Bredon

Bredon is a large village and civil parish in Worcestershire in England. It lies in the extreme south of the county, in the Wychavon Local Authority District, on the banks of the River Avon. Bredon parish includes the hamlets of Bredon's Hardwick, Kinsham and Westmancote. At the 2001 census Bredon parish had a population of 2,513. The parish is now combined with that of Bredon's Norton, formerly a separate parish to the north, which had a population of 207 at the 2001 census.

History

There is evidence of human settlement on nearby Bredon Hill dating back some three thousand years. The village of Bredon (literally meaning 'hill-hill' in the Celtic and Old English languages) grew around the eighth century monastery on the banks of the River Avon.

Unfortunately, Viking raiders sailed up the Avon and sacked the institution. Bredon grew slowly through the years leading up to the 20th century, when a spate of building greatly increased the extent of the village, particularly to the east.

The village now consists of a mixture of medieval, Tudor, Jacobean, Restoration, Queen Anne, Victorian, Edwardian, pre-war and modern domestic buildings.

In 1718, wealthy Bredonian William Hancock founded the Bredon Hancock Primary School. In the 1960s a housing estate of some 600 dwellings was developed on land formerly belonging to Mitton Manor in the extreme south of the parish, but this area was then lost to neighbouring Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. Bredon once had a railway station on the Bristol to Birmingham main rail line, very well sited for the village; the line remains open and high-speed trains regularly thunder through, but the station closed in January 1965 under the Beeching axe. In February 1971 a new section of the M5 motorway was opened, cutting through the parish to the west of the village itself.

Notable Sites

Saint Giles' parish church, situated in the west of Bredon village, dates from the Norman period. The church has two Romanesque arches, including a well-preserved west elevation, several local family commemorative tiles in the choir, and an impressive church spire (very rare in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire) which rises to almost fifty metres high.

The Bredon Barn (often incorrectly referred to as a tithe barn) is also a place of interest. The existing mediaeval structure was almost destroyed by fire in 1980 when a cigarette accidentally ignited a hay bale, but it has since been restored with the aid of the National Trust.

The parish includes several important wildlife sites including part of the "Kemerton Lake Nature Reserve" and sections of the Bredon Hill Special Area of Conservation, which are managed by the Kemerton Conservation Trust.

Location

Bredon is located 3 miles north Of the Gloucestershire town of Tewkesbury. The village is on the B4080 road to Tewkesbury and B4084 to Cheltenham.