Broadwell, Warwickshire

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Map sources for Broadwell at grid reference SP455657

Broadwell is a village in Warwickshire in the United Kingdom. It forms part of the civil parish of Leamington Hastings.

It is a farming hamlet, one of three villages of that name in central England (the other two are in Gloucestershire - one between the towns of Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold, the other a few miles west of Lechlade on the upper River Thames).

Broadwell, Warwickshire, is roughly midway between Dunchurch and Southam on the A426 road. It is first mentioned in the Domesday Book. Today, the village compromises roughly 70 households. There are three farms in the village itself and a further three border it.

Geographically, Broadwell lies in the broad flat valley of the River Leam. The valley is bordered to the north by the Rugby ridge and Lawford Heath, to the south by a low range of upland which forms part of the Northamptonshire/Warwickshire ironstone hills. The village sits on fossil-rich Blue Lias clay, hence the proximity of several cement works (all now closed).

Architecturally, Broadwell is very unpreposessing. The Green is surrounded by a mix of 18th and 19th century cottages, post-war local authority houses, 1970s bungalows and 1990s large detached houses. The mix on Main Street and Back Lane (also known as Hayway Lane) is similar. Since 1990, two bungalows and about half-a-dozen detached houses have been built.

Historically, farming has always been the principal activity, although in the 20th century some residents worked in the Charles Nelson Company's cement works in neighbouring Stockton. Today, many residents are retired: the rest work away from the village and at least one commutes over 80 miles to London every day.

Until the 1960s, there was a railway station (Stockton & Napton on the line from Weedon to Leamington Spa) a mile from the village. Today, there is a bus service to neighbouring towns. However, most families in Broadwell have a car.

There is no shop or public house in Broadwell. In part, the lack of a pub is due to the village's nonconformist tradition. Broadwell has a substantial Methodist chapel; it also has a tiny Church of England chapel which is part of the parish of Leamington Hastings.

Communal life centres around the Victory Hall, a rather ramshackle corrugated-iron-sheet building which acts as the village hall. Here, the Trustees of the village green meet and also the Flower Show Committee.

Demographically, Broadwell is home to a fairly typical rural midlands population. There is little ethnic diversity or multiculturalism and the age range is weighted towards the middle-aged. However, there are about a dozen families with school-age children.

Nothing much happens in Broadwell: it is neither picturesque nor a tourist destination.