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Celebrating 125 Years in Business We are delighted to be celebrating 125 years in business in East Grinstead High Street. Family run since the very start and now in ownership of the fourth generation Simon Broadley. We would like to express a massive thank you to all our customers for their support over the many years and especially the past 18 months which has been extremely challenging and forced us to channel our business online as well as in store. Broadleys of East Grinstead was founded when George Herbert Broadley was given £500 by his mother Charlotte to set up his own business. While at Victoria Railway Station he saw a poster of East Grinstead, and he liked the look of it, so took the train to the town; after seeing a ‘To Let’ board decided to start the business in the 14th century premises 38-40 High Street. George and his wife were prominent Methodists and were one of the first people
in East Grinstead to have a car, Ford Talbot. When George died a large brass plaque was erected in the church and also for their son Thomas, a Bristol Fighter pilot who was reported missing and presumed killed in action in 1918. Thomas’s name is also on the war memorial in the High Street. The business expanded with branches in Hove, Portslade, Haywards Heath (1900-1931) Horsham (1907-1915) and briefly in Eastbourne and Worthing. In 1949 they bought the adjoining premises 34-36
1910, we think Broadley is on the right. Left is just an employee
Thomas Harding Broadley - He was the pilot that was shot down, presumed killed in action, 1918. High Street. Now in 2021 Broadleys operates just its East Grinstead. Over the past few years Olwen Broadley has conducted tours of our building, raising several thousand pounds for various local charities, St Catherine’s Hospice, Bluebell Railway and most recently Kent Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance. The tours were originally based on the 1995 research by Mr. Peter Gray of Lingfield. Olwen
