Worcs.
Bredon Hill
Worcestershire is a bit of a foreign county to me, I am ashamed to say, but it was busy with drovers. David Jonathan, who kept account books for 40 years (c. 1840-80), continually mentions Worcester, Pershore, Upton, Broadway and Evesham.
Bredon Hill belongs geologically to the Cotswolds, says Wikipedia, but the Avon has eroded the softer land around it and the ‘island' of Bredon is left. It looks a bit lonely.
Why did drovers bother to go over Bredon at all? I can't prove they did, but the holloways (#1) indicate long-term traffic. Our guess is that the pasture was good: sheep driven from Malvern to Burford, cattle from Hereford to Broadway down the Isbourne Valley (via Sedgeberrow); and stock of either kind from Worcester and Pershore down to Stanway1 - all would have welcomed the open grassland (#2) of Bredon. There's a hanger for shelter at the top (#3), probably planted by the Beauchamp family.
We didn't choose a good day. It was wet & with low cloud and the folly at the top (Banbury Stone Tower) was invisible in the fog. Housman had a finer experience, being able to “…see the coloured counties and hear the larks so high”2. Fat chance of either when we were there (#4).
We stayed at the Beckford Hotel, just south of Bredon Hill. The railway outside took beasts to Worcester Market after the droving era (#5).
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1 And from there to Moreton, Banbury or Buckingham - and London.
2 Bredon Hill, from A Shropshire Lad (XXl)
