History
Bredon's history of farming and settlement goes back at least four thousand years. Archaeological remains establish that parts of the parish were settled early in the Bronze Age (2500–800 BC). There are numerous Iron Age (800 BC–100 AD) remains, some of which would have related to Kemerton Camp, a large univallate hillfort at the summit of Bredon Hill. The parish is also rich in remains from the Roman Period (43–410 AD), revealing a continuing history of settlement and farming.
Modern Bredon has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon period (c.500–1066), when c.716 Æthelbald, King of Mercia, gave land to his kinsman Eanwulf to found a monastery. For some time, the manor of Bredon continued under an abbot of its own, but by 844, it had become the property of the Bishop of Worcester. It remained part of the Worcester Monastic Estate until the Reformation. Bredon’s name evolved during the Saxon period, deriving from bree (Celtic for hill) and don (Old English for hill).
From the Norman Conquest (1066) to the end of the Late Medieval Period (1500), the parish was governed under the feudal system. The manor was held by the Bishop of Worcester, who maintained a summer residence, park and fisheries on the site of the first monastery, and the medieval village developed around these church buildings. Following the Reformation in the 16th century, the manor passed to the Crown.
In 1718, wealthy resident William Hancock founded Bredon Hancock's Endowed Church of England First School. Bredon’s Act of Inclosure was passed in 1811, and among those gaining large consolidated holdings were the lord of the manor, Rev. Richard Darke, and the rector, Rev. John Keysall.
The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, one of the world's oldest main line railways, was constructed during the 1830s and 1840s through the village, with Bredon station opening in 1841. This remained in operation until 1965, when it was closed 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.
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, which was then tranferred to neighbouring Tewkesbury parish. The 1970s and 1980s saw a very rapid growth in the residential population of the village, with the addition of approximately 600 new homes located on former orchards, allotments and farmland. Much of this growth was poorly planned, resulting in a dormitory settlement, reliant on nearby towns for employment and services.
Read more about this topic: Bredon
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“There is no history of how bad became better.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)