The Parish of Broome sits in the far Northeast of the County of Worcestershire, within the district of Wyre Forest. There are three distinct settlements, at Hackman’s Gate (once Hangman’s Gate), at Yieldingtree and in the Village of Broome itself. There are approximately 120 dwellings housing some 350 people, mostly in those three areas but some dotted about the nearby countryside.
Broome was originally named for the abundance of the distinctive, yellow flowered bushes in the area, now very few and far between. The stream flowing through it rises in the Clent Hills and once serviced mills along its route through Clent and Belbroughton, at Broome itself a water mill existed at the site of the Broome House lake. The stream meanders on through to Churchill where the old water mill is still in existence.
In the village itself, during the 19th century, there were three significant houses; Broome House, The Rectory and Church House. The present church, St Peter’s, was built in 1780 with later additions; the vicar from 1810 was Edward Dudley. He lived in the Rectory (now a private house) and built Church House for his sister. Families living in Broome House during the 19th and 20th centuries were carpet manufacturers and other industrialists wanting a country residence. In the 1930’s John Holden, from the brewing family, lived there and built a miniature railway around the gardens and lake.
Most of the other properties in the village were associated with the large houses or the local farms. There were coach houses, stables, barns and workers’ cottages, now all converted to private residences. Of the original three farms; Red Hall, Hundred Acre and Broome Farm, only Red Hall Farm continues to actively cultivate the land.
There was a school in the village up until 1933, originally in what is now Bourne Cottage, (named after one of the 19th century vicars). The school buildings were condemned as being unsuitable in the 1880’s and a new school and teacher’s house built across the road in what is now the Village Hall and the ‘School House’.
Commercial outlets are few and far between; the Garden Centre at Barnett Hill, a media company at the Studio and the Coach House Nursing Home in the village of Broome. Other businesses have disappeared such as the company producing dairy foodstuffs in Hackman’s Gate, the wholesale plant distribution business in Yieldingtree and the tiny 19th century shop in what is now Wisteria Cottage in the Broome village.
