BRAUNSTONE
Braunstone, formerly a chapelry of Glenfield, is
about 2¼ miles south-west of the centre of Leicester.
In 1891 the civil parish and former chapelry of
Braunstone, which is the area whose history is described here, consisted of 1,743 acres. (fn. 1) The north
boundary ran westwards from the Soar, north of
Rowley Fields, to the Narborough road, along Fulhurst Avenue, Gooding Avenue, and the north-east
side of Braunstone Park, and then crossed the Hinckley road to take in the area to the south-east of the
Braunstone Frith estate. In 1892 254 acres in the
north-east part of the chapelry were incorporated in
the borough and included in St. Mary's parish. (fn. 2)
Leicester Corporation's purchase of land for a housing estate in 1925 made it inevitable that Braunstone
should become part of the borough sooner or later.
In 1935 the part of the chapelry to the north of
Braunstone Lane was incorporated in the borough.
The southern part of Braunstone remained a separate
civil parish in the rural district of Blaby, and in 1936
this parish was enlarged by the addition of a small
part of the parish of Lubbesthorpe. (fn. 3) In 1931 the
population of the civil parish as then constituted was
6,997, and in 1951 8,986. (fn. 4) The surface soil of the
area is mostly Boulder Clay, with small areas of
gravel in the east. Beneath the Boulder Clay is a
stratum of triassic marl, which appears on the surface in some places. The valley of the Dove Brook
contains some alluvium. The country is undulating,
rising westwards from the Soar to a height of about
300 ft. The original village was founded on a patch
of glacial sands and gravels rather less than a mile
from the Fosse Way, which crosses the eastern side
of the area.
The northern part of the old chapelry is now mostly
occupied by a large housing estate, built since 1925
by Leicester Corporation. (fn. 5) Braunstone Park has been
retained as an open space, and it is now used as a
public park. Within it on the crest of a rise stands
Braunstone Hall, a plain red-brick house of three
stories in the late Georgian style. It was built about
1775 for Clement Winstanley, whose descendants
for long possessed it. The architect was probably
William Oldham of Leicester. (fn. 6) In 1925 it was sold
to Leicester Corporation, and is now (1955) a school.
Some houses of the old village still stand along
Braunstone Lane. At Hall Farm, at the south-east
end of the village, the brick surrounding wall and
some of the farm buildings, including a barn with
a dovecote in the gable, are survivals from the old
manor-house, which was probably built by Henry
Hastings in c. 1600. (fn. 7) Farther west, along Braunstone
Lane, stands a timber-framed farm-house in dark red
brick, with the front of the upper story projecting
slightly, which dates from the 17th century. The
village also contains two timber-framed cottages, one
of them still retaining its thatch, which probably
date from the 16th century, and a very small timberframed building, perhaps of the 17th century, now
a shop.
Manor.
In 1086 Hugh de Grentemesnil was the
tenant in chief of BRAUNSTONE, which was held
from him by the son of Robert Burdet. (fn. 8) In the 12th
and 13th centuries Braunstone was probably held
from the king first by the earls of Leicester, who
acquired Hugh's Leicestershire lands, (fn. 9) and then by
the earls of Winchester, who after 1204 inherited
half of the lands belonging to the earls of Leicester.
There is no evidence about the tenants in chief of
the manor until 1264, when Roger de Quency, Earl
of Winchester, died in possession of Braunstone. (fn. 10)
After Roger's death Braunstone was assigned in
dower to his widow, (fn. 11) and eventually it was inherited
by his daughter, Margaret de Ferrers, (fn. 12) whose descendants, the family of Ferrers of Groby, long retained it. (fn. 13) After the death of William, Lord Ferrers,
in 1445, Braunstone fell to his granddaughter
Elizabeth and her husband, Edward Grey. (fn. 14) In 1505
Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset, was holding the
manor (fn. 15) and it probably remained in the hands of the
Grey family until the attainder in 1554 of Henry
Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and the forfeiture of his
possessions. The history of the sub-tenants at
Braunstone during the Middle Ages is less simple
than that of the tenants in chief. In 1086 the son of
Robert Burdet was apparently the tenant in demesne. (fn. 16) His descendants continued to hold the
manor from the tenants in chief until about 1450, (fn. 17)
but by the early 13th century, at the latest, they had
subinfeudated it. In 1207 William Harecurt was in
possession of the manor, (fn. 18) and the Harecurt family
retained it as vassals of the Burdets (fn. 19) until the sisters
of Sir William Harecurt sold it in 1510. (fn. 20) In 1279
Braunstone was held from Richard Harecurt by
Philip le Polers, who was the tenant in demesne. (fn. 21)
In 1293 the manor was held from Richard Harecurt
by Thomas de Camville, (fn. 22) but Thomas was probably
not then the tenant in demesne, since in 1299 the
manor was held from him by Hugh of Braunstone. (fn. 23)
Members of Hugh's family had been holding land in
the parish earlier; Hugh's brother, Master Henry of
Braunstone, was holding land at Braunstone in 1297, (fn. 24)
and Adam son of Ivo, who was holding land in the
township in 1225, (fn. 25) was probably Master Henry's
father. (fn. 26) At the end of the 13th century there were
thus three lords between the tenant in demesne and
the tenant in chief. Hugh of Braunstone was succeeded by his son Henry, who in 1312 granted his
lands at Braunstone to William de Herle for life. (fn. 27)
William's son, Robert de Herle, held considerable
property at Braunstone, which was inherited by his
nephew Ralph de Hastings, (fn. 28) who held the manor in
1388–9, (fn. 29) but though his descendants held land in
Braunstone they do not appear to have held the
manor, (fn. 30) nor do those of Henry of Braunstone. By
1364 the manor was in the hands of Thomas de
Erdyngton, (fn. 31) who was probably the tenant in demesne. Erdyngton had married Margaret, daughter
of Thomas Corbet, who had inherited the manor
from William, son of Thomas de Camvile. (fn. 32) Thomas
de Erdyngton's descendants continued to hold the
manor from the Harecurts (fn. 33) until the last Thomas de
Erdyngton, who died without issue in 1467, (fn. 34) gave
up his rights in the manor to William Harecurt. (fn. 35)
The Harecurts were then presumably the tenants in
demesne.
Before 1483, the overlordship of the manor was
acquired by the well-known Yorkist, William
Hastings, (fn. 36) who probably received it as a grant from
Edward IV, although the means by which he acquired Braunstone cannot be ascertained. (fn. 37) In 1484
Richard III granted the manor to Marmaduke
Constable, on the grounds that it had been forfeited
by the rebellion of William Norreys. (fn. 38) Braunstone
was held in dower by the relict of William Harecurt,
Anne, who had married Norreys as her second husband, (fn. 39) so that Norreys in any case can only have
had an interest in the manor during his wife's lifetime. Although Constable obtained a commission
ordering the bailiffs of the manor to accept him as
lord, (fn. 40) the grant to him seems to have had no permanent effect, probably because of the overthrow of
Richard III in 1485.
In 1509, Simon Harecurt sold the manor to
Edward Bury and others, (fn. 41) who disposed of it in 1511
to Richard Sacheverell and others. (fn. 42) The descendants of William Hastings remained overlords of the
manor. (fn. 43) Richard Sacheverell (d. 1534) bequeathed
the manor to John Slory, who was the tenant in
demesne in 1537. (fn. 44) John Slory seems to have been
succeeded by his son Richard, who was disposing of
property at Braunstone in 1553, (fn. 45) but by 1589 the
manor seems to have been held in demesne by the
Earl of Huntingdon, who then transferred it to
Walter Hastings. (fn. 46) The manor remained in the hands
of the Hastings family until 1650, when it was sold
to Benjamin Kinge by the heirs of Sir Henry
Hastings. (fn. 47) Not long afterwards it was acquired by
James Winstanley, (fn. 48) whose family retained it until
the 19th century. James Winstanley (d. 1862) devised
Braunstone to his sister, the wife of Ralph Pochin. (fn. 49)
The manor continued to be held by the descendants
of Ralph Pochin, who assumed the name of Winstanley, until 1925, when most of Braunstone was
bought by Leicester Corporation for use as a housing
estate. (fn. 50)
Lesser Estate.
In 1279 Master Henry of
Braunstone was holding 3 virgates of the Peverel fee
at Braunstone from Millicent de Cantilupe, who held
them from Roger de Montalt, the tenant in chief. (fn. 51)
Millicent had married, as her first husband, John de
Montalt, whose relationship to Roger is uncertain. (fn. 52)
In 1299 a carucate at Braunstone was being held
from Roger la Zouche by Henry's brother, Hugh. (fn. 53)
Millicent had married as her second husband Ivo la
Zouche. When she died in 1298 her heir was her son
William la Zouche, but she had given the manor
of Lubbesthorpe to Roger in 1267–68, and had
probably given him her lands at Braunstone as well. (fn. 54)
In 1346 Roger la Zouche and Robert Herle were
assessed jointly for 1/6 fee belonging to the honour of
Peverel in Braunstone and Lubbesthorpe, and Roger
Curley was assessed for 1/6 fee in Braunstone, belonging to the honours of Peverel and Winchester. (fn. 55) The
lands of which Robert Herle died seized in 1364 included £4 rent at Braunstone, held of William la
Zouche. (fn. 56) The descent of this holding cannot be
traced further, but probably it was absorbed into the
lands held by Herle's successors, the Hastings
family, at Braunstone.
Economic History.
According to the Domesday survey (fn. 57) there were at Braunstone 5 carucates
and 3 bovates of land. In demesne were 4 serfs with
1 plough, and there also 2 sokemen, 4 villeins and a
bordar with a further 2 ploughs. There were 5 acres
of meadow, and woodland 5 furlongs in length and
3 furlongs in breadth. The estimated value of
Braunstone had trebled in the period before the survey, perhaps indicating that the village had been
ravaged after the Conquest. (fn. 58) The woodland of
Braunstone probably formed part of the great chase
known as Leicester Forest, which bordered the village on the west. (fn. 59) Although Leicester Forest was
held by a series of great lords, (fn. 60) to whom the timber
and hunting rights belonged, the woodland was
during the Middle Ages of considerable economic
importance to the inhabitants of Braunstone. Both
the lord of the manor and his tenants had the right
to pasture their livestock in the forest, (fn. 61) from which
wood for repair of buildings and hedges could be
obtained. (fn. 62) The burgesses of Leicester, at least from
the 12th century onwards, had the right to collect
wood in the forest. (fn. 63) Until the late 16th century
Braunstone was inhabited by free and customary
tenants. In 1279 Philip le Polers held at Braunstone
7 virgates in demesne together with 11 virgates held
by 11 villeins. A further 5¾ virgates were held by 4
free tenants. (fn. 64) Hugh of Braunstone, lord of the
manor, at his death in 1299, held 251 acres of arable
land and 22 acres of meadow in demesne, with a
separate pasture. His 8 free tenants, none of whom
held more than a virgate, rendered money payments
only for their holdings and his 6 villeins had evidently
commuted most of their labour services for money
rents. By 1299 two of them, holding a full virgate each,
were performing no works for the lord, but paid in
money only, while the remaining four, who each
held a messuage and half a virgate, did only one day's
work with one man at haytime, and one day's
mowing, and each paid an annual rent of 9s. (fn. 65) In
1381 22 inhabitants of Braunstone were described
as husbandmen, (fn. 66) and were therefore probably
either freeholders or customary tenants.
There seems no reason to doubt that until the late
16th century Braunstone was a village with openfield cultivation of the normal type. Four fields belonging to the village are mentioned in a document
of 1477, (fn. 67) which may indicate that a two-yearly system of rotation was then being employed. The
manor-house, which is first mentioned in 1299, (fn. 68) is
said to have stood between the chapel and Braunstone Lane. (fn. 69) Attached to it were a dovecote and a
fruit garden. (fn. 70) This house was leased to a farmer in
1415, (fn. 71) and about 1600 it was replaced by a new
house which occupied the site of the present Hall
Farm. (fn. 72)
In the late 16th century the old agricultural routine of the village was broken up by the widespread
inclosure of arable for conversion to pasture, followed in the early 17th century by the inclosure of
Leicester Forest. The inclosure of the village fields
was mostly the work of Walter Hastings, the lord of
the manor, and his son Henry, though three of their
tenants also carried out inclosure on a small scale.
At an inquiry held at Leicester in 1607 (fn. 73) it was stated
that 468 acres of arable in Braunstone had been
converted into pasture. Of this, 150 acres had been
so converted since 1579. (fn. 74) Walter and Henry
Hastings since 1596 had inclosed and converted to
pasture 290 acres of arable, while George Bennett
and John Connywaie, who were probably tenants of
Walter Hastings, had each converted 14 acres to
pasture during the same period. Bennett must have
been a fairly wealthy freeholder, for in 1589 he acquired property at Braunstone described as 100 acres
of land, 20 acres of meadow, and 20 acres of pasture,
with two barns and common rights. (fn. 75) The report of
the 1607 inquiry does not state how many people
were displaced through the conversion of arable to
pasture, but it notes that three houses were uninhabited, and in 1608, when Walter and Henry
Hastings were charged in the Star Chamber with depopulating Braunstone, it was stated that at least 40
people had left the village. (fn. 76) This must have represented a substantial proportion of the population,
for in 1563 there were 28 families in Braunstone. (fn. 77)
The parish registers show that the population declined sharply during the period when the village
fields were being inclosed; in the five years between
1566 and 1570 the average number of baptisms a year
was 8.2, against an average of 4.4 for the years 1630
to 1634. (fn. 78) From the answer made by Walter and
Henry Hastings to the charges brought against them
in the Star Chamber (fn. 79) it appears that they had absorbed three farms into the manorial demesne, demolishing one of the farm-houses. Henry Hastings
had leased a fourth holding from one Hackett for
£50, and purchased a fifth from John Iliffe, who had
previously converted it into pasture. According to
the version of events given by Walter and Henry
Hastings, the remaining tenants, who held their
lands for terms of ten or twelve years only, then
agreed that all their lands should be inclosed, after
which some of the land was to be allotted to the
tenants, while the remainder reverted to the
Hastingses. It seems that Hackett, Bennett, Iliffe, and
possibly Connywaie, were freeholders, and were
either bought out or had inclosed lands themselves.
The freeholders seem to have offered no opposition
to the inclosure. The remaining tenants, being
mainly leaseholders, were unable to do so. After
three of them had been evicted and their holdings
taken over by the Hastingses, they consented to the
inclosure on conditions which must have been disadvantageous to them. By the early 17th century
there were apparently no customary tenants left at
Braunstone. No mention was made in 1607 of any
inclosure of waste or pasture land. It is possible that
some may have been inclosed at an earlier date, (fn. 80)
since by 1415 Richard Hastings was leasing his lands
at Braunstone, (fn. 81) and a farmer leasing land at a presumably competitive rent might well have been
tempted to inclose. For pasture, however, the village
probably relied mainly on lands within Leicester
Forest, which occupied the western part of the township. (fn. 82) John Wellinger, for example, a substantial
farmer of Braunstone who died in 1603 leaving personal estate worth £123, was then pasturing in the
forest thirteen cows with four calves. (fn. 83) Not content
with having converted much arable land at Braunstone into pasture, Henry Hastings kept large flocks
of sheep in the forest, although it was contrary to the
rules of Leicester Forest to do so. (fn. 84) In 1605 it was
stated that he was pasturing 160 sheep there, and
that he had cut down trees covering 500 acres, so
that in a short time there was likely to be no cover
left for the deer of the forest. (fn. 85) The maintenance of
large numbers of sheep in the forest may have caused
a shortage of grazing for the tenants' livestock and
thus have assisted Hastings in his efforts to inclose
the village arable. (fn. 86) The disafforestation of Leicester
Forest in 1628 enabled Henry Hastings to inclose the
parts of Braunstone township which had lain within
the forest boundaries. The Exchequer decree providing for the inclosure of the forest (fn. 87) laid down that
the land in Leicester Forest belonging to the manor
of Braunstone was to be divided between Sir Henry
Hastings, who was to receive two-thirds, and the
king, as Duke of Lancaster, who was to obtain onethird in compensation for the loss of his forest rights.
Out of his share Sir Henry was to set aside 64 acres
to compensate his tenants at Braunstone for the loss
of pasture in the forest. The tenants, who despite depopulation still numbered 17, were to receive 6 acres
for every yardland they held, and 2 acres for every
cottage. Hastings's share was about 270 acres, but he
also purchased the 135 acres at Braunstone which
had been allotted to the king. (fn. 88) An annual fee farm
rent of 1s. an acre was levied from all the lands purchased from the Crown. (fn. 89) An area of about 120 acres,
lying between Braunstone Frith and the Hinckley
road and known as the King's Wood, (fn. 90) was partly
allotted to some freeholders at Glenfield and others,
and partly to the corporation of Leicester in compensation for the loss of pasture rights belonging to
the Newarke Grange. (fn. 91) All land which had formed
part of the forest was ordered to be inclosed with
hedges and ditches by May 1628. (fn. 92) The lands of
Leicester Forest to the west of Braunstone were thus
brought under regular cultivation. After the disafforestation of 1628 there can have been little uninclosed land left at Braunstone. The whole area of
the chapelry was 1,489 acres in 1891. (fn. 93) The inclosures
reported in 1607, together with those made in 1628,
totalled about 990 acres, and allowance has to be
made for a number of small closes already existing in
the 15th century, (fn. 94) besides land occupied by houses,
gardens, and roads. The hearth tax returns furnish
some evidence about the size of the village in the
17th century. In 1666 18 houses in the village paid
tax, including 2 which were empty. (fn. 95) In 1670, 17
houses paid tax, but a further 11 were listed as
exempt. There would appear to have been 28 households at Braunstone in 1670, the same number as in
1563, so that some recovery had taken place since
the early 17th century. (fn. 96) The clearing of Leicester
Forest, and the inclosure of the village fields, must
have caused great changes. Not only the fields but
the roads of the township were altered, for a road
leading from Braunstone to Leicester was blocked up
by Walter and Henry Hastings, and another road to
Leicester was closed by Walter Ruding, lord of the
adjacent manor of Westcotes. (fn. 97) The old body of
small-holders was largely destroyed, and the village
lands came increasingly into the ownership of the
lord of the manor.
Sir Henry Hastings supported Charles I in the
Civil War, and was in consequence ruined. (fn. 98) Under
the Winstanley family Braunstone remained a small
agricultural village during the 18th and 19th centuries. By 1773 about two-thirds of the land in the
township was in the hands of Clement Winstanley,
the only other owner of importance being the Duke
of Rutland. (fn. 99) There were nine other proprietors. In
1809 by the Glenfield Inclosure Act lands at Glenfield were set apart for the Rector of Glenfield in
commutation of tithes due from the lands at Braunstone belonging to Clement Winstanley, (fn. 100) who was
by far the most important landowner there. (fn. 101) In 1829,
the only landowners at Braunstone were Clement
and George Winstanley and the Duke of Rutland. (fn. 102)
In 1846 the duke's rental in Braunstone was £472 as
against Winstanley's of £2,564 10s. (fn. 103)
Braunstone was for long little affected by the
growth of the adjacent industrial centre of Leicester.
The village remained almost entirely agricultural,
and the size of the population showed little change.
Some framework-knitting was done in the late 18th
century. (fn. 104) In 1801 the population was 202, of whom
165 were chiefly employed in agriculture, compared
with 22 employed in trade and manufactures. (fn. 105) It was
not until Leicester Corporation purchased a large
part of Braunstone in 1925 that any change took
place. In 1921 the population was only 238; in 1931
it was nearly 7,000. (fn. 106) Though Braunstone Hall and
its surrounding park were preserved, a large housing
estate was built, covering most of the township to
the north of Braunstone Lane. During the financial
year 1926–7, £87,000 was spent on the building of
houses alone, while further large sums were expended on roads and drains. (fn. 107) In the next year the
expenditure on houses was £292,000. (fn. 108) Further
building took place to the south of Braunstone Lane,
and though some agricultural land still remains in
the south and the north-west of the township,
Braunstone has largely become a suburb of Leicester.
Parish Administration.
Braunstone was
governed by the usual parish officers until its amalgamation with the borough of Leicester. It had no
separate workhouse although maintaining its poor
separately from Glenfield, (fn. 109) and from 1836 was in
Blaby union for poor relief purposes.
Church.
In the 12th century Braunstone church
was a chapel dependent on the parish church of
Glenfield. The chapel is first mentioned in a document which is not later than 1168. (fn. 110) About 1220 the
chapel was being served by a resident chaplain, (fn. 111)
but apart from this there is no evidence of how the
chapel was served during the Middle Ages, or of
what the relations were between the clergy serving
it and the Rector of Glenfield. In 1650 there was a
minister serving Braunstone, (fn. 112) but the circumstances
at that time may have been exceptional. During the
19th century and until 1937, the chapel was served
by the Rector of Glenfield, or his curates, but in
1937 Braunstone became a separate ecclesiastical
parish, with the Bishop of Leicester as patron of the
living. (fn. 113) In 1948 two Anglican mission rooms, those
of St. Boniface and St. Crispin, were opened to
serve the new housing estate. (fn. 114)
In 1585 the stipend of the curate who was in
charge of Braunstone was £8 a year. (fn. 115) In 1650 the
minister at Braunstone had a net income of £30 17s.
a year. In December of that year his stipend was
raised to £50 by a grant from the rectorial tithes
arising from the chapelry, but the increase was
withdrawn immediately afterwards. (fn. 116)
The greater part of the church of ST. PETER, as
it existed in 1956, was built in the 14th century. The
14th-century church consisted of chancel, nave, and
west tower. It is built of random rubble, the roofs
are slated, and all the windows except those of the
tower are pointed. The chancel has a plinth of one
splay, string-course at sill level, diagonal buttresses
at the angles and modern central ones on the north
and south. It is lighted on the east by one window of
three lights, on the north and south by two of two
lights. Between the windows on the south there is a
narrow pointed door of one splay with a hood without terminals. The south wall of the nave is similar,
with buttresses at the angles, and lighted by three
two-light windows. The south door has an 18thcentury porch built of red brick with a round-headed
arch, moulded brick cornice, and pediment, the cornice being continued as an eaves course to a steeply
pitched slate roof. Internally, it has a four-centred
vaulted ceiling and is plastered. The door has a
moulded pointed head, the mouldings continued
down the jambs without capitals. The tower is of two
stages; a third stage has been taken down to a little
above the sills of the original belfry windows, leaving
low rectangular openings on each face below the
eaves of a slated roof. It has diagonal buttresses in
four weathered stages; one buttress has two inscriptions, one stating that the steeple was repaired in
1704 and another stating that it was restored in 1938.
A late 15th-century window with a four-centred
head of two hollow splays has been inserted in the
west wall of the lower stage. Internally the tower
walls are plastered and the floors laid with modern
tiles.
The chancel has segmental pointed rear arches to
the door and windows. At the eastern end of the
south wall is a moulded trefoil-headed piscina with
the remains of a pointed hood. The altar rails, dating
from the 17th century, are of oak with moulded rails
and turned balusters, partly restored. The chancel
has a modern steep-pitched open collar-beam roof
with curved brackets resting on floriated stone corbels. The space above the collar is fitted with opentracery panels. The nave has a modern tiled and
boarded floor and an open trussed-rafter roof of uncertain date. The chancel and tower arches are
pointed, of two splayed orders, the responds repeating the inner orders with moulded capitals and bases.
In 1637 the church was found to be in very poor
condition, (fn. 117) but in general it seems to have been well
maintained. The red brick porch was added in the
18th century. Repairs were carried out in 1838, when
the building was said to be very damp, (fn. 118) and again in
1867 and in 1875. (fn. 119) In 1885 the floor was raised and
relaid, part of the gallery, which had been inserted
at an unknown date, was removed, and heating
apparatus was installed. (fn. 120)
Extensive alterations and additions to the fabric
were begun in 1937. A large part of the north wall
of the 14th-century nave was cut away, and a squareheaded concrete arch was inserted. Running northwards from the opening so created, and at right
angles to the original nave, a new nave was constructed. This extension was originally intended to
consist of a nave, with east and west aisles, and a
vestry, but shortly after the outbreak of war in 1939
building came to an end. In 1956 the new nave
remained incomplete. (fn. 121)
The chancel has a late 15th-century carved oak
screen with open-traceried panels, a central opening
with traceried panels in the head, crocketed finial
and moulded pendant, and is finished with a modern
cornice; it has been slightly restored. The font, now
in the west aisle of the extension, is built up with an
inverted basin of a plain circular 13th-century font
supporting a basin made from a 14th-century
octagonal moulded capital of an arcade pillar. The
windows in the extension are copied from the old
church and two, taken from the demolished north
wall of the nave, have been reused and contain fragments of early stained glass. The pulpit, a modern
octagonal one of oak, has also been moved to the
extension and is placed on the west side of the new
chancel arch. In the old nave is a 17th-century oak
chest, with a panelled lid, bound with iron straps.
In the floor, near the chancel, is a 15th-century
memorial slab, much worn, showing traces of two
incised figures and a marginal inscription. (fn. 122) There
are two hatchments, one above the tower arch and
the other on the north wall.
Beneath the altar of the Lady chapel, formerly the
high altar, is a vault belonging to the Winstanley
family. A wooden reredos, believed to have been
Elizabethan or Jacobean, was removed and broken
up in c. 1900; some fragments have been used to
make a processional cross, which is now in the
church. (fn. 123) The church plate consists of a silver paten
with a foot, dated 1721, and a silver gilt cup, paten,
and flagon, all dated 1858 and given by the wife of
George Winstanley, Rector of Glenfield. There is
also a gilt dish of base metal. The church formerly
possessed a very beautiful silver gilt standing cup,
with a cover, bearing the date 1613. (fn. 124) The parish
registers begin in 1561, and are in the vicar's custody.
There are three bells, inscribed 'Robert Taylor St.
Neots fecit, 1812'. (fn. 125)
Roman Catholicism.
In 1938 the temporary
church of the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament was
established at Braunstone. (fn. 126) In 1954 work began on
the permanent church. (fn. 127)
Protestant Nonconformity.
There is
no record of any dissenting chapel in Braunstone
until the establishment of the Trinity Methodist
Church in 1929, at first in a temporary chapel, and
later in a permanent one built in 1934, and of Christ
Church (fn. 128) Congregational chapel in Barbara Road in
1930, both to designs by Albert Herbert. (fn. 129) A small
Baptist chapel was built in Braunstone Avenue in
1950 after many years of missionary work from
Friar Lane chapel. (fn. 130) In 1939 a site was purchased in
Braunstone for the building of a Congregational
chapel to replace that in Bond Street, whose congregation had largely been moved to the Braunstone
estate. This project has not so far been carried out. (fn. 131)
Schools.
Braunstone possessed a Sunday school
before 1846, which was supported by the lord of the
manor. (fn. 132) In 1868 a small National school was built
by Captain R. G. Pochin. (fn. 133) Many new schools were
built to provide for the children on the housing
estates, and Braunstone Hall has been in use as an
infants' school since 1932. (fn. 134) The National school was
closed in 1930. (fn. 135)