Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire - St. Mary & St. Hardulph church - art card

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• Picture / Image:  The Parish of St. Mary and St. Hardulph, Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire - blank backed card
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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Breedon on the Hill is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) north of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in North West Leicestershire, England. The parish adjoins the Derbyshire county boundary and the village is only about 2 miles (3 km) south of the Derbyshire town of Melbourne. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 958 people in 404 households.^[2] The parish includes the hamlets of Tonge 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the village and Wilson 1.3 miles (2 km) north of the village on the county boundary.

Breedon is notable for its Carboniferous limestone hill that rises 122 metres (400 ft) 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 Breedon Aggregates.

On top of the hill is The Bulwarks Iron Age hill fort, within which is Breedon's historic Church of England parish church.

Breedon is 3 miles (5 km) from East Midlands Airport and 5 miles (8 km) from the junction of the A42 road and M1 motorway. The village is 3 miles (5 km) from the River Trent, and 2 miles (3 km) from Donington Park motor circuit.

Excavation of The Bulwarks in 1946 identified occupation between about the 1st century BC and about 1st century AD.^[3]

The toponym is derived from the Celtic word bre for hill and the Old English word dun for hill.^[4] Hence in its current form the name combines three forms of the word hill. Briudun, an early spelling, has been traced from AD 731.

Medieval Hagiography Manuscripts record four saints buried in Breedon-on-the-Hill. They are Friduricus,^[5] 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.^[6][7]

Breedon has a circular stone-built village lock-up.^[3] It is 18th-century^{[citation needed]} and similar to the one in the nearby Worthington. It was used for detaining local drunks or lost cattle.

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 Railways closed the line and thereafter the track was dismantled. The trackbed through the parish is now part of National Cycle Route 6.

The Priory Church of St Mary and St Hardulph is the Church of England parish church of Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire, England. The church has also been known as Breedon Priory and as the Holy Hill Monastery.

Originally founded as a monastery in the 7th century, the church contains the largest collection, and some of the finest examples, of Anglo-Saxon sculptures. It also contains a notable family pew and Renaissance-era church monuments to the Shirley family, who bought the manor of Breedon after it was surrendered to the Crown in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The largest of these monuments is for Sir George Shirley. It was made over 20 years before his death and includes a life-sized skeleton carved in alabaster.^[1]

The church stands on the top of Breedon Hill, within the remains of an Iron Age hill fort called The Bulwarks. The hill is flanked to the south by the 400 houses of Breedon on the Hill village, and encroached on the east by Breedon Quarry.^[2] Breedon church is a nationally important building, with a Grade I listing for its exceptional architectural interest.

The church was originally a monastery founded in about 676 on the site of The Bulwarks hill fort and a hermitage. The church was founded by Aethelred, third son of Penda (who ruled until 706) according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The land was given by Friduricus with the stipulation that Headda would be made the abbot. Friduricus is a candidate for the four saints who are interred here, possibly in a now-buried crypt.^[3]
The hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript records the other three saints buried in Breedon-on-the-Hill are Anglo-Saxon saints Eardwulf of Northumbria, Beonna of Breedon and Cotta of Breedon.^[4] [5]

Headda was to become a Bishop of Lichfield and later, in 731, the monastery trained Tatwine to be its abbot, a position he held until 794. Tatwine was known for his rhyming riddles and for his later ascension to Archbishop of Canterbury.^[6] The lands that supported the monastery were added to by King Aethelred.^[3] In 1066, the manor of Breedon was given by William the Conqueror to the de Ferrers family, who later became the Earls of Derby. Domesday Book in 1086 records that Henry de Ferrers held Breedon.^[7]

Breedon priory was founded as an Augustinian monastery in around 1120, on the site of the earlier Saxon Benedictine abbey of Holy Hill Monastery. The priory was a cell of Nostell Priory in Yorkshire and there seems to have been between three to five canons in residence at any one time, usually from Nostell. Candidates for Prior were also usually selected by Nostell.^[8]Gervase, a prior of Breedon, attempted to gain independence for the priory from Nostell, but failed and subsequently resigned in 1244.^[3]

In 1441 a visit from William Alnwick, Bishop of Lincoln (Leicestershire was historically within the Diocese of Lincoln), found the monastery to be dilapidated and in debt. By 1535 there was no resident community at the priory, which was now occupied only by the prior. The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 recorded the priory had an annual income, after expenses, of £24. 10s. 4d.^[8]

The priory was surrendered for dissolution in November 1539.^[8] It was later sold to Francis Shirley, head of the local manorial family, who were recusants.^[3] After the Dissolution, the eastern part of the priory with the formerly central tower was retained for parish use. The nave and other buildings were demolished.