Honeybourne is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) east 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 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

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Much of the parish is farmland. RAF Honeybourne

RAF Honeybourne

RAF Honeybourne was a World War II Royal Air Force airfield near Honeybourne in Worcestershire, England.The base was operational from 1941 to 1946 and was home to the No.24 Operations Training Unit. In July 1948 the site was closed and much has reverted to farmland. The runways were lifted in...

 just south of the village was operational from 1940 until 1947.

History

Honeybourne was two villages: Church Honeybourne and Cow Honeybourne. Honeybourne has several historic timber framed and thatched buildings. The Thatched Tavern in Cow Honeybourne has a cruck

Cruck

A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which supports the roof of a building, used particularly in England. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally bent, timber beams that lean inwards and form the ridge of the roof. These posts are then generally secured by a...

 truss.

Parish churches

In Church Honeybourne the Church of England parish church

Church of England parish church

A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...

 of Saint Ecgwin was consecrated in 1295. Its antiquity is reflected in a local rhyme "when Evesham was bush and thorn there was a church at Honeybourne". Its nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 and chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 appear to be original late 13th century structures. There was a south aisle, but it was demolished and its windows re-set in the south wall of the nave. The bell tower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

 has a Decorated Gothic spire

Spire

A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....

 with three tiers of lucarne

Lucarne

A lucarne is a small dormer window that is built on a spire or roof during the Gothic and Romanesque time period....

s. The south porch is a late mediaeval Perpendicular Gothic addition.

In Cow Honeybourne the parish church has a 15th century Perpendicular Gothic west tower and formerly had an ornate Elizabethan

Elizabethan architecture

Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...

 pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

. The church was used as almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...

s from the 16th to the 19th century. Apart from the tower, the church was rebuilt in 1861-63 to designs by the Worcester Diocesan Architect W.J. Hopkins

William Hopkins (architect)

-Career:One of Hopkins' earliest works, the Public Hall in Worcester , was Italianate. Most of his work thereafter was of the Gothic Revival. For many years he was the Worcester Diocesan Architect, and as such he mostly built or rebuilt Church of England parish churches in...

. The church has since been made redundant

Redundant church

A redundant church is a church building that is no longer required for regular public worship. The phrase is particularly used to refer to former Anglican buildings in the United Kingdom, but may refer to any disused church building around the world...

, deconsecrated and converted to private houses.

Amenities

Honeybourne has two public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

s: the Gate Inn and the 13th century Thatched Tavern. Other amenities include the Domestic Fowl Trust, which is a conservation centre and supplier of rare breed poultry

Poultry

Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...

, The Ranch, and Honeybourne Pottery.

Education

Honeybourne First School

Honeybourne First School

Honeybourne First School is a Community Co-educational School, in Evesham, Worcestershire, England. The school currently has around 117 pupils aged 4–10 years.-Building:...

 teaches children between the ages of four and 10. Honeybees Nursery takes children between the ages of two and four.

Railways

First Great Western

First Great Western

First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....

 serves Honeybourne railway station

Honeybourne railway station

Honeybourne railway station serves the village of Honeybourne in Worcestershire, England. It is on the Cotswold Line and was formerly a junction with four platforms.-History:...

 on the Cotswold Line

Cotswold Line

The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England.-Route:The line comprises all or part of the following Network Rail routes:*GW 200 from Oxford*GW 310 from Wolvercot Junction*GW 300 from Norton Junction*GW 340 from Worcester Shrub Hill...

 with direct train services to , and .

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway

Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway was a company authorised on 4 August 1845 to construct a railway line from the Oxford and Rugby Railway at Wolvercot Junction to Worcester, Stourbridge, Dudley, and Wolverhampton, with a branch to the Grand Junction Railway at Bushbury...

 was built through the parish in the 1840's and opened Honeybourne station. The Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 took over the OW&W in 1862 and enlarged Honeybourne station in the 1900's when it built the railway between and Cheltenham Spa

Cheltenham Spa Malvern Road railway station

-History:The station was opened by the Great Western Railway on 30 March 1908, as Cheltenham Malvern Road. It was provided so that trains along the line to would not have to start and terminate at , which involved a reversal. The station took its name from the road to the north from which a long...

.

British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

ways closed the line between Stratford and Cheltenham, reduced the OW&W line to single track and reduced Honeybourne station to one platform. BR later rebranded this part of the former OW&W Railway as the Cotswold Line.

Network Rail

Network Rail

Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

is currently restoring parts of the Cotswold Line to double track and has now enlarged Honeybourne to two platforms with a rather large, wheelchair accessible bridge.