Broadway Tower: History, Views and a Cold War Bunker in the Cotswolds

A Sunday morning in early August. Red damask curtains, wooden shutters folded back, and a round-headed sash window full of green fields. The fields below are laid out like a quilt, hedge by hedge.

Broadway Tower sits on Beacon Hill, above Fish Hill and the village of Broadway, right on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment. The day before, I had been among the rows at Cotswold Lavender in Snowshill, about three miles away. If you are planning a summer trip, my guide to lavender fields near London covers that side of things.

The tower itself is small, odd and much more interesting than a pretty viewpoint has any right to be. Printers, poets, Pre-Raphaelites, a wartime bomber and a Cold War bunker all turn up in its story.

It fits easily into a Cotswolds weekend from London, or a long day out by car.

Why Was Broadway Tower Built?

The idea is credited to Lancelot "Capability" Brown, the landscape designer who reshaped so many English estates in the 18th century. The man who paid for it was George William, 6th Earl of Coventry, whose family seat was Croome Court in Worcestershire.

The architect was James Wyatt, one of the most fashionable designers of his day. His design is usually dated to 1794. The tower was built in 1798 and 1799, and Historic England gives 1798 in its listing.

Then there is the beacon story. The version usually told is that Lady Coventry wondered whether a beacon lit on this hill could be seen from her home. A fire was lit, it could be seen, and the Earl built the tower on the spot.

I would treat that as a legend rather than a record. What can be said is that the home in question was Croome Court, near Worcester rather than in the city itself. Croome is about 15 miles away as the crow flies. The tower is said to be just visible from there, past the northern edge of Bredon Hill.

Is Broadway Tower a Folly?

In the usual sense, yes. It was built to be looked at and looked from, not to defend anything or house anyone in comfort. Wyatt dressed it up as a "Saxon" castle, a mock-medieval fantasy of the kind wealthy Georgians loved.

Historic England lists it at Grade II, a listing first made on 30 July 1959. The listing describes a hexagonal plan with three round corner turrets, linked by canted sides. It is built of limestone ashlar and rises four storeys, with a battered base and embattled parapets.

The details reward a slow walk round the outside. There are narrow round-headed slits in the turrets, round-headed windows higher up, and circular openings on the third floor. On the second floor there are small balconies with intersecting arches. The tower is about 65 feet tall, roughly 20 metres.

When I walked up, the Union flag was out on the top and grey cloud was rolling over the escarpment. The stone looks warm even under a dull sky. That is the Cotswold limestone doing what it does in every village below.

How Far Can You See From the Top of Broadway Tower?

The tower stands on ground about 312 metres, or 1,024 feet, above sea level. The tower's own history page calls Beacon Hill the second highest point in the Cotswolds. The highest is Cleeve Hill, above Cheltenham.

How many counties can you see? Claims vary. The tower says up to 16 counties on a clear day, with views of about 62 miles in each direction. Other guides settle on 13 or 14. It depends on the weather, and on how you count modern and historic county boundaries.

On my August morning I pointed a long lens at the near view. It picked out Broadway itself, its honey-stone houses tucked among trees. It is one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds and it looks every bit of it from above.

Inside, the tower works as a small museum with Georgian-style rooms and a multimedia guide. The rooftop viewing platform is the prize at the end of the climb.

Who Lived in Broadway Tower?

Very few people lived here in any real comfort. The first notable occupant was not a resident at all but a press. Sir Thomas Phillipps, the obsessive manuscript collector, lived at Middle Hill on the slope below.

Phillipps collected manuscripts on a scale few private individuals have matched. In 1822 he set up a printing press in the tower, to print copies of texts from his collection. Historic England dates the press from 1822 to 1862.

The tower's own history calls this period the "Lighthouse of Wisdom". It is a lovely name for a draughty stone box on a hill.

In the early 20th century the tower became a farmhouse for tenant farmers. Families lived in these small hexagonal rooms, on one of the most exposed spots in the Cotswolds.

Before that came the most famous tenant. Cormell Price, an Oxford tutor and later a schoolmaster, leased the tower as a holiday retreat in the 1860s. Sources give both 1863 and 1866 for the start of the lease.

Price went on to become headmaster of the United Services College at Westward Ho! in Devon. One of his pupils was Rudyard Kipling, and Price is the model for the Head in Kipling's school stories, Stalky & Co.

What Did William Morris Have to Do With Broadway Tower?

Cormell Price's friends included William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. All three stayed or visited, and the tower became a rough holiday camp for the Arts and Crafts and Pre-Raphaelite circle.

Rough is the right word. Morris's daughter May later remembered the men bathing on the roof, when there was water and the wind allowed it. There was no easy comfort up here.

Morris clearly loved it anyway. In September 1876 he wrote that he was at "Crom Price's tower", "among the winds and the clouds". Crom was Price's nickname. Ned, better known as Burne-Jones, was there too with the children.

The link people make next is with conservation. In March 1877 Morris wrote a letter to the Athenaeum magazine. He protested against the planned restoration of Tewkesbury Abbey by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

That letter led directly to the founding of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, the SPAB, in 1877. Morris wrote its manifesto. The tower's own history says his preservation campaign began while he was staying at Broadway Tower.

The dates are worth keeping straight. The famous tower letter is from 1876, and the Tewkesbury letter is from March 1877. Tewkesbury is only about 15 miles west, so the connection is geographically easy to believe.

The café at the foot of the tower is called Morris & Brown, after William Morris and Capability Brown. It is a neat way of naming two men whose ideas shaped the place, a century apart.

What Happened at Broadway Tower in the War and the Cold War?

On 2 June 1943 an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber crashed on Beacon Hill during a training flight. It had been circling the airfield at RAF Honeybourne in poor weather. The tower's history says the crew of five were British and Canadian.

Two members of the Royal Observer Corps tried to save the airmen, without success. A memorial to the crew stands near the crash site, and a remembrance service is held there every year around the anniversary.

The Royal Observer Corps had a long history on this hill. During the war the tower was the area's master post, tracking aircraft and reporting to Oxford. A concrete observers' shelter from that time survives in the field to the north.

The Cold War brought something stranger. In 1961 an underground Royal Observer Corps monitoring post was completed near the tower. Its crew were there to report nuclear bursts and fallout if the worst ever happened.

It was manned from 1961 until it was decommissioned in September 1991. It stayed under the Official Secrets Act until then. Volunteers and the tower's management later restored it, and you can tour it on selected days with a guide.

The Cotswold Way runs right past the tower, on its 102-mile route between Chipping Campden and Bath. From the ridge I watched two tiny walkers heading off between the bushes and a drystone wall. For another stretch of the same trail, my post on Winchcombe's high street picks it up further south.

The tower sits in a country park of about 50 acres, which includes a deer park. A herd of red deer lives there, and a circular walk takes you round their enclosure. Keep dogs on a lead near them.

Visiting Broadway Tower: Practical Notes

📍 Where: Broadway Tower, Middle Hill, Broadway, Worcestershire WR12 7LB. It is on Beacon Hill, just off the A44 at the top of Fish Hill.

⏰ Opening: In September 2026 the tower was listed as open 10am to 5pm. The Morris & Brown café was listed from 9am to 5pm. Check the official website before you go.

📅 Open days: Open daily, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Nuclear bunker tours run on weekends and bank holidays from April to October, on a guided basis.

🎫 Admission: In September 2026 an adult ticket for the tower museum and grounds cost £14 on the tower's own booking listing. A cheaper grounds-only ticket was also sold. The bunker tour costs extra. Book on broadwaytower.co.uk for the price on your day.

🚇 Getting there: From London Paddington, trains run to Evesham or Moreton-in-Marsh on the Cotswold Line. From either station, take a taxi to the tower, or a local bus to Broadway village and walk up the Cotswold Way. Check bus times before you travel.

🚗 Parking: There is on-site parking by the tower. Parking is included with a tower ticket booked online in advance; otherwise there is a charge. Driving from central London is roughly 95 miles and about two hours.

☕ Food: The Morris & Brown café is by the tower, and there is a second café, Tower Barn, near the car park. There are picnic areas in the park too.

⏳ How long: Allow an hour for the tower and grounds, more for the deer park walk or the bunker tour. Walking up from Broadway village adds a steep climb each way.

📷 Best time: A clear day for the long view, early in the day for quieter rooms. I went on a Sunday in August, around 10am.

🗺️ Nearby: Broadway village, Snowshill and its lavender fields, and Chipping Campden at the northern end of the Cotswold Way.

♿ Access: The rooms and roof are reached by stairs inside the tower, so ask the tower about step-free access before you go. Dogs are welcome on leads in the grounds, but not inside the tower or bunker.

Have you climbed Broadway Tower, and how many counties did you manage to count from the roof?

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All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.