Breedon on the Hill is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

about north of

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch (), also spelled Ashby de la Zouch, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire borders. Its population at the 2021 census was ...

North West Leicestershire North West Leicestershire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Leicestershire, England. The towns in the district include of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Donington, Coalville, Leicestershire , Coalville (where the council is b ...

, England. The parish adjoins the

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

county boundary and the village is only about south of the Derbyshire town of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population (including Isley and Wilson) of 958 people in 404 households. The parish includes the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Tonge east of the village and Wilson north of the village on the county boundary. The population at the 2011 census (including Isley cum Langley and Langley Priory) was 1,029 in 450 households.

Geography

Breedon is notable for its Carboniferous limestone hill that rises above sea level in a generally low-lying landscape and affords distant views across several counties. A large portion of the hill has been cut away by an active quarry now operated by the Breedon Group. This currently produces limestone and gravel. It has also produced sand. On top of the hill is The Bulwarks

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

, within which is Breedon's historic

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

. A recent survey found considerable evidence of occupation within the southern part of the hillfort enclosure. Breedon is from

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in Castle Donington, England. The airport is situated between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is to the south and Lincoln, England, Lincoln northeast. It serves the maj ...

and from the junction of the A42 road and

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

. The village is from the

River Trent The Trent is the third Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands ...

, and from Donington Park motor circuit.

Etymology

The name ''Breedon'' is first attested in Bede's ''

Ecclesiastical History of the English People The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' (), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the growth of Christianity. It was composed in Latin, and ...

'' of 731, in the form and . Here the name refers to the settlement now known as ''Breedon'', but the settlement evidently took its name from the hill on which it stands, which must once simply have been called ''Breedon'': the first element of the name derives from Brittonic *''breɣ'' ("hill"). This word, whose literal meaning was presumably not understood by Old English-speakers, was borrowed into

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

as a name for the hill, with the addition for clarification of the Old English word (also meaning "hill"). When the word ceased to be understood to mean "hill", and perhaps also to distinguish the settlement from this hill on which it stood, the element ''on the Hill'' was added; the form ''Breedon on the Hill'' is first attested in 1610. Thus the name is, in terms of its etymological meanings, triply tautologous.

History

Excavation of The Bulwarks in 1946 identified occupation between about the 1st century BC and about 1st century AD. Medieval hagiography manuscripts record four saints buried in Breedon on the Hill. They are Friduricus, donor of the Mercian royal monastery built in Breedon during the seventh century, King

Eardwulf of Northumbria Eardwulf (fl. 790 – 830) was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scen ...

, and relatively unknown Anglo-Saxon Saints Beonna of Breedon and Cotta of Breedon. Breedon has a circular stone-built

village lock-up A village lock-up is a historic building once used for the temporary detention of people in England and Wales, mostly where official prisons or criminal courts were beyond easy walking distance. Lockups were often used for the confinement of d ...

with an adjoining animal pound. The lock-up is 18th-century and similar to the one in the nearby Worthington. It was used for detaining local drunks, and the adjoining pound for straying livestock. The lock-up and pound together comprise a Grade II listed building. Breedon Hall is an historic building which was the ancestral home of the Curzon family. In 1874, a branch of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

was built through the eastern part of the parish and Tonge and Breedon railway station was built at Tonge. In 1980

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

closed the line and later the track was dismantled. The trackbed through the parish is now part of

National Cycle Route 6 Route Parts of the route are currently incomplete and some sections follow other routes. London to Milton Keynes The proposed route is to begin in central London, running from via Paddington railway station to the Grand Union Canal. The ...

Breedon Priory Church

The Priory Church of

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

and St Hardulph was originally a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

founded in about AD 676 on the site of The Bulwarks, an Iron Age

. It was re-founded as an Augustinian priory early in the 12th century. Before becoming a

it was a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

age. In 1498 members of the visiting Battenberg family took mass at the church on a number of occasions. What remains of the priory church includes a large number of Anglo-Saxon sculptures, an ornate family

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in c ...

and notable

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

church monuments Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...

Amenities

Breedon has two pubs: the Holly Bush and the Three Horseshoes. There was a third pub, The Lime Kiln, but this is now a private home. The village has a small primary school and a post office. It did have a butcher's shop, but that closed in 2017. The school, St Hardulph's Church of England Primary School, was built in 1962 and also housed community facilities. Relations between the school,

Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire, England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Leicester. The county coun ...

and the local community association subsequently broke down and the community association was unsuccessful in a high court application arguing that they had the right to use the facilities on the grounds that the community had contributed some of the funding for the construction of the building.England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division)
Dore & Ors v Leicestershire County Council & Anor [2010
/nowiki> EWHC 1387 (Ch) (11 June 2010)">/nowiki>2010">Dore & Ors v Leicestershire County Council & Anor [2010
/nowiki> EWHC 1387 (Ch) (11 June 2010) accessed 22 September 2023 Breedon has a football club, Breedon F.C.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Parish council website
{{authority control Civil parishes in Leicestershire North West Leicestershire District Villages in Leicestershire