Bramley | |
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St. James' church, the parish church for Bramley |
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Bramley shown within Hampshire | |
Population | 5,875 4,233 (2011 Census) |
OS grid reference | SU655593 |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | TADLEY |
Postcode district | RG26 0xx |
Dialling code | 01256 |
Police | Hampshire |
Fire | Hampshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
EU Parliament | South East England |
UK Parliament | |
Bramley is a village and parish in Hampshire, England. In the 2001 census it had a population of 3,348. It has a village shop, bakery, estate agency, pub - The Bramley Inn (opened in 1897 as The Six Bells) and a railway station. Also, Bramley Camp houses an Army facility where military training and manoeuvres take place.
Evidence of Bramley's first inhabitants can be found in Bullsdown Camp, a prehistoric settlement, where remnants of flint-scrapers, a spear-head, a core and flint-flakes have been found.This is thought to be a late Celtic "triple-walled dun".This fortification can still be seen today, situated to the east of the village south of the Bramley to Sherfield road. The Reverend Robert Toogood wrote a history of the village and church. It includes some anecdotes about Henry VIIIth's connections with the village and Cufaude Manor.
The Romans occupied Calleva Atrebatum and built a walled city known today as Silchester. Bramley is on the Chichester to Silchester Way Roman road and has remains of a Romano-British villa nearby.
The Church of St James stands at the west of the village and originally dates from 1160, however it features many historical alterations and additions up to the 20th Century. It is a Grade I listed building. The famous physicist Lise Meitner is buried in the burial ground next to the church, near the grave of her brother Walter.
The railway line between Reading and Basingstoke was built through the village in 1848. The village had to wait another 47 years until on 1 May 1895 a station in the village opened, at the insistence of the then Duke of Wellington, a prominent landowner in the area. During 1935 parts of the film 'The Last Journey' were shot on the railway within the village.