Unlike many other Cotswold towns and villages, Broadway’s history is not as steeped in Anglo-Saxon, Iron Age or Roman culture. In fact, the modern village of Broadway is not in fact near where the original village was sited.
History of Broadway
The original village was further south, centred around St Eadburgha’s church and the stream running nearby. This original village dates back to around the year 860 and is also recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Records indicate a “broad road” running northwards from the church of St Eadburgha’s to St Michael’s Church, and though this may be the origins of the town’s name, visitors will recognise that the current High Street of the present-day town is undoubtedly wider than most and itself may be described as “Broad Way”.
Broadway is located on the very edge of the Cotswolds, just as the escarpment meets the Vale of Evesham, and both Evesham and Worcester are just a short drive away to the north. Broadway Tower is a Victorian Folly that is built atop Beacon Hill, just above the town and is the second-highest point of the Cotswold escarpment.
Growth, expansion and relocation
Like other medieval towns of the Cotswolds, the area thrived on agriculture and in particular the trade of wool and fleece. Some impressive buildings from the period remain today, including Abbots Grange, the oldest dwelling in Broadway, dating from the 14th Century and originally belonging to the Abbots of Evesham. Nearby is the Lygon Arms, which dates back to the year 1377 and was originally a coaching inn called the White Hart.
The town survived the downturn in the wool trade by adapting to the times, which also meant moving the centre of the town northward. Around the end of the 15th century the coaching route over Fish Hill, opened, linking the wealth of London to Worcester and Broadway adapted to meet the influx of coach traffic passing through. Inns and taverns sprang up to accommodate the visiting trade, and Broadway became an important coach stop on that commercial link.
Though the town may not be directly connected to any major battles of the English Civil War, its proximity to Evesham and Worcester and the battles that were fought there has resulted in the White Hart Inn (now the Lygon Arms) having a rather unique claim to fame, as having hosted both Charles I and later Oliver Cromwell prior to him engaging the Royalists at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
Legacy of arts and design
The town’s link to the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement in the mid 19th Century was perhaps accidental and is a result of the town being discovered by William Morris, a textile designer. He in turn introduced other members of the movement to the town. This i
nfluence can still be seen in the Gordon Russell Design Museum. Russell was himself an influential pioneer in furniture design and had a background in the Arts and Crafts Movement.
In the early 20th Century, Broadway was linked to the railway network and was part of the former Great Western Railway’s mainline connection from Birmingham to Cheltenham, through Stratford-upon-Avon. Again, by a strange quirk of fate, that link was once more north of the town. Though mainline services ceased in 1960, Broadway continues to have a railway connection in the form of the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Stream railway, with Broadway Station being the northern terminus station of the line that runs to Cheltenham. Modern travellers though will need to walk about 15 minutes north of Broadway’s High Street and town to find the station.
