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Broomhills and Grosvenor Cottage
BROOMHILLS
and
BROOMHILLS LODGE
including Grosvenor Cottage
This page contains Video footage
Below - Left see the movie of walking to Broomhills - Spring 1988
Right - the ponds to the left of Broomhills as you look towards it from the front - Spring 1988.
No apologies for the soundtrack - put together in a moment of creative vacuum 20 years ago !
Broomhills was the name of a large house which once stood in the grounds now occupied by Broomwood Close. The original entrance gate had a lodge house to the west of its narrow, tree and shrub lined drive. Both the Lodge and Broomhills, itself, were demolished over the period 1996 -1997. The O.S. map of 1869 shows the lands of Broomhills as being undeveloped. A new house has been built (c2000)on the site of the old Broomhills Lodge. including Grosvenor Cottage
This page contains Video footage
Below - Left see the movie of walking to Broomhills - Spring 1988
Right - the ponds to the left of Broomhills as you look towards it from the front - Spring 1988.
No apologies for the soundtrack - put together in a moment of creative vacuum 20 years ago !
Broomhills in state of dereliction c1996
The pamphlet published especially for the auction sale of Baldwyns in 1876 refers to: Maypole Farm - with Lodge and Broomfields. Perhaps this is where the name Broomhills originated. It seems likely then that the lands of Broomhills originally once formed part of the Maypole Farm plot of the Baldwyns Estate. (There is an established house called Broomfields - a distance of a mile or so away to the east at the top of the hill in Common Lane, Wilmington near the junction with Parsonage Lane and is, most probably, not connected)
The Census of 1881 shows the site of Broomhills occupied by the GLYNN family. The head of the family was Lewis GLYNN, aged 31 yrs and he was married to Mary aged 26 yrs. He was a Barrister at Law. At that time they are shown on the census as having two children Mary, aged 4 yrs and Harry, aged 5 yrs. Title deeds to 27 Beaconsfield Road dated 1879 mention Lewis GLYNN. This would then indicate that the house was built and occupied sometime between the years 1869 and 1879.
Some of the older residents of Maypole Estate remember the field in front of the old house as 'GLYNNS FIELD'. In 1881 Fanny GLYNN also lived there. She was the younger unmarried sister of Lewis. The staff of Broomhills are listed on that census as being:- Alice LUCAS aged 19 yrs - the housemaid Rose LUCAS aged 17 yrs - the nurse (presumably to the two little children) Elizabeth NEWMAN aged 50 yrs and unmarried - the cook / domestic All three were single. It may be deduced that Rose and Alice were sisters as they were both born in Leatherhead, Surrey. Broomhills Lodge was the name of the lodgehouse to Broomhills and, as already stated, lay on the main road between Maypole Estate and the 'Dip'.
The Census of 1891 shows that 'The Lodge House', Dartford Lane, housed the TUTHILL family. (The electoral register of 1900 confirms that this 'Lodge House' does refer to Broomhills Lodge). The census of 1891 also shows the head of the household as being George TUTHILL and he was employed as 'Coachman Groom'. He was aged 40 yrs and married to Kate who was aged 42 yrs. They were shown as having three children, namely Mary, Robert and Peggy aged 9 yrs, 7 yrs and 3 yrs respectively. Thomas TUTHILL was shown as also being there aged 33 yrs - the brother of George.
Broomhills Lodge prior to demolition c1997
Video of Broomhills Lodge Spring 1988
and the new house . . . . . .
Video of Broomhills Lodge Spring 1988
and the new house . . . . . .
The 1891 O.S. map also shows the site of the Lodge developed. I believe that GLYNN had a stake in other land where the Maypole Estate now stands. Whether he arrived by them through purchase of Broomhills or by further speculation I am not sure. For instance, title deeds to 27 Beaconsfield Road show that in 1878 the land on which it now stands named Lewis Edmund GLYNN as being in a covenant, together with Frederick George GIBSON.
In 1878 the land was partitioned and another name entered the equation; that of Charles Reginald GIBSON. In 1879 there was further partition showing Frederick GIBSON, Edward Robert JENNINGS and Frank FELL. GLYNNs' name is no longer mentioned and I believe that he sold his interest in the Beaconsfield Road site to the developers GIBSON, JENNINGS and FELL. It is therefore possible to imagine that Lewis GLYNN may have bought the freehold of BROOMHILLS and Maypole Estate, in whole, if not in part.
The 1937 electoral register also shows that the CAMERONS owned Grosvenor Cottage as well - an Edwardian detached family residence once situated on the northern side of Old Bexley Lane and adjacent to the west of the junction with Baldwyns Road.
Grosvenor Cottage c 1996
and as it looks now with the new 'Grosvenor Mansions' on it's site.
and as it looks now with the new 'Grosvenor Mansions' on it's site.
The electoral register of the same year shows Joseph CAMERON in residence at Broomhills. Also living there were Elsie BONNER and Margaret BENNETT - presumably staff. The same electoral register shows Frances CAMERON - his wife - at the nearby Grosvenor Cottage. The electoral register of 1945 shows Joseph CAMERON and Elsie BONNER still at Broomhills itself, with Frances, his wife and John, his son, at Grosvenor Cottage. Joseph died in 1949. Although GLYNNS Field had been used for haymaking during the CAMERONS stay I can only ever remember it being used by the Bexley Hospital for the grazing of their cows. BROOMHILLS and its lands were owned at that time by Bexley Hospital for the use of tending short stay patients.
I believe the house and grounds were sold to the hospital by the CAMERONS c.1959. The narrow drive to Broomhills (virtually on the same drive currently to Broomwood Close) was borded to the west (field side) by mature horse chestnut trees. As a schoolboy, I can vividly remember harvesting the immense crop of 'conkers' they would bare every Autumn. I remember in the late 1950s that the Lodge was used to house the hospital farm pigman and his family. Bexley Hospital had a large farm and made good use of GLYNNS Field. One of my earliest recollections of the Lodge was as a young boy c.1961 visiting the family who lived there. I can distinctly remember that they had a son who suffered cerebral palsey. Despite this, he was a very happy child. Later (c 1966) the Lodge was used then and thereafter for housing medical staff. I think it was last inhabited c 1982.
Other childhood memories of Broomhills range from catching frogs in the ornamental ponds, situated westerly of the house, to the unearthing of an air raid shelter at the Northwest and using it as a base 'camp' for us local boys. Most of our childhood activities in the grounds were conducted using stealth and cunning as they were strictly private. It was not for use as a playground by the 'oiks' from the housing estate! Another building I remember to the north west of the grounds was an old concrete, round shouldered Nissen type hut. Presumably during the war it had been used for some related purpose or another but in my time it housed the cows.
The air raid shelter referred to earlier was situated right to the Northeast of the boundary and close to the Maypole Institute. It probably could have slept 8 or 10 people at a push, and was quite substantial. There are traces of it still. Mrs Dorothy HERF (nee CAMERON) told me that her father, Joseph CAMERON, arranged for it to be built. She also tells me that he was surprised when he began to build it to find traces of an earlier building there. Apparently he used the footprint and walls of the existing remains for his shelter. She was unable to say what the original building had once been. I remember that the two end corners opposite the two small entrance doors were rounded as opposed to squared. Could this have been an 'Ice House' - or was it too far from the main building ? Could it once have been a brick kiln ? An aerial photograph c1925 shows the outline of a narrow construction running from the direction of where the stables once were towards the Maypole House boundary (to the rear of the Institution hut). I have been told (Mr Alfred PETERS) that there was once a long greenhouse on this site. Could the original brickwork of the shelter have been some form of boiler house to heat the greenhouse ?
A fascinating little anecdote attached to the story to the outbuildings is the fact that several people have told me (Including Gordon LENNOX) that the stables ( later the garages ) had a small turn table mounted in the floor. This enabled any vehicle within to have been turned on its axis - drive in forwards and drive out forwards !! I can remember these outbuildings - as they backed on to the rear alleyway of the houses and gardens in Baldwyns Road. Even though I scampered all over these garages as a child I cannot really remember this turntable, for I suppose it must have been well before my time.
Below - Old Bexley Lane looking towards Baldwyns Road and Bexley c 1994. Clearly shows the side of Grosvenor Cottage behind wooden fence.
and as it looks now with the new developments . . . .
The spacious house of Broomhills has now been demolished ( November 1996 ) and new houses have been built. The road is now called Broomwood Close. The Lodge (demolished 1997) and Grosvenor Cottage (demolished 1996) also have gone. There is a complex of flats on the site of Grosvenor Cottage called ‘Grosvenor Mansions’. GLYNNS Field is now open to the public as some kind of pathetic reparation for loss of recreational land in 1970 when the A2 was built on Dartford Heath. The once very secret places outlying Broomhills and guarded under its protection, are now very exposed and quite unkempt.
Grosvenor Cottage (Rear) in state of demolition
Maypoleman |
Latest page update: made by Maypoleman
, Oct 7 2008, 9:55 AM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by Maypoleman
5 words added 6 words deleted view changes - complete history) |
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Keyword tags:
Baldwyns
Broomhills
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Glynn
Grosvenor Cottage
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