Broomfield Past & Present

Broomfield Present

 

Broomfield Parish Council serves the civil parish of Broomfield, and lies some two and a half miles to the north of the county town of Chelmsford, Essex  To the south of the Parish lies the boundary of the Town of Chelmsford, whilst to the west the parishes of Chignal and Great Waltham and the north and east the parishes of Little Waltham and Springfield.

 

The bulk of the Parish is under cultivation with the population concentrated along the length of Main Road, Broomfield.  The village has been home to Broomfield Hospital since 1940. 

During the 1950’s the hospital served as a TB sanatorium, since then it has rapidly become the largest of the Mid-Essex Hospital Services Trust units, and a centre of excellence for the treatments including a specialist burns unit . 

The village has a primary, Broomfield Primary, and secondary school, Chelmer Valley High, both of which have Foundation status.

 

Broomfield has a range of shops and other facilities.  Shops and eating places include: a small supermarket, an off-license / general store, a butchers shop, a newsagents, a filling station, a car dealership and car / truck service facility, a tyre store, two hairdressers, a model shop, an antique shop, an orthodontist,   a fish and chip shop and an Indian and pizza / kebab takeaway.  In addition there are two inns, the Angel where parts of the building are said to be at least 400 years old       

            

 

and the Kings Arms.

           

           

 

 

St Mary’s church is one of only six in Essex retaining a round tower.  The tower is Norman and includes many re used Roman bricks. 

 

The Parish Council has a well attended allotment site and one recreational area.  The recreational area is marked out as a football pitch and is hired at weekends to the village football club.  The remaining area, known as the David Smith Memorial field, provides informal recreation space.  In addition the Parish Council was successful in gaining lottery funds in 1999 to provide a flood lit multi-use games area which stands on the western edge of the memorial field and adjacent to the well used community centre. 

Main Road Allotment Site

 

A children’s play area is provided adjacent to the community centre.

 

                                               

 

The Parish is crossed by a network of footpaths, providing pleasant walks and views across the countryside.  Hidden in the cultivated areas are some wonderful little gems such as the

 

·        Parsonage Green

·        Newland Grove managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust

·        Border Wood

·        Pudding Wood

·        Daffy Wood

·        Sparrow Hawk Wood

 

 

The locations of the footpaths and woods can be found in the excellent publication, Country Stile, which describes the footpaths and bridleways in the Broomfield area and can be purchased from the Parish office.

 

Broomfield Past

 

Broomfield is more than just a name, it is a community with a history going back far beyond the first record of the name.  It was Brumfelda in 1086 but people had been living here long before .  Flint arrowheads, Celtic coins and other artefacts testify to pre-Roman occupation.

 

The Romans were here too.  A villa of some importance was established here, more than 300 Roman coins have been unearthed, together with brooches and equine artefacts.  The wall of the church contains many large Roman bricks and tiles.

 

Broomfield Hall was a Saxon foundation, which together with Patching Hall and Belstead Hall, became the foundation of the village of Broomfield.  Patching Hall was the largest of the Saxon manors and a 7th century burial on its land indicates that it was the home of a wealthy leader.  Some of the grave goods, garnet and gold, blue glassware, bear a resemblance to the famous Sutton Hoo and the iron lamp found in the grave is larger than its Sutton Hoo counterpart.

 

The church of St Mary with St Leonard dates back to the end of the 11th century, its prominent round tower being added a few years later,  The nave, tower and part of the chancel are Norman. 

                                                                                                                                                   

The chancel was extended around 1430.  A line of Roman tiles clearly shows where the original building ended.  It was also in the 15th century that the church acquired its porch and spirs.  A curious feature of the church is the “pudding stone” in the south wall of the nave, not unique, as there are other bits in the wall but the reason for it being deliberately placed to protrude, so far has not yet been fully explained.  Inside the fine 13th century stone font has had a chequered career, thrown out during the  Commonwealth period (1653- 58), it turned up again in 1843 and was restored to the church.

 

Reminders of Broomfield’s past can be seen in its many old buildings 

Broomfield was an agricultural community and so it inevitably had farmhouses, several of which have been rebuilt over the ages to reflect the changes in taste and prosperity. 

Broomfield Hall  has 15th century timbers; Priors is a fine 16th century building, Butlers was rebuilt in the 1780’s in a fashionable Georgian style, Stacey’s was also rebuilt at around the same time, Scravels, still an old timber-framed building, was given a Victorian exterior.

Of Broomfield’s five “Greens”, three have the atmosphere of a village grfeen.  Parsonage Green has its pond and the Parsonage with its superb tithe barn.  Angel Green has the 15th century Angel public house and the backdrop of the grounds of Broomfield Place, while the buildings around the attractive Church Green span some 900 years! 

 

Woollards, on the south side of Church Green, is a reminder that this was once a row of cottages given by a wealthy benefactor for the benefit of the poor of Broomfield forever.  The cottages were eventually sold and the proceeds invested to give an income, which is still put to charitable uses in the parish.

 

Much of the past can still be seen in Broomfield’s countryside, a valuable part of the community today.  The river Chelmer forms an attractive feature of the parish and there was a mill here in 1086.  The mill is no more but the miller’s house remains beside the river, where the weir still gives the fall of water to derive the long gone wheel.

 

Croxtons Mill


The countryside is still criss-crossed with footpaths, which once served to join homesteads, the mill and the church.  There is even history here, the footpath that goes across the field from Goulton Road to the church was granted as a right of way by the Lord of the Manor, Sir Thomas de Mandeville, in 1294.

 

Education has a long history in Broomfield.  In 1708 it was noted “Ric Gyles have leave to keep Scoole in the Vestry and that he lettnone of the schollrs goe into the church”.  In 1709 the parish agreed to pay 3 pence (old money) a week for the schooling of Widow Parter’s boy.  In 1715 the schoolmaster, an outsider, was sent back to his parish lest he became a charge on Broomfield if he became sick.  In 1760 the parish register records the burial of a boy, “a boarder at the school at New House” (now Broomfield Place). 

 In 1831 Thomas Christy provided a purpose built school near Parsonage Green and in the 1850’s there was a school in one of the outbuildings of the Parsonage.  One can still see the location of Christy’s, (now demolished), factory in Broomfield Road.

 

Broomfield’s population has increased dramatically in recent years. There were 36 tenants on the Broomfield manors on 1066, perhaps giving a total population of around 150 people.  By the 16th century the number of entries in the parish register suggests a population of 300/400 and by 1801 it had risen to 467.  The 1891 census put the figure at just under 900 and over 100 years later in 1991, it had reached 3,911.  With ever greater expansion planned for the hospital, the number will doubtless continue to rise, and our heritage of countryside and village greens will become ever more precious.