Breedon on the Hill
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place
Breedon on the Hill is a village and civil parish about Template:Convert north of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in North West Leicestershire, England. The parish adjoins the Derbyshire county boundary and the village is only about Template:Convert south of the Derbyshire town of Melbourne. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population (including Isley and Wilson) of 958 people in 404 households.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The parish includes the hamlets of Tonge Template:Convert east of the village and Wilson Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It has also produced sand.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On top of the hill is The Bulwarks Iron Age hill fort, within which is Breedon's historic Church of England parish church. A recent survey found considerable evidence of occupation within the southern part of the hillfort enclosure.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Breedon is Template:Convert from East Midlands Airport and Template:Convert from the junction of the A42 road and M1 motorway. The village is Template:Convert from the River Trent, and Template:Convert from Donington Park motor circuit.
Etymology
The name Breedon is first attested in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People of 731, in the form {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. 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 as a name for the hill, with the addition for clarification of the Old English word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (also meaning "hill"). When the word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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.<ref>Template:Cite book, s.v. Breedon on the Hill.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book, s.v. Breedon on the Hill.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
History
Excavation of The Bulwarks in 1946 identified occupation between about the 1st century BC and about 1st century AD.<ref name=Pevsner75>Template:Harvnb</ref>
Medieval hagiography manuscripts record four saints buried in Breedon on the Hill. They are Friduricus,<ref name=williams>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> donor of the Mercian royal monastery built in Breedon during the seventh century, King Eardwulf of Northumbria, and relatively unknown Anglo-Saxon Saints Beonna of Breedon and Cotta of Breedon.<ref>Stowe MS 944, British Library</ref><ref>The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford University Press.</ref>
Breedon has a circular stone-built village lock-up<ref name=Pevsner75/> with an adjoining animal pound. The lock-up is 18th-century<ref name=NHLE1074127>Template:NHLE</ref> 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.<ref name=NHLE1074127 />
Breedon Hall is an historic building which was the ancestral home of the Curzon family.
In 1874, a branch of the Midland Railway was built through the eastern part of the parish and Tonge and Breedon railway station was built at Tonge. In 1980 British Rail closed the line and later the track was dismantled. The trackbed through the parish is now part of National Cycle Route 6.
Breedon Priory Church
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Priory Church of St Mary and St Hardulph was originally a monastery founded in about AD 676 on the site of The Bulwarks, an Iron Age hill fort. It was re-founded as an Augustinian priory early in the 12th century.Template:Sfn Before becoming a monastery it was a hermitage.<ref name=williams />
In 1498 members of the visiting Battenberg family took mass at the church on a number of occasions.Template:Cn
What remains of the priory church includes a large number of Anglo-Saxon sculptures,Template:Sfn an ornate family box pew and notable Renaissance church monuments.Template:Sfn
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.Template:Cn 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 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.<ref>England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division), Dore & Ors v Leicestershire County Council & Anor [2010] EWHC 1387 (Ch) (11 June 2010), accessed 22 September 2023</ref>
Breedon has a football club, Breedon F.C.Template:Cn