St Eadburgha’s Church, Broadway and Francis Davis Millet (1846-1912)
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.