Bedfordshire
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EATON (BRAY), a parish in the hundred of MANSHEAD, county or BEDFORD, 3½ miles (W. by S.) from Dunstable, containing 816 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £12.16.3., and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. Here was anciently a castle, built by Cantilupe, Baron of Abergavenny, in 1221, of which nothing remains.
[A Topographical Dictionary of England - Samuel Lewis - 1831]
A description of Eaton Bray can be found on their website.
The 1851 Census Index for Eaton Bray can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 6, Book 2 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The church of St. Mary the Virgin is an edifice in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, presenting many interesting features, and consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches and a plain western tower containing 5 bells : the chancel is Perpendicular ; the nave arcades Early English ; the north aisle mixed, with an embattled reredos : the centre light of the east window in the south aisle is blocked and filled with a fine Perpendicular niche, below which is a richly wrought reredos of the same date in ten compartments : the south door retains some magnificent wrought iron scroll work, of late Early English or Early Decorated origin, supposed to have been the work of Leighton, the famous blacksmith : the Early English font consists of a circular basin on a central column, with four attached shafts : at the west end of the south aisle is some late sculptured work, with scrolls, with the shield of Edmund, Lord Braye, impaling his arms with those of his wife Jane (Hallighwell), the royal arms of the Tudors, some badges and the Braye crest, a hemp-brake : there is a fine old tomb with brass effigy to Lady Jane Braye, wife of Sir Edmund Braye (first Baron Braye), 1558, and eleven children : and an inscribed brass to Jane, daughter of Edmund, Lord Braye, 1539. The register dates from the year 1559.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The history of the church of St Mary the Virgin is supplied on the Eaton Bray website.
Non-conformist
Here is a Wesleyan chapel, built 1795 and restored 1864, and a Baptist chapel, built in 1835 and enlarged in 1851.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Details of the Non-Conformist chapels of Eaton Bray can be found on the town website.
The parish record transcripts for St. Mary are available on microfiche for the period 1559-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Photographs of Eaton Bray can be found on the Eaton Bray website.
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[Last updated 6 May 2003 Martin Edwards]