The Bradelei Lodge No. 9205
The first record of the ancient Saxon settlement of Bradelei (pronounced Brade-lee) is in the Doomsday Book compiled in 1086. An extract reads as follows;
"In Duvell (Duffield) and Bradelei and Holebroc (Holbrook) and Muleforde (Milford) and Machenie (Makeney) and in Herbidei (said to be Coxbench) Siward had seven carucates of land for geld and the sixth part of one ca
rucate." Siward was a Saxon Thane who lived in a stockade dwelling on Castle Hill in the site which Duffield Castle was built. According to "Place names of Derbyshire" by Kenneth Cameron, Bradelei means "Broad Clearing". The name Bradelei, corrupted to Bradley, appears throughout the centuries. Henry Sacheraval had in 1550 a tenement described as Bradley Leynes, and in 1702 there is a recorded reference to Bradley Laund. In 1800 there is reference in a deed to the brook running through Belper as Bradley Brook. It is now generally recognised that Bradelei, referred to haphazardly in ancient records, is synonymous with the district called Belper Laund and is now a small part of modern Belper.
