Article to be published in the Hatfield Heath Village Magazine August 2021 Gladwyns is a large Grade 2 Listed mansion on the Sheering road, sheltering behind a high wall and belt of trees. Noted as being early 19th Century build, it may be part of the Barrington Hall estate as in the 1861 Census the residents were the High Sherriff of Essex, George Lowdnes and family. George had inherited the northern estate of Barrington Hall and went on to be President of the Essex Archaeology Society for 25 years. It is the family of Horace Broke who inhabited Gladwyns for over 70 years that this article concentrates on. Horace Broke (1827 – 1909) was the only child of Lt Col. Horatio G Broke (1790 – 1860) and became a barrister on the eastern courts circuit and rose to take chambers in Lincolns Inn and become the Secretary of the Appeal Court Judge Lord Mellchip before retiring to Gladwyns as a country retreat. His first wife Charlotte Gurdon (1831– 1868) gave him four children and he subsequently married Georgina Marianne Mayne (1839 – 1927) in 1870 and added a second daughter: Rev. Horatio George (1861 – 1932). After Eton & Oxford he was ordained and had a curacy in East Dereham, Norfolk. Then appointed vicar at Holne, Huntingdonshire in 1895 and Melton, Suffolk 1908-15. He married and had a daughter Dorothy in 1894 and son Philip Adlington in 1910. Katherine Louise (1862 – 1909) remained unmarried and died at Gladwyns and is buried in the family grave in Holy Trinity churchyard. Harry (1864 – 1923). After boarding school at Clifton College, he entered the army and the Royal Engineers, where he rose to command the unit. He married Isabel Lucy Heathcote in 1910 and had a son Charles Vere Broke (1911 – 1944). He retired on 19 December 1912 with the rank Lt. Col. and subsequently moved in at Gladwyns with his step mother. Buried in Holy Trinity Churchyard. Philip Vere (1868 – 1947) After schooling at Eton he studied Law but in 1891 returned to Eton as Assistant Mathematical Master, being a House Master and rising to Head Mathematical Master prior to retirement in 1917. On retirement, he moved back to Gladwyns and died there in 1947. Buried Holy Trinity Churchyard. Margaret Georgina (1878 – 1944) married Arthur Ridley Heathcote in 1909 and died in 1944 at a Clinique in Montreaux, Switzerland. Only four housekeeping staff were resident in the 1871 Census but by 1881 Horace Broke had retired and was in residence with his second wife Georgina Marianne, 3 children and the visiting Resident Commissioner of Mesopotamia and 7 house staff. In 1891 his son, Philip, acted as Head for the Census and reported 6 staff. Horace was again resident in 1901 with his wife and two daughters and 7 staff. Horace died in 1909 and Georgina continued to live there until her death in 1927. By 1920 she had been joined after their retirement by two of the sons, Philip and Harry and his wife Isabel Lucy. Harry unveiled the Hatfield Heath War Memorial in March 1920 and died in 1923. Isabel continued to live in Gladwyns after Harrys death with six staff. Harry and Isabel’s son Charles Vere Broke was killed in Normandy aged 32 and his name was added to the War Memorial post war. Their daughter Edith Elizabeth Everard Broke (1913 – 2007) married in 1938 and had a son. Philip died in 1947 and Isabel in 1961, but by then living in Arlesford Hants. It is assumed that the house was sold out of the family in the 1950’s after over 70 years ownership. The Broke family had been strong supporters of Holy Trinity and hosted Garden parties in their grounds. (Photograph Right: WI garden meeting 1930). The graves of Horace, Georgina & Katherine are in Holy Trinity’s Churchyard. In the church the East window was given in memory of Horace, as was the Lecturn. Lt Col Harry Broke was Churchwarden at the time of the organ installation in 1909 and there is a Memorial Plaque to Charles Vere Broke at the west end of the church. There are still people in the village who remember talking to Philip as children. The germination of this article was a query sent to the History Society regarding any connection between the Broke family at Gladwyns and the Commander of HMS Erebus, recently featured in the BBC drama The Terror. Mark Ratcliff did some family history research and confirmed that Captain Philip Broke (1804-1855) was a cousin, being the son of Horace Broke’s uncle Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke (1776-1841). Quentin Spear
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