Portslade in the Past: The Broomfield Family of Portslade

Judy Middleton (2002 revised 2022)

copyright © J.Middleton
The shop in Trafalgar Road run by John Broomfield (1840-1911) can be seen on the left in this postcard dating from 1905.

John Broomfield (1840-1911) was born at Cuckfield. He married Mary Dodd in 1863 and they had a large family of five daughters and three sons. The family moved to Portslade and John worked as a market gardener. Later on, he earned a living as a tobacconist and greengrocer (an odd combination) in Trafalgar Road, Portslade, next door to the Post Office.

John Broomfield had an older brother Martin who was also born at Cuckfield and moved to Portslade. He worked 64 acres as a market gardener and farmer. The 1881 census records him living in Portslade Farmhouse in the village later known as the Old Schoolhouse. The Broomfields were certainly a prolific lot because Martin and his wife Eliza produced at least nine children.

John Broomfield’s three sons all gained experience of market gardening by working for their father at Portslade before embarking upon their own enterprises. William moved away and had his own market garden at Southbourne, West Sussex. He and his wife Emma had eight children.

John (1868-1942) came to farm a great swathe of Portslade over the years and his brother Martin worked for him as foreman and farm bailiff. Martin married Eva Voller and they started married life in Mile Oak Cottages. They had three children but unhappily, one baby died a few days after birth. Apparently, Martin’s character was entirely different from his outgoing brother John because he was quiet and reserved. But Martin enjoyed bell-ringing in St Leonard’s Church, Aldrington where his name is recorded on a board inside the church. He must have been one of those ringing a full muffled peal to mark the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Martin Broomfield died in 1945.

John Broomfield (1868-1942) was born in Portslade Grange, High Street, (the site now covered by modern housing opposite the George pub). By 1901 he was living at 7 Beaconsfield Road. Broomfield started his farming career on a smallholding called Four Acres (the site now covered by the back gardens of houses in Southdown Road). In 1901 he began working at North House Farm although he did not occupy the farmhouse until his partner Sid West retired in 1925. In around 1905 Broomfield moved into the Stonery. Besides managing Mile Oak Farm and the Stonery, Broomfield later ran Easthill Farm too, which he rented from Brighton Corporation.

copyright © Broomfield
John Broomfield (1868-1942) poses proudly beside three cups he won at three separate agricultural shows for Best Butcher’s Beast

John Broomfield married Amy Dearing in 1895 and they had four children; twins Albert and Amy arrived in 1898, followed by Frank and Maurice and they were all expected to lend a hand around the farms.

Albert would have preferred a career at sea but his father wanted to keep his sons at home to help run his business. However, the outbreak of the Great War caused disruption to this plan. Albert lost no time in rallying to the flag, enlisting at Brighton on 6 August 1914 at the age of seventeen. His occupation was noted as ‘gardener’ and he was 5 feet 6 inches in height, a standard height in those days. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and eventually became a Corporal. He seems to have survived his experiences in relatively good shape but his medical records indicate he suffered his last attack of malaria in November 1918. Then when the war was over he fell dangerously ill with paratyphoid in February 1919 and just as he was recovering he went down with a dose of enteric fever; it was July 1919 before he recovered completely but he must have had a tough constitution to survive such illnesses. He was discharged from the Army on 31 July 1919. It seems he felt he deserved something extra besides his war pension because a medical board examined him at Brighton in January 1920. He was awarded the magnificent sum of £5 and that apparently was the government’s final offer.

Maurice tried to join the Army too but he told a fib about his age and when his mother alerted the authorities to the fact he was too young for military service, he was swiftly returned to Portslade. Maurice later married Mabel Turner and they had two sons, Robert and Frank, and a daughter Elizabeth. Maurice continued to work on the farm with his brother Albert and when their father died in 1942, they took over.

Frank also joined the armed forces and he returned home in one piece. However, he was never the same man again, having been harmed by the war, either through injury or illness. He was engaged to Ethel Taylor but he never married her because he died at Stonery in November 1920; his name is on Portslade’s war memorial in Easthill Park

That leaves us with the only girl of the family, Amy, who by all accounts was a feisty lady and a match for her brothers. She thoroughly enjoyed her time as a Land Girl in the Great War. In the Thirties she went skiing in Switzerland and in 1938 travelled aboard a large luxury liner to visit a cousin who was a beef farmer in Buenos Aires.

In the 1930s Portslade Council offered John Broomfield a generous sum for the land they wished to buy in order to build a school and houses. Broomfield was outraged to think his precious farmland could be covered with bricks and mortar and turned them down. But a Compulsory Purchase Order was made and Broomfield suffered the indignity of being paid less than the sum he was offered in the first place.

Meanwhile, Albert Broomfield served as a Portslade councillor for twenty-one years but life became difficult when the topic of compulsory purchase of Broomfield farmland came up; since he had a vested interest in the outcome he had to leave the room and could not vote on the issue. In April 1937 Albert Broomfield came top of the polls with 596 votes but it was also the year the council wanted to buy 25 acres north of Chalky Road. In 1953 he became Chairman of Portslade Council. He was also a keen photographer and enjoyed swimming too.

Albert Broomfield married Mabel Goodwin and they had two sons; Peter born in 1922 and John born in 1925. They both inherited their father’s love of the sea; Peter joined the Royal Navy and John served for four years with the Merchant Navy during the Second World War. Afterwards, John was quite happy to return to the family farm and keep sailing as a leisure pursuit. Young John Broomfield lived at Stonery for some forty years. On retirement, he moved to Hove and he died on 15 July 1999. It is a neat twist in the tale to record that his daughter Julia Cross lives at Mile Oak Farmhouse.

copyright © Ken Broomfield
This evocative photograph dates from 1947 and shows John Broomfield (son of Albert) his cousin Bill Broomfield (son of Martin the bell-ringer in St Leonard's Church) and Bill's young son Ken.

Sources

Census returns

10 March 2022

The Broomfield Family of Portslade