Brookmans Park


Brookmans Park is a village in Hertfordshire, southeast England, known for its BBC transmitter station.
Brookmans Park railway station, on the East Coast Main Line, is operated by Great Northern. It is also a waypoint used in air navigation by Heathrow Airport.

History

In the 1700s the area of Brookmans Park was recorded as having two manor houses. The Brokemans was known as Mymme Hall which was owned by John Brokeman. The other house was known as More Hall which later became Gubbins or Gobions which was owned by the More Family.
The Gaussen family arrived in 1786, when Peter Gaussen bought the Brookmans estate for his son Samuel. In 1838 the Gaussens demolished the Gubbins manor house to add to the land to the Brookmans estate. In 1891 while the family were away on a holiday cruise the Brookmans Manor burned down which was caused by a "painter using a blowlamp in the exterior redecoration". Robert George Gaussen then had the stable block of the estate converted to his home.
In 1926 London & North Eastern Railway built the train station in Brookmans Park. Around the same time an 18-hole golf course was built on the land and the converted house became the golf club.
The BBC set up its transmitter station on the border of Brookmans Park and Bell Bar.
Brookmans School was built as the village grew.

Miss Muffet

Local legend has it that Miss Muffet was Patience Moffat, daughter of entomologist Dr. Thomas Moffat, who lived in the area from 1553 to 1604 on a farm. He had invited a poet over for Christmas. During his stay he overheard Miss Moffat tell her father of how she was eating her curds and whey when a spider came down from the ceiling and frightened her. The poet made an alteration to the name Miss Moffat and wrote a nursery rhyme. However, the traceable origins of the rhyme are murky, as it did not appear in a printed version until 1805. The local connection is celebrated by the inclusion of a spider's web in the badge of Brookmans Park School.

Folly Arch

Folly Arch, a local landmark visible from Brookmans Park, north of Hawkshead Road between Brookmans Park and Potters Bar, was erected as one of the entrances to the Gobions estate as part of Charles Bridgeman's garden design for Sir Jeremy Sambrooke c. 1740 It is a Grade II* listed building.
The remains of a track can still be seen in the fields between Folly Arch and Gobions Wood, where there had previously been an avenue of lime trees leading from the arch to Gobions wood. These were destroyed during WWII by the farmer who owned the fields. The track then passes through the woods, crossing Ray Brook by means of a brick bridge which is now ruined but was usable as recently at the 1960s.

The WW11 Years

resulted in children being evacuated to Brookmans Park..
In 1940 the first 1000lb bomb was dropped on Queenswood’s hockey field in Shepherd’s Way.
Brookmans Park was on the Outer London Defence Ring. These defences included spigot mortar emplacements near the Brookmans Park transmitting station and one together with tank traps protecting the Station Road railway bridge.

Brookmans Park Railway Station

serves the village of Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire, England. The station is located 14 miles 37 chains north of London Kings Cross on the East Coast Main Line, on the stretch between Finsbury Park and Hatfield. The station was opened by the London and North Eastern Railway on 19 July 1926. The station has four platforms in total, two island platforms on both sides, but only platforms 1 & 4 are used regularly, platforms 2 & 3 are only used during line disruption or engineering work. The west side serves northbound services and another island platform serving southbound services which lies to the east. The station car park parallels the island platforms to the east. As of 2019 this station accepts contactless payment and paper tickets, but not Oyster cards.
This is a typical weekday schedule for trains departing from Brookmans Park station.
There are approximately 102 trains departing from Brookmans Park station:
The Brookmans Park Transmitting Station, is situated Northeast of Brookmans Park on the A1000 Great North Road road between Potters Bar and Hatfield in Hertfordshire. The transmitter played a crucial part in the history of broadcasting in Great Britain, as the first purpose-built twin transmitter station in the world capable of broadcasting two radio programmes simultaneously when it was completed in October 1929.
It also played a part in the early development of television broadcasting. On 30 March 1930, experimental television tests were made there using thirty-line pictures. These constituted the first public transmission of simultaneous sound and vision in Great Britain. The station transmitted television broadcasts, during hours when BBC radio was off the air, until 1935.
The tower has twice blown down, and according to villagers' reports: it interferes with TV and radio transmissions; causes automatic garage doors to open of their own accord and causes radiators, telephones, toasters and waste bins to "play music".
It can interfere with DSL broadband modems, and an additional RF filter needs to be placed in the incoming line of houses near the transmitter to avoid high error rates.
Brookmans Park is also home to a busy VOR transmitter, used by airliners arriving and departing London airspace, and affectionately known by pilots and air traffic controllers as 'The Park'.

Gobions Open Space

The Gobions Estate was an ancient private estate which flourished on merchant wealth near the village of Brookmans Park from the 14th to 18th Centuries. The estate's lands now serve the community as a nature reserve and open space. It was owned by the Gobions Woodland Trust, which is now defunct, and the nature reserve is now managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust as Gobions Wood, and another part is Gobions Open Space.
It lies close to the Great North Road, adjacent to the village. Its name has varied over the centuries and through many ownerships. Originally it seems to have come from "Sir Richard Gobion who was Lord thereof in the reign of King Stephen" in the twelfth century.
By the 16th century, if not earlier, the place was called More Hall after the family of that name which included Sir Thomas More, and also Gybynnes. It had reverted to Gubbens in the 17th century and Gubbins in the 18th.
The mansion that had stood on the estate for several hundred years, was of such a fine quality with pleasure grounds designed by Charles Bridgeman, that it was visited by royalty, was eventually demolished by Robert Gaussen about 1840. Now, virtually none of it remains, but a few scattered ruins.
In 1956 North Mymms Parish Council acquired the land and the lake now known as Gobions Open Space, rescuing it from potential development. Twenty-nine years later in 1985, householders in the parish subscribed to a fund which helped the Gobions Woodland Trust to buy the large remainder of the estate.

Brookmans Park School and Chancellor's School

Brookmans Park has its own primary school, Brookmans Park School and secondary school, Chancellor's School. Both are popular with parents, both locally and from across the region and are known for consistently high standards of education at all age levels, according to OFSTED reports.
Brookmans Park School, opened in 1952, is situated in the village of Brookmans Park, surrounded by green belt countryside. The school itself has a large playing field.
Nearly twenty years after the Education Act was passed in 1944 and thirteen years after the site was first designated in 1950 the search and purchase were completed. The sense of the urgent need for the school can be seen from the fact that in less than eighteen months the first pupils would cross the threshold of Chancellor's School and turn the Plan for a secondary school for the children of the villages in the area into reality.

The Brookmans

The Brookmans Park Hotel was a privately owned hotel situated in the centre of the village, with a pub and restaurant popular with local residents. The hotel was built in the 1930s in a Mason's style with high pitched ceilings, skylights, wood panelling, carved Mason symbols and a large stone fireplace. The hotel was often used for wedding banquets and other local functions. It had six hotel rooms available to guests, making it the only hotel in the area. Martin Chivers ran the Brookmans Hotel from 1983 to 1996.
The Brookmans Park Hotel was taken over by a national brewery chain in July 2006. After extensive refurbishments it reopened in April 2007 as The Brookmans pub and restaurant. The restaurant section was expanded by knocking down the wall between the main bar and old function room; and was noticeably more upmarket than The Brookmans Park Hotel had been. Along with dropping 'Hotel' from its name, the hotel business was closed and a deli business, Oaks Deli, took over what used to be the pool room in the old public house. Prior to having been a pool room, it was a wine bar called "Oaks", perhaps explaining the naming. In summer 2011 The Brookmans was taken over by Peach Pubs and after a refurbishment and menu overhaul reopened in October of the same year.

Brookmans Park Golf Club and Lawn Tennis Club

Brookmans Park Golf Club is adjacent to Chancellor's School, just off Brookmans Avenue. It is a popular golf club for local players, possessing a full 18-hole course, deemed quite challenging by players locally.
The Brookmans Park Lawn Tennis Club, on Golf Club Road, is another popular sporting facility for local players. It possesses four floodlit artificial grass courts, and two macadam courts. It regularly participates in local and regional tournaments.

Churches

Brookmans Park is in the Church of England Parish of North Mymms, served by St Mary's Church in North Mimms Park. In 1948 the squash court in Moffats Lane became a chapel - St. Michael and All Angels.
It is served by the Roman Catholic parish of Hatfield which has a Chapel of Ease in the neighbouring village of Welham Green.
After meeting in a shop from 1942, a hut was built in Oaklands Avenue to house the Congregational Church congregation in 1948 which is now the car park of the current United Reformed Church that replaced it in 1960.

Notable residents

Music and dance