Editing Breedon on the Hill (section)

==History==
Excavation of The Bulwarks in 1946 identified occupation between about the 1st century BC and about 1st century AD.<ref name=Pevsner75>{{harvnb|Pevsner|1960|p=75.}}</ref>

The [[Toponymy_of_England|toponym]] is derived from the [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] word ''bre'' for hill and the [[Old English]] word ''dun'' for hill.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mills |first=A.D. |year=2003 |title=A Dictionary of British Place Names |location=London |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-852758-6 }}{{page needed|date=August 2013}}</ref> Hence in its current form the name combines three forms of the word hill.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Leicestershire/Breedon+on+the+Hill|title=Key to English Place-names|website=kepn.nottingham.ac.uk|access-date=15 August 2021|archive-date=15 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815082547/http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Leicestershire/Breedon+on+the+Hill|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Briudun'', an early spelling, has been traced from AD 731.

Medieval hagiography manuscripts record four saints buried in Breedon on the Hill. They are Friduricus,<ref name=williams>{{cite web |url=http://www.benefice.org.uk/breedon_church/the_breedon_story/index.php |title=The Story of St. Mary and St. Hardulph Church: A Cradle of our Faith |first=Brian C. J. |last=Williams |year=1996 |orig-year=1975 |publisher=The United Benefice of Breedon and Worthington |access-date=9 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209171714/http://www.benefice.org.uk/breedon_church/the_breedon_story/index.php |archive-date=9 February 2006}}</ref> donor of [[Church of St Mary and St Hardulph, Breedon on the Hill#Holy Hill Monastery|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.<ref>[https://archive.today/20140103065303/http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=stowe_ms_944_f029v Stowe MS 944], [[British Library]]</ref><ref>The [[Oxford Dictionary of Saints]], [[Oxford University Press]].</ref>

Breedon has a circular stone-built [[village lock-up]]<ref name=Pevsner75/> with an adjoining animal pound. The lock-up is 18th-century<ref name=NHLE1074127>{{NHLE |num=1074127 |desc=Lock Up and Pound |grade=II |fewer-links= |access-date=9 November 2024}}</ref> and similar to the one in the nearby [[Worthington, Leicestershire|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.<ref name=NHLE1074127 />

[[Breedon Hall]] is an historic building which was the ancestral home of the Curzon family.

In 1874, a branch of the [[Midland Railway]] was built through the eastern part of the parish and [[Tonge and Breedon railway station]] was built at Tonge. In 1980 [[British Rail]] closed the line and later the track was dismantled. The trackbed through the parish is now part of [[National Cycle Route 6]].