Broadway, Worcestershire

Description
Broadway, a village and a parish in Worcestershire. The village stands 4 1/2 miles W of Chipping Campden station on the G.W.R., and 6 SE by S of Evesham, and has a head post office. It consists of a street nearly a mile long and very wide, and contains many picturesque stone houses of the 16th and 17th centuries, with mullioned windows and gables. The old manor house of the Abbots of Pershore, dating from the 15th century, still exists, and has been repaired. An ancient inn, now the Lygon-Arms, received several visits from Charles I. during the Civil War. The parish comprises 4990 acres; population, 1536. The Broadway Hills were the quarters of the Royalists after the battle of Evesham, and command a fine view. Middle Hill and Spring Hill are the chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £350 with residence. The old parish church, a cruciform building of the 12th century, situated in a romantic valley about a mile south of the village, having been put in substantial repair, is now used as a mortuary chapel and for afternoon services during summer. It contains a very ancient font, an elaborately carved oak pulpit, and a curious old Puritan pulpit, with black-letter text round it— " Where the Word of God is not preached the people perish;" several ancient brasses, and fragments of rare old stained glass in the windows. The present parish church was erected in 1839. There are also Roman Catholic, Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.