Introduction to the history of Bradbourne
The Roman road linking Little Chester (Derby) and Manchester forms the northeast boundary of the civil parish of Ballidon. Roman rule brought prosperity and Christianity to Britain, but when the Romans left in the 5th century heathen Anglo-Saxons moved in.
The Trent basin was the heart of the new Kingdom of Mercia with this part of Derbyshire as its frontier zone. In 653 Christian missionaries first entered Mercia and following the royal families’ conversion, they founded mission centres such as Repton and Wirksworth.
The cross shaft in Bradbourne churchyard depicts the Crucifixion and is adorned with tracery typical of the handful of decorated Saxon stone crosses dating from about 800 which still survive in North Derbyshire. These were erected as Christian worship spread into the frontier zone prior to the building of a Saxon church. This spread of religion was halted by the Danish conquest of part of Derbyshire in the 9th century. The area was regained by the English under Alfred the Great’s Son, King Edward the Elder of Wessex, during his campaigns of 917-921. To hold these northern boundaries against Norse attacks, Edward established supply lines and chains of royal estates with his headquarters at Bakewell. Bradbourne, Ballidon and Brassington lie in the middle of a chain connecting Matlock on the River Derwent to Ashbourne on the Dove. Ballidon was a royal estate until given by King Edgar to Thane Æthelfrith, Bailiff of the Western Peak, in 963.
William the Conqueror valued the strategic importance of these chains of estates and gave Bradbourne and Brassington to his friend Henry de Ferrers who built the church at Bradbourne. These Norman lords were very conscious of the need to save their souls and in addition they built chapels of ease on the outlying parts of their estates for the priest to visit and say Mass. Bradbourne had four chapels at Ballidon, Brassington, Tissington and Atlow. About 1100 the manor and church of Bradbourne were given to the Caus family and in 1205 they gave the church to the Priory of Dunstable. With the church went the four chapels, church lands, mineral and grazing rights. Later Dunstable successfully petitioned the bishop of Lichfield to secure title to the rectory and the tithes that went with it.
After the dissolution of the monasteries all these lands went to the Crown and were sold off. Following the Reformation the ties between Bradbourne and its churches were loosened. Atlow and Tissington eventually went separate ways. Brassington became a parochial chapelry in 1726, then a separate parish, buildings its own vicarage in 1857. Now Bradbourne, Ballidon and Brassington are again held together as part of the Wirksworth Team Ministry.