Eaton Bray is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is situated about three miles south-west of the town of Dunstable and is part of a village which extends into the parish of Edlesborough. In the 2021 United Kingdom census the population of the parish was recorded as 2,644.) was granted to William I de Cantilupe (d.1239), steward of the household to King John (1199–1216), whereupon it became the caput of the feudal barony of Eaton. The grant was for knight-service of one knight and was in exchange for the manor of Coxwell in Berkshire, which had been granted to him previously. In 1221 Cantilupe built a castle at Eaton, which is stated in the Annals of Dunstable (written by chroniclers at nearby Dunstable Priory), as "a serious danger to Dunstable and the neighbourhood". The site of the castle, of which the square moat survives, is located approximately 800m to the west of the village and was listed as a scheduled monument in 1958. The 1274 inquisition post mortem of

Sir George de Cantilupe (1252–1273), Lord of Abergavenny, the builder's great-grandson and the last in the male line, records many details concerning the arrangement of Eaton Castle: it was enclosed with a wall and a moat with two drawbridges;

The hall had two chambers, a pantry and a buttery, with tiled roof; within the inner bailey were a great chamber, a foreign chamber, a garderobe, a house for a larder used for a kitchen because there was no kitchen; a drawbridge opened onto the deer park containing woodland of 28 acres; survive at Park Farm, open to the public for fishing. The suffix "Bray" was added following the acquisition of the manor by Sir Reginald Bray (d. 1503), in order to distinguish it from numerous other settlements of that name, as was common. The Bray family rebuilt a manor house on the site in the Tudor style.

Governance

Eaton Bray is governed by Eaton Bray Parish Council (since 1894) and Central Bedfordshire Council (since 2009). Between 1894 and 1933 the parish formed part of Eaton Bray Rural District. Despite the name the council met in the nearby town of Leighton Buzzard. Eaton Bray Rural District was abolished to become part of Luton Rural District in 1933, which in turn became part of South Bedfordshire in 1974.

Wallace Nurseries

Today the site of the former Wallace Nurseries is a housing estate many of the streets within which are named after varieties of plants created by the nursery, for example Saffron Rise and Coral Close.

William Osborne (born 1960), screenwriter

  • Christopher Stearn (born 1980), cricketer

Jacqui and Steve Hargreaves (born 1960 and 1958), producers of 11,000 visors during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  • Eaton Bray village website, which includes Eaton Bray Parish Council
  • St Mary's Eaton Bray Community Web