Bredon Hill

Bredon Hill is a hill in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Evesham in the Vale of Evesham. The summit of the hill is in the parish of Kemerton and it extends over parts of eight other parishes (listed below). The hill is geologically part of the Cotswolds and lies within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, although as the result of erosion over millions of years it now stands isolated in the Vale of Evesham

At the summit, adjacent to Kemerton Camp, is a small stone tower called Parsons Folly (or the Banbury Stone Tower) which stands at GPS coordinates (52.059963, -2.064606). The tower was built in the mid-18th century for John Parsons, MP (1732–1805), squire of Kemerton Court and intended as a summer house, from which a more extensive view of the surrounding countryside could be seen. The 981 feet natural height of the hill may have contributed to the final height of the tower, whose top now reaches 1000 feet. A similar tower on Leith Hill increases the overall height from 965 feet to 1029 feet. The folly became a well-known county landmark, and was believed to have inspired the building of Broadway Tower. The current owners, Overbury Estate, lease out the tower as a mobile phone base station, and a number of large aerials have been fitted to its exterior.

Bredon

Coordinates: 52°01′48″N 2°07′01″W / 52.030°N 2.117°W / 52.030; -2.117

Bredon is a village and civil parish in Wychavon District at the southern edge of Worcestershire in England. It lies on the banks of the River Avon on the lower slopes of Bredon Hill, at “the beginning of the Cotswolds”. As “Brensham Village”, it has been made famous by the writer John Moore, whose descriptions of village life between the wars are widely celebrated.

Location and geography

Bredon is located 3 miles (5 km) north of the Gloucestershire town of Tewkesbury on the B4080 road. The River Avon forms the western boundary of the parish, and two of its tributaries, the Carrant Brook and Squitter Brook form the southern boundary.

The parish (including Bredon's Norton, formerly a separate parish to the north) extends from the Avon valley floor at an elevation of 32 feet (10 m) in the south-west to the upper slopes of Bredon Hill at an elevation of 820 feet (250 m) in the north-east. The northern third of the parish falls within the Cotswolds AONB. At its greatest extent the parish measures approximately 4.8 miles (7.7 km) long by 2.2 miles (3.5 km) wide, and covers around 4,125 acres (16.7 km²).