Braughing, Hertfordshire
Historical Description
Braughing, an ancient town and a parish which gives its name to a hundred in Herts. The town stands on the river Quin, adjacent to Ermine Street, and to the Buntingford branch of the G.E.R., 3½ miles SE by S of Buntingford, and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Ware; money order and telegraph office, Puckeridge. It was a domain of the Saxon kings; was known to the Saxons as Brooking, and to the Normans as Brackinges; and was long a place of considerable importance, and a market-town. Its fair on Whit Monday and Tuesday lasted until 1889, when it was abolished by order of the Home Secretary at the request of the principal residents. Vestiges of the Roman Ad-Fines are at Campwood in its neighbourhood. The parish includes also part of the village of Puckeridge. Acreage, 4368; population, 974. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £190 with residence. The church, a building of flint in the Lancet and Perpendicular styles, contains some interesting tombs and monuments, and was handsomely restored in 1888 at a cost of £2250. There are also Congregational and Wesleyan chapels. Hamels Park is a chief residence.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Hertfordshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Braughin St. Mary | |
Hundred | Braughin | |
Poor Law union | Bishop-Stortford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast, in association with the Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies have the Baptisms, Banns, Marriages, and Burials online for Braughing
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Braughing from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Braughin (St. Mary))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Hertfordshire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Braughing are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Hertfordshire newspapers online:
- Hertford Mercury and Reformer
- Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser
- Watford Observer
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Hertfordshire, 1572 and 1634. Edited by Walter C. Metcalfe, F.S.A. is available on the Heraldry page.