Broadway Tower, Cotswold/Worcestershire Border.

Broadway Tower

Memorial plaque

 Broadway tower stands high above the Worcestershire Cotswold skyline. It is a mini museum inside. The first floor display is all about it being built as a folly and it's early history. The next floor is about the renaissance art movement and William Morris. The third floor is about the military history of the sight.

With it's fantastic views it was used as a spotting station in the wars. Sadly also it was the sight of a memorable crash, so the history of that, and their is a plaque outside on the sight. The tower also played it's part in the cold war, and a nuclear bunker was built just along the hill. You can go and explore the Nuclear Bunker if you wish, though it is generally only open on a Sunday.

We also looked around Broadway village. In many way's it is a typical Cotswold village, as there are eleven art galleries, about six antique shops, and numerous cafes and bistro's. My favourite place was the old fashioned sweet shop.

I also liked the curious sign outside one of the estate agencies. It looks to me like a bishop fighting a five headed snake. It must commemorate some local mythology, but no-one seemed to know what it was about, and so far my research has turned up no answers. Any interesting ideas or actual facts please tell me.

Nuclear Bunker history

Part of the WW2 display

View from top of tower

Names and dates carved in by the soldiers

The most interesting thing in Broadway village

Broadway, a Cotswold village

Whitley Court ruins and fountains.

The Perseus and Andromeda fountain

Detail in the ceiling of one of the formal garden follys

Inside the ruins dining room

 Today I visited Whitley Court, near Worcester. Once home to the Foley and Dudley families, but now in the care of English Heritage, the ruins and fountains are well worth a visit.

A fire in 1937 destroyed the internal decor and much of the inner structure of the once great country house. The beautiful exoskeleton that remains still appears complete from a distance. The damage in someways gives the house a fairy-tale shadowy dream like feel. When you enter the ruins the rooms seem surprisingly small when you compare them to the surviving photographs of the once ornately decorated grandure. Perhaps it is this incongrulousness which makes it seem unreal, and you are an overly large Alice figure.

The ruins sit in formal gardens, designed by William Andrew Nesfield and built under Samuel Daukes. Within these are two magnificent fountains. The fountain of the goddess Flora, with her four worshiping tritons, like the house is a magnificent relic, (though hopefully one that maybe restored).

The great fountain depicting Perseus and Andromeda was restored to fully working order in 2002. During the season, (Easter to early Autumn), the fountain performs a twenty minute "show" on the hour, (except at one o'clock).

Dining room as was.

The Perseus fountain mid "show"

Flora's fountain with house behind

House ruins with gold dome of nearby church visable

Inside the ruin

The view from one of the follys

Fountain detail