Bredon Hill

At the summit of the hill, there are the remains of earthworks from an Iron Age hill fort known as Kemerton Camp, which is believed to have been abandoned in the 1st century A.D. after a considerable battle.

There are also Roman earthworks and a number of ancient standing stones on the hill. One large stone at the summit is called the Banbury Stone, deriving from 'Baenintesburg', a name for the fort in the 8th century. It is known colloquially as the 'Elephant Stone' because of its resemblance to that animal. Another pair of stones below the summit are known as the King and Queen Stones. Local legend tells that if you pass between them you will be cured of illness.

At Elmley Castle, on the north side of the hill, there are the remains of a considerable medieval castle, once the chief stronghold of the powerful Beauchamp family, who became Earls of Warwick. The castle fell into disrepair during the 16th century, and stone from it was used in the construction of the bridge at Pershore.

During the English Civil War Bredon Hill was the site of a gathering of Clubmen on November 11th 1645, after which they declared their support for Parliament.

A fair and summer games were held every Whitsun at the summit of Bredon Hill until c.1876.

On 17 October 2011 Worcestershire County Council announced that Worcestershire's largest-ever hoard of Roman artefacts, including around 4,000 coins, featuring 16 different emperors, had been uncovered.[1]

Like the main Cotswold range of which it is a geological outlier, the hill is formed from a succession of Jurassic age mudstones, limestones and siltstones. The surrounding low ground is formed in the Charmouth Mudstones which forms a part of the Lias Group. These are overlain successively by the Dyrham Formation's siltstones and mudstones, the Marlstone Rock's limestone and sandstone, the Whitby Mudstone Formation, youngest of the Lias rock units, and finally the ooidal limestones of the Birdlip Limestone Formation. The last-named is the lowermost layer of the Inferior Oolite. The relatively flat spurs of Even Hill / Windmill Hill, Castle Hill, Little Hill and Holcombe Nap in the north and east are formed by a capping of the Marlstone Rock. A geological fault crosses the southern margin of the hill. The slopes of the hill beneath the Inferior Oolite rocks of the summit surface are substantially affected by landslips on all sides.[2]

The 'Elephant Stone' is the largest of several large pieces of rock which lie in a hollow on the western margin of the summit plateau. It has been suggested that the hollow itself derives from the collapse of a cavern around 1800, the formerly larger stone would have then tumbled into its present position and broken up. Each of these stones is itself formed from smaller fragments of oolitic limestone, naturally cemented together by calcite and likely having gathered in an earlier cleft or 'gull' in the hillside. The King and Queen stones are of similar origin. The cambering which leads to the formation of gulls can be seen elsewhere on the unstable slopes of the hill.[3]

Oolitic limestone stone wall on Bredon Hill, separating grassland summit area from a wheat field

Bredon Hill is one of the most important wildlife sites in England, providing a range of habitats including ancient woodland, calcareous grassland and scrub. A large section of the western and northern scarp was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1955.[4] Since 2005, an overlapping area has also been designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the European Commission Habitats Directive. Part of the SAC is a National Nature Reserve. Bredon Hill is most important as habitat for rare invertebrates, such as the violet click beetle. Natural England and Kemerton Conservation Trust are among those organisations participating in wildlife management on the hill.

Several parts of the hill are managed for wildlife under DEFRA 'Environmental Stewardship' schemes. This includes the area around the summit, which is managed as grassland with open public access.

A large number of public footpaths and bridleways cross the hill from the villages circling its base, and allow for a variety of circular routes to be devised. The Wychavon Way passes over the hill, but does not reach the summit itself, passing close by (necessitating a short easy detour).

Bredon Hill features in the works of a multitude of composers, poets, writers and artists. This pantheon includes the composers Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Arthur Somervell, Ivor Gurney, George Butterworth, Herbert Howells and Julius Harrison; the poets A. E. Housman, John Masefield, Cecil Day-Lewis, John Drinkwater and U. A. Fanthorpe; the authors E. V. Lucas, Arthur Quiller-Couch, William Cobbett, E. Temple Thurston, Francis Brett Young, Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard, John Moore, Fred Archer and Jenny Glanfield; and the artists Peter de Wint, Alfred William Parsons, Benjamin Williams Leader, Frederick Whitehead, Josiah Wood Whymper, Alfred Egerton Cooper, A. R. Quinton, Henry Yeend King and Anna Hornby.

The hill is immortalised in poem 21 of A. E. Housman's 1896 anthology, A Shropshire Lad.

In summertime on Bredon

The bells they sound so clear;

Round both the shires they ring them

In steeples far and near,

A happy noise to hear.

Here of a Sunday morning

My love and I would lie,

And see the coloured counties,

And hear the larks so high

About us in the sky.

The bells would ring to call her

In valleys miles away;

"Come all to church, good people;

Good people come and pray."

But here my love would stay.

And I would turn and answer

Among the springing thyme,

"Oh, peal upon our wedding,

And we will hear the chime,

And come to church in time."

But when the snows at Christmas

On Bredon top were strown,

My love rose up so early

And stole out unbeknown

And went to church alone.

They tolled the one bell only,

Groom there was none to see,

The mourners followed after,

And so to church went she,

And would not wait for me.

The bells they sound on Bredon,

And still the steeples hum,

"Come all to church, good people."

O noisy bells, be dumb;

I hear you, I will come.

Bredon Hill is the birthplace of farmer and writer Fred Archer (1915–1999), whose many books describe, in vivid prose, life on the farms and in the villages, particularly during the first part of the 20th century.

The author John Moore described life on and around Bredon Hill in the early 20th century in the Brensham Trilogy.

Julius Harrison's 1941 composition for violin and orchestra, Bredon Hill, takes its name from the hill which he could see from his home.

The children's author Ursula Moray Williams lived on the hill in Beckford from 1945 until her death in 2006.

When Worcester Cathedral was damaged in the English civil war, it was repaired with stone brought from Bredon.

The name "Bredon Hill" is unusual in that it combines the name for "hill" in three different languages (compare Pendle Hill). The word "bre" is of Celtic origin, and "don" is an Old English usage.

A well-known local saying, which predicts bad weather, goes: "When Bredon Hill has on his hat, men of the vale beware of that".

The hill is made up from land belonging to 9 parishes. Working clockwise from the summit these are:

• Kemerton
• Bredon & Bredon's Norton
• Eckington
• Great Comberton
• Little Comberton
• Elmley Castle, Bricklehampton & Netherton
• Ashton under Hill
• Beckford
• Overbury & Conderton

The currently closed Bredon railway station.

Sources:

• Page, W. ed. (1913). Victoria County History: A History of the County of Worcester, Volume III.
• Elrington, C.R. ed. (1968). Victoria County History: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume VIII.

• Thomas, Nicholas (2005), Conderton Camp, Worcestershire : a small middle Iron Age hillfort on Bredon Hill, Council for British Archaeology, ISBN 978-1-902771-50-2

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bredon Hill.

• Ashton-Under-Hill Community Site
• Overbury Community Site
• Beckford Community Site
• Kemerton Conservation Trust
• Fred Archer website
• Kemerton Camp
• photos of Bredon Hill on geograph
• "Bredon Hill" Rhapsody for Violin & Orchestra by Julius Harrison