page_title: Broadway, Worcestershire
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Broadway, Worcestershire / History
context_page_description: Broadway is a large village and civil parish within the Cotswolds, located in the county of Worcestershire, England. Its population was 2,540 in the 2011 census, a small increase on the 2,496 in the 2001 census. It is situated in the far southeast of Worcestershire and very close to the Gloucestershire border, midway between the towns of Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh.
  It is sometimes 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 on the Green, which is lined with red chestnut trees and honey-coloured Cotswold limestone buildings, many dating from the 16th century. It is known for its association with the Arts and Crafts movement, and is situated in an area of outstanding scenery and conservation. The wide High Street is lined with a wide variety of shops and cafes, many housed in listed buildings. The village also featured in the 2018 video game Forza Horizon 4.
context_section_description: 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 
caption: Reapers Resting in a Wheat Field, painted by American impressionist John Singer Sargent near Broadway in 1885
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