Broome Hall
| Broome Hall | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Broome Hall | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ15054253 |
| Location: | 51°10’14"N, 0°21’21"W |
| Village: | Coldharbour |
| History | |
| Built c. 1830 | |
| For: | Andrew Spottiswoode |
| Country house | |
| Information | |
Broome Hall is a country house and estate south of Coldharbour in Surrey. 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.
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.[1] It was also home from 1865 to the politician Frederick Pennington (died 1914) and his suffragette wife Margaret.[2][3]
20th century
In the Second World War, Broome Hall was used as the headquarters of the Canadian forces.[4]
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.[4]
The actor Oliver Reed bought the house from the monks, and lived there in the late 1960s until the 1980s.[4] 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.[5] 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.[4] Reed was banned from his local pub there for descending a chimney naked and shouting out: "Ho! Ho! Ho! I'm Santa Claus."[4] According to legend, Reed buried the jewellery collection of a former girlfriend in the grounds where it still lies.[4]
The house was then bought by a property developer who converted it into flats.[4] It was grade II listed with Historic England in 1987.[1]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Broome Hall) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Heritage List 1028759: Broome Hall (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "The Country Estates - Dorking Museum & Heritage Centre" (in en-US). Dorking Museum & Heritage Centre. https://www.dorkingmuseum.org.uk/the-country-estates/.
- ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth. (2006) (in en). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781136010545. https://books.google.com/books?id=uUrKCVn9VZkC&pg=PA187.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Vendrickas, Ginetta (15 March 2007). "Still reeling from its colourful past". The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/advice/propertymarket/3357136/Still-reeling-from-its-colourful-past.html. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
- ↑ Martin, Guy (10 July 2013). "Oliver Reed's unique lifestyle remembered in new book". SurreyLive. https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/oliver-reed-biography-tells-outrageous-4890139.
- Sellers, Robert: 'What Fresh Lunacy is This?' (Constable, 2014)
