Bray

A pleasant riverside town, Bray has a good mix of attractive houses and period cottages from various centuries surrounding the Church of St Michael. The Vicar of Bray, celebrated in Goldsmith’s famous poem, was a real person, the Rev.d Simon Alwyn. As the church fluctuated between dogmatic Protestantism and doctrinaire Catholicism, the Reverend’s flexible principles allowed him to keep his post through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I. He is buried in the churchyard here and a plaque in the Hinds Head Hotel tells the full story. In recent years, Bray has established itself as a gourmet’s seventh heaven. It now boasts two of Heston Blumenthal’s restaurants, The Fat Duck and The Hinds Head, as well as the famous French restaurant, The Waterside Inn.