Broome Hall

Broome Hall
Broome Hall, seen in 2006
General information
Status Converted to flats
Type Country house and estate
Classification Grade II listed
Location Near Coldharbour, Surrey, England
Completed c. 1830
Known for Home of Andrew Spottiswoode and Oliver Reed
Andrew Spottiswoode (1787-1866),[1] first owner of Broome Hall.
Oliver Reed in 1968

Broome Hall is a country house and estate south of Coldharbour in Surrey, England. It was built around 1830 for the politician and printer Andrew Spottiswoode, and had a succession of owners before being converted into flats in the twentieth century. It is grade II listed with Historic England.

19th century

The house was built about 1830 for the politician and printer Andrew Spottiswoode, and extended in the late 19th century for Sir Alexander Brown, 1st Baronet.[2] It was also home from 1865 to the politician Frederick Pennington (died 1914) and his suffragette wife Margaret.[3][4]

20th century

In the Second World War, Broome Hall was used as the headquarters of the Canadian forces.[5]

In 1954, the White Fathers, Christian missionaries in Africa and an order of monks, bought the property and used it as their British novitiate, for training new monks.[5]

The actor Oliver Reed bought it from the monks, and lived there in the late 1960s until the 1980s.[5] According to Reed's biographer Robert Sellers, Reed only bought the house because he wanted a field to keep his horse in, but then spent a fortune renovating it.[6] The naked wrestling scene with Reed and Alan Bates in Ken Russell's 1969 film Women in Love is said to have been filmed there.[5] Reed was banned from his local pub there for descending a chimney naked and shouting out: "Ho! Ho! Ho! I'm Santa Claus."[5] According to legend, Reed buried the jewellery collection of a former girlfriend in the grounds where it still lies.[5]

The house was then bought by a property developer who converted it into flats.[5] It was grade II listed with Historic England in 1987.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Andrew Spottiswoode. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  2. 1 2 Historic England. "Broome Hall  (Grade II) (1028759)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  3. ↑ "The Country Estates - Dorking Museum & Heritage Centre". Dorking Museum & Heritage Centre. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  4. ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth. (2006). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781136010545.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Vendrickas, Ginetta (15 March 2007). "Still reeling from its colourful past". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Martin, Guy (10 July 2013). "Oliver Reed's unique lifestyle remembered in new book". SurreyLive. Retrieved 12 August 2018.

Further reading

  • Sellers, Robert. (2014) What Fresh Lunacy is This? London: Constable.

Media related to Broome Hall at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.