Bretford is a small hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is part of the parish of Brandon and Bretford

Brandon and Bretford

Brandon and Bretford is a civil parish in the Rugby borough of Warwickshire, England. As the name suggests it contains the two villages of Brandon and Bretford. Of the two, Brandon is the largest. The two villages are located within 1½ miles of each other, along the A428 road. In the 2001 census...

.

Bretford lies at a junction between the A428 road

A428 road

The A428 road is a major road in central and eastern England. It connects the cities of Coventry and Cambridge by way of the county towns of Northampton and Bedford.-Coventry - Northampton:...

 (Coventry-Rugby) and the old Fosse Way

Fosse Way

The Fosse Way was a Roman road in England that linked Exeter in South West England to Lincoln in Lincolnshire, via Ilchester , Bath , Cirencester and Leicester .It joined Akeman Street and Ermin Way at Cirencester, crossed Watling Street at Venonis south...

. The name of the village comes from the old ford crossing point over the River Avon

River Avon, Warwickshire

The River Avon or Avon is a river in or adjoining the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the Midlands of England...

 which runs just south of the village. The original Roman line of the Fosse Way was diverted to the west in the Middle Ages to its present crossing point.

Just south of Bretford, the A428 (Fosse Way) crosses the River Avon on a five-arched, stone medieval bridge, which is at the site of the old ford. The bridge is too narrow for two-way traffic, and so is controlled by traffic lights. The first record of the bridge is from 1279.

In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 Bretford was considerably more important than it is now; it was founded as a planned market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 in 1227 by the lord of the manor

Lord of the Manor

The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...

, John de Verdon. Itr was also the site of a leper hospital. Following the Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

 in the 15th century Bretford declined almost completely and never recovered. It now consists of a few cottages by the road, a pub and a farm.

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