Broomfield, England

The following Letter appeared in the August 16, 2006 Broomfield Enterprise

Dispatch from Broomfield's English Twin

By Tony Skinner Guest Columnist

Being asked to write about us here in Broomfield, England, was a great privilege, particularly for a readership in our twinned namesake city in the U.S.A. As a boy, I well remember listening to a certain Alistair Cooke with his "Letter from America." Not that my prose could in any way be compared with his, but hopefully it will give some interesting insight into your twinned city, Broomfield, here in the south of England.

As you might know, in 1989 some ladies from your city visited England and proposed a twinning of our two cities. I should perhaps explain that Broomfield here is a small village or hamlet in a parish of the same name which is situated a few miles east of Maidstone in the County of Kent.

The people here felt quite honored with a twinning arrangement and duly mounted the charter in the local church, St. Margaret's. When I was invited to visit Broomfield, U.S.A., the very first thing I did was to find the location of the city on an atlas. Yes, there it was, just north of Denver - now there's a place name I had heard of from the Western films seen in my youth.

So, I should give to you our location here in England perhaps. Well, our county, like a U.S. state, is that of Kent, which is to the east of London and is the closest part of England to the rest of Europe. In fact, you may know that a tunnel has now been constructed from Kent to Calais in France, and now we can take an evening trip to France and back. There was a malicious rumor that you could even smell the garlic from the tunnel, but I do not believe it.

As mentioned before, we are about 6 miles due east of Maidstone, which is the county town of Kent - in fact part of the Maidstone Borough for administration - situated in a rural setting with a major castle, Leeds, almost totally within our parish boundary. There is a parish of Leeds next to us, and the castle park is spread over both of the parishes. The name of Leeds comes from the original builder of a small castle on the river Len in 850 A.D., a Saxon named Led. Talking of names, Broomfield comes from the Brvmfelle, which appears in the Norman Domesday book of 1086, and relates to the abundance of a shrub, perhaps the Cystisus Scoparius, bearing bright yellow flowers still growing in our local wood today. Thus, Broomfield was open land where Broom grows. Although only a small place, it was considered to warrant the construction, in the early 12th century, of a ragstone church by the Augustinian Priory of St. Mary and St. Nicholas of Leeds. This church, St. Margaret's in Broomfield, is where the twinning charter is displayed today.

Until the middle of the last century, Broomfield was a small hamlet in the valley close to its church and the Castle of Leeds. Rising above the hamlet farmland is a large wood known today as Kingswood, which was recorded in a charter of 850 A.D. as "Cyninges firhow;" and later in 1468 as "woods called le Kingswode and le frithe." Farming and working for the castle were the principal occupations of the population, which at this time numbered around 150.

After the second World War, some land was obtained on the edge of Kingswood and a few bungalows built by small builders, bringing new people into the parish but away from the hamlet. By the late 1950s, more building in and around the Kingswood area was done, bringing more new people, and this has been the trend ever since, bringing the number of residents up to a present parish population of more than 1,200. Luckily, the development so far has not been too much into the woods, thus on our doorstep are acres of trees, which in springtime are carpeted in a sea of bluebells. The Hamlet of Broomfield by the ancient church and castle has not been touched by building or development and remains only disturbed by vehicles to and from Kingswood.

There is a lot more history to relate, both ancient and modern, as the castle and other places here have seen a lot of history. The castle has had many links with America; in fact, an owner at one time owned some 5 million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. Another later employed a George Washington to carry out a land survey.

I would be glad to write more of this, but the function of this letter is to say "Hi" and to explain that we would be so pleased to expand our link with your city through communication between people and groups with similar interests. To start, we have formed a twinning steering group made up of people with various interests in the parish. It's through them that we could devise a method of putting names and faces together. It would seem an ideal method of communication could be a Web site to get to as many people as possible, so, as the so-called "link man," I will address the group to get under way.

I do hope this letter has been of interest and constructive in starting a firm bond between our cities.

On behalf of the twinned Broomfield in England,

Tony Skinner