The main road. from Worcester to London used to pass by the old church, passing by Pie Corner, Coneygree Lane and the Seven Wells. It is impossible to say definitely when this highway was abandoned and the road in the direction of the present road down Fish Hill was substituted. A number of facts, unimportant in themselves but of value in the aggregate, point to the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century, when the village of Broadway assumed its present position, and. consequently brought about the disuse of the 'ancient way'.
The negotiation of Broadway Hill must have been at all times very difficult and. dangerous, as the road went directly down. It remained so until the Turnpike Act of 1757, when it was enacted that the road 'from Russell's Lane to the Fish upon Broadway Hill was to be amended, supported and widened'. But it was not until after 1771 that a bold attempt was made to ease the gradient by the making of the so-called. 'Serpentine Road'.
The two roads can easily be traced in the ground lying to the north of the present roadway. For some 50 years this Serpentine Road sufficed for all the traffic between London and Worcester, but with the ever-increasing vehicular traffic of the early 19th century, especially of the London coaches, the demand for a road of good surface and easier gradients, was persistent. Coaches and wagons needed 14 horses in winter to reach the top of the hill. The changing stone for the horses was still in position on the roadside in 1906.
In 1822, under the powers obtained by the Act of 3, George IV, the road down Broadway Hill was finally taken in hand, and the present layout with two wide sweeping curves to the south was engineered by a Mr. Allen Stokes.