Brailes

St George's, the Cathedral of the Feldon

St George's is known locally as the Cathedral of the Feldon, and the county history calls it the largest church in the old hundred of Kington. It is listed Grade I. A church stood here by 1124, the south aisle was added around 1280, and most of what you see was built between 1325 and 1375. The tower, of the fifteenth century, is about 37m high.

The church's own history sends you to the fourteenth-century font, carved with window tracery designs, and a fifteenth-century carved oak chest. A worn stone effigy of a priest of about 1450 lies in the south aisle. The church suggests Robert Bandy, vicar from 1433 to 1455, though it is not certain, and local tradition makes him an unknown crusader. Look up for about a dozen carved faces on the corbels on each side of the nave, mostly from about 1350, and faint medieval paintings of Christ and the Apostles on the east roof beam. The county history ties a rebuild of 1649 to damage in the Civil War.

The tower's 142 steps, the bells and the clock are open by arrangement, and so is the vestry. The church publishes no general opening hours, so check before you travel.

The Catholic chapel and Castle Hill

Beside the churchyard, the Bishop family added a Roman Catholic chapel of St Peter and St Paul in 1726, on the upper floor of the house next door. Historic England lists the house and chapel together at Grade II*.

North-west of Lower Brailes, Castle Hill carries earthworks that Historic England has scheduled since 1960 as a motte. The county history called their origin obscure. Public footpaths pass close by in OpenStreetMap, so you can see the mound from the path.

A morning in Brailes

Spend an hour in St George's, then walk round the churchyard to see the Catholic chapel from outside. Follow the footpath north-west to Castle Hill, and come back through Lower Brailes for lunch at the inn. In the afternoon, Whichford and its pottery are a short drive south.

Walks from Brailes

Public footpaths run out from both villages, including the ones round Castle Hill, and Ditchedge Lane on the eastern boundary, with Oxfordshire, is an old ridgeway. No waymarked long-distance trail passes through in OpenStreetMap, and we have not yet published a walk from here with a route we can stand behind.

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Food and drink in Brailes

The George at Brailes on the high street at Lower Brailes is the checked pick: a village inn pouring Hook Norton, open seven days for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a garden and rooms. The county history thought the building probably late sixteenth century. The Gate Inn at Upper Brailes has been closed since 2021, CAMRA records, so the George is the village's one pub.

When to come to Brailes

Any time of year suits the church. For the tower, arrange your visit in advance. St George's day, 23 April, is the church's own, and the market charter of 1248 gave Brailes a fair on the eve, day and morrow of St George, though we found no fair held today.

Over the border

Brailes is close to the Cotswolds' Warwickshire edge, and these places on our sister site, Cotswolds Info, are a short drive west:

• Shipston-on-Stour, the market town on the Stour, about 3.5 miles west
• Chipping Campden, the wool town at the start of the Cotswold Way
• Moreton-in-Marsh, the station on the Fosse Way