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.

Local legend has it that "Little Miss Muffet" of the nursery rhyme was Patience Moffat, daughter of entomologist Dr. Thomas Moffat (possibly Moffett or Moufet), 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 the 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.

Gobions estate was transferred to John More in 1397: the house renamed More Hall. Sir John More became the owner. Edward VI gave this estate to the future Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1550 by and it was returned to the More family by Mary Tudor in 1553. Its name has varied over the centuries and through many ownerships. It had reverted to Gubbens in the 17th century followed by Gubbins in the 18th. Originally the name came from Sir Richard Gobion in the twelfth century. 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 (he owned both houses and was jealous that Gobbins was better than his other, Brookmans).

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 as the 1960s.

In 1923 land from the Gobions Estate was bought by the White/Calder building syndicate who formed Brookmans Park (Hatfield) Ltd, to construct a commuter village. 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. British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, on 21 May 1942 stood on Brookmans Park Station Platform to welcome his Russian counterpart the Russian Peoples' Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov and Russian delegation. They were whisked off to Chequers leading to the signing of the Anglo Soviet Treaty of 1942.

The Gobions Estate The nature reserve is now managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust as Gobions Wood, and another part as Gobions Open Space. It lies close to the Great North Road, adjacent to the village. 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 that helped the Gobions Woodland Trust buy the large remainder of the estate.

The Brookmans Park transmitting station, is situated Northeast of Brookmans Park on the A1000 Great North Road and affectionately known by pilots and air traffic controllers as 'The Park'.

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, situated in Bradmore Way in the village of Brookmans Park. The school itself has a large playing field. In the late 1950s the PTA raised enough money to build an open air swimming pool, in the school grounds, where the school children learn to swim and pass distance swimming certificates. This pool has now been filled in.

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. and after a refurbishment and menu overhaul reopened in October of the same year.

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.

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 (now No 48) Moffats Lane became a chapel St. Michael and All Angels. 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.

Tracey Thorn (born 1962) Everything but the Girl singer and songwriter was born in Brookmans Park.

Grant Shapps (born 1968) Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield lives in Brookmans Park. John Somers, 1st Baron Somers (1651 1716) Whig politician spent his later years in Brookmans Park.