Welcome to Bramford

BRAMFORD is a medium-sized village situated three miles north west of Ipswich, the County town of Suffolk.

The village is served by a variety of shops and services; a primary school, a pub, restaurant, a sports ground, a bowls club and other social groups, including a football club which has a first and reserve team. 

You can see the size and border of Bramford Parish, by following the link to this map.

There is archaeological evidence to show a domestic settlement existed here in Roman times. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as "Brunfort" or "Branfort".

The River Gipping, the source of the River Orwell runs at the bottom of the village and offers delightful riverside walks. It was a busy navigable waterway during the 19th century, carrying goods from Ipswich to Stowmarket. A lock is still on the east side of the village.

The village has two churches; (one Anglican, St Mary the Virgin viewable from Bramford Bridge in the southeast of the village and one Methodist) in the north west of the village.

Some local amenities and street signs still carry the names of prominent families once resident in the village, Acton, Loraine, and Broke. Find more of Bramford's history, including The Great Fire and a lengthy poem on the 'Bramford Ghost'

The oldest building in the village, probably built on an earlier pagan site of worship, is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, however, many outlying farmhouses and some houses in the main street through the village date back four or five hundred years, the oldest of these being the former Bell Inn.

The largest expansion of the village took place in the 1960’s, although smaller areas of housing are still being added to this day.

Bramford railway station was originally on the Eastern Union Railway but closed in 1955

Bramford has always been an agricultural community, although remnants of its industrial past still exist along Paper Mill Lane. The old Fison's site was the world's first complete superphosphate factory. Established by Edward Packard between 1851 and 1854.  Joseph Fison set up in competition on this site in 1858 and the two companies were amalgamated soon afterwards. The largest of the three semi-circular warehouses still standing on the site is listed as the only example of its kind left in the country.

Bramford 'Share' Library is the old telephone box in the centre of the village, opposite the Coop, where you will find a wide selection of both fiction, non-fiction, childrens and reference books.  If you would like to add to the collection, please do.  Kindly return borrowed books after reading, thank you. 

There is a private care village which is called Cherryfields made up of several bungalows and flats situated up Gippingstone Road in the centre of the village.

The Book of Bramford is a great source of information and history from the ‘Bramford Local History Group’.