Bretforton
| Bretforton | |
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 Bretforton Post Office, now closed |
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 Bretforton
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| Bretforton shown within Worcestershire | |
| Population | 1,023 |
| OS grid reference | SP092440 |
| • London | 86 miles (138 km) |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | EVESHAM |
| Postcode district | WR11 |
| Dialling code | 01386 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
Bretforton is a rural village in Worcestershire, England. Bretforton is 4.4 miles (7.1 km) east of Evesham, in the Vale of Evesham. It is the largest farming village around Evesham. At the 2001 census, Bretforton had a population of 1,023 in 428 households. The area of the parish is 2.83 square miles (7.33 square kilometres).
There is a village hall, a garage, a sports and social club, a village pub (the Fleece Inn) and a Royal British Legion club. Bretforton is also home to the Bretforton Silver Band that can trace its roots back to 1895 when it was known as Bretforton Temperance Band. Unusually for a village of its size, Bretforton has three substantial large gentry dwellings with large Jacobean manor house, a Gothic hall and a grange.
The village name has changed little over the centuries: the earliest documented record of the town, a charter of 709, records it as Bretforton, the Saxon 'Ton' a modern spelling of the Saxon (Germanic) 'tun' which meant enclosure or village. It has also been recorded as Brotfortun in a Saxon deed from 714, which states the town's name as 'Brotfortun', meaning 'the ford with planks', possibly referencing the footbridge which stands alongside the ford.
The village was owned as outlying farmland of Evesham Abbey.
The settlement is distinguished historically by an unusual system of land ownership. In the 16th century, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries (and Evesham Abbey) in the 1540s, the manor was sold to the tenants and a new class of land-owning yeomen was set up. Some of them built the houses still standing here, either of stone with mullioned windows or timber-framed. One of the yeomen became Auditor to Catherine of Aragon.
Other noteworthy features of the settlement are several dovecotes, one dating to 1630 and another containing some 800 holes.
The village has several local legends of ghosts.
Dating from the late 19th century, the village school faces the churchyard and has a bellcote. There are two schools in Bretforton: Bretforton Pre-School and Bretforton First School. Opened in 1877 as Bretforton Board School by Fanny Patterson, and extended in 1984, Bretforton First School (pupils aged 4–10) is a local authority school with no ex-officio governorship responsibility. There is also a pre-school nursery group held in the village hall.
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Wikipedia