Broadway Manor Cottages

The following article appeared in Vogue, 1st October 1915:  Beautiful Broadway - in Worcestershire

‘In Tudor Days a Road of Inns - Now the Setting of a Cosmopolitan Colony of Artists and Musicians. Fringed by the purple Cotswold Hills in the country known to all Americans who motor to Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick, lies Broadway in Worcestershire, noted for its beautiful old Tudor Street, its gardens, and its colony of artists. Situated one hundred miles from London, Broadway has been famous since Charles II’s time, when it was the only “changes horses” point for all coaches between Worcester and Town. The village consists of one long generous street, bordered with typical seventeenth century houses and cottages, back of which are walled gardens filled with forgotten Elizabethan flowers and box and yew. Among the Americans attracted to this out-of-the-world corner is …Mrs. Frank Millet, whose husband, the delightful artist and man of rare social charm, was lost on the “Titanic” … she has long made her home at Broadway, in the lovely old “Swann Inn” - a famed coaching inn in the time of Charles II, now known as “Russell House.” Mr. and Mrs. Millet were among the charter members of the artist colony at Broadway.

The little Tudor village has fame of later date, for it is rich in Pre-Raphaelite associations. Rosetti, Burne-Jones, Walter Pater, and William Morris used to gather here and discuss ideals in a Norman tower on the Cotswold Hills, plainly visible from the village. Among the Royal Academicians who have felt the charm of this picturesque English village have been Alma- Tadena, John Sargent… Musicians and writers, too, add their salt to the Broadway community; among them Sir Edward Elgar, Sir James Barrie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle…

The historic interest of the old “Swan Inn” attaches itself to Mrs. Millet’s residence “Russell House.” In no place in England perhaps has the spirit of a byegone day been retained with so clever and artistic a development modern comfort and luxury.’

Prior to living in Russell House, Francis Millet, his family and the colony of artists, lived at Farnham House on The Green in Broadway which they had leased for a year prior to moving to Russell House in 1886.

For more information about our Cotswold holiday cottages in the beautiful village of Broadway visit www.broadwaymanor.co.uk.
 

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.