Honeybourne Line Cycle Path Bridge - Geograph
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Honeybourne 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 east of
Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...
, in the
Wychavon Wychavon () is a local government district in Worcestershire, England. The largest towns therein are Evesham and Droitwich Spa; the council is based in the town of Pershore. The district also includes numerous villages and surrounding rural ...
district, in
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
, England. Much of the parish are farmland.
RAF Honeybourne Royal Air Force Honeybourne, or more simply RAF Honeybourne, was a Royal Air Force station located south of Honeybourne, Worcestershire, England and east of Evesham, Worcestershire, England The station was operational from 1940 or 1941 to 194 ...
just south of the village was operational from 1940 until 1947. In 2001, the parish had a population of 1619.


History

Honeybourne was two villages: ''Church Honeybourne'' in Worcestershire and ''Cow Honeybourne'' in
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
. Their names are derived from
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 ...
''hunig'', "honey" and ''burna'', "stream," the whole meaning "(places on) the stream by which honey is found," the first word of ''Cow Honeybourne'' comes from Old English ''calu'', "bare, lacking vegetation." Boundary changes in 1931 moved Cow Honeybourne into Worcestershire and the two parishes were united in 1958. Honeybourne has several historic timber framed and thatched buildings. The Thatched Tavern in Cow Honeybourne has a
cruck A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
truss.Pevsner, 1968, page 125


Parish churches

In Church Honeybourne, the
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 ...
of Saint Ecgwin was consecrated in 1295.Pevsner, 1968, page 119 Its antiquity is reflected in a local rhyme ''"when Evesham was bush and thorn there was a church at Honeybourne."'' Its
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
appear to be original late-13th-century structures. There was a south
aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...
, but it was demolished and its windows re-set in the south wall of the nave. The
bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...
has a
Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...
spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...
with three tiers of
lucarne In general architecture a lucarne is a dormer window. The term is borrowed from , which refers to a dormer window, usually one set into the middle of a roof although it can also apply to a façade lucarne, where the gable of the lucarne is aligne ...
s. The south porch is a late mediaeval
Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...
addition. It is a Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
. In Cow Honeybourne, the former parish church, known as the "Old Church" has a 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic west tower and formerly had an ornate
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...
pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...
. The church fell out of use for worship from the 16th to the 19th centuries and was partitioned off into four or five
tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, E ...
s, while pig sties and sheds were built against the outside walls. Apart from the tower, the church was rebuilt in 1861–63 to designs by the Worcester Diocesan Architect W. J. Hopkins. The church has since been made redundant, deconsecrated and converted to two private houses. It is a Grade II listed building. Honeybourne is in the
Diocese of Gloucester The Diocese of Gloucester is a Church of England diocese based in Gloucester, covering the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire. The cathedral is Gloucester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Gloucester. It is part of the Province ...
. Diocesan boundaries and county boundaries do not align in this part of the country.


Amenities

Honeybourne has two
public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
s: the Gate Inn and the 13th-century Thatched Tavern. Other amenities include the Ranch caravan park, Indulgence skincare & beauty salon, hairdressers, 2 convenience stores (Co-Op and One Stop), a fish and chip shop, Post Office, Chinese takeaway, Indian takeaway, garage with petrol station, and Honeybourne Pottery. Honeybourne Harriers is one of the most popular football clubs in the area, catering for children from 4 to 18. Bus service 553 provides a link to Evesham providing six return journeys Mon-Sat. Currently operated by Henshaw's Coaches, from 1st March 2025 the service will be operated by Diamond Bus.


Education

Honeybourne Primary Academy teaches children between the ages of four and 11. Honeybees Nursery takes children between the ages of two and four.


Railways

Great Western Railway (train operating company) First Greater Western, trading name, trading as Great Western Railway (GWR), is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that provides services in the Greater Western franchise, Greater Western franchise area. It manages 197 stati ...
serves
Honeybourne railway station Honeybourne railway station serves the village of Honeybourne in Worcestershire, England. Opened in 1853, it is on the Cotswold Line and was formerly a busy junction with five platform faces, also serving trains on the Great Western Railway's ...
on the
Cotswold Line The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England. History Early years The line between Oxford and Worcester was built under an 1845 Act of Parliament and opened in 1851 as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway ...
with direct train services to , and . The
Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot JunctionThe nearby settlement is spelt ''Wolvercote'' and a later station on the LNWR Bicester line follows that spelling. ...
was built through the parish in the 1840s, and Honeybourne station was opened. The 19th-century railway company
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...
took over the OW&W in 1862 and enlarged Honeybourne station in the 1900s when it built the railway between and
Cheltenham Spa Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...
.
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 ...
ways closed the
Honeybourne Line The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWR, GWSR or Gloucs-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway which runs along the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border of the Cotswolds in England. The GWSR has restored and reo ...
between Stratford and Cheltenham, reduced the OW&W line to single track and 1969 closed Honeybourne station. However, with increased use of the Cotswold Line, the station was re-opened in 1981 with a single platform; work completed in 2011 saw this part of the line restored to double track and
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...
enlarged Honeybourne to two platforms with a rather large, wheelchair-accessible bridge. A report prepared for Stratford-on-Avon District Council in 2012 stated that there was a good business case for restoring the Stratford-Cotswolds link line. In July 2015, a drunken
squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...
caused hundreds of pounds' worth of damage to the Honeybourne Railway Club, when it emptied an entire barrel of beer onto the floor and knocked glasses and bottles from the shelves.


Citations


General and cited sources

*


External links

* {{Alt text missing Villages in Worcestershire Civil parishes in Worcestershire Wychavon