Brackley, Northamptonshire

Description
Brackley, a municipal borough, a market-town, and head of a union, county court district, and petty sessional division, in Northamptonshire. The town stands on a descent at the confluence of two head streams of the river Ouse, adjacent to the Banbury and Bletchley branch of the L. & N.W.R., on which it has a station, 9 1/2 miles ESE of Banbury. It was a place of note in the times of the Saxons; was nearly destroyed by the Danes; rose again to importance, and was walled and had a castle. Tournaments were held in its vicinity, at Bayard's Green, in 1249 and subsequent years, and the barons met at it in 1215 to treat with King John, and again in 1264 with Henry III. The town consists mainly of a single street nearly a mile long, and contains some good houses, chiefly built of stone. The town-hall, an edifice resting on arches, was erected in 1706 by the Duke of Bridgewater at a cost of £2000. St John's Hospital, of which the restored chapel marks the site, was founded in the time of Henry I. by Robert Ie Bossu, Earl of Leicester, for a master and six fellows; passed to Magdalen College, Oxford, and was a retreat of the members of that college during the plague in Oxford in the reign of Henry VIII. It has now been restored, and is used by the college school and the inhabitants. The chapel of it still shows interesting architectural features, and once had tombs of several noblemen, and the hall contained 105 blazoned shields of prelates and distinguished laymen. It was restored and reopened for public worship in 1870. Another hospital, dedicated to St Leonard, stood in the town, but has disappeared. St Peter's Church is chiefly Early English, with a tower and an Early Decorated font. The chancel of it was restored in 1886. Sfc James' Church gave place to a cemetery-chapel in connection with its burying-ground (now closed), but is again used for divine worship. The parishes of St Peter and St James were united for civil purposes in 1884. The living is a consolidated vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough; net yearly value, £210 with residence, in the gift of the Earl of Ellesmere. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels, a grammar school in connection with Magdalen College, Oxford, six almshouses, and several charities. The town is a head post and telegraph office, has two banks, a police station with a magistrates' room, some good inns, a cottage hospital, and. a workhouse, with accommodation for 200 inmates. A weekly market is held on Wednesday, and every alternate Wednesday in the month for cattle. A fair for cattle is held on 11 Dec., and a pleasure fair the day following. A great wool trade flourished in the reign of Edward III., and for some time before and after, but the chief trade now is in agriculture and brewing. The town is a fashionable resort for sportsmen during the fox-hunting season. It claims to have been incorporated by Henry III.; it sent two members to Parliament from the time of Edward VI. till disfranchised by the Act of 1832. The old charter lapsed in 1886, and by a new one granted the same year the government of the town was vested in a council of 16�mayor, aldermen, and 12 councillors. The town is well lighted and drained. There is also an efficient public water supply and an irrigation farm. The sanitary improvements have cost upwards of £25,000. The town gives the title of Viscount to the Earl of Ellesmere. Samuel Clarke, the famous orientalist, a contributor to Walton's " Polyglot," was a native. Acreage, 3489 ; population of the municipal borough and civil parish, 2591; of the ecclesiastical, 2614. Halse is a hamlet in the parish of St Peter. The manor house, a splendid mansion of stone in the Early and Late Tudor styles, is a seat of the Ellesmeres. The Lodge, Brackley Hill, East Hill, Market House, and Brackley House are chief residences.