The Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga in the South Somerset village of Broadway, and an epitaph of note.

 The village of Broadway is situated to the west of Ilminster in South Somerset, just a few hundred yards off the A358.  Writing over 50 years ago in his The King’s England – Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1968) Arthur Mee tells us of Broadway: “It stands on an ancient track cut through a royal forest, leading straight as an arrow to the fortified hill of Castle Neroche; it is said that the wide verges of this old road were for preventing robbers from hiding close enough to spring out on the unwary traveller.”  I am not sure where the “wide verges” are, but when I visited the village, on the way to the parish church the 13^th century Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga, the lanes were narrow and the hedgerows thick and tall.

Broadway’s village church stands some way outside the village because, it is thought, of an outbreak of the plague.  Ronald Webber in his The Devon and Somerset Blackdowns (Robert Hale & Company, 1976) informs us: “The church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburgha (sic), well outside the village, has a chancel and transept of late 13^th century or early 14^th century construction.  The interior abounds with solid oak bench ends with a preponderance of poppy heads.  The chancel has carved beams and bosses while the 16^th century pulpit has carved panels depicting the five wounds of Christ.  An octagonal font of the Perpendicular period has a small figure on each side.”

The Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga in the South Somerset village of Broadway.

There does seem some uncertainty as to who the church is dedicated.  St. Aldhelm was an Anglo-Saxon literature scholar born in the 7^th century.  He became Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey and Bishop of Sherborne.  However, there is some confusion over St. Eadburga.  Is the dedication meant for St. Eadburh of Winchester granddaughter of King Alfred, or St. Eadburga of Bicester an English saint from the 7^th century and a daughter of King Penda of Mercia?  English Heritage gives the dedication as St. Eadburh while outside the church a sign names it St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga. 

Whatever its name may be, it is a charming little church with a well maintained graveyard.  Several of the gravestones have interesting epitaphs, but the following one in particular caught my eye.  It was on the reverse of the gravestone of one Frank Fawcett who died on 13 June 1971, aged 73 – the words suggest he was a farmer:

Teach me to work

diligently, with courage

and fortitude, but above

all with meekness and

humility, not striving for

profit or the gratification

of vanity, but seeking

rather to produce the fruits

of your good earth so that

my fellow creatures and

the community in which

they live may enjoy them.