Broadway Manor Cottages

Today, 198 years ago, on 7th February 1812, Charles John Huffam Dickens was born. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens was one of the most popular authors of the Victorian era. Dickens first started writing when he became a reporter, writing for London newspapers and magazines.

Dickens went on to write a great number of novels until his death in 1870. The majority of Dickens’s novels were published serially in weekly or monthly instalments by the publishers Chapman & Hall and it was Chapman & Hall that commissioned Frederick Barnard (1846 - 1896) to illustrate 9 volumes of Dickens’s works published between 1871 and 1879. These included David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities.

Frederick or Fred Barnard later moved to Broadway in the 1880s with his wife Alice (nee Faraday) and they became members of the Broadway Colony of artists living in the village at that time. The daughters of Fred and Alice Barnard, Polly and Dorothy, are the two girls depicted in John Singer Sargent’s iconic painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose that was painted in Broadway between 1885 and 1886 and is currently on display in the Tate in London.

The inaugural Broadway Arts Festival, dedicated to John Singer Sargent RA and the Broadway Colony and celebrating Sargent’s painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, is taking place in Broadway from Friday 11th to Sunday 20th June 2010. Sargent (1856 – 1925), the most acclaimed painter of the Edwardian age, painted his world-famous painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose whilst staying at Farnham House and Russell House with Francis Davis Millet in Broadway between 1885 and 1886.

The title of the painting comes from the song The Wreath, by the 18th century composer Joseph Mazzinghi, which was popular in the 1880s. Sargent and his circle (the Broadway Colony) frequently sang around the piano in Broadway. The refrain of the song asks the question ‘Ye shepherds tell me have you seen my Flora pass this way?’ to which the answer is ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’.  Following the exhibition of the painting at the Royal Academy in 1887, it was bought for the Tate Gallery where it is currently on display.

The Broadway Colony of artists, which also included American artists Francis Millet and Edwin Austin Abbey, writer Henry James, actress Mary Anderson, English poet Edmund Gosse, watercolourist and garden designer Alfred Parsons, will all be commemorated in the Festival, along with Sargent’s friend and illustrator Frederick Barnard, whose daughters, Dorothy and Polly are the girls seen in Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose lighting Japanese lanterns with tapers at dusk. The Tate is lending the Festival two sketches of Dorothy and Polly and these can be viewed along with other works of the period in an exhibition at Trinity House, Broadway, during the Festival.

The Festival will also feature plays (including an original play by Hugh Brewster, Canadian author who has studied Sargent, telling the story behind the iconic painting), musical concerts (including music by Joseph Mazzinghi), a flower festival in St Michael and All Angels’ Church, an Open Art Competition for artists based in Gloucestershire, Wawickshire and Worcestershire, an arts and crafts exhibition by the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen in the 12th century St Eadburgha’s Church on the Snowshill Road and many other village based events for all to enjoy culminating in a village celebration on Broadway’s village green outside Farnham House.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (’The Honeybourne Line’) is a fantastic steam railway that currently runs from Toddington (approximately 5 miles from our Cotswold holiday cottages in West End, Broadway) to Cheltenham Racecourse through the picturesque Cotswold countryside.

The route from Toddington to Cheltenham is a 20-mile round trip.  From Toddington the line passes by the National Trust’s Hailes Abbey, through Winchcombe (home of Sudeley Castle), occasionally stopping at Gotherington Halt (on request) and on to the station at Cheltenham Racecourse. Trains pass through some of the most spectacular scenery with fantastic views across the Vale of Evesham towards the Malvern Hills and of Cleeve Hill near Cheltenham, the highest point in the Cotswolds.

Trains operate on certain days of the year and during the summer months and Bank Holidays there is a frequent service. The GWR also runs trains to and from Cheltenham Racecourse on race days (trains run during Cheltenham Gold Cup Festival week in March and the Cheltenham Open in November) and holds many special events during the year. Last year ‘Hogwarts Express’ (no. 5972 “Olton Hall”) from the Harry Potter films was a popular visitor and Thomas the Tank Engine often puts in an appearance.

This year the GWR is celebrating its 175^th anniversary with the Cotswold Festival of Steam from 29th May and 6th June 2010. Many events and themed days are planned and there will be an impressive array of locomotives and displays.

A visit to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway is always a great way to spend time whilst visiting the Cotswolds and the Cotswold Festival of Steam will no doubt appeal to all ages.

For this and other Cotswold events in 2010 click here.