Brayford

Brayford

A rural parish in North Devon, England including Brayford village, High Bray and Charles, and a part of Exmoor National Park. Brayford is a sparsely populated parish on the south west edge of Exmoor National Park. Until the 20th.century it was mainly populated by farmsteads and their associated agricultural workers. Now the number of agricultural workers has reduced significantly and they have been partly replaced by retired persons. The population of 900 during the 19th. C. has reduced to 374 in 1998. 

There is evidence of a large Romano Iron industry in the parish. Acres of iron slag heaps have been recognised from what locals previously believed to be natural stone. The discovery has been made more intriguing, because while the area has for a long time has been recognised for its late Celtic occupation, the Roman invasion activities, were thought to have been isolated to two lookout fort-lets on the coast of North Devon.
Seven Archaeology digs have confirmed the industrial activity, and have yielded over 2,000 Romano pottery sherds, but as yet no evidence of associated settlement has been found.

Contributed by: Gillian Smythe