Broomhall is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the unitary authority of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council. Towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Co ...

and the ceremonial county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. The main line of the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in Wales. The canal lies in ...

runs through the parish and the

River Weaver The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included ...

forms part of its boundary. The main settlement is the hamlet of Broomhall Green, which lies on the A530 about south-west of Nantwich. The civil parish has an area of , and also includes part of the small settlement of Sandford (also in Newhall parish), with a total population of around 200 in 2011. Nearby villages include

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre. History Aston wa ...

Sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

, Wrenbury and Audlem.Search a
Cheshire East Council Public Map Viewer
(accessed 5–6 March 2020) Broomhall appears in the Domesday survey and the name was also historically spelled Bromhall.

History

''Brunhala'' was a small manor at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086. It was held by William Malbank, Baron of Wich Malbank ( Nantwich). Before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

it had been held by two men named Edric. A single household was recorded, with a ploughland and a small wood. In P. P. Burdett's map of 1777, Bromhall was located around the junction of Heatley Lane with Mickley Hall Lane; other settlements marked within the parish are Stanford Bridge (now Sandford Bridge) and Mickley (now Mickley Hall). Broomhall Church, a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, was constructed in 1838, and Broomhall School opened in 1876; both now fall within the modern parish of

. In the 1881 census, more than two-thirds of men worked in agriculture; most of the remainder were engaged in the manufacture of or trade in minerals, carriages, harnesses and other goods. A brick field in the south east of the parish is marked on a 1945 map.

Governance

The civil parish is administered by Sound & District Parish Council, jointly with the nearby civil parishes of Austerson, Baddiley,

Baddington Baddington is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, which lies immediately to the south-west of Nantwich and north of Audlem. Predominantly rural with scattered farms, the civil ...

Coole Pilate Coole Pilate is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, which lies to the north of Audlem and to the south of Nantwich. The area is predominantly rural with scattered farms, and ...

and

, with three councillors representing Broomhall out of a total of fourteen. From 1974 the civil parish was served by

Crewe and Nantwich Crewe and Nantwich was, from 1974 to 2009, a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Cheshire, England. It had a population (2001 census) of 111,007. It contained 69 civ ...

Borough Council, which was succeeded on 1 April 2009 by the new

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. Broomhall falls in the parliamentary constituency of Eddisbury, which has been represented by

Edward Timpson Anthony Edward Timpson, (born 26 December 1973) is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Eddisbury in Cheshire at the 2019 general election. He was previously MP for neighbouring Crewe a ...

since 2019, after being represented by Antoinette Sandbach (2015–2019).

Geography and transport

The civil parish has an area of . The area is largely agricultural with farms including Meadow Farm, New Farm, Coronerage, Pritch Farm, Lane Farm, Lynn Easton Farm, Seven Oaks Farm and Oak Farm. The

forms the western boundary of the parish and the A530 (Whitchurch Road) forms its north-west boundary. The main line of the

runs north-west to south-east through the north-eastern corner. The terrain is relatively flat, with an average

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of around . The land slopes gently from the A530, with a high point of at the junction with the lane to Sound Heath, down to the canal at . A trig point at is located just west of Mickley Hall. Finnaker Brook has its source in the parish, and there are multiple unnamed drains, as well as many small meres or ponds scattered across the area. There are several small patches of woodland, including Broomhall Wood and Devil's Nest on Finnaker Brook. Heatley Lane runs from the A530 near Sound southwards into the parish of Newhall, where it becomes Hollingreen Lane and connects with Coole Lane, which runs north–south to the east of the parish. Mickley Hall Lane/French Lane runs eastwards from Heatley Lane in the north of the parish to Hack Green in

parish, where it also connects with Coole Lane. Cock Lane and Slaughterhouse Lane each run westwards from Heatley Lane to the A530. Broomhall Green is centred at the junction of Slaughterhouse Lane and the A530, and there is also settlement along Cock Lane and along Heatley Lane north of the junction with Cock Lane. The

South Cheshire Way The South Cheshire Way is a long-distance footpath running east–west mainly through Cheshire, England, though parts lie in Shropshire and Staffordshire. The western section from Grindley Brook, near Whitchurch, runs through farmland; the e ...

long-distance footpath runs east–west through the parish.

Demography

According to the 2001 census, the civil parish had a population of 206, remaining steady at 204 in 79 households at the 2011 census. This is an increase from the population of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but a decline from the 1951 peak; the historical population figures are 140 (1801), 142 (1851), 127 (1881), 114 (1901), 184 (1931) and 243 (1951).

Landmarks

Several buildings within the parish are listed at grade II, the lowest of the three grades. The oldest listed building is Top of the Town, off Heatley Lane, a farmhouse dating originally from the early 17th century. It has projecting end bays and a tiled roof, and is part

roughcast Roughcast or pebbledash is a coarse plaster surface used on outside walls that consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then thrown at the wor ...

over brick and part timber framed, featuring some close studding with a middle rail. Two farmhouses on Heatley Lane are listed: Heatley is an L-shaped, red-brick building with a slate roof, dating from around 1750, and The Coronerage is a roughcast brick building with a tiled roof, dating originally from the early 19th century. Each has a front porch with decorative barge boards, topped with a

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

. Mickley Bridge is a blue-brick-and-stone

accommodation bridge In the United Kingdom, an accommodation bridge or occupation bridge is one that preserves a pre-existing private road, path or right-of-way (transportation), right of access when a major transport route is built across it. Without the bridge, ac ...

over the

, dating from around 1826, and a nearby cast-iron canal milepost is also listed. Additionally, the remains of a moat are visible south east of Mickley Hall.Fisher, p. 156

Education

There are no educational facilities in modern Broomhall. The civil parish falls within the catchment areas of

Brine Leas School Brine Leas School is an academy school in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The school has 1,287 pupils enrolled, and has technology and language status. The school opened in 1977 as a comprehensive co-educational establishment. The first head te ...

in Nantwich, and Sound and District Primary School.

References

;Sources *Stuart Fisher (2009),
The Canals of Britain: A Comprehensive Guide
', Bloomsbury () *B. M. C. Husain (1973), ''Cheshire under the Norman Earls: 1066–1237''. ''A History of Cheshire'' Vol. 4 (J. J. Bagley, ed.), Cheshire Community Council *Frank A. Latham, ed. (1995), ''Acton'', The Local History Group () {{authority control Villages in Cheshire Civil parishes in Cheshire