Visit Broadway, Worcestershire Places

Welcome to Visit Broadway, Worcestershire Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Broadway, Worcestershire

  

Broadway, Worcestershire Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Broadway, Worcestershire

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Broadway, Worcestershire history

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Broadway is an ancient settlement whose origins are uncertain. There is documentary evidence of activity in the area as far back as Mesolithic times. In 2004, the Council for British Archaeology’s Worcestershire Young Archaeologists’ Club found evidence of early occupation. Their fieldwork uncovered a large amount of Roman and medieval domestic waste and, most importantly, a large amount of worked Mesolithic flints, raising the possibility that the site might have been a stopping point for hunter-gatherers. This work makes the known history of the village to be over 5,000 years and so may be evidence of one of the first partially settled sites in the United Kingdom. Broadway has also seen the settlement of the ancient Beaker people (1900 BCE), and later, the Roman occupation. It gained the name Bradsetena Gamere (Broad Village) around the 9th century and underwent a number of changes until the modern spelling ‘Broadway’ became common usage in the 16th century. Broadway was a domain of the Mercian kings and was vested in the Crown in the person of King Edgar in 967. The first existing documentary evidence of importance is embodied in a charter that King Edgar granted to the Benedictine Monastery of Pershore in 972. In this Anglo-Saxon text, Broadway is called Bradanwege and its boundaries are described in great detail. The complete copy of the charter may be seen in the British Museum (Facsimile Volume III 30). By the 11th century the village was already well established and apparently thriving. It is listed in the Domesday Book in Great Domesday folio 175 for Worcestershire as part of the land holdings of the Church of St Mary of Pershore: “The church itself holds Bradeweia. There are 30 hides paying geld. In demesne are 3 ploughs; and a priest and 42 villeins with 20 ploughs. There are 8 slaves. The whole in the time of Edward was worth £12 10s 0d; now £14 10s 0d.” It continued to prosper, becoming a borough by the 13th century. For Broadway this marked a considerable departure from the entirely peasant community that had existed in former times, though the following two centuries saw it decline in the wake of the Black Death. Its fortunes were revived during the late 16th century after the dissolution of the monasteries relieved Pershore Abbey of ownership in 1539. The Crown sold the Manor of Broadway in 1558. There followed three centuries of almost unbroken growth, during which the population increased to about five times its Elizabethan level. As in other Cotswold towns, wealth was based on the wool and cloth trade. In the first half the 19th century Broadway was part of a short-lived Cotswolds silk industry, centred on Blockley, with a water-powered silk mill. By around 1600 the village had become a busy stagecoach stop on the route from Worcester to London. The village provided all the services that might be needed, including grooms, places of refreshment and extra horses for the steep haul up Fish Hill. As a result, there were once as many as 33 public houses in Broadway compared to the three which exist today. The road between Evesham and the summit of Fish Hill became a toll road as a result of legislation dated 1728. Tolls were collected at Turnpike House, which can be found (now renamed Pike Cottage) in the Upper High Street. However, the introduction of the railways in Britain in the mid-19th century reduced the passing trade on which Broadway relied. Travel by stagecoach stopped almost immediately with the opening of the railway in Evesham in 1852. Stripped of its role of staging post, Broadway became a backwater; a haven of peace and tranquillity. Victorian artists and writers were drawn to the village’s calm and the famous Arts and Crafts movement made its home in the area. The artists and writers to whom Broadway became home included Elgar, John Singer Sargent, Edwin Austin Abbey, J. M. Barrie, Vaughan Williams, William Morris, Mary Anderson and American artist and writer, Francis Davis Millet. In 1912 Millet boarded the RMS Titanic in Cherbourg, France, as a first class passenger, heading to Washington via New York. He died in the sinking of the Titanic aged 65 and is commemorated by a memorial at St Eadburgha’s Churchyard, Broadway. In 1932 Millet’s son Jack donated £120 to St Eadburgha’s Church for the construction of lychgates in his father’s memory at the churchyard on Snowshill Road. Broadway is thought (by Sir Steven Runciman (1903–2000), a Cambridge historian who knew Benson well) to have been the model for a fictional Elizabethan village in the Cotswolds, Riseholme, the home of Lucia in the novels of E. F. Benson, before she moved to Tilling (based on Rye in East Sussex). The arrival of the motor-car at the turn of the 20th century, and the advent of popular tourism, restored Broadway’s vitality, placing it now among the most frequently visited of all Cotswold villages. In 1934 J. B. Priestley published his book English Journey, a travelogue in which he re-visits areas of the Cotswolds, including Broadway. He described the Cotswolds as “the most English and the least spoiled of all our countrysides. The truth is that it has no colour that can be described. Even when the sun is obscured and the light is cold, these walls are still faintly warm and luminous, as if they knew the trick of keeping the lost sunlight of centuries glimmering about them.” The war memorial on the village green, dating from 1920, marks the deaths of local individuals who died fighting in World War I and World War II. Broadway takes its name from the wide main street, now High Street (one of the longest in England). By the 18th century, it was a toll road and a prominent stagecoach stop. In the beginning the ‘broad way’ probably began as a drove road and may be unusually wide because of the two small streams that used to run each side of the main street; people built on either side of the brooks, and a road formed down the middle. In the winter, the mud from the road was piled up, and in the summer, grass grew on the piles; these verges still remain today. Water used to flow down from the hills and straight through the village then in later years the streams were mostly hidden inside underground pipes, only emerging at occasional ‘dipping’ points. Nowadays, the streams are almost entirely invisible.

You can visit Broadway, Worcestershire places with Walkfo Broadway, Worcestershire to hear history at Broadway, Worcestershire’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Broadway, Worcestershire has 13 places to visit in our interactive Broadway, Worcestershire map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Broadway, Worcestershire, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Broadway, Worcestershire places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Broadway, Worcestershire & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 13 audio facts unique to Broadway, Worcestershire places in an interactive Broadway, Worcestershire map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Broadway, Worcestershire Places Map
13 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Broadway, Worcestershire historic spots	Broadway, Worcestershire tourist destinations	Broadway, Worcestershire plaques	Broadway, Worcestershire geographic features
Walkfo Broadway, Worcestershire tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Broadway, Worcestershire

  

Best Broadway, Worcestershire places to visit

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Broadway, Worcestershire has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Broadway, Worcestershire’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Broadway, Worcestershire’s information audio spots:

Broadway Tower, Worcestershire Broadway Tower is a folly on Broadway Hill, near the large village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second-highest point of the Cotswolds. Broadway Tower’s base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level.

Church of St Peter, Willersey The Anglican Church of St Peter at Willersey in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire was built in the 12th century. It has a fifteenth century bell tower with traditional pinnacles and gargoyles.

Church of St Nicholas, Saintbury The Anglican Church of St Nicholas at Saintbury in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire was built in the 13th century. It is a grade I listed building.

Shenberrow Hill Shenberrow Hill is a prominent hill in the Cotswolds hill range in Gloucestershire. At 304 metres (997 ft) it is the third highest point in the county.

Seven Wells Hill At 319 metres (1,047 ft), is the second highest point in Gloucestershire. Seven Wells Hill is a prominent hill in the Cotswolds hill range.

Visit Broadway, Worcestershire plaques