Eaton Bray is a rurally located village on the Buckinghamshire Bedfordshire border, north-west of London. The River Ousel forms the village and county boundary dividing Eaton Bray from its closely associated Buckinghamshire neighbour Edlesborough. Here the river cascades in a waterfall in a privately owned property visible from the roadside. It is well worth stopping to admire the spectacle, especially after some serious rainfall. The village is surrounded by farmland and overlooked by part of the Chiltern Hills known as the Dunstable Downs, which at Ivinghoe Beacon rises to over 800 ft. The ancient Icknield Way forms a crossroads with the Roman Watling Street (now the A5) at Dunstable which is some four miles away. Eaton Bray and Edlesborough provide all amenities including schools, churches, sports facilities and excellent shops catering for everyday needs.
Eaton Bray's original Saxon name of Eytone is derived from a village partly surrounded by water. The Norman Baron William de Cantilupe acquired the manor of Eytone in 1205. He built a castle of which only the moat remains near Park Farm and a church, St Mary's Church was partly rebuilt by Reginald Bray who was appointed Lord of the Manor by Henry VII. Bray was Chief Architect of St George's Chapel at Windsor recently devastated by fire. The family's name now forms the second part of the village's name. Many old timber framed houses and cottages remain in the village and the distinctive black and white Old Reading Rooms, now called The Coffee Tavern, is still used for Parish Council Meetings and was used for games of duplicate bridge by the card-playing fraternity up until the end of April 2008. Industry was centred around farming and straw plaiting together with flour milling and stone cutting. Extensive plum orchards produced prunes, the skins of which were used by the Luton hat industry for dying felt. In the 19th Century W E Wallace owned a nursery supplying carnations to London via the nearby now dismantled railway at Stanbridge Ford.
