Broadway, Worcestershire
Broadway is a small
Cotswold village in
Worcestershire,
England.Often referred to as the 'Jewel of the Cotswolds', Broadway village lies beneath Fish Hill on the western Cotswold
escarpment. The 'broad way' is the wide grass-fringed main street, centred around The Green, which is lined with red
chestnut trees and honey-coloured
Cotswold limestone buildings, many dating from the
16th century.
Originally a busy
stagecoach stop on the route from
Worcester to
London, Broadway became home to artists and writers including
Elgar,
John Singer Sargent,
J.M. Barrie,
Vaughan Williams,
William Morris and
Mary Anderson. Broadway is thought to have been the model for
Riseholme, the home of
Lucia in the novels of
E F Benson, before she moved to
Tilling (Rye) in Sussex.
Today, Broadway is a centre for arts and
antiques and serves as a natural base from which to explore the
Cotswolds or see the
horse-racing during the busy
Cheltenham Gold Cup week.
Tourism is important — the village is well-served with hotels, including the Lygon Arms,
bed and breakfast lodges, old
pubs including the Swan Pub, shops,
art galleries, antique shops,
restaurants and
tea rooms.
Local attractions include the 55 foot high
Broadway Tower on its hilltop site in the Broadway Country Park,
Chipping Campden,
Snowshill village,
Snowshill Manor (owned by the
National Trust),
horse riding and, for the many
ramblers, the
Cotswold Way.
Broadway was once served by a railway line, a relative latecomer in British railway history, opened in the early 1900s by the
Great Western Railway and running from
Stratford-upon-Avon to
Cheltenham, part of a main line from Birmingham to the South West and South Wales. Broadway station along with almost all others on this section closed in 1960; through passenger services continued until 1968, and freight continued until 1976 when a derailment at Broadway damaged the line. It was decided not to bring the section back into use and by the early 1980s it had been dismantled. The stretch between
Toddington and
Cheltenham Racecourse has since been reconstructed and reopened as a
heritage railway called the
Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. The line is now being extended northwards so that Broadway will become its northern terminus, though at present nothing remains of the original Broadway station.
Thus, although Broadway has a station site and a Station Road, it is no longer served by national rail services. The nearest stations are
Evesham and
Moreton-in-Marsh, on the main line train service running between
Hereford and
London Paddington station and on the
Cotswold Line between
Oxford and
Worcester.
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Broadway village web site*
Broadway in Old Postcards
