Breedon on the Hill is a village and civil parish about north of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in North West Leicestershire, England. The parish adjoins the Derbyshire county boundary and the village is only about south of the Derbyshire town of Melbourne. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population (including Isley and Wilson) of 958 people in 404 households. The parish includes the hamlets of Tonge east of the village and Wilson 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

thumb|upright|Breedon's limestone hill rising above the village green and war memorial

thumb|Aerial view, showing church and quarry

Breedon is notable for its Carboniferous limestone hill that rises 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. It has also produced sand.

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.

Breedon is from East Midlands Airport and from the junction of the A42 road and M1 motorway. The village is from the River Trent, and 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 and . 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 (also meaning "hill"). When the word 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.

History

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

Medieval hagiography manuscripts record four saints buried in Breedon on the Hill. They are Friduricus, 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.

Breedon has a circular stone-built village lock-up 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.

Breedon has a football club, Breedon F.C.

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Parish council website