The church of St Eadburgha in Broadway, Worcestershire, England, UK
St Eadburgha's is a 12th century church, situated down a country lane far from the centre of the popular Cotswold village it serves. The original village stood on a trail used by travellers coming down off the Cotswold escarpment, and when a new trail was made, the village developed a new centre, leaving St Edwaburgh's church stranded at the foot of Snowshill. Eadburgha was the grand-daughter of Alfred the Great. As a child, she was offered a choice between jewels and a Bible as a gift, and famously chose the Bible. She devoted her life to spiritual pursuits, and sainthood ensued, helped no doubt by her family connections. In 1840 a new church dedicated to St Michael and All Angels was built closer to the centre of Broadway (but still on Snowshill Road). St Eadburgha's became a chapel of ease, but it is still used for services in summer. There was a church here as early as the Saxon period, but no trace of that early building remains, and the oldest part of the current church is from the 12th century. The nave arcades are supported on beautiful Norman columns with large diameter bases and simple scalloped capitals. The nave roof is lovely old timber, with a frieze along the wall-plate with small, carved faces mixed with foliage designs. Against the west wall of the south aisle is one of the newest monuments in the church, the Millenium Stone, inserted in 1972 to celebrate 1000 years of Broadway history. Over the chancel arch is a royal coat of arms to Charles I, dated 1641. This is a very unusual survivor of the Civil War period; most Charles I arms were destroyed in Cromwell's Commonwealth. Set between arches on the south side of the nave is a simple Norman tub font, raised on a plinth decorated with medieval glazed tiles. In the south transept is a small piscina, lined with more medieval tiles, suggesting that there was once a chapel here. (Source )
Size: 5760px × 3840px
Location: St Eadburgha, Broadway, Worcestershire, England, UK
Photo credit: © Philip Jones / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: alfred, broadway, christian, christianity, church, eadburgha, england, europe, external, gravestones, great, horizontal, land, religious, spring, st, uk, worcestershire
