Mexborough and Swinton Times July 29, 1938

Broomhill – Village Worthy Of Preservation
Why Not Re-Development?

A picture of the village, showing how familiar landscapes are being changed by rehousing.

Slowly but surely the village of Broomhill is passing out of ken. Under the eyes of those whose family ties for generations have been centred in this little suburb, It may some day be restored either through the enterprise of the local authority or through the intervention of private builders, but there is no indication of that for the present.

Flood Dangers.

Partly because of flood dangers there has been no inclination for some time to favour Broomhill as a building site. The villagers are being removed by the score to higher altitudes in Wombwell. ‘Broomhillers have a rooted objection to being transported lock stock and barrel from the neighbourhood in which they have been brought up—the folk they know and the open fields they love.

But there is not the slightest doubt that once moved Broomhill people are as appreciative as anybody of better housing conditions.

“Two Baths Apiece”.

The value of this was brought home to a “Times” reporter this week when he was told by a recently re-housed tenant that his children had had “two baths apiece” that day.

Altogether there are (or were) 140 houses all told in Broomhill some of brick, some of stone. All dated from about eighty years ago when the brick pond was being worked by Rotherys.   A great number at any rate were becoming “worn out”. Incidentally, the clay pit provides the answer to the question as to why Broomhill was developed in that situation in the first place.

Transport in those days was different and when the bricks were made (mostly by hand it will be observed) the inclination was to dump in the most convenient spot.

Before the clay pit started there were only a few stone houses at Broomhill the most important probably being the farmhouse opposite the Methodist chapel. That was where was situated the orchard from which the modern block known as “Orchard View” clerked its name. Not many months ago the methodists of Broomhill held a garden fete “in the orchard”.

Reverting to the question of the “eclipse” of Broomhill, it may be mentioned that demolition have so far proceeded that nearly a third of the village has gone already.            There have already been pulled clown or scheduled for demolition an eleven, an eight, a seven, a six, a four, two threes and a two, making forty four in all. All of these were situated in Pontefract Road, Everill Gate Lane  and cross sections.

Broomhill is one of those triangular villages, very ii rich favoured by builders of a period when ready made roads were preferred. Whether more demolitions are required or not is a matter for the local authority, but there are many more Broomhillers who “expect to go”, either because of over- crowding or for other reasons. Gaunt chimney stacks and gaping windows still remain as unlovely reminders of a domesticity that was

Village Historian.

Anyone seeking details of the history of Broomhill could not do better than talk to Mr. Joseph Green, the veteran Methodist, who can look back upon 74 years in the village and has outlived some of the houses we saw erected. At seven years of age Mr. Green used to take his father’s  dinner to the brickworks, and one of his delights was to watch the men making bricks. Before he was eight he was given the job of “clapping” bricks at 7d. a day, working in the afternoons only. At nine he was on full time at the brick works. Mr. Green never had any ,”schooling”‘ but he learned to read and write all the same, being entirely self-taught. He recalls , that most of the houses in the Winterwell district of West Melton were built of Broomhill bricks, and that a speciality at these works was the making of earthenware pipes for land drainage. Nothing has remained of the brickworks but the waterlogged clay pit in which small boys fish for tadpoles and ducks disport themselves.

It has always been the custom for the people of Broomhill to provide their own pleasures and to develop their own social life. Very little has happened in the course of a century to make the village notable, but they have “seen life” in some exciting guises. They have had, a lot of fun out of the floods in many visitations. A Broomhill veteran who recently passed away was was Mr. Henry Brooksbank, life-long friend of Mr. Green and co-methodist. Mr. Brooksbank could recall the time when floods were frequent and when it was necessary three or four times every winter to commission horse-drawn vehicles to take pedestrians over the water between the Railway Inn and the bridge over the Dearne and nearly as far as the railway crossing in Pontefract Road.

When The Navvies Came.

M r. Brooksbank also recall Broomhill being visited by successive waves of industrial activity, first the widening of the main line between Wath and Darfield, then the opening out of the tunnel and Cat Hill, and then the construction of the great concentration yard on the Great Central system at Wath.

All in turn brought fresh faces and increased the demand for board and lodging in the village. And incidentally the newcomers were not all of the best type. Fighting and squabbling by these outsiders often disturbed the natural serenity of the village in those days.

The opening out of the Cat Hill tunnel on the Midland system was considered a considerable engineering feat cars it was accomplished, as Mr. Brook shank recalled, without a single train being stopped or delayed.

Incidentally how did Broomhill get its name in the first place? Was it Broom-Mill (implying a water mill at the bridge over the Dearne, or at Bulling Dyke Bridge)  or Broom-hill (suggesting that broom grew on that knoll where the Methodist church stands) ? Nobody knows. We can only speculate.

Methodism at Broomhill has known some exciting days, but whoever thought that the old box like bethel in Pontefract Road would one day be converted into a club, and later into a patent medicine factory! Mr. Brooksbank remembered that old church being- built and was one of the prime movers in raising funds for the new one. The first collection in the old chapel had just been taken up when his father, Jesse Brooksbank, whom many will remember as a venerable figure with a patriarchal beard, rushed out of the building proclaiming loudly to the world at large. “We have got gold! We have got gold”! Someone had given the church officials a profound shock by dropping a golden sovereign into the bag .

Problem of The Churches

Now what is to become of church life at Broomhill. For many years it has been difficult for the two places of worship—the Methodist chapel and St. Mary’s mission church. Progressive demolition with the consequent denudation of population is not likely to make the work any easier. This problem has been referred to on several occasions in the parish magazine. Will the time come when one or the other have to retreat?

Can anything be done for Broomhill? This is a question which the “Times” asks without any apologies. No one would condone bad housing or deny the right of the worker to comfort and convenience in habitation, but there are good arguments for the preservation of village life and the disintegration of population. What about air raid precautions? Is it safer to scatter or to concentrate?

Rehousing at Wombwell has seen a variation of the normal routine in that people have been brought in instead of being taken out. The policy at Sheffield, for example, has been to clear the centre and develop the extreme suburbs. There are difficulties at Wombwell in the matter of suitable housing sites, but is there any reason why Broomhill should be ruled out?

Would it not be possible to re-house- these families, or at any rate some proportion of them, at or near the spot where they have been brought up ? As a locality Broomhill certainly cannot be considered unhealthy because it is open to infinity back and front. New houses many of these house-proud people certainly. desire, but they do not like the prospect of being re-settled among strangers. in a strange environment. It is claimed ‘by the older residents of Broomhill that they have never been visited by any epidemic and that their health figures areas good (if not better) than those of any other part of the township, Jump and Hemingfield included. This should be easy to prove.

Plea To Builders.

Is there any reason why Broomhill should be rejected as a suitable site for housing, either by the local authority or private enterprise ? Builders who know the locality declare that there is not. Chief obstacle in the past has been the flooding risk, but experts now declare that through the operations of the Dearne and Dove Drainage Board that danger has been got rid of for all time ; they say that if there is any flooding at all in future it will be confined to the fields. In any case a considerable portion of Broomhill is above the flood level, the neighbourhood of the Methodist church and the waterworks, for example. With a little encouragement on the part of the local authority, who may possibly see no objection to, housing developments in that area, private builders might be induced to take up this proposition. This, it would seem, is a matter for the Broomhill representatives on the local authority. Broomhill people would certainly appreciate their efforts.

Meanwhile Broomhillers are being drafted on to the new Summer Lane housing site in Loxley Avenue, Foley Avenue, Stubbs Road and other neighbouring streets, very much to the advantage of local traders, and the impoverishment of those in the village. As anyone who knows them will tell you, they are a good type. There is no more law-abiding community in the country than Broomhill. Can nothing be done for its preservation?