Broadway Manor Cottages

St Eadburgha’s Church (a Grade 1 listed building) is located on the Snowshill Road, Broadway, about 3/4 mile south of the centre of the village opposite Coneygree Lane (see yesterday’s blog) a lovely 5 minute walk from our Cotswold cottages at West End.

The present church of St Eadburgha’s dates back to the late 12th century and at this time of year the churchyard is covered with snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), recently blanketed by inches of snow.  The church has several later additions and was subject to extensive repairs in 1866 and more recent repairs following the July 2007 floods when the church was severely flooded, mostly by runoff from the Cotswold escarpment flowing down Coneygree Lane, across the Snowshill Road and into the church.

In the churchyard there is a wonderful lychgate built as a memorial to the American, Francis Davis Millet.  Francis Millet (Civil War soldier, painter, mural decorator, sculptor and writer) was born in Massachusetts on 3rd November 1846.  He spent many years of his life painting and living in Broadway with his wife and family at Farnham House and Russell House. 

Francis Millet died when RMS Titanic sank on 15th April 1912 on his way to New York from Southampton.  His paintings can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Detroit Insitute of Art and the Tate Gallery, London.  Millet was the first director of the American Academy in Rome and his painting ‘Between Two Fires’ painted c1892, which hangs in the Tate, was probably painted in the refectory of the 14th century Abbot’s Grange, Broadway, which he used as his studio.  Millet restored Abbot’s Grange from its monastic ruins and it became part of the artists’ colony in Broadway he helped create.  Did he also paint ‘A Cosey Corner’ in 1884 and other works in Abbot’s Grange?  Millet was acquainted with the impressionist painter John Singer Sargent and his ink drawing of ‘Mr Sargent at work on Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’ in a garden in Broadway c1885-86 is owned by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.  Sargent’s painting ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’ hangs in the Tate Gallery in London.

What a fantastic weekend for sledging on the Cotswold hills.  The snow has lasted and it looks like more will fall in the next couple of days.  The snow is so deep on the hills around us that neighbours had to use a quad bike to get out and about on Saturday afternoon.     

The walk up to Broadway Tower (located at the second highest point on the Cotswold escarpment at 1024 ft/312m above sea level) via Coneygree Lane (the old main road to London opposite St Eadburgha’s Church on the Snowshill Road) in the snow and ice was worth the fabulous view from the top down across Broadway covered in its white blanket of snow towards the Vale of Evesham where there were huge patches of green where the snow had already melted.

Walking back down Coneygree Lane I wondered where the name had come from.  Did it have anything to do with rabbits?  A little research later - it seems that it does.  A ‘coneygree’ was a Medieval domestic rabbit warren (to house rabbits farmed for their fur and for the table) usually found close to a manor or monastery.  The coneygree, looked after by warreners, was built in a mound in a ‘pillow’ or ‘cigar’ shape with a flat top often surrounded by a moat (as rabbits will not cross water and therefore escape).  Some examples still exist in England and next time I walk up Coneygree Lane I will keep an eye open to see whether there are any signs of them in Broadway.

As forecast it snowed heavily in Broadway today.  Large snowflakes fell for most of the day and by the end of the afternoon several inches covered the village and the grounds of The Manor House in a thick white blanket. 

Early in the morning, we refilled the bird feeders here at Broadway Manor Cottages and within minutes we had Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits visiting the peanut and seed feeders whilst the Robins and Blackbirds darted around in the deep snow beneath waiting for the scraps to fall.  We also had a fleeting visit at the peanut feeder from a Greater Spotted Woodpecker until a pair of Crows turned up looking for scraps. A solitary Magpie also spent ages making a large hole in the snow with its wings to get at the grass beneath - presumably to peck at the worms and other insects in the soil.

Tonight as temperatures are falling and with more snow forecast tomorrow we are steadily working our way through the log pile.