Bretforton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bretforton | |
|---|---|
 Bretforton Post Office, now closed | |
  Bretforton Location within Worcestershire | |
| Population | 1,023 [1] |
| OS grid reference | SP092440 |
| • London | 86 miles (138 km) |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | EVESHAM |
| Postcode district | WR11 |
| Dialling code | 01386 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
Bretforton is a rural village in Worcestershire, England, 4.4 miles (7.1 km) east of Evesham, in the Vale of Evesham. It is the largest farming village near Evesham. At the 2001 census, Bretforton had a population of 1,023 in 428 households. The area of the parish is 2.83 square miles (7.33 square kilometres).[3]
There is a village hall, a garage, a sports and social club, a village pub (the Fleece Inn) and a Royal British Legion club.[4] Bretforton is also home to the Bretforton Silver Band that can trace its roots back to 1895 when it was known as Bretforton Temperance Band.[5] Unusually for a village of its size, Bretforton has three substantial large gentry dwellings, with a large Jacobean manor house, a Gothic hall and a grange.
Local legends
The village name has changed little over the centuries: the earliest documented record of the town, a charter of 709, records it as Bretforton, the Saxon 'Ton' a modern spelling of the Saxon (Germanic) 'tun' which meant enclosure or village.[3] It has also been recorded as Brotfortun in a Saxon deed from 714, which states the town's name as 'Brotfortun', meaning 'the ford with planks', possibly referencing the footbridge which stands alongside the ford.[6]
The village was owned as outlying farmland of Evesham Abbey.
The settlement is distinguished historically by an unusual system of land ownership. In the 16th century, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries (and Evesham Abbey) in the 1540s, the manor was sold to the tenants and a new class of land-owning yeomen was set up. Some of them built the houses still standing here, either of stone with mullioned windows or timber-framed. One of the yeomen became Auditor to Catherine of Aragon.
Other noteworthy features of the settlement are several dovecotes, one dating to 1630 and another containing some 800 holes.
The village has several local legends of ghosts.
- Spot Loggins Well is an old water well, about four hundred years old and is named after a cattle drover called Spot Loggins who drowned in a cattle spring in the 17th century. Local legend states that any who runs around the well three times while blindfolded will lose anything they are carrying.[7] The Water Well is located on the old Bretforton House Farm of the Appleby family and the Spot Loggin ghost is celebrated locally in November at the local Fleece Inn.[7]
- The ghost of Lola Taplin, former landlady of the Fleece Inn, is said to haunt the bar, throwing food and other objects.[8][9]
- A phantom funeral procession arrives at the church, though for whom it represents is a mystery.[8][9]
- Fields on either side of the church are said to be haunted by a decapitated woman, carrying her head under arm.[8][9]
Murders
- Murder of Ann Cormell,[10] on 4 February 1707 by John Allen of Bretforton, Giles Hunt, Tom Dun, Thomas Palmer and Thomas Symonds. John Allen was later hung in a gibbet in Bretforton at what is now known as "Allen's Barn".[11] This story is also the source of local couplet "Allen, Symounds, Palmer and Dun, the four biggest rogues under the sun".
- Murder of a black US soldier Private Walter F. Shaw on the night of 16/17 June 1945.[12] Albert Leslie Tomkins, Dennis William Tomkins and Royston Hay were later acquitted on the lesser charge of manslaughter.[13]
- Murder of Brenda Dawn Hirons in January 1976.[14] Hirons was bludgeoned to death at Fallon Bank by her husband Fred Hirons.[15]
Education
Dating from the late 19th century, the village school faces the churchyard and has a bellcote.[6] There are two schools in Bretforton: Bretforton Pre-School and Bretforton First School. Opened in 1877 as Bretforton Board School by Fanny Patterson, and extended in 1984, Bretforton Village School (pupils aged 4–10) is a member of the Bengeworth Multi-Academy Trust which it joined in February 2018. There is also a pre-school nursery group held in the village hall.[4][16]
