Not exactly a secret. As you can see from the sign, it is part of Crawley’s ‘Greenway’, but its not the most trodden part, the spokes at Ifield and Tilgate are much more heavily visited. Perhaps because they are prettier, although the fact they have pubs on the route may be a factor.
Being owned and maintained by the council, this place is not as natural as Pease Pottage and Whalebone Plantation, but has some advantages. For a start, there is no need to cross a busy dual-carriageway full of speeding cars to get there from Broadfield.
One way into the park is from Tollgate Hill. There is a path opposite Bishopstone Walk and down a bit which leads behind some houses.Its an inauspicious start, going past back garden walls and parking areas, but before long you reach the woods, and straightaway have to go down a steep bank to a plank bridge over a small stream. Great fun for kids, as is most of this area.
By the time you cross the next, larger, bridge you are into the woods and faced with the normal choice of paths. There is less scope for going exploring away from the paths due to the streams which wind through the woods, but still a few nooks and crannies to investigate.
Before too long the woods end and you come out in the open space of the park, which is really the grounds of Broadfield House. This is where you see that the place is not not quite as secret as we could wish as there is ample evidence of the park being used as an informal race track for trail bikes. There are a few dog-walkers and the odd fisherman, but its the motorbikes which really spoil the place.
Broadfield House used to be, I am told, a hunting lodge for the Tilgate Forest Estates. It must have been an impressive place in its prime, with a formal garden around the house itself getting less landscaped towards the woods, and the lake just down a gentle slope from the house.
The lake (AKA Broadfield Village Pond) is still there, as are the remains of the formal garden. The way it has slipped into disrepair is quite appealing and has an attractive gone-to-seed air about it.
The house itself has seen better days though. It has had many uses over the years from being the Radio Mercury studios to the NSPCC headquarters and a temporary base for Sure Start. During that last use there was a fire and the building is now partly boarded up and surrounded by a wire fence.
Behind the house is an area which used to be the site of some council offices and depot, all long-gone. This is now the location of a new development of pleasant but over-priced houses. The negative opinion of this development is that it is taking away part of the park, but the positive opinion is that it is using a part which was uneven, untidy and a bit of a dumping ground.
A really optimistic view is that the sort of people who are willing to spend a quarter of a million pounds on a tiny little house overlooking the park will be the sort of people who will be up in arms about the trail bikes going past the backs of their houses and get something done about it.
Walking down from Broadfield House towards the lake, turn right and you can follow a path through the woods round the South side of the lake. This is an area of inlets to the lake and generally marshy areas so the path doglegs along a series of bridges and wooden walkways. It is this predominance of water which gives the place a much different feel to the woods at Pease Pottage and Whalebone Plantation.
As you get near to the A23 there is a choice. The Greenway itself goes uphill to the right, but you can turn left and along a precarious path on the East bank of the lake, where the trees are growing out of the very banks. At the end of this you find the run-off from the lake into a small weir and can go right round and back to Broadfield House or out to the A23, finding yourself right opposite the new K2 leisure centre and the back entrance to Tilgate Park.
Broadfield Park is not strictly a secret. There must be plenty of Crawley adults who used to go there when they were growing up 20 years ago or more, but the town has expanded rapidly in the last 20 years and now contains a lot of residents who have moved into, say, Maidenbower and know nothing of these places. Since there is not really any convenient parking they are likely to remain unaware of it, leaving it to those who live nearby and the travellers who find the Broadfield House car park from time to time.
Personally I count myself lucky to have three such places for a Sunday walk all within a 5-minute walk of my home.
Broadfield Park stands out for its water and the strange atmosphere of its rundown ornamental garden and oddly shaped lawn (old tennis court perhaps?), but also as the only one of the three not earmarked for large-scale development of a civic facility. Lets put it this way: I took the camera with me for a walk and came back with 67 pictures, of which I was happy with 57!
Its also a fantastic place to go for photographing mushrooms and toadstools…
As ever, ridiculously high resolution versions of these photos, plus more taken in the park are at Flickr
Hello. Thought I’d tell you a bit about Broadfield park and house.
Broadfield house was built in about 1830. In 1835 it was owned by the Rev William Sergison. In 1839 Thomas Briggs bought it, as a hunting lodge. In 1860 George Sandeman a wealthy merchant bought the house. He added the impressive west wing. In 1884 Philip Saillard, an ostrich feather merchant, bought the house. He lived in the mansion which was later Cottesmore School, I believe.
In the early 1930’s the house was owned by a diamond merchant, Mr Waley.
In 1945 it became a hotel and country club.
My parents lived in Broadfield house just after this time. It was being closed down ready to become the HQ for the new town architects. My dad was to be the Head Gardener and Caretaker on the estate.
The famous acid bath murderer John Haigh ( who had a work shop in old Crawley) called here one night in 1948 looking for a room. My father told him the hotel was shut and let him use the phone to find alternative accommodation.
Haigh was with Dr Henderson that night. The last night Henderson was seen alive!
Broadfield estate is ruined now. My dad was so proud of that archway that you have photographed. There were flower beds either side and it looked so beautiful.
Us children ( two sisters and a brother) were so lucky growing up here and surrounded by woods and fields. And yes that was a grass tennis court. We used to play on it most summer evenings. Sighs ‘ Happy Days’
Shirley, although I am over a year late in commenting, I am hoping you may see this. I see that your records show that George Sandeman bought the house in 1860, but the Times death announcements for 27 March 1860 show George Sandeman died on 22 March at his residence, Broadfield Lodge, Crawley, Sussex, aged 44. He was the eldest son of ‘the late George Sandeman, Esq. of St Swithin’s Lane – the founder of the port wine importing business. I’ve only just taken any interest in him because he is connected to another family that interests me – I guess the street directories would sort this discrepancy out.
PS I’ve just seen the West Sussex archives have details of the conveyance in 1884 by his widow, her brother-in-law and her brother, which confirms the above – but all a bit complicated! It does look as though he had Broadfield Park for some years before 1860, though.
Hi Liz,
Thanks for that information very interesting.
So when exactly were the Sandemans at Broadfield House? ( Lodge)
Hi Shirley
I don’t know, I’m afraid – that’s all I have! I think the local street directories would be the only way to check this. I expect Crawley public/ reference library would have them.