The Priory Church, Breedon on the Hill

The church is open to visitors every day between the hours of 9.30 am and 4.00 pm. In summer the church may open earlier and/or stay open later; this is at the discretion of the keyholder.

Please note that the Church is opened by volunteers and there is no absolute guarantee that it will always be open as advertised.

Take a look at our Service Schedule.

On This Page

So You Thought It Just Happened …

Second Churchwarden For Breedon

Thanks For The Help

The Breedon Angel

Breedons in Canada

Breedon Magazines

See Also

Some of the Breedon related articles that have appeared in The Parish Times.

Breedon Priory, formerly known as St. Mary and St. Hardulph.

This is a holy place with an authenticated history of Christian worship for over 1300 years. In A.D. 676 an Anglo-Saxon Monastery was established on the hilltop, by Mercian King Aethelred, and for some 200 years this flourished as a centre of culture and crafts.

It was from this building that the remarkable array of Anglo-saxon carved stonework was salvaged, which can be seen in the Church today. But in A.D. 874, the community was attacked by pagan Danish and Norse invaders and buildings looted and despoiled.

The next major step came in A.D. 1122 with the arrival of a Prior and five Canons from Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, who established an Augustian Priory on the site and it is the Nave and North Aisle of this building which survive as the Parish Church of today, restored in later centuries, but still retaining much of its 12th century design and styling.

If you would like to know more about its history then please read the The Story of St. Mary and St. Hardulph Church.

So You Thought It Just Happened …

'Well, we started the Flower Festival in the usual way, one or two flower arrangers attending on the Thursday but most appearing on the Friday. We used to have about eighteen women working both days, but now they know they can do it in one day. David Winfield helped me get the stuff down on the Tuesday, - planks, big jars, sheets of plastic to cover the carpet. I covered the carpets, Stan took off the pew doors, and we put the exhibition into the Shirley Pew. I did the windowsills on Thursday, using the steps left behind by the flower arrangers that did Suzette's wedding - strong, stable and room at the top for one's feet and a handful of flowers.

So next day, we're all there. The buckets and buckets of flowers, the piles of foliage, the shared problems - what's all the hilarity in the Shirley aisle? Looks as if the flowers are going for a ski! Original! Wish I had a friend to help me. Still, get on with the job. Wish Jean Hale came to arrange, we'd all have a laugh. Put the plastic away; clear up, up and down the stairs so many times. Lynda and I are last, and Lynda and I, going outside to wheel away the loads of rubbish and foliage left by some, suddenly discover we need to do the doorway. At least, we have all the foliage right there and we buckle to. It didn't take too long there being two of us.

Got home from arranging aching in every limb. Its not that its so very late, only about seven o'clock, but that's a good while from seven in the morning. I cook Bernard Matthew's Twisters and some chips - you'll eat anything when you're exhausted - anything that comes out of the fridge and doesn't take long, and later go to bed with a cup of cocoa and three digestive biscuits. Towards morning I wake up with a digestive biscuit under my hand, - mostly in crumbs. Well, what makes more crumbs than a digestive biscuit? 'Crumbs,' I think. 'That comes of going to bed with three digestive biscuits,' and I went back to sleep. At 4.30 am I was up to ice the tray cakes, and make signs. (Why can one never find all the signs from the previous year?), and at 5.30 am I'm back off to bed, but first having to remake it and shake the sheet out of the window.

Sunday, Russell's service. All the readers today come from the substitutes bench, but specially chosen so they can be heard without a mike. We are catering behind the door this year - Open Door Café - this is doing well. Thanks to the Castle Donington Scout Group, Lynda's husband provides us with a tent, taking it down each night and putting it up each morning. It was very much appreciated, together with some chairs from the school. People join me regularly behind the door, Margaret Elsie, Maggie, Arthur and Ann, and where would I have been without Rosemary's emergency washing-up, when pots went home to be washed, and didn't come back quick enough. Christine provided all the scones every day and the dairy provided the cream - many thanks to each and every one of you.

Monday, Jack, ken and I push the piano to the front for the tuner. He wants to come today because of an altered schedule. He knows where there is a better piano, possible swap? If it happens, what to do with the present piano? Anyone want a piano if we are offered another? Another lovely day. Someone came in on the off chance it being a flower festival and never saw an advert, not beside the road, not on the village green; she must drive in blinkers.

Tuesday, Margaret, Maggie and Elsie, we got home about four o'clock. All this time the usual stewarding is being kept up by others. I'll be back to lock up, and of course to sing in the concert. I think it went OK, especially 'Allunde, Allunde'. Handbells - lovely as usual, and patriotic. We had to sing what we already knew because some members had not been with us that long.

Wednesday, just a trickle of customers but worthwhile all the same. We're taking down at four, people are sitting all around the door in the sunshine, chatting. When they've all gone I vacuum the carpet and sweep the porch. The last lady fetched her arrangement just as I was ready to go home, dead beat. She broke a glass, and it was borrowed. You have to be so careful, it can be a nightmare.

Thursday. Returned things to owners, said thank you to Christine Needham, went miles endways to collect signs, make an appointment to meet Stan at 2.00 pm to put everything back and replace pew doors. Later made arrangements to meet David to put everything up in the loft at present littering the ringing chambers.

'Did you have a good flower festival?'

'Well, yes, thank you, it was good. We enjoyed it!'

This account was delivered to me anonymously, but I would like to thank Ida for all her hard work.

I really enjoyed this year's festival, and felt the theme and its floral interpretations were excellent, so a really big thank you to everyone who was involved, be they 'front or back', it was a good team effort, and very much appreciated by all who came.

John Dawson

Second Churchwarden For Breedon

Congratulations to Holly Wheeley for standing as a Churchwarden, along with Ida. Holly was instituted by the Ven. Ian Stanes, Archdeacon of Loughborough, and this means we have a complete team to run our parish at Breedon on the Hill. I'm looking forward to working with her during this coming year, and welcome her as a Chuchwarden in our United Benefice. Please include Holly in your prayers at this time as she settles into her new role.

Thanks For The Help

I would like to thank those people who helped me clean up the hay in the churchyard at Breedon. Our new bellringers Margaret and Barry, Wally and Barbara Cole, Mr Arkle and various members of the public.

Mr Arkle has a most surprising skill for a headmaster. I am convinced that he could load a wagon, rope it down, and bring it home without losing any.

Thank you everyone.

Ida Wright

The Breedon Angel

On 17 October 2001, the replica of the Breedon Angel was, at last, erected in the South Aisle of the church by John Larson and his team from the Museums and Galleries on Merseyside.

Earlier this year, the original had been scanned by 3D laser equipment, and the data collected was interpreted, and fed into a computer. Using the stored information, the replica was machined in a block of stone from Monks Park Quarry in Wiltshire. The scanning of the original has provided the replica with some details hidden by dust and grime, and if you look carefully at the wings of the Angel, you can see faint details of the feathers. It is possible that the original was painted, and normal representations of Gabriel had multi-coloured wings, so our angel must have been very special.

The installation of the replica, being a landmark event for the church, attracted a great deal of media interest, and interviews were given to BBC TV, Radio Leicester, The Times, BBC Online, and the local newspapers.

Since the replica was put in place, there have been many complimentary remarks, and I am pleased that the idea of the replica being dedicated to the memory of Ernest Hodgson is being well received. I am hoping that the replica will be dedicated at Morning Service on Advent Sunday.

Breedons in Canada

The following e-mail was received from a visitor to the Benefice Website.

My family name is BREEDON, we know one of our ancestors came from England. His name was William Breedon and he was born in England in 1790. My husband's name is also William Donald Breedon.

We are trying to find out just where in England he came from, and if there are any family members in England. If you can direct me to anyone who can help us in our quest I would appreciate it greatly. We live in a small village in Ontario, Canada.

Thank you very much Anne & Don Breedon

A second e-mail has arrived from another Canadian Breedon.

I am also a Breedon in Toronto, Canada just starting to trace the family roots back to England. I know that there are some Breedons still there and I am interested in finding out anything about the Breedon family. My Great Grand-father left England some time in the 1890s or earlier to come to Canada and settled in small town call King City in Ontario, Canada.

Regards Rob Breedon

Breedon Magazines

According to our records, we do not have copies of the following Breedon magazines:

Please search! If you can help us, please contact Ida Wright on 01332 862099