The parish of

BRADDOCK (BROADOAK)

The Parish Church
© David Coppin

Braddock aka Bradoc or Broadoak (Cornish: Brodhek) is a parish in the Hundred of West, situated about 7 miles west of Liskeard, and 5 miles south-east of Bodmin. There is no village centre as such, the parish consisting of isolated farms, the parish church and the hamlets of Middle and West Taphouse. Since 1837 the parish has been part of the civil registration district of Liskeard.
 
Parish Church
 
The ecclesiastical parishes of Braddock and Boconnoc were united in 1742. Braddock church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. Pevsner (1970) states that the earliest parts of the building are Norman but an aisle and a tower were added in the 15th century. The font is Norman and there are many good examples of woodcarving in the church: these include the bench ends, part of the rood screen, wagon roofs, an Elizabethan pulpit and two carved panels perhaps of the 18th century.
In 1845, the four bells which had not been rung for many years, were taken down and sent by sea to the Whitechapel Bellfoundry in London to be recast into five new bells, which rang their first peal on Easter Sunday 1846.
A notable incumbent was the Reverend Arthur Tatham, who served as Rector of Braddock and Boconnoc for over 40 years from 1832 until a few months before his death in 1874 and was also a Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral. He was the son of Charles Heathcote Tatham (1772-1842), the noted English architect and designer, and brother of Frederick Tatham, sculptor and painter.
 
The Battle of Braddock Down
 
The Battle of Braddock Down took place on 19 January 1643 during the English Civil War, and was a crushing defeat for the parliamentarian army. Sir Ralph Hopton’s royalist forces had been camped the night before the battle at nearby Boconnoc and were surprised on breaking camp in the morning when their vanguard of dragoons encountered enemy parliamentarian cavalry already deployed on the east side of Braddock Down. General Ruthven, the parliamentarian commander, had been unwilling to wait for the Earl of Stamford’s reinforcements to arrive at Liskeard and, perhaps wishing to claim the expected defeat of Hopton as his own, had marched out to challenge the royalist army. The defeat of the parliamentarians was achieved with apparently little effort to the Royalists but at great cost to the enemy. Cornwall was placed back under Royalist control and Hopton’s reputation was secured.

Today a stone monument marks the spot, although access to the site is difficult as there are no public footpaths and the roads that traverse the battlefield are narrow with high hedges.
Although the Down was open common grazing land at the time of the battle, the land to the west around Braddock church appears already to have been enclosed by 1643. There one can see examples of the typical stone faced and banked Cornish hedges, that have bounded such enclosures since the 17th century.
The population in 1801 was 173, rising to 303 by 1841 and 289 in 1891, the main occupation being farming.

The Online Parish Clerk for Bradock is Kay Halley, who can be contacted by Email.

PARISH INFORMATION

CENSUS:

Please visit COCP (Cornwall Online Census Project), which is complete for 1841 to 1891 and validated, FreeCens at Rootsweb - both are free, searchable databases - or check GenUKI for other alternatives.

REGISTERS:

For Parish Register information and other resources, please see our online searchable database (C-PROP), which is updated frequently, and GenUKI. The parish coverage page for C-PROP is here.

DIRECTORIES:

Trade Directories for Cornwall can be searched online here. For other information, see GenUKI (ink below).

OTHER:

Churchwardens Accounts:

A list of Ratepayers and properties for 1790.

Indentures & Other Legal Documents:

1. A 1769 document concerning the SPILLER family and land in Braddock

Settlement Papers:

Voters Lists:

For 1851/52, 1852/53 and 1856/57 are available here

Wills:

John GRIGG, dated 17 Apr 1852

For more information regarding history, population, etc., visit GenUKI.

MAPS:

For a Parish Locator map, click here. Braddock can be located at coordinates I - 5.

For further map information, please visit GenUKI (Genealogy - United Kingdom & Ireland).

To see a current, zoomable Ordnance Survey map, visit MultiMap, or for maps and satellite images use Google Maps.

ADJACENT PARISHES:

St Winnow, Cardinham, Warleggan, St Neot, St Pinnock, Lanreath and Boconnoc.

ONLINE BOOKS:

Braddock is included in The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume I by Davies Gilbert, William Hals, Thomas Tonkin, Henry Samuel Boase, originally published in 1838 (page n152). Also downloadable as a pdf.