BROOM
Brom (xii cent.).
Broom is a small parish beautifully situated to the
west of the Clent Hills. A small stream rises on the
eastern boundary, and running through three pools
forms a slight valley through the centre of the parish,
which it leaves on its western boundary. The
parish has an area of only 730½ acres, of which 576
acres are arable and the rest pasture. (fn. 1) The soil is a
sandy loam and the subsoil chiefly New Red Sandstone, which in places is very near the surface. A
little inferior gravel is worked in the direction of
Clent. Although lying geographically in Worcestershire, Broom was included in Staffordshire from the
12th century until the middle of the 19th century,
when it was transferred to Worcestershire under the
Acts of 1832 and 1844. (fn. 2) Like most of the other
parishes in the north of Halfshire it is hilly, the
land rising from 276 ft. above the ordnance datum
in the west to 400 ft. in the east. The village is in
the centre of the parish among some rather good
timber, and formerly contained no large house of
any importance except the rectory (fn. 3) and Broom
House. Noake, writing in 1868, describes the parish as
having 'no manufactures or public works, no local
squire, no mansion, no Dissenter's chapel, no churchrate disturbances, no Fenianism or agitation of any
sort.' (fn. 4)
Broom House, the residence of Mr. John Alexander
Holder, stands in beautifully-kept grounds on the
opposite side of the road to the church. It is a threestory building of late 18th-century erection. The
south or principal front is faced with stone and has a
semicircular porch of Adam style. The east front
is of red sandstone and the back is of red brick.
The roofs are tiled.
A very old and almost disused pack-horse track
called Honal Lane forms part of the eastern boundary
of the parish, and was formerly an important road
known as the Horse Wall or Walk. (fn. 5)
The following are noteworthy field-names: Nailer's
Close, Kiln Pit, The Feathers, Tinker's Bush, Great
Kite Furlong, Mins Yard Field or 'Little Gain,'
Hazel Wicket Sling and Little Coney Gree. The
cross-roads at one boundary of the parish are called
Hackman's Gate, formerly the Hangman's Gate,
situated on the edge of the Bleak Down, now Blake
Down. (fn. 6) Close by is Yielding Tree (Ildyngtre, xv cent.).
MANOR
BROOM has always been held of the
king in chief, the overlordship being last
mentioned in 1617. (fn. 7) At the time of the
Domesday Survey it formed part of the manor of
Clent, and was not separated from it until 1154,
when Henry II granted it to Maurice de Ombersley
at a fee-farm rent of £1 13s. 4d. to be paid to the
Sheriff of Staffordshire. (fn. 8) This rent occurs on the
Pipe Rolls of Staffordshire until 1200. (fn. 9) In 1193
Richard I granted the rent with that of other manors
to his aunt Emma, wife of David, King of North
Wales. (fn. 10) Maurice de Ombersley was followed by his
son Richard, who, however, must have died without
issue or forfeited this property before 1200, when it
was in the king's hands. In that year King John
granted land there worth 2½ marks to the nuns of
Brewood in Staffordshire, (fn. 11) to whom it belonged until
the Dissolution. (fn. 12) Broom was granted to Charles
Duke of Suffolk in 1538. (fn. 13) He sold it a few days
later to William Whorwood, the solicitor-general, (fn. 14)
who left all his property, after the death of Maud his
wife, to his two daughters Anne and Margaret.
Neither of them seems to have left children, and on
the death of Anne, then the widow of Ambrose
Dudley, about 1554–5, Broom passed to her cousin
Thomas Whorwood, (fn. 15) in whose family it remained
until 1672, (fn. 16) when Wortley Whorwood, his great
great-grandson, conveyed it to Philip Foley. (fn. 17) After
that date the manor seems to have changed hands
very frequently. In 1727 a moiety belonged to a
Nicholas Pigge and Mary (fn. 18) his wife, whether by
purchase or inheritance does not appear. The whole
manor was held in 1762 by Samuel Hellier, (fn. 19) from
whom it passed to Thomas Shaw Hellier and Mary
his wife, who conveyed it in 1786 to Thomas
Burne, jun. (fn. 20) In 1822 Thomas Hill the younger
and Thomas Hill his son were holding it, (fn. 21) and
about 1852 (fn. 22) it passed to the Earl of Dudley, to
whom it now belongs.
In the 13th and 14th centuries the Dunclents and
Staffords held lands in Broom of the prioress and
convent, (fn. 23) the Dunclent property including certain
fish-ponds there. (fn. 24)
A water-mill belonged to the lords of the manor in
the 18th century, (fn. 25) but is no longer used.
CHURCH
The church of ST. PETER consists of
a chancel (fn. 26) with a north vestry, a nave
and a west tower.
The church was built at the end of the 18th
century and was restored in 1861, when the vestry
was added and the stair to the tower built. At this
restoration the chancel appears to have been considerably modernized, the present chancel arch then being
inserted and the east window 'Gothicized' internally; the oak panelling now round the vestry
walls was then no doubt taken from the chancel and
placed in its present position. The chancel is lighted
by round-headed windows, one in the east and two
in the south wall, and the nave by three—one on the
north and two on the south. Between the windows
in the south wall of the chancel is a priest's doorway.
The first stage of the tower is used as the main
entrance to the building and has immediately over it
a small organ gallery, seen from the body of the
church through the tower arch, which is tall with a
semicircular head.
All the walls are of red brick with stone dressings
and are plastered internally. With the exception of
those on the south side of the chancel, which have
flat external architraves on the outside, all the
windows have moulded archivolts with flat keystones.
At the eaves level is a stone cornice of a simple cavetto
section. Over the chancel is a segmental barrel vault
of oak divided into panels by moulded ribs. The
nave is roofed in a similar manner, but the vault is
more modern. All the roofs are tiled.
The tower is thickly overgrown with ivy. The
ringing stage is lighted by three small circular windows
and the bell-chamber by four round-headed ones.
The bowl and upper part of the stem of the font
date from the middle of the 12th century, but the
lower part is modern. On plan it is circular and
is rudely carved in low relief with a continuous
arcade of fifteen interlacing arches, and a band of
flowing leaf enrichment above. A modern stone rim
has been fixed round the top of the bowl, and the
cover is also new. Below the bowl is a narrow
necking, and at the head of each of the six panels of
the modern stem is a grotesque face, the upper part
of the series being original.
There appear to be two bells, the smaller, probably
of the 17th century, with an unintelligible inscription,
and the larger by John Martin of Worcester, 1671.
The plate consists of an 1839 silver chalice, a modern
silver paten, an electro-plated flagon, an electroplated paten with a cover, a large brass almsdish and
two smaller ones.
The registers previous to 1812 are as follows: (i)
baptisms and burials 1664 to 1785; marriages
1664 to 1753; (ii) baptisms and burials 1785 to
1812; (iii) marriages 1755 to 1809.
ADVOWSON
Maurice de Ombersley, to whom
the manor was granted in 1154, is
said to have 'founded' the church
of Broom. (fn. 27) His son Richard forfeited the advowson
with the manor, and it appears to have been granted
with it by King John to the nuns of Brewood, though
it is not mentioned in the charter. (fn. 28) In 1203–4,
after the death of Alexander de Bransford, whom
Richard de Ombersley had presented to the church of
Broom, a dispute arose between the Prioress of
Brewood and Herbert parson of Clent as to the
advowson of Broom. The latter claimed it on the
grounds that Broom was a chapelry of Clent, but the
prioress stated that Alexander was parson of Broom,
and that on his death the bishop had sequestered the
church as vacant. (fn. 29) It would seem that the prioress
won the suit, for there is no indication that the
church of Broom (fn. 30) was ever subsequently looked
upon as a chapelry of Clent. The nuns probably
held the advowson until the Dissolution, (fn. 31) but it was
not granted with the manor to Charles Duke of
Suffolk. The rectory was granted in 1543 to William
Whorwood, (fn. 32) who perhaps obtained the advowson
at about the same time, but the latter is not mentioned
until 1617, when it belonged to Thomas Whorwood. (fn. 33)
From that time it followed the same descent as the
manor until 1627, (fn. 34) when Gerard Whorwood granted
the next two presentations to Margaret Jevons. (fn. 35)
William Hamerton presented in 1662 and John
Dolman in 1681. (fn. 36) Members of the Dolman family
occur as patrons until 1709. (fn. 37) Samuel Fletcher, who
presented in 1745, and Richard Clive and John
Tibbatts, who were patrons in 1770, (fn. 38) probably held
the advowson by grant of the Dolmans, for the trustees
of Mr. Dolman were said to be patrons about 1786, (fn. 39)
and Joseph Scott of Great Barr, who with others
(probably the trustees of Mr. Dolman) presented to
the church in 1783, (fn. 40) is said by Shaw to have been
related to Rev. Thomas Dolman, rector of Broom. (fn. 41)
Mr. Dolman was said to be patron in 1808. (fn. 42)
Lord Dudley presented in 1810, (fn. 43) probably for that
turn only, since in 1849 Sir Edward Dolman Scott,
son of Joseph Scott (afterwards Sir Joseph), was patron
of Broom. (fn. 44) The advowson was purchased from his
trustees in 1859 (fn. 45) by Mr. J. G. Bourne, who
presented his son, the Rev. Joseph Green Bourne.
The Rev. Joseph Handforth Bourne, son of the
latter, (fn. 46) is the present patron.
CHARITIES
An annuity of £1 10s., known as
Harris's Charity, is received from the
Earl of Dudley, and distributed in
loaves to about fifty poor and in sixpences to about
twelve householders on 21 December annually.
The Parish Charity Fund consists of £5 and
£19 19s. given for the poor by John Sparry and
Mrs. Betty Sutherland respectively. It is now
accumulating in the Post Office Savings Bank.
The Day and Sunday Schools' Fund consists of
£19 19s. bequeathed for the schools by the said
Mrs. Sutherland. This sum is also in the savings
bank, the income being applied in supplying Bibles
and Prayer-books to scholars.