Bradley

A regular visitor to the Georgian Bradley Hall (private) was Dr Johnson, who would visit the Meynell family here when he was staying in Ashbourne with his friend, Dr John Taylor. The Meynells had come to Bradley in 1655 and bought the hall from Sir Andrew Kniveton, who had been ruined by the Civil War.

Opposite the hall stands the rather squat Parish Church of All Saints, which is interesting in having a bell turret but no tower on its 14th-century nave and chancel. The original wooden bell tower was struck by lightning. There are several memorials to the Meynell family in the church. The base and part of the shaft of a Saxon cross stand in the churchyard. The archway, crossing the formerly-gated road between cottages at Moorend, is known locally as ‘The Hole in the Wall’. The former village pub had the distinction, common in Derbyshire, of two official names, The Jinglers and the Fox and Hounds. Nearby Bradley Wood was given to the people of Ashbourne in 1935 by Captain Fitzherbert Wright.