The Priest's House

The Priest’s House, Broxbourne, presumably got its name from some association with the priests of Broxbourne Church, but although there is nothing to connect the house with the church or priests, there is a record showing that Robert Ecton, who was the eleventh Vicar of Broxbourne, was buried from the house in 1497. It would therefore seem likely that the priest’s house was used by the clergy prior to the building of the Vicarage near the Church.

The present house is mainly of the early 17th century, as was discovered by an owner over forty years ago during repairs to the building, when some panelling and an old fireplace were brought to light. From some work still surviving in the cellars, uncovered while making alterations to the building some years ago, there is evidence of an older house on the site, possibly dating from c.1400. An occupier at the beginning of the twentieth century once spoke of some ‘peculiar happenings’ in the house, and of shadowy shapes hovering on or near the staircase. For many years there had been an oft-repeated legend of a tunnel running from the house to Broxbourne Church, and the story was lent support by the claim that there could be detected a hollow sound as traffic passed the house. In July 1966 Mr. E. W. Paddick was invited by the owner of the house to examine a hole in the road in front of the old ‘way’ to Broxbornebury from Broxbourne Church,which runs westward on the south side of the house. It had been made in the course of a road-widening scheme, and had exposed a brick arch which proved to be part of a culvert, probably for taking away surface water running on to the road from the high ground to the west, and having an outfall somewhere east of the New River bridge in Mill Lane. The culvert passing beneath the road could have accounted for the hollow sound which supported the belief that a tunnel existed. It was while living at the ‘Priest’s House’ in 1841 that Richard Allen bought and demolished the cage for prisoners, made unnecessary by the passing of the Poor Law Act of 1834, which stood between his house and the Bull Inn. H.F. Hayllar in Chronicles of Hoddesdon says that Mr A. McKenzies stated in his notes that when he was a boy he could remember seeing men inside the bars of the cage.