Benjamin Broadbent (1813–1862) was an English master builder, stonemason, and architect. In 1840 in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, he formed the company Broadbents Ltd, a busy which serviced builders' merchants and roofing contractors. He was also associated with Broadbent and Hawley, stone and marble masons and gravestone cutters. Broadbent built his home, Victoria House, in 1861 in Humberstone. The large estate included a mansion house, stables, coach house, winery, orchard, conservatories and outbuildings. His first wife was the daughter of a farmer from Dodleston, Cheshire called Anne Wright and they had four children. The eldest, also Benjamin, inherited the family business. His second wife was Mary Geary and they had six children. Three years after his death, Victoria House was purchased by the Leicester Corporation to establish the Leicester Borough Asylum, which became the

Towers Hospital The Towers Hospital was a mental health facility in Humberstone, Leicestershire, England. The administration building, which became known as George Hine House, is a Grade II listed building. History The site chosen for the hospital had previousl ...

Selected works

His work includes a marble tablet of commemoration in All Saints Church, Thurcaston.

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

attributes Victorian ceilings in

Althorp Althorp (popularly pronounced ) is a Grade I listed stately home and estate in the civil parish of Althorp, in West Northamptonshire, England of about . By road it is about northwest of the county town of Northampton and about northwest of c ...

's Billiard Room (formerly the Yellow Drawing Room or

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

Room) and South Drawing Room to Broadbent. Broadbent erected a plaque on a gable end next to Leicaster's old Bow Bridge in 1856, which remains part of the 17th century legend of the fate of

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

’s body. When the old Bow Bridge at Leicester was demolished to make way for a new and more serviceable structure, a very good engraving of it appeared in ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...

'' of February 9, 1861. It was an old bridge when King Richard III passed over it en route for

Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 Augu ...

. The article read in part: —

"For many years, there was a spot pointed out by visitors as King Richard’s grave, and an old stone inserted in a neighbouring wall bore testimony to the fact. In the course of events, however, it became necessary to pull down the wall, and build over the spot; and it seemed as if the place of King Richard’s burial would be forgotten altogether, and so it probably would have been but for the enterprise and public spirit of a Leicester townsman, Mr. Benjamin Broadbent, a master builder, and one well known for his many acts of munificence. This gentleman, unwilling that the remains of a
King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ...
should lie without a stone to mark the place, obtained permission of Mr. A Turner, the owner of the estate, and at his own sole cost inserted a massive stone in the building about to be erected recording the event... The visitor to Leicester (thanks to Mr. Broadbent), may still go to the place of King Richard's last interment, and may read there that ‘Near this spot lie the remains of Richard III, the last of the
Plantagenets The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in batt ...
, 1485.' "

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Broadbent, Benjamin 1813 births 1862 deaths Architects from Leicester English stonemasons 19th-century English architects People from Humberstone & Hamilton 19th-century English businesspeople