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Broadway is a large village and civil parish in the Worcestershire part of the Cotswolds in England. Its population was 2,540 in the 2011 census, a small increase on the 2,496 in the 2001 census. It is situated in the far southeast of Worcestershire and very close to the Gloucestershire border, midway between the towns of Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh.〔(Broadway Parish Council ) Retrieved 24 May 2015〕 Often referred to as the "Jewel of the Cotswolds", Broadway village lies beneath Fish Hill on the western Cotswold escarpment. The "broad way" is the wide grass-fringed main street, centred on the Green, which is lined with red chestnut trees and honey-coloured Cotswold limestone buildings, many dating from the 16th century. It is known for its association with the Arts and Crafts movement, and is situated in an area of outstanding scenery and conservation. The wide High Street is lined with a wide variety of shops and cafes, many housed in listed buildings. ==History== Broadway is an ancient settlement whose origins are uncertain. In 2004, the Council for British Archaeology's Worcestershire Young Archaeologists' Club found evidence of early occupation. Their fieldwork uncovered a large amount of Roman and medieval domestic waste and, most importantly, a large amount of worked Mesolithic flints, raising the possibility that the site might have been a stopping point for hunter-gatherers. This work makes the known history of the village to be over 5,000 years and so may be evidence of one of the first partially settled sites in the United Kingdom. Broadway has also seen the settlement of the ancient Beaker people (1900 BCE), and later, the Roman occupation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://history-tourist.com/hereford-worcester/broadway/ )〕 Broadway was a domain of the Mercian kings and was vested in the Crown in the person of King Edgar in 967. The first existing documentary evidence of importance is embodied in a charter that King Edgar granted to the Benedictine Monastery of Pershore in 972. In this Anglo-Saxon text, Broadway is called ''Bradanwege'' and its boundaries are described in great detail. The complete copy of the charter may be seen in the British Museum (Facsimile Volume III 30). By the 11th century the village was already well-established and apparently thriving. It is listed in the Domesday Book in Great Domesday folio 175 for Worcestershire as part of the land holdings of the Church of St Mary of Pershore: "The church itself holds ''Bradeweia''. There are 30 hides paying geld. In demesne are 3 ploughs; and a priest and 42 villeins with 20 ploughs. There are 8 slaves. The whole in the time of Edward was worth £12 10s 0d; now £14 10s 0d." It continued to prosper, becoming a borough by the 13th century. For Broadway this marked a considerable departure from the entirely peasant community that had existed in former times, though the following two centuries saw it decline in the wake of the Black Death. Its fortunes were revived during the late 16th century after the Dissolution of the Monasteries relieved Pershore Abbey of ownership in 1539. There followed three centuries of almost unbroken growth, during which the population increased to about five times its Elizabethan level. As in other Cotswold towns, wealth was based on the wool and cloth trade.〔Broadway: A Village History, Derek Parsons, The Cornmill Press, Pershore, 1996.〕 By this time the village had become a busy stagecoach stop on the route from Worcester to London. The road between Evesham and the summit of Fish Hill became a toll-road as a result of legislation dated 1728. Tolls were collected at Turnpike House, which can be found (now renamed Pike Cottage) in the Upper High Street. However, the introduction of the railways in Britain in the mid-19th century reduced the passing trade on which Broadway relied. Broadway became home to artists and writers, including Elgar, John Singer Sargent, J. M. Barrie, Vaughan Williams, William Morris and Mary Anderson. Broadway is thought (by Sir Steven Runciman (1903–2000), a Cambridge historian who knew Benson well) to have been the model for a fictional Elizabethan village in the Cotswolds, Riseholme, the home of Lucia in the novels of E. F. Benson, before she moved to Tilling (based on Rye in East Sussex). The arrival of the motor-car at the turn of the 20th century, and the advent of popular tourism, restored Broadway's vitality, placing it now among the most frequently visited of all Cotswold villages. In 1934 J.B. Priestley published his book English Journey, a travelogue in which he re-visits areas of the Cotswolds, including Broadway. He described the Cotswolds as "the most English and the least spoiled of all our countrysides. The truth is that it has no colour that can be described. Even when the sun is obscured and the light is cold, these walls are still faintly warm and luminous, as if they knew the trick of keeping the lost sunlight of centuries glimmering about them."〔Marr, Andrew (2008). A History of Modern Britain. Macmillan. p. xxii. ISBN 978-0-330-43983-1.〕 Broadway takes its name from the wide main street. In the beginning Broadway had two small brooks that ran through the village; people built on either side of the brooks, and a road formed down the middle. In the winter the mud from the road was piled up, and in the summer grass grew on the piles; these verges still remain today. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Broadway, Worcestershire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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