Broadway VillageBroadway is what most people would describe as "the quintessential Cotswold village". Although it's right at the edge of the Cotswold region, its fine collection of honey-coloured buildings and "olde worlde" charms make it one of the best known places around. It has regularly been called "the jewel of the Cotswolds", and it's easy to see why.
The village is located beneath Fish Hill on the western Cotswold escarpment, a few miles south of Evesham, and roughly halfway between Cheltenham to the west and Stratford-on-Avon to the east. If you prefer more major reference points, we're about 100 miles/160 km to the north-west of London. You can find a map and directions here. HistoryThere has certainly been a collection of settlements where Broadway stands since at least Saxon times and perhaps earlier, but the village proper didn't develop until later - exactly when is debateable, but it was certainly a thriving village by the eleventh century. While there are some Roman remains, the oldest surviving buildings in the village dates from the 1300s with the bulk of the "character" buildings appearing from the mid-1600s onwards. The name "Broadway" is debateable as well: some believe it's linked to the village's distinctively wide high street, some link the name to the broad sweep of the landscape hereabouts. Whatever it's been called over the centuries, though - Bradanuuge, Bradweia, Bradeweye, Bradway - it's clear that the roots of the village are well over 1,000 years old.
The village was once an important stop on the Worcester to London coaching route - two or three day's ride. From the late 16th century, Broadway became a critical stop for changing horses before the 1000-foot/300m ride up Fish Hill. With the advent of the railway, though, Broadway's role as a rest stop for travellers came to an end and it nearly fell back into obscurity. Only 20 or 30 years later, though, Broadway came back to prominence when it was "rediscovered" by a growing band of fashionable artists. Over the years it became home to such composers, artists and writers as Elgar, John Singer Sargent, J.M. Barrie, Vaughan Williams and William Morris. Indeed, Broadway played a central part in the latter's Arts and Crafts movement, an association that has kept it in the public eye until today.
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