Brackley

Photo of Brackley Market Place courtesy of Brackley Tourist Information Centre

Brackley is an historic market town situated in South Northamptonshire, bordering both Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

A castle was built at the south end of the town in the early 12th century, and may have been the meeting place for the rebel Barons as they drew up the first draft of Magna Carta at Brackley in 1215. King John did not approve their suggestions, and it took another year of hard fighting before he was forced to sign. Robert Le Bossu endowed a free hospital, chapel and graveyard for 12 poor men in 1150, but the need had declined and the buildings were sold to Magdalen College, Oxford in 1484. By 1548 a school was reported to have been started on the site. The much-changed buildings are now the Magdalen College Comprehensive School still serving the town.

From the mid 16th century Brackley sent two members to Parliament. Among them was John Donne, 1601, the famous poet. The entertainment of those eligible to vote became such a scandal everywhere that a Reform Act was passed in 1832 and Brackley no longer returns even one MP.

Brackley was on a coaching route and was said to have twenty-eight inns in the 18th century. Even today it has eight inns. During the 19th century it benefited from the two railway lines (the London, Midland and North Eastern came in 1849 and the Great Central in 1899) which passed at each end of the town. Both were dismantled in the 1960s.

The wide, tree-lined market place, with its Georgian and Victorian houses and shops, is an impressive setting for the Town Hall built in 1706. A conservation area order has ensured that Brackley’s centre remains a historic market town.

Further information about Brackley can be found by clicking the logo below: