South Wraxall
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South Wraxall was a part of the Ancient Parish of Bradford, as well as of the Manor of Bradford and of the Bradford Hundred. The church of St James was a chapel of the mother church of Holy Trinity in Bradford. It became a separate civil parish in 1884, at which time Bradford Leigh and part of Woolley (which were formerly in the Tithing of Leigh and Woolley) and Cumberwell were detached from Bradford Without and added to Wraxall.
The village consists of two distinct parts: Upper Wraxall, which is grouped around the church and Lower Wraxall, which looks as if it was a later settlement. Cumberwell, to the south, could be an ancient place, perhaps preserving in its name a memory of pre-Saxon occupation.
The name Wraxall (South to distinguish it from another Wraxall in Wiltshire, near Castle Combe) may derive from a lost Old English word for a buzzard, or it might recall the hall of a Saxon settler called Wrocca, Wracca, or similar; the Old English word wræcca means an exile or foreigner, perhaps a new settler. There are other Wraxalls elsewhere, notably near Nailsea in Somerset.
The most notable group of buildings is that of the Manor House, a late medieval mansion with later additions, situated a little to the north of Upper Wraxall.
Today there is no shop or post office in the village and the school is now the Village Hall; the only amenities are the Longs Arms public house and South Wraxall Club. Several farms are still active. Otherwise all is residential. The population recorded at the time of the 2001 census was 453, falling to 438 in 2011.
> Old pictures of South Wraxall
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