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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the unitary authority of

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with borough status in Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council, which is based in the town of Sandbach. Other towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Congleton, Wilms ...

and the ceremonial county of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. The main line of the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, sometimes nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. It is the modern name for a part of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company network. In the leisure age, two of the branches of that netwo ...

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 1721 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 Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...

. 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, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Located immediately to the north-west of Birmingham city centre, Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a wards of the United Kingdom, war ...

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 br ...

Wrenbury Wrenbury-cum-Frith is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies on the River Weaver, around south-west of Crewe. The civil parish of Wrenbury cum Frith also c ...

and

Audlem Audlem ( ) is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cheshire, North West England. In 2021, it had a population of 1,832. The largest village in southern Cheshire, Audlem is approximately south of Nantwich, just north of t ...

.Search a
Cheshire East Council Public Map Viewer
(accessed 5–6 March 2020) Broomhall appears in the

Domesday survey Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

and the name was also historically spelled Bromhall.

History

''Brunhala'' was a small manor at the time of the

in 1086. It was held by William Malbank, Baron of Wich Malbank (

). 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 Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

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 The Wesleyan Church is a Methodist Christian denomination aligned with the holiness movement. Wesleyan Church may also refer to: * Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia, the Australian branch of the Wesleyan Church Denominations * Allegheny We ...

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 Austerson is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, lying immediately south of the town of Nantwich and north of the village of Audlem. Predominantly rural with scattered farms, t ...

Baddiley Baddiley is a scattered settlement and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish also includes the north-western part of the village of Rave ...

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 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 ci ...

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

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

. 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 former Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Eddisbury in Cheshire from 2019 to 2024. Timpson was previously the MP for neighbouring Crewe ...

since 2019, after being represented by

Antoinette Sandbach Antoinette Geraldine Mackeson-Sandbach (born 15 February 1969), known as Antoinette Sandbach, is a British barrister, farm manager and politician who was elected as a North Wales region Member of the Welsh Assembly at the May 2011 election, an ...

(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 (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

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 A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The station is usually set up by a map ...

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 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 and pebbledash are durable coarse plaster surfaces used on outside walls. They 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 throw ...

over brick and part

timber framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...

, featuring some

close studding Close studding is a form of timber work used in timber-framed buildings in which vertical timbers ( studs) are set close together, dividing the wall into narrow panels. Rather than being a structural feature, the primary aim of close studding is ...

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 () 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 dome, spire, tower, roo ...

. 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 in

, 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