Introduction
Lying south of Burton, Branston was originally a small
village beside the river Trent but spreading in the 19th
century along the Burton-Lichfield road. There is much
19th- and 20th-century housing along Clays Lane north
of the village and along Burton Road to the east. Elsewhere the land is mainly farmland, with the former Sinai
park in the northern part of the township.
Formerly a township in Burton ancient parish,
Branston was later a civil parish covering 2,482 a.
(1,004.5 ha.). (fn. 1) On the south-east the boundary runs
down the middle of the Trent, and the first part of the
southern boundary with Tatenhill parish running west
from the river apparently followed the line of a Roman
road; (fn. 2) further west the boundary followed Tatenhill
brook and on the north part of Shobnall brook.
When Burton municipal borough was created in
1878, it gained 25 a. from Branston, lying in two parts
on the north side of the Burton-Leicester railway line, (fn. 3)
and that area was transferred to Burton Extra civil parish
in 1894. (fn. 4) The rest of Branston was in Tutbury rural
district until the creation of the East Staffordshire
district in 1974. A boundary change in 1985 transferred
land on the north side of the main road at Rough Hay to
Anslow civil parish and land bounded by the Trent and
Mersey canal and Tatenhill Lane to Tatenhill civil parish.
At the same time Sinai Park House and the adjoining
land was added to Burton. As a result the acreage of
Branston civil parish was reduced by 267 a. (108 ha.) to
its present 2,190 a. (887 ha.) (fn. 5)
The underlying rock is mudstone, overlain on the
east side of the township with alluvium and river
terrace deposits and on the higher ground of Sinai
park with boulder clay. The soil is mostly a permeable
loamy soil. (fn. 6) Branston village lies at 154 ft. (47 m.), only
two feet above the level of the river. The land barely
rises until the escarpment which runs along the northwest side of the township, Sinai Park House standing
on the 300 ft. contour. The highest point is 356 ft.
(108.5 m.) at Rough Hay.
POPULATION
Six people in Branston were assessed for tax in 1327. (fn. 7)
The adult population listed in an Easter Book probably
of the 1550s was 122. (fn. 8) In 1660 eighty-nine adults were
assessed for poll tax, excluding servants. (fn. 9) The population was 281 in 1801, rising to 373 by 1811 and 412 by
1821. (fn. 10) By 1831 it had fallen to 382 but was 441 by
1841. It then rose steadily, reaching 577 by 1871. By
1881 it had grown more sharply to 991, mainly as a
result of new housing in the Burton borough part of
the township. (fn. 1) The population excluding that area was
893 in 1891, (fn. 2) falling to 801 by 1911 but rising to 837
by 1921 and 1,089 by 1931. In 1951 it was 2,143, and it
continued to rise thereafter, reaching 2,794 by 1961,
3,344 by 1971, and 3,895 by 1981. Following the 1985
boundary change, the population fell to 3,348 in 1991.
Figure 54:
Branston township and village
COMMUNICATIONS
Main Roads The Roman Ryknild Street ran through
the township. Its line north of Branston village partly
survives as Clays Lane, which in the late Middle Ages
ran to Outwoods, in Horninglow, and was known, at
least in Burton Extra, as Cellarers Lane. (fn. 3) Gallow bridge,
which took the medieval road between Burton and
Lichfield over the stream marking Branston's southern
boundary existed by 1395. It was a county bridge by
1830. (fn. 4) The road was turnpiked in 1729, and by 1759
there was a tollgate with house at the junction with a
road to Tatenhill. (fn. 5) The southern stretch of the road in
Branston beyond the Gate inn was replaced in the late
1960s by the A38 bypass, from which a link road to
Burton met Main Street beside the Blacksmiths Arms.
Traffic continued to pass through Branston until Wellington Road, running directly to Burton from the A38
bypass, was constructed in the late 1980s. (fn. 6) The western
half of the Tatenhill road, beyond its junction with the
access road to Lawns Farm, was stopped up in 1823. (fn. 7)
Fords The river Trent was forded at several points
along its course in Branston township. Near the southern boundary Robin Hood's ford, so called in 1546,
was presumably part of a route to Walton-on-Trent
(Derb.) which in the later 18th century ran south from
the village. (fn. 8) The ford was probably that used by Edward
II when he crossed the river to confront rebels at
Burton in 1322. (fn. 9) Two other fords recorded in 1738,
one a short distance to the north and the other near the
village, corresponded with gaps in the steep bank on
the Derbyshire side of the river. (fn. 10) Only the ford near
the village was shown on a map of 1758. (fn. 11) A crossing
shown in 1759 near the boundary with Burton Extra
township was marked as a ferry on a late 18th-century
plan. (fn. 12)
Canal and Railway The Trent and Mersey canal, the
Burton section of which was completed by 1770, runs
through the centre of the township. (fn. 13)
The Birmingham-Derby railway line through Branston was opened in 1839, with a station south of the
point where it ran across Main Street from 1889. The
station was closed in 1930. (fn. 14)
SETTLEMENT
Branston Village The name Branston is Old English
and means an estate belonging to a man called Brant, a
personal name of Scandinavian origin. (fn. 15) The medieval
village stood near the river, its situation possibly
determined by proximity to a ford. (fn. 16) A timberframed house beside the river, whose remains were
still visible in the late 18th century, had been the home
of the Sanders family; Daniel Sanders (or Saunders)
was the wealthiest taxpayer in Branston in 1660,
although by then resident at Cauldwell (Derb.). (fn. 17) The
site was later occupied by Trent House, so called in
1851 and converted into the present Riverside Hotel in
the 1960s. (fn. 18)
By the later 18th century the village stood at the east
end of Old Road, which with Warren Lane formed the
line of the medieval road between Burton and Lichfield
before Main Street was laid out to the north in the early
19th century. (fn. 19) A new village centre then developed
along Main Street. A Congregational chapel was
opened in 1834, (fn. 20) and there was a post office by
1871. (fn. 21) Two rows of terraced houses, Cambridge and
Anglesey Cottages, to the south near the Gate inn date
probably from the 1880s, and Arizona Cottages south
of the chapel are dated 1889. Houses and bungalows
on the east side of Main Street date from the 1970s and
later, as do houses in Old Road.
A public house mentioned in 1789 was by 1818
called the Gate inn. (fn. 22) It presumably stood on the site of
the present inn of that name at the southern end of the
modern village, and took its name from the nearby
tollgate set up after the Burton-Lichfield road was
turnpiked in 1729. (fn. 23) By 1818 there was another inn a
short distance to the north. Then called the White
Hart, it was known as the Anglesey Arms by the earlier
1830s and still existed in 1918. (fn. 1) A third inn, the present
Blacksmiths Arms at the junction of Main Street and
Old Road, existed as a beerhouse called the Smiths
Arms in 1851. (fn. 2)
Figure 55:
Wayside Cottages, Burton Road, from the east
Branston Hall A farmhouse at the southern end of
Clays Lane owned by the Allen family in the later 18th
century was replaced in the earlier 19th century by a
house which by 1839 was called Branston Hall. (fn. 3) It was
bought by Crosse & Blackwell in 1921 as a hostel for
single women employed at the company's newly-opened
factory on Burton Road. (fn. 4) Later a private house again, it
was demolished in the earlier 1960s and the Leamington
Road private housing estate was built over the site. (fn. 5)
Clays Lane Area Clays Lane itself was developed for
private housing in the 1930s, and after the Second
World War the rural district council built houses in
small side estates: Bridgford Avenue (late 1940s, including some Swedish-style timber houses), and Festival Road (early 1950s). Council houses in Cotswold
Road date from the later 1960s and include old
people's bungalows. To the north the privately-built
Harwood Avenue estate dates from the 1970s, and
further houses were built at the top end of Clays Lane
in the early 1990s. The road was then extended to
Wellington Road, where a Morrisons supermarket
opened in 1995. (fn. 6) Land to the west along the A38
bypass was developed in the 1990s as a business park
called Centrum 100, which includes the headquarters
of Bass plc's corporate services and a Holiday Inn. (fn. 7)
Burton Road Area Residential development along
Burton Road started in the late 19th-century with
detached houses at the end near the borough
boundary. The earliest were Branstone Lodge and
the Elms, in existence by 1882; they were demolished
in the earlier 1960s, when houses were built on their
sites in Lonsdale Road. (fn. 8) Other large houses on the
north side of the road date from the late 1880s and
1890s, and include a group of three decorated with
brick medallions. In the early 1920s a group of 30
houses called Wayside, designed in an Arts and
Crafts style by Aston (later Sir Aston) Webb, were
built for workers at the newly-opened Crosse &
Blackwell factory on Burton Road. (fn. 9) Other houses
along the south side of Burton Road date from the
1920s and 1930s, (fn. 10) and a side estate called the Links
dates from the 1980s. In the late 1990s houses were
being built and plots prepared along Regents Park
Road, which skirts the factory site.
Outlying Areas By 1834 there was a beerhouse beside
the canal west of Branston village, probably on the site
of the present Bridge inn. (fn. 11) Houses to the east along
Tatenhill Lane date mostly from the 1930s and are now
approached from the village by a subway under the
A38 bypass. There are also houses of the 1930s on the
west side of Lichfield Road on the township's southern
boundary. (fn. 12)
The rising ground on the western edge of the township was parkland in the Middle Ages, called Sinai after
a house there used for blood-letting by the monks of
Burton abbey. (fn. 13) Postern House Farm on the park's
western edge existed by the later 18th century, but
Lawns Farm on its southern side is first recorded only
in 1824. (fn. 14) There was a settlement called Old Pool
Green in 1564 just inside Branston township, on a
road north from Tatenhill village to Callingwood; a
house there stood on the south side of the road in the
mid 18th century. (fn. 1) The present Pool Green Farm on
the opposite side of the road dates from the early 19th
century.
At Rough Hay in the north-west corner of the
township there was a cottage called Hobridding by
1546, (fn. 2) and the present Rough Hay Farm probably
stands on the site of a house in existence by the early
18th century. (fn. 3) The present Acorn inn at the crossroads
was opened in the mid 1880s. (fn. 4) Houses in Postern Lane
and along the south side of Henhurst Hill, the name of
this stretch of the main road from Burton, date from
the 1940s and later. A council estate was built in
Aviation Road, off Henhurst Hill, in 1955, and a
private estate to the west in Henhurst Ridge in the
1960s.
Services As in Burton, mains water was supplied by
the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company.
Houses at the east end of Burton Road were connected to Burton corporation sewers in 1914 or
shortly afterwards. Elsewhere in the township
sewage was emptied into cesspools until the later
1930s, when the corporation's sewers were
extended. (fn. 5)
SOCIAL LIFE
In 1834 a wake for Branston was held on the Sunday
nearest Old Michaelmas Day. It seems no longer to
have been held by 1851. (fn. 6)
Burton golf club, established at Stapenhill in 1894,
moved to a course in Branston south of Burton Road
in 1897, and it converted a roadside farmhouse into a
clubhouse. After the club moved to its present grounds
at Bretby (Derb.) in 1907, the course was taken over by
Branston golf club, which survived until 1917 when the
clubhouse was requisitioned by the government, probably as a hostel for workers at a newly-opened ordnance factory in Branston. (fn. 7) The course was re-opened
in 1974 and later extended to 18 holes. Temporary
accommodation was replaced in 1994 by the present
clubhouse, which is also a leisure centre for what in
1999 was called Branston Golf and Country Club. (fn. 8)
A cricket ground on the south side of Burton Road
was used from 1954 by Burton Working Men's cricket
club, formed in 1947 and at first playing on a ground
in Stapenhill. In 1981 the club changed its name to
Trentside cricket club, and it still used the Branston
ground in 1999. (fn. 9)
A disused quarry in the south of the township was
opened as Branston Water Park in 1989. (fn. 10)