The House
The following extracts are from:
Broomfield:An Illustrated History of the House and Garden - Steven Brindle, Southgate District Civic Trust, 1994
Enfield Council would like to thank Steven Brindle and the Trust for their co-operation in allowing this material to be used on the Broomfield House website.
The House in the 16th Century
Broomfield began, in the 16th century, as a moderately-sized timber-framed farmhouse, of two storeys and without a cellar. This was, roughly speaking, the two rooms to the right of the hall. It may have had only two or three rooms on each floor. Over the northern compartment, the roof had gables facing east and west; the side to the east had a jettied first floor and ornamental cross-bracing in it - a feature more commonly found in Lancashire and Cheshire than in the south east of England.
There were several phases of addition and change to this fairly simple house and it is not clear when these actually took place. In the first major alterations a chimney was inserted into the farmhouse and then another timber-framed gabled wing was added at its northern end, over a brick basement, with another chimney on its north side. This area is now the entrance hall and staircase hall. These alterations would have tended to make the house more comfortable and may have been made in the late 16th century, possibly when Geoffrey Walkeden purchased it in the 1560s.
Additions in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Further timber-framed additions were made, probably early in the 17th century, when the south western side of the original house was pushed outwards and given two new gables. Another wing was added on the north side of the house over new brick cellars. The date of the cellars is not certain, but it is known that by 1624 Broomfield was already quite a large house, as it was rated as having 14 hearths in that year. At some point, perhaps early in the 18th century, a brick-built service wing was added to the south east corner of the house. This seems likely to have contained subsidiary rooms to serve the kitchen, such as a pantry and scullery.
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At all events, Broomfield in the late 17th and the 18th century was not the solid rectangular block that it is today. It was roughly U-shaped, with a little open courtyard facing east. |
Both the east and west fronts had four or five gables, facing each way; a contemporary watercolour of the west front shows that in about 1800 the house still had this general appearance.
How would the plan of this house have worked? For the 17th century there is insufficient evidence to say. It is known that by the 1720s the hall and main staircase were in their present position. The fine panelling and chimneypiece in the room to the right of the hall mark it out as a major reception room, perhaps the dining room (this is in the oldest part of the 16th century house, but the panelling is early 18th century).
The large room to the south of this, with its big chimney may have been the kitchen. The wing which was added, opening off this to the east, is built of brick, not timber-framed, which suggests an 18th century date. It contains the entrance to the cellars and what seems to have been a stone-flagged pantry, confirming the general impression that the south end of the house was the servants' end. This means that the north end of the house would have contained the smarter reception rooms, which explains why it was rebuilt on a grander scale, probably early in the 19th century.
The watercolour and enclosure map give a rough idea of the shape and appearance of Broomfield around 1800. It was still mostly a timber-framed building, except for the little service wing on the south side. It was many-gabled but the timber-framing was all covered with white rendering. There were 18th century sash windows to the ground floor rooms, but on the first floor there were still the old casement windows. A little bellcote stood on the roof above the hall until the fire in 1984. To the right of the hall, in the southern part of the house, were probably the dining room, kitchen and service rooms. To the left of the hall was a drawing room or rooms, which have since been completely rebuilt.
It must have seemed a rather old-fashioned house and it may be that it was Mr and Mrs Lybbe Powys, on inheriting Broomfield in 1816, who decided to spend some money updating it. Certainly the house experienced some fairly radical surgery not long after 1800.
