The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1866-9

Military History

• The BFHS Project in conjunction with Roll of Honour contains the Eaton Bray War Memorial and the Eaton Bray Wesleyan War Memorial transcription for WW1 with details of the men found on it