A fleeting visit to Broadway (the Cotswolds one).

The other day, the motorhome and the open roads began calling again......but where to go for a night or two....? We didn't want to drive for hours and although we enjoyed staying in Morton in Marsh, we think we should begin to build up a portfolio of places to visit for the odd day or two and this is how we came to choose Broadway for our next stay. I don't think either of us feels like losing too many home comforts at this time of year, especially when it is so cold, so we chose somewhere where we knew we could rely on good facilities and not too far on foot from the town (about half a mile, in this case).

Broadway is very picturesque: the architypal Cotswold village, consequently, visited by huge numbers of people.
http://www.broadway-cotswolds.co.uk 

I've been to the little town so many times in the past to do research, because of its connection with Gordon Russell. His parents owned the Lygon Arms and restored and made furniture in a building adjoining it. Nowadays, there is a separate building with a Museum dedicated to his life and work.(http://www.gordonrussellmuseum.org) Broadway is very much 'Russell themed' and making the most of its son's fame.

This photo was taken outside the Lygon Arms. One of my ambitions is to stay here as I have read so much about it and I would very much like to have the run of it - obviously it won't be quite like it was during Russell's time but the whole building has been preserved as far as possible, I believe.

A bit further along the Main Street, there is Russell's, which bills itself as a 'Restaurant with Rooms'. It would seem booking very much in advance is the order of the day here but we did manage to have lunch in the attached Fish and Chip restaurant before we left on Sunday. (An excellent meal!)

This is the walkway through to the square where the Museum is and the canopies on the right are on the forecourt of the Fish and Chip restaurant.

As I understand it, this is part of the building that was used for the furniture.....it now adjoins Russell's.

Further along here, there is a terrace of Cotswold stone cottages bordering one side of the square. It is very 'modern picturesque' but in the shadow, unfortunately, when I took the picture, so the warmth of the stonework is rather muted.

There are lots of tiny shops.....The two that stood out for me are, Mary Maggs, a really good craft shop and the Broadway Deli: both have excellent products (there is a tiny cafe in the Deli) but are rather expensive to shop in (like the rest of the town, I seem to remember...)

.....pretty vistas and grass.....

We stayed only overnight.......and it turned out to be a very chilly one with a lovely clear sky and pretty sunset.

The site we stayed on was terraced and behind where we parked there was a stretch of water on which there must have been numerous ducks (not evident when I took this picture) as they quacked loudly until long after dark. The following morning, they were joined by geese honking even more loudly from a farm at the end of the site.....very rural and noisy!

We will be going back to stay at Broadway - for longer and booking into Russell's - as there is a lot of exploring and walking to be done in the area.