The Common at Lower Broadheath.
Lower Broadheath Common. 1930’s Parkbarn Archive.
The Dewdrop Inn is in centre of picture; Southbury The Colonels residence is on the left, Sling Lane is on the right. The van is likely to belong to F A Smith who ran the local bakery; he also kept both village stores.
His small fleet of Ford vans was used to deliver bread over a large area even around ST. Johns.
Local person Leslie Senter worked for F A Smith as a delivery driver in the 1930’s
Bell Lane leads to the Common. Bell Lane was formely called “Heath Road” or “Heath Lane” even after renaming, locals preferred to use old name. Sling Lane runs along bottom of the 40 acre Common, which until the 1930’s was covered in gorse. During World War two it was ploughed and drained, potatoes were planted to help with food production at this time.
Laylocks Lane (an old name for lilac) leads off Crown East Lane and runs alongside the Common. There was a small pool nearby.
Local composer Sir Edward Elgar was born in 1857 at “The Firs” in Crown East Lane, the cottage is now preserved as the “Elgar Birthplace Museum.”
Little Common is accessed from Ankerdine Road, a bridleway links to Heath Grange.
The Lower Broadheath Common area is known on Ordnance Survey maps as “Upper Broadheath” today the Lower Broadheath name is applied to whole of village.
In the 19th. century there was at least five public alehouse’s in the village. “The Crown” and “Sailors Retreat” gave their name to village locations Crown Meadow and Sailors Bank.
Two of the three remaining hostelrys can be found in the common area, “The Dewdrop” and “The Plough”.
Several small business’s were established here, Ted Edwards had a bakery at “Brockhill” on Sling Lane with a horse and cart for deliveries, in later times Bill Knight who ran a motorcycle garage from this property also helped his brother in law Len Vale-Onslow with his S.O.S. motorcycle manufacturing business at Hallow.