Broadway Tower Walk

Broadway Tower, a folly in the English county of Worcestershire. The "Saxon" tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 to resemble a mock castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. Broadway Tower sits on the edge of the second highest point in the Cotswolds overlooking the village of Broadway and the Severn Vale. From the top of the tower, on a clear day, as many as 16 English counties can be identified.
The park is also home to a variety of mammals. Roe deer are occasionally seen grazing in the quieter areas, while rabbits and hares can often be spotted darting through the grasslands. Foxes and badgers are present but tend to be more elusive, emerging mostly during the twilight hours. The Tower itself and the surrounding stone walls provide shelter for bats, which can be seen on summer evenings as they hunt for insects.

Broadway Tower pictured in the summer of 2007. From 1822 to 1862, the tower housed the private printing press of Sir Thomas Phillipps. By the mid-1870s, it was being rented by C. J. Stone and Cormell Price. Price was headmaster of the United Services College at Westward Ho! and a friend of artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; in 1876 Morris wrote in a letter to Aglaia Coronio that he was "up at Crom Price's Tower among the winds and the clouds".

Rookery Barn Restaurant at the Broadway Tower Country Park

Memorial to a crashed RAF bomber in Broadway Tower Country Park. It is dedicated to the crew of an A.W.38 Whitley bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943.

Looking down from the Tower. The footpath, part of the Cotswold Way, heads down towards Broadway village which can be seen in the distance at the foot of the escarpment.
The park's grasslands are rich in wildflowers, particularly during spring and summer when species such as cowslips, buttercups, and oxeye daisies are in full bloom. These wildflowers provide a valuable source of nectar for insects, including bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. Notable butterfly species in the area include the marbled white and common blue, which thrive in the meadows.
The surrounding woodlands feature a mix of deciduous trees like oak, ash, and beech, creating a habitat for numerous bird species. Woodland birds such as blue tits, great tits, and robins are commonly seen flitting between the branches. In more open areas, skylarks and meadow pipits are often heard singing, and red kites or buzzards may be spotted soaring overhead. During the autumn months, the trees offer a spectacular display of colours, with their leaves turning vibrant shades of gold, orange, and red.

Broadway High Street. A view down the high street of the pretty village which lies just to the north of the park. 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. The wide High Street feature here is lined with a wide variety of shops and cafes, many housed in listed buildings. It's a fine place for a stroll after your visit to the park.

Entrance to Broadway ROC nuclear bunker. In the late 1950s, the tower monitored nuclear fallout in England; an underground Royal Observer Corps bunker was built 50 yards (46 m) from the Tower. Staffed continuously from 1961 and designated as a master post, the bunker was one of the last such Cold War bunkers constructed and, although officially stood down in 1991, the bunker is now one of the few remaining fully equipped facilities in England.

Broadway Hotel in the village. A fine place to relax after your exercise. Pictured here is the attractive outdoor area. Today, Broadway is a centre for arts and antiques. The village's accommodation includes the Broadway Hotel, Russell's "a restaurant with rooms", the 1600s Cotswold inn the Lygon Arms, a caravan site, holiday cottages, bed and breakfast lodges, old pubs including the Swan Inn and Crown & Trumpet, shops, restaurants and tea rooms. This former school, Grade II Listed, at 67 High St. was part of a shop in 1856 and was enlarged in 1869. It again houses a shop. Local attractions include the Gordon Russell Design Museum (celebrating the work of the 20th-century furniture maker Sir Gordon Russell MC), the Ashmolean Museum Broadway displaying objects from the 17th to the 21st centuries in 'Tudor House', a former 17th-century coaching inn, the 65-foot-high Broadway Tower on its hilltop site in the Broadway Tower Country Park, Chipping Campden, Snowshill village, Snowshill Manor (owned by the National Trust), horse riding and, for the many ramblers, the Cotswold Way.