Efforts are continuing to obtain the funds needed to restore Broomfield House. In preparation for a probable public consultation exercise later in the year, a model of the house dating from 1951 (the model, that is - the house is rather older!) is to go on show. It is hoped that a Conservation Management Plan for the whole of Broomfield Park, currently in development, will enable the Broomfield House Trust and Enfield Council to make a second, successful, bid for Heritage Lottery Fund support.
Below, Colin Younger of the Broomfield House Trust, provides an update. For more detail, see the Restoring Broomfield House website.
Broomfield House Update
The Broomfield House Trustees have reached agreement with the Enfield Museum Service on the repair and refurbishment of a model of Broomfield House as it was before it came in to the ownership of the Southgate Urban District Council in 1903. The model was made in 1951 by a local resident, Geoffrey Dyer. It was on show in Broomfield House, but since the fire in 1984 it has been in store, during which time it has deteriorated a little and needs some TLC. The repairs and refurbishment will be carried out by another local resident, Ralph Hutchings. Among other things the model helps illustrate better than simple line drawings how the outward form of the House developed over its long existence.
Later this summer, subject to the agreement of the Broomfield House Partnership Board, consultants employed by Enfield Council will carry out a public consultation programme on the future of Broomfield House and Stableyard. Partly to help inform the exercise the Trustees are looking for a variety of suitable local display sites where the model, together with explanatory material, will be seen by as many residents as possible.
This is all in the wider context of a Conservation Management Plan for the whole of Broomfield Park, now nearing completion, which will provide the strategic plan needed to give a framework to investment, essential for Lottery funding purposes. Following completion of the CMP, work will commence in earnest on developing an Options Appraisal. The Trustees and Friends of Broomfield Park who sit in the Partnership Board (which is chaired by Palmers Green Councillor Bambos Charalambous) will continue to press to maximise community use of the House and Stableyard.
Colin Younger
The Broomfield House Trust
