A place in the world
Broadway
Broadway is the jewel of the northern Cotswolds, a broad chestnut-lined street of honey-coloured houses just over the Worcestershire line, with Broadway Tower on the hill above. Here is what is worth doing in Broadway, when to come, and the quieter lanes the photographs leave out.
At a glance
- Where
- Broadway, Worcestershire, in the northern Cotswolds near the Gloucestershire line. Nearest town Evesham, about seven miles north west.
- Best time to visit
- Weekdays and the shoulder seasons. The broad High Street is a popular stop and fills on summer weekends.
- How long to spend
- Half a day for the village; a full day with Broadway Tower and a museum or Snowshill Manor.
- Parking
- Three pay-and-display car parks run by the district council, on the High Street and at Milestone Ground and Shear House, with the longer stays at the latter two.
- Getting there
- No mainline station in the village. Nearest are Evesham, Honeybourne and Moreton-in-Marsh on the Cotswold Line from London Paddington, then bus or taxi. The steam railway that calls at Broadway is a heritage line, not regular transport. By car, on the A44.
- Dog friendly
- Yes. The High Street, Broadway Tower's grounds and the Cotswold Way over the hill all take dogs on leads.
- Family friendly
- Yes. The tower, the steam railway and Snowshill nearby give a day plenty to do.
Things to do in Broadway
Broadway Tower
The folly on the hill above the village, designed by James Wyatt and finished in 1798 for the Countess of Coventry, who wanted to know whether a beacon on the ridge could be seen from her house twenty miles off. It could. The tower stands on the second-highest point in the Cotswolds, the view is said to reach a dozen counties on a clear day, and William Morris took it as a country retreat, which puts it near the heart of the Arts and Crafts story.
The Broadway Tower nuclear bunker
A few yards from the tower, under the grass, is a Cold War monitoring post of the Royal Observer Corps, manned from 1961 until 1991 and now restored to the way it was left. It is a sober counterweight to the Georgian folly above it, and you can go down into it.
The High Street
The broad way itself, the street that names the place, lined with red chestnut trees and honey-coloured houses, many of them sixteenth century. In the Victorian years it drew an artists' colony, and John Singer Sargent painted here. It is one of the handsomest streets in the Cotswolds and made for a slow walk.
The Gordon Russell Design Museum
In a former furniture workshop off the High Street, a museum to the twentieth-century designer Sir Gordon Russell, who made modern furniture in the town. It opened in 2008 and is the thoughtful, uncrowded stop on a busy street.
The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway
Broadway's station is the northern end of a fourteen-mile heritage steam line that runs down to Cheltenham Racecourse by way of Winchcombe and Toddington. The original station closed in 1960; volunteers rebuilt it and reopened it in 2018. It is a day out, not a way to arrive.
Visiting Broadway: parking, getting there, when to go
Broadway lies on the A44 in the far north of the Cotswolds, just over the Worcestershire border, strung along its one broad street. The village is walkable; the tower is a steep mile up the hill, reached by car, on foot by the Cotswold Way, or by a shuttle in season.
Parking is in three pay-and-display car parks run by the district council: one on the High Street for shorter stays, and the larger Milestone Ground and Shear House car parks for the day. They are well signed off the main road.
Broadway has no mainline station. The nearest are Evesham, Honeybourne and Moreton-in-Marsh, all on the Cotswold Line between London Paddington and Worcester, with a bus or taxi on from there. The steam trains that call at Broadway belong to the heritage railway and run for pleasure, not as a service, so do not plan to arrive on one.
The village is busiest on summer weekends. A weekday, or the shoulder months, gives you the street and the tower without the queue for the car park.
Where to eat, drink & stay
The Lygon Arms has been an inn on the High Street since the sixteenth century, grand and timbered, where both Charles I and Cromwell are said to have stayed at opposite ends of the Civil War. It is the hotel and the landmark in one.
The Crown & Trumpet, just off the green in a seventeenth-century building, is the pub the locals use, plainer and warmer and better for an ordinary pint.
Russell's, on the High Street, is the restaurant with rooms that carries the Gordon Russell name, the place for a proper dinner rather than a bar meal.
Broadway questions, answered
- What is Broadway famous for?
- Its broad, chestnut-lined High Street of honey-coloured stone, which gives the village both its name and its title as the jewel of the Cotswolds, and for Broadway Tower on the hill above it.
- What is Broadway Tower?
- A Georgian folly on the second-highest point in the Cotswolds, designed by James Wyatt and finished in 1798 for the Countess of Coventry. William Morris used it as a retreat, the view is said to reach a dozen counties, and a restored Cold War nuclear bunker sits in the grass beside it.
- Can you get to Broadway by train?
- Not directly on the national network; Broadway has no mainline station. The nearest are Evesham, Honeybourne and Moreton-in-Marsh on the Cotswold Line, then a bus or taxi. The steam trains that call at Broadway are a heritage line and not scheduled transport.
- Is Broadway worth visiting?
- Yes. The High Street is one of the finest in the Cotswolds, the tower gives the best long view in the range, and Snowshill and the steam railway are close by, so there is more than a single street to fill the day.
For all the visitors, the lanes off the high street climb quickly into quiet, and the houses behind the trees are not the ones in the photographs.
The jewel is on the surface. The setting is where people actually live.
The story moves through this world. Begin Chapter One →