Braunston

"BRAUNSTON, a parish in the hundred of Fawsley, in the county of Northampton, 3 miles to the N.W. of Daventry. Rugby is its post town. It is situated on the confines of Warwickshire, on the Oxford and Grand Junction canals, which here unite. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough, of the annual value of £837, in the patronage of the Principal and Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford. The church, which was entirely rebuilt in 1849, is a large and handsome building in the decorated style of architecture. It has a remarkably good spire, octagonal and crocketed, 150 feet in height, and is dedicated to St. Giles. It stands on the brow of a hill at the west end of the village, and forms a fine feature in the landscape. There are chapels belonging to the Baptists and Wesleyans, and a National school partly supported by endowment, the produce of a bequest by William Makepeace in 1733. The value of the town-land charity is about £200 per annum. Reynolds, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, was once rector of this parish. The ancient stone cross, which formerly stood in the village, and consisted of a single block of stone, 11 feet in height, is now placed in the rectory garden. A curious customary tenure exists in the manor of Braunston, by which the widow of a copyhold tenant holds the estate for her life on presenting yearly at the court of the lord one groat in a leathern purse."[From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868). Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]