Bredon Hill
Encyclopedia
Bredon Hill is a hill in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, England, south-west of Evesham
Evesham
Evesham is a market town and a civil parish in the Local Authority District of Wychavon in the county of Worcestershire, England with a population of 22,000. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon...

 in the Vale of Evesham. The summit of the hill is in the parish of Kemerton
Kemerton
Kemerton is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire in England. It lies at the extreme south of the county in the local government district of Wychavon. Until boundary changes in 1931, it formed part of neighbouring Gloucestershire, and it remains in the Diocese of Gloucester...

 and it extends over parts of eight other parishes (listed below). The hill is geologically part of the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...

 and lies within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...

, although as the result of erosion over millions of years it now stands isolated in the Vale of Evesham

At the summit, adjacent to Kemerton Camp, is a small stone tower called Parsons Folly (or Kemerton Tower) which stands at GPS coordinates (52.059963, -2.064606). The tower was built in the mid-18th century for John Parsons, MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (1732–1805), squire of Kemerton Court
Kemerton Court
Kemerton Court is the principal manor house of the village of Kemerton, near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire.The manor was granted by King Henry III to Sir Robert de Musgrove in 1240...

 and intended as a summer house, from which a more extensive view of the surrounding countryside could be seen. The 981 feet natural height of the hill may have contributed to the final height of the tower, whose top now reaches 1000 feet. A similar tower on Leith Hill
Leith Hill
Leith Hill to the south west of Dorking, Surrey, England, reaches above sea level, the highest point on the Greensand Ridge, and is the second highest point in south-east England, after Walbury Hill near Hungerford, West Berkshire, high....

 increases the overall height from 965 feet to 1029 feet. The folly became a well-known county landmark, and was believed to have inspired the building of Broadway Tower
Broadway Tower
Broadway Tower is a folly located on Broadway Hill, A44 between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh, one mile south-east of the village of Broadway, Worcestershire, England, at the second highest point of the Cotswolds after Cleeve Hill. Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet above sea level. The tower...

. The current owners, Overbury Estate, lease out the tower as a mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

 base station, and a number of large aerials have been fitted to its exterior.

History

At the summit of the hill are the remains of earthworks from an Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

 known as Kemerton Camp, which is believed to have been abandoned in the 1st century A.D. after a considerable battle.

There are also Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 earthworks and a number of ancient standing stones on the hill. One large stone at the summit is called the Banbury Stone, deriving from 'Baenintesburg', a name for the fort in the 8th century. It is known colloquially as the 'Elephant Stone' because of its resemblance to that animal. Another pair of stones below the summit are known as the King and Queen Stones. Local legend tells that if you pass between them you will be cured of illness.

At Elmley Castle
Elmley Castle
Elmley Castle is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire, in England, United Kingdom. It is located on the north side of Bredon Hill 4 kilometres south east of Pershore in the local government district of Wychavon.- Amenities and history :...

 on the north side of the hill are the remains of a considerable medieval castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

, once the chief stronghold of the powerful Beauchamp family, who became Earls of Warwick. The castle fell into disrepair during the 16th century, and stone from it was used in the construction of the bridge at Pershore
Pershore
Pershore is a market town in Worcestershire, England, on the banks of the River Avon. Pershore is in the Wychavon district and is part of the West Worcestershire parliamentary constituency. At the 2001 census the population was 7,304...

.

A fair and summer games were held every Whitsun
Whitsun
Whitsun is the name used in the UK for the Christian festival of Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples...

 at the summit of Bredon Hill until c.1876.

On 17 October 2011 Worcestershire County Council announced that Worcestershire's largest-ever hoard
Bredon Hill Hoard
The Bredon Hill Hoard is a hoard of 3,784 debased silver Roman coins found by two metal detectorists on farmland at Bredon Hill in Worcestershire, England in June 2011...

 of Roman artefacts, including around 4,000 coins, featuring 16 different emperors, had been uncovered.

Nature and geography

Bredon Hill is one of the most important wildlife sites in England. Part of it has been designated a Special Area of Conservation
Special Area of Conservation
A Special Area of Conservation is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive , also known as the Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora...

 under the European Commission Habitats Directive and a National Nature Reserve
National Nature Reserve
For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...

. The hill contains a range of habitats including limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...

, scrub and ancient woodland
Ancient woodland
Ancient woodland is a term used in the United Kingdom to refer specifically to woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England and Wales . Before those dates, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in 1600 was likely to have developed naturally...

. It is most important as habitat for rare invertebrates, such as the violet click beetle
Violet click beetle
The violet click beetle is a black beetle, 12 mm long, with a faint blue/violet reflection. It gets its name from the family habit of springing upwards with an audible click if it falls on its back....

. Natural England
Natural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...

 and Kemerton Conservation Trust
Kemerton Conservation Trust
Kemerton Conservation Trust is a registered charity which aims "to conserve wildlife and places of beauty in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and adjoining counties for the public benefit." Much of the Trust’s activity takes place in the area surrounding Bredon Hill in south...

 are among those organisations participating in wildlife management on the hill.

Several parts of the hill are managed for wildlife under DEFRA 'Countryside Stewardship' schemes. This includes the area around the summit, which is managed as grassland with open public access.

A large number of public footpaths and bridleways cross the hill from the villages circling its base, and allow for a variety of circular routes to be devised. The Wychavon Way
Wychavon Way
The Wychavon Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom.-The route:The route of the Wychavon Way links Holt Fleet on the Worcestershire stretch of the River Severn and the Cotswolds region passing through the Vale of Evesham and many Worcestershire villages...

 passes over the hill, but does not reach the summit itself, passing close by (necessitating a short easy detour).

The Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

 1:50,000 map has for many years shown the top as 229 metres high. That this is a typographical error is obvious from the contours; the 1:25,000 map shows the spot height as 299 metres.

Literature and the arts

Bredon Hill features in the works of a multitude of composers, poets, writers and artists. This pantheon includes the composers Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

, Sir Arthur Somervell
Arthur Somervell
Sir Arthur Somervell was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s....

, Ivor Gurney
Ivor Gurney
Ivor Bertie Gurney was an English composer and poet.-Life:Born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester in 1890, the second of four children of David Gurney, a tailor, and his wife Florence, a seamstress, Gurney showed musical ability early...

, George Butterworth
George Butterworth
George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E...

, Herbert Howells
Herbert Howells
Herbert Norman Howells CH was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.-Life:...

 and Julius Harrison
Julius Harrison
Julius Allan Greenway Harrison was an English composer who was best known as a conductor of operatic works.-Life and career:...

; the poets A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman , usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900...

, John Masefield
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...

, Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis CBE was an Irish poet and the Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake...

, John Drinkwater and U. A. Fanthorpe
U. A. Fanthorpe
Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, CBE, FRSL was an English poet. She published as UA Fanthorpe.-Early life:She was educated in Surrey and at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received a first-class degree in English language and literature, and subsequently taught English at Cheltenham Ladies' College...

; the authors E. V. Lucas
E. V. Lucas
Edward Verrall Lucas was a versatile and popular English writer. His nearly 100 books demonstrate great facility with style, and are generally acknowledged as humorous by contemporary readers and critics. Some of his essays about the sport cricket are still considered among the best instructional...

, Arthur Quiller-Couch
Arthur Quiller-Couch
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a Cornish writer, who published under the pen name of Q. He is primarily remembered for the monumental Oxford Book Of English Verse 1250–1900 , and for his literary criticism...

, William Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...

, E. Temple Thurston
E. Temple Thurston
Ernest Temple Thurston was an Anglo-Irish poet, playwright and author. He was born in Halesworth, Suffolk, England, and his family moved to Cork when he was aged ten. In 1901 he married the popular novelist, Katherine Cecil Madden, . The marriage did not last and they separated in 1907 and were...

, Francis Brett Young
Francis Brett Young
Francis Brett Young was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and composer.-Life:Brett Young was born in Halesowen, Worcestershire. He schooled first at a private school in Sutton Coldfield...

, John Moore, Fred Archer
Fred Archer (writer)
Fred Archer was an English farmer and author. He was born on Bredon Hill in Worcestershire.Archer's literary career began following a talk he gave to his local Guild, as a replacement speaker. Having written and read out a humorous story, he was encouraged by the response of his audience...

 and Jenny Glanfield; and the artists Peter de Wint
Peter De Wint
Peter De Wint was an English landscape painter.De Wint was the son of an English physician of Dutch extraction who had come to England from New York., he was born in Stone, Staffordshire. He moved to London in 1802, and was apprenticed to John Raphael Smith, the mezzotint engraver and portrait...

, Alfred William Parsons
Alfred Parsons (artist)
Alfred William Parsons was an English artist, illustrator, engraver and garden designer.Alfred Parsons is well-known for his English rural landscape paintings and fine botanical illustrations— he was a keen gardener— which brought him into contact with William Robinson, for whom he provided...

, Benjamin Williams Leader
Benjamin Williams Leader
Benjamin Williams Leader RA was an English landscape painter.-Early years and training:Leader was born in Worcester as Benjamin Leader Williams, the son, and first child of eleven children, of notable civil engineer Edward Leader Williams and Sarah Whiting...

, Frederick Whitehead
Frederick Whitehead
Frederick William Newton Whitehead was an English landscape artist and illustrator. Also known as Fred Whitehead.-Life and work:...

, Josiah Wood Whymper
Josiah Wood Whymper
Josiah Wood Whymper RI was an English wood engraver, illustrator and painter. Born the son of a brewer, he was apprenticed to a stonemason. He soon turned to drawing and painting, settled in London in 1829 and studied under William Collingwood Smith...

, Alfred Egerton Cooper, A. R. Quinton
A. R. Quinton
Alfred Robert Quinton was an English watercolour artist, known for his paintings of British villages and landscapes, many of which were published as postcards. Well over 2,000 of his paintings were published between 1904 and the time of his death. He also illustrated a number of books including...

, Henry Yeend King and Anna Hornby
Anna Hornby
Anna Hornby, N.E.A.C was an English painter, calligrapher and member of the New English Art Club.-Life and work:Anna Hornby was born on the 6th April 1914 and educated at the independent Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire...

.

Bredon Hill is the birthplace of farmer and writer Fred Archer (1915–1999), whose many books describe, in vivid prose, life on the farms and in the villages, particularly during the first part of the 20th century.

The author John Moore
John Moore (author, British)
John Moore was a best-selling British author and pioneer conservationist.He was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire in 1907 and died in Bristol in 1967...

 described life on and around Bredon Hill in the early 20th century in the 'Brensham Trilogy'.

The children's author Ursula Moray Williams
Ursula Moray Williams
Ursula Moray Williams was an English children's author of nearly 70 books for children. Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse, written while expecting her first child, remained in print throughout her life from its publication in 1939.Her classic stories often involved brave creatures who...

 lived on the hill in Beckford from 1945 until her death in 2006

The hill is immortalised in poem 21 of A. E. Housman's 1896 anthology A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad is a cycle of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman . Some of the better-known poems in the book are "To an Athlete Dying Young", "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now" and "When I Was One-and-Twenty".The collection was published in 1896...

.
In summertime on Bredon
The bells they sound so clear;
Round both the shires they ring them
In steeples far and near,
A happy noise to hear.

Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.

The bells would ring to call her
In valleys miles away;
"Come all to church, good people;
Good people come and pray."
But here my love would stay.

And I would turn and answer
Among the springing thyme,
"Oh, peal upon our wedding,
And we will hear the chime,
And come to church in time."

But when the snows at Christmas
On Bredon top were strown,
My love rose up so early
And stole out unbeknown
And went to church alone.

They tolled the one bell only,
Groom there was none to see,
The mourners followed after,
And so to church went she,
And would not wait for me.

The bells they sound on Bredon,
And still the steeples hum,
"Come all to church, good people."
O noisy bells, be dumb;
I hear you, I will come.

Incidental information

When Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester...

 was damaged in the English civil war
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, it was repaired with stone brought from Bredon
Bredon
Bredon is a large village and civil parish in Wychavon District at the southern edge of Worcestershire in England. It lies on the banks of the River Avon on the lower slopes of Bredon Hill, at “the beginning of the Cotswolds”...

.

The name "Bredon Hill" is unusual in that it combines the name for "hill
Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...

" in three different languages (compare Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill is located in the north-east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Clitheroe and Padiham, an area known as Pendleside. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill, separated from the Pennines to the...

). The word "bre" is of Celtic
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

 origin, and "don" is an Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 usage.

A well-known local saying, which predicts bad weather, goes: "When Bredon Hill has on his hat, men of the vale beware of that".

Villages

The hill is made up from land belonging to 9 parishes. Working clockwise from the summit these are:
  • Kemerton
    Kemerton
    Kemerton is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire in England. It lies at the extreme south of the county in the local government district of Wychavon. Until boundary changes in 1931, it formed part of neighbouring Gloucestershire, and it remains in the Diocese of Gloucester...

  • Bredon & Bredon's Norton
    Bredon
    Bredon is a large village and civil parish in Wychavon District at the southern edge of Worcestershire in England. It lies on the banks of the River Avon on the lower slopes of Bredon Hill, at “the beginning of the Cotswolds”...

  • Eckington
    Eckington, Worcestershire
    Eckington is a small village near to the southern border of the English county of Worcestershire, according to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,202....

  • Great Comberton
    Great Comberton
    Great Comberton is a village in Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom.-Location:Great Comberton village is located 3 kilometres or two-and-a-half miles south of Pershore, below the steep northern slopes of Bredon Hill, a thousand feet high....

  • Little Comberton
    Little Comberton
    Little Comberton is a small village in Worcestershire, England. It is located to the southeast of Pershore.Little Comberton has a village website: www.little-comberton.com....

  • Elmley Castle, Bricklehampton & Netherton
    Elmley Castle
    Elmley Castle is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire, in England, United Kingdom. It is located on the north side of Bredon Hill 4 kilometres south east of Pershore in the local government district of Wychavon.- Amenities and history :...

  • Ashton under Hill
    Ashton under Hill
    Ashton under Hill is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire in England. It is situated at the foot of Bredon Hill. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 743, about five miles south-west of Evesham....

  • Beckford
    Beckford, Worcestershire
    Beckford is a small village on the main Cheltenham to Evesham Road, five miles north-east of Tewkesbury, on the Worcestershire - Gloucestershire border, England....

  • Overbury & Conderton
    Overbury
    Overbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Worcestershire.It is located midway between the towns of Evesham and Tewkesbury to the south of Bredon Hill....


Contemporary arts and crafts

There is a lively local arts scene around the hill such as the Bredon Hill Open Studios group of artists, designers and craftspeople who open up their studios to the public. This group includes the artist Samantha Dadd, Conderton Pottery, Beckford Silk-printing workshop and Bredon Pottery. Contemporary artists painting the local area include Nick Holdsworth and Tony Whitehouse.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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