Brailes, Warwickshire

Description
Brailes, two hamlets and a parish in Warwickshire. The hamlets are Upper and Lower Brailes; they lie 3 and 4 miles. ESE of Shipston-on-Stour station on the Shipston branch of the G.W.R., and about 6 NW of Hook Norton station on its Banbury and Cheltenham branch. They have a post office, of the name of Brailes, under Shipston-on-Stour, which is the telegraph office. One of the hamlets was formerly a market-town. The parish includes also the hamlets of Chelmscote and Winderton. Acreage, 5625; population, 1060. The manor belonged before the Conquest to Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and was given by the Conqueror to Henry de Newburgh, and passed to the Beauchamps, and in the time of Edward VI. to the Sheldon family, in whose possession it remains. Brailes House is the seat of the lord of the manor. Some parts of the surface are hilly and have fine views. The living is a vicarage, with Winderton, in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £340 with residence. The church is a very fine ancient building, chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular, with slight traces of Norman and Early English. It was formerly known as " the Cathedral of the Feldon" (that is, that portion of the country which was cleared of timber, as distinguished from Arden, the wooded portion). It consists of chancel, nave with aisles and clerestory, south porch, and a lofty western tower, 120 feet high with embattled parapet. The church is 165 feet in length, and contains an octagonal font, an altar tomb, memorial stones and stained windows. It was carefully restored in 1879. Winderton church is a very beautiful building. There are Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels, and a meeting-house for the Society of Friends. There is also an endowed grammar school, established in the reign of Henry VIII.