The Cotswold Guide
A view of Broadway
North Cotswolds · Worcestershire

Broadway

The show village of England

The Broadway Hotel from across the village green
The 'High Street' sign in the foreground, with Broadway's wide green and the village beyond
A Cotswold-stone inn on Broadway's high street with topiary balls flanking a stone-pillared gate

About Broadway

Broadway is named for its unusually wide, lime-tree-lined high street — a Saxon road broad enough for the wagon trains that once climbed Fish Hill towards Worcester. In the late 19th century it became the country retreat of John Singer Sargent, William Morris and the Arts and Crafts circle.

On the hill behind the village stands Broadway Tower, a Capability Brown folly with views into 16 counties on a clear day.

The Cotswold Guide view

Broadway is a wonderful village, with independent shops and cafes, a beautiful main street, several nice pubs, a large children's playground and several big car parks. Can you tell we like it?!? Why not take the GWSR steam train from Cheltenham and make a day of it? What better way to arrive in such a beautiful place!

The Cotswold Guide Top Tips

  • Broadway has three main car parks to choose from — all charge similar prices: Broadway High Street, Milestone Ground and Shear House.
  • The 14-mile Wardens' Way to Winchcombe starts in Broadway — the first three miles to Snowshill are arguably the loveliest stretch.

Attractions in Broadway

  1. 1

    Viewpoint

    Broadway Tower

    A 65-foot folly on the second-highest point of the Cotswolds, built in 1798 and once a bolthole for William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites.

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  2. 2

    Museum

    Ashmolean Museum Broadway

    The only branch of the Ashmolean outside Oxford — small, free and filled with works by Sargent and the Broadway colonists.

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  3. 3

    Museum

    Gordon Russell Design Museum

    Honours the Broadway-based furniture designer who shaped 20th-century British interiors.

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  4. 4

    Experience

    GWSR Steam Railway

    A 14-mile heritage steam line along the western Cotswold escarpment, with its headquarters at Toddington and stations at Cheltenham Racecourse, Gotherington, Winchcombe, Toddington, Hayles Abbey Halt and Broadway.

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Where to eat & drink

  • Russell's

    Restaurant with rooms in the old Gordon Russell showroom; modern British, excellent value lunch.

  • The Lygon Arms

    Historic coaching inn (Cromwell slept here); afternoon tea in the courtyard is a treat.

  • Broadway Deli

    Famous picnic stop — fill a hamper for the climb up to the tower.

  • Tisanes Tea Rooms

    Proper English tea room, dozens of loose-leaf teas and ginger cake to remember.

Getting there

  • By car

    2h10 from London via M40 / A44; ample parking in three main car parks at either end of the High Street.

  • By train

    Moreton-in-Marsh (10 miles); bus 606 connects, or take the steam-hauled GWSR from Cheltenham to nearby Broadway station.

Best time to visit

Spring is best for bluebells around the tower; midsummer for long evenings on the green. The village swells in August — go midweek, or sleep over and enjoy it after the day-trippers leave.

Find accommodation near Broadway

Hotels, B&Bs and self-catering cottages within easy reach of Broadway — browse availability for your dates on Booking.com.

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Attractions near Broadway

Within 10 miles, ordered by distance.

  1. 1

    Country house · 1.1 mi · Snowshill

    Snowshill Manor

    The Cotswold home of the eccentric architect-collector Charles Paget Wade, crammed with twenty thousand objects from samurai armour to clavichords.

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  2. 2

    Scenic · 1.3 mi · Snowshill

    Cotswold Lavender

    Fifty-three acres of lavender on a high Cotswold hillside above Snowshill — the largest lavender planting in the United Kingdom and a sea of purple from late June.

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  3. 3

    Country house · 3.6 mi · Stanway

    Stanway House & Fountain

    A Jacobean manor of golden Cotswold stone, fronted by Britain's tallest gravity fountain — a 300-foot column of water powered entirely by the hill above.

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  4. 4

    Historic · 4.1 mi · Chipping Campden

    Market Hall

    Open arches, stone-flagged floor — a National Trust treasure standing in the middle of the high street since 1627.

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  5. 5

    Church · 4.1 mi · Chipping Campden

    St James's Church

    Tall and luminous, built on wool money. The 15th-century brasses are among the finest in the country.

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Gallery

  • The Broadway Hotel from across the village green
  • The 'High Street' sign in the foreground, with Broadway's wide green and the village beyond
  • A Cotswold-stone inn on Broadway's high street with topiary balls flanking a stone-pillared gate
  • A row of honey-stone gabled cottages along Broadway's high street under a clear blue sky
  • A Cotswold-stone house in Broadway with Virginia creeper and a row of conical topiary along the front garden
  • A row of Broadway shops shaded by lime trees on the high street
  • An imposing three-storey Cotswold manor house in Broadway clad in ivy
  • A handsome double-fronted Georgian townhouse in Broadway with sash windows and a pedimented door
  • The Lygon Arms Antiques shop — a gabled Cotswold-stone building on the high street
  • The Lygon Arms clock tower and Union Jack flag in front of mature trees
  • Broadway Deli — a gabled Cotswold-stone building set behind a small square of pavement cafés
  • The tall stone village cross on Broadway's high street, with the war memorial plaque at its base
  • The wrought-iron sign of the Crown & Trumpet pub, with the inn behind
  • St Michael & All Angels, Broadway — sandstone church and tower seen across a wildflower meadow over a drystone wall
  • Looking up at the tower of Broadway's parish church — sandstone with tall traceried windows
  • The 'Shopping Arcade' entrance — a covered passageway between Cotswold-stone shopfronts
  • A row of independent shops along Broadway's cobbled high-street pavement, A-board advertising lifestyle, clothing and interiors
  • Hanging shop signs for 'Landmark country' and 'Crawford Interior Design' on a Cotswold-stone shopfront
  • A long Cotswold-stone country house in Broadway with chimneys and dormer windows, climbing roses against the wall
  • Broadway Tower seen on the hilltop above the village, framed by a wooden gate and hedge in the foreground

Continue reading

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'The most beautiful village in England'

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Arlington Row in Bibury