BROADWAY - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"BROADWAY, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Pershore, in the county of Worcester, 5 miles to the S.E. of Evesham. It is situated in a hilly country on the edge of Gloucestershire, near the West Midland railway. The hills command extensive prospects over the Vale of Evesham and the surrounding country, and are intersected by picturesque winding valleys. Freestone is quarried in the neighbourhood. The living is a vicarage* [the asterisk denotes that there is a parsonage and glebe belonging to the living] in the diocese of Worcester, of the value of £240, in the patronage of trustees.

The old church, dedicated to St. Eadburgh, contains a monument to one of the Sheldon family, but is no longer used. The new church, dedicated to St. Michael, was built twenty years ago. In the village are chapels belonging to the Independents, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics, and a free school for boys, founded in 1686 by Thomas Hodges, and endowed with about £75 per annum. There are some other charities, the annual value of which is about £25 a year. In the vicinity are Farncombe, on the top of Broadway Hill; Middle Hill, the seat of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., who has a very large and valuable collection of MSS., and many thousand documents of great historic and antiquarian interest; and Spring Hill, the property of Earl Beauchamp."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]