St Eadburgha's Church, Broadway

St Eadburgha's is the old parish church of Broadway, standing on its own beside Snowshill Road about 1.3 km south of the village, at the foot of the hill. It is a cross-shaped church of the late twelfth century and about 1400, with a crossing tower, and it is listed Grade I. The village now worships at St Michael's, built in 1839, but the old church is open daily.

History

St Eadburgha's was Broadway's church for more than six hundred years before the village moved its worship nearer the High Street.

Pershore Abbey's church

Broadway belonged to the abbey of St Mary and St Eadburga at Pershore until the Dissolution in 1539 and 1540, and the abbots held the church too. The dedication is to Eadburh, a granddaughter of Alfred the Great, to whom Pershore Abbey was also dedicated. The Victoria County History dates the church to the later twelfth century, with the south transept added about 1300 and the central tower about 1400; the listing puts most of what is seen at about 1400, with late twelfth-century remains.

Left behind

The church was a long way from the village. In 1608 a chapel was built nearer the houses, on the site of the later church, so that people need not make the journey in bad weather, and in 1839 and 1840 St Michael's on Church Street replaced the old church for regular worship. St Eadburgha's was extensively repaired in 1866; in the 1920s the Victoria County History found it used as a mortuary chapel, with services on summer Sunday afternoons, and today it holds evening services at 6pm from Easter to Harvest.

The Millet lychgates

The American painter F. D. Millet was one of the artists who settled in Broadway in the late nineteenth century, and he died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. In 1932 his son Jack gave £120 to the church for lychgates in his father's memory. They stand at the entrance to the lower cemetery on Snowshill Road, about 180m south of the churchyard.

What to see

Outside, look at the shape: nave and aisles with embattled parapets, two transepts and a crossing tower with an embattled parapet and corner pinnacles, all of limestone under stone slates. The west window of about 1400 has four trefoiled ogee lights, and the chancel keeps a blocked round-headed doorway, probably twelfth century.

Inside, look for:

• the five-bay nave arcades, with round piers, slightly pointed arches and scalloped twelfth-century capitals, and two twelfth-century responds left from the bay the tower now fills;
• the brasses: a palimpsest brass to Anthony Daston, who died in 1572, north of the altar, and inscriptions to John Treavis, who died in 1641, and Cecilia Newport, who died in 1766;
• the stone monument to Walter Savage, who died in 1640, in the chancel, and the marble monument to William Taylor of Middle Hill by S. Chandler in the south transept;
• medieval woodwork with blind tracery worked into the choir benches, the transept screens and the pulpit, and a carved panel of eight ogee arches on the chancel's north wall;
• the turned communion rails and oak alms box of about 1700, and the two fonts.

The tower holds a ring of six bells, two of them cast by Henry Farmer in 1603 and 1609. Several headstones and tomb chests in the churchyard are listed.

Visiting

St Eadburgha's is open daily from 10am to 4pm, and entry is free. Evening services are held at 6pm from Easter until Harvest, the church’s A Church Near You page says. There is no toilet at the church; the nearest public toilets are in the Church Close car park in Broadway. A small permanent ramp leads from the road to the front path, and the Friends of St Eadburgha's keep a portable ramp for the door; tell them in advance (01386 852120) if you are coming in a wheelchair and they will have it ready. The church is quiet in the week; take care on Snowshill Road, which carries traffic.

Getting there

There is no car park at the church. Park in one of Broadway's car parks, such as the High Street and Church Close car park (WR12 7AH), and walk out by the fields. Buses reach Broadway from Cheltenham, Chipping Campden, Stratford-upon-Avon and Evesham.

On foot, Broadway and Broadway Tower, a 4-mile circular walk without stiles, crosses the fields from the High Street to Snowshill Road, passes the church, then climbs Coneygree Lane opposite, named, the walk leaflet says, after the free warren Henry III granted the abbot in 1251, on the way up to the tower.

Nearby

At the top of the walk, Broadway Tower has a café and views over the vale. In the village, the Lygon Arms, Russell's, Broadway Museum and Art Gallery and the Gordon Russell Design Museum are on or off the High Street. Up the road, St Barnabas's at Snowshill is the next church, and St Michael and All Angels at Stanton and the Iron Age fort of Shenberrow Camp lie along the edge to the south.