Present Day
Low Bradfield continues its tradition as a farming community into the present day. Cross Farm, Nether Farm and Fair House Farm are situated close to the centre of the village. Fair House is a grade II* listed building and is one of the oldest structures in the area dating from the 1630s and was originally called Swinden House. Nether Farm is Grade II listed and dates from the 1820s. There are several other farms in the outlying areas. One of the great attractions to people from outside the village is the large centrally located recreation ground known as the Ibbotson Memorial Field which is a popular site for picnics and family visits and also serves as the village cricket ground, drawing large crowds to games on summer weekends. The field was named after the Ibbotson family who have lived in Low Bradfield for several centuries. The local tennis and bowls clubs also have facilities at the field.
There are several other notable buildings in the village. The former Wesleyan chapel on Mill Lee Road was built in 1817 and now serves as the offices for Bradfield Parish Council. Just across the road is another former Wesleyan chapel which was built in 1899 to replace its counterpart. It closed in 1993 and was sold for residential use. Also on Mill Lee Road are the former water board filter houses which filtered water from the Agden, Dale Dike and Strines reservoirs in Bradfield Dale. The filter houses were built in 1913 and extended in 1953 before being closed in 1995 when a new water treatment works was opened in the Loxley Valley. The buildings are derelict and unused at present. The Bradfield village hall, situated on the Memorial Field was completely rebuilt recently and re-opened in 2006.
There is just one public house in the village, the Plough. There was a second pub called the Cross Inn which was situated at the foot of Woodfall Lane but this closed in the late 1970s and is now a private house. Just across the road is the village shop which is also the local post office. The former Low Bradfield School is now a private residence which was built in 1867 to replace a school that was washed away in the flood of 1864 in a different part of the village. The school closed in 1985 with its pupils being transferred to nearby Dungworth School.
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Famous quotes related to present day:
“The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)