Eaton Bray

Eaton Bray is a village and civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. It is part of a semi-rural area which crosses into the parish of Edlesborough in Buckinghamshire and is around one mile from the Bedfordshire village of Totternhoe.

The village name Eaton is a common one in England, coming from the old English eitone, meaning "farm by a river". It was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Eitone. In 1205 the manor of Eaton was granted to William I de Cantilupe(d.1239), steward of King John(1199–1216). Eaton became the caput of the Cantilupe feudal barony known by modern historians as "Eaton Bray". The grant, for knight-service of one knight, was in exchange for the manor of Coxwell, Berkshire, which had been previously granted to him. Eaton had been held at the time of William the Conqueror by the latter's brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux & Earl of Kent, but later escheated to the crown. At Eaton Cantilupe built a castle, the only remains of which is the moat at Park Farm, which is open to the public for fishing. The suffix Bray refers to Sir Reginald Bray (d. 1503) and the family that once owned the manor in this village, which was located at present-day Park Farm.

In Victorian times Arthur Macnamara (the "Mad Squire" of Billington) planned to build a mansion on the site of the castle, but ran out of money after completing the lodge at the entrance to Park Farm.

One of the more distinctive Victorian buildings near the church, is the Coffee Tavern built by a teetotal vicar of the parish to encourage the villagers out of the local public houses. This building was financed by the Wallace family who owned much of the land in the area as well as the famous Wallace Nurseries known for their carnations. The drawings and construction were carried out by some local builders, the Sharratts, who omitted to put a staircase in the original plans!

Today the site of Wallace Nurseries is a housing estate and most of the roads take their name from this and some of the plant varieties they created, for example Saffron Rise and Coral Close.