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Brackley, which can trace its history back to the very earliest
times, was probably founded in two distinct areas. One was around
the parish church and the other around the castle by the River Ouse.
Iron Age remains were found at the Mill Lane development and others
were found when the Castle Lane site was excavated. There was, too,
probably a Roman villa to the south east of the parish church. It
was this site at which Bracca built the very first village.
Bracca, who came from the larger settlement at Halse, lived between
550 and 650 A.D. He came into possession of a ‘ley’
or clearing and on it built a small village which was named after
him - as Braccaley, the Brackley of today.
At the time of the Normans, Brackley was in the Hundred of Odboldistow
and in the Manor of Halse, Indeed, Brackley’s manor house
remained in Halse for another two centuries although, as time passed,
Brackley far outgrew Halse and became a town of importance. To prevent
the barons using tournaments as local wars, Richard I named five
official places where tourneys could be held and Brackley was one
of these.
Brackley grew along the Oxford to Northampton road and trade along
that route brought it prosperity. By the 13th century it was a staple
town and sent delegates to trade meetings at Westminster. It was
of sufficient importance, too, for a castle to be built for its
protection. Only slight evidence of this now survives, along the
Hinton Road.
The barons met representatives of the King at Brackley in 1215,
the year of the Magna Carta, and a similar meeting followed in 1264.
The parish church was mostly built in the 13th and 14th centuries
and, on the eastern side of the High Street, the Hospital of St.
James and St. John was founded in 1150. This later passed to Magdalen
College of Oxford who, at the Dissolution, founded a grammar school
which existed until 1972 and is now a comprehensive school. The
original hospital chapel survives although it was greatly restored
in 1870.
Brackley, however, fell on hard times during the Tudor period. Its
fortunes declined and when John Leland visited the town he referred
to it as ‘this por towne’. It still, however, retained
its right to elect a mayor and by 1547 it was allowed to send two
members to parliament.
The Civil War saw Brackley on the side of the Roundheads. A record
exists of Royalist troops going from Northampton to Oxford and being
attacked and routed by the citizens of Brackley, despite their only
having the most rudimentary of weapons. The spoils of that battle
were worth six or seven thousand pounds and many local people, who
had not had a horse before, rather suddenly obtained one. Because
of its central position, Brackley was often a stopping place for
troops during the Civil War.
Brackley prospered again as the coaching era dawned. It was a staging
point and several coaching inns of this period still survive albeit
in more modernised form. The town was dominated by the Egerton family
for some two centuries until the Reform Act of 1832. Then Brackley
lost its two M.P.’s and it never regained its former importance,
becoming a rather quiet market town.
In the mid 19th century the railways came to the area with Brackley
first having a station on the L.N.W.R. route from Banbury to Bletchley.
Fifty years later the Great Central Railway opened its extension
from Leicester south to London’s Marylebone station and on
this was a station at the top end of Brackley. This was the last
of the main lines to reach the Capital. Both lines and stations,
however, closed under the Beeching cuts and Brackley no longer sees
the great expresses thundering through. Road improvements, including
the A43 by-pass, have hardly made up for the town’s removal
from the railway network.
In more recent times, especially since the early 1950’s, Brackley
has grown considerably and new industry has been attracted to the
town whose activities now include food processing, chemical engineering
and many manufacturing industries. In 1974 Brackley lost its historic
Borough status when it became a parish, with its own Town Council,
within the South Northamptonshire District. House building has proceeded
apace to the extent that in 2002 the population rose to 13,800.
In short, Brackley, whose history has reflected the ups and downs
of changing fortunes, now seems to face the new challenges of rapid
growth.
The Brackley Market Town Partnership, now renamed Brackley Vision,
was set up in 2002  and
sponsored by the Countryside Agency. It has produced an action plan,
launched in March 2003, which will guide the town through the next
four years.
The Honda Racing F1 Team has its main Operations Centre in Brackley
and has been based in the town since the team was created as British
American Racing back in 1999. Employing over 500 people in Brackley,
the team is fully owned by the Honda Motor Company which has a rich
racing pedigree in many different motor sport arenas. To date, Honda
has achieved 71 Grand Prix victories and 11 FIA Formula One World
Championship titles. That’s a remarkable record that all involved
in the Honda Racing F1 Team are determined to add to during the
years ahead.
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Introducing Brackley
Bureau
