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Salomons Stories

1. The Salomons Family 2. The Salomons Homes 3. Salomons in Public Life 4. Science and Technology 5. The Collecting Bug 6. After the Salomons

6. After the Salomons

Family

Last day of the auction of the house contents in July 1936. DSH.M.00813.

The Salomons family left Broomhill in 1936. In July of that year most of the house contents were sold at auction. The estate lived on in a variety of guises and under a variety of owners:

  • Convalescent home for Kent County Council
  • Training and conference centre for the South East Thames Regional Health Authority
  • Teaching facilities for Canterbury Christ Church University
  • Conference and events venue for Elite Leisure Collection (Markerstudy Leisure)

Read about them here, and about Broomhill Opera, prisoners of war, the David Salomons Society and the restoration of the Welte organ.

Convalescent Home NHS Training Centre University Events Venue

Convalescent Home 1938 - 1972

Family

Residents enjoying the sunshine on the terrace, probably in the 1950s. DSH.M.00xxx.

KCC Convalescent Home

In 1937 Vera Salomons donated the house and grounds to Kent County Council. She identified a number of uses to which it might be put - it was decided to open it as a convalescent home for women and girls between the ages of 15 and 45.

The house was converted over the following year and formally opened on 1st July 1938 by Sir Kinglsey Wood, MP . He was then Secretary of State for Air, but had been Minister of Health until May that year. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that he lived next door, at Broomhill Bank (bought after David Lionel Salomons' death, in 1927).

Phyllis Pisani, a nursing sister at Guys, was appointed Matron, supported by a housekeeper, cook/dietician and three nurses. There was accommodation for seventy patients, who were expected to stay for about two weeks. Their addresses in the visitors' book show that they came from all over Kent.



Evacuees and wounded servicemen - friend and foe.

Late in 1939 the handwriting in the visitors' book changes - it is larger and more carefully formed. These were 12 and 13 year old girls evacuated from South East London, as Salomons took on a new role*.

In 1940 the handwriting changes again, and the names come with regimental suffixes. These were wounded soldiers, sailors and airmen.

Not identified in the visitors' books were wounded prisoners of war, German and Italian. Patrick Pisani, nephew of the Matron, and himself evacuated to Fordcombe, remembers that the Italians were friendly to local children (perhaps especially to those with Italian names).

From 1943 there was a new type of visitor: members of ENSA entertainment parties who arrived every few weeks. They tended to have upbeat names, like: ‘Happy-go-Lucky’, ‘Sweet and Lovely’, ‘Girls and Guys’ .

* In Sept. 1939 there were also thirty older women - transferred from Pembury Grange to make way for nurses evacuated from Guys. For a short while Salomons also housed children under 3 evacuated from the Dover area.

Family

Soldiers and nurses during WW2. Miss Pisani is centre front, with her pet Alsatian. DSH.M.00888.

NHS Convalescent Home.

In 1948 Salomons was transferred to the South East Metropolitan Hospital Board of the newly-formed National Health Service, and reverted to use as a convalescent home for women.

Visitors books in the collection continue the show the names of the patients. There are postcards too, sent during their stay.

In the conversion to convalescent home, the Salomons' new (1912) library had become the Dining Room , and the Salomons' drawing room, a residents' lounge (the Gold Room) . Residents from that period who have visited recently remember that the rest of the house was not so comfortable, with plain lino in the wards and upstairs corridors.

The extensive kitchen gardens continued to be used. Recently discovered notebooks identify five and six garden staff in the 1950s and record the supply of produce to other local NHS operations.

Family

Postcard sent by Mrs Ruth Hammond at the end of her two-week stay in 1954. DSH.M.00xxx.

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NHS Training Centre 1974 - 1996

Family

SETRHA Regional Conference and Training Centre brochure, showing the new accommodation units built in the old kitchen garden.

SETRHA Regional Conference and Training Centre

By the end of the 1960s convalescent homes were falling out of favour and Salomons closed in March 1972. There were calls to use the buildings, especially the Science Theatre, as a museum of music*. The preferred option, by the then South East Thames Regional Health Authority (SETRHA), was to create a new Regional Conference and Training Centre.

SETRHA, which was responsible for NHS facilities in Kent, East Sussex and south-east London, had some 60,000 employees. Its principal need was to provide management training to senior and supervisory staff who were already well-qualified in nursing, technical and other professional roles. Wards, and other spaces, were converted into classrooms . Some accommodation was retained in the main house, but two new accommodation blocks were built in the old kitchen gardens (the glasshouses were removed at this point).

As its expertise and facilities grew, the centre offered its services more widely, and in the 1990s the 'Salomons Centre' was created as a separate trading agency of the RHA. (The 'Greek temple' on the island in the lake appears to have been erected at this time .)

* There was a debate on the question in the House of Lords in 1975. In 1981 SETRHA was still complaining about 'persistent harassment' on the issue.

The Sir David Salomons Society

Throughout this period SETRHA worked with other groups to tell the Salomons story. The most significant of these was the Sir David Salomons Society which was formed in 1980. The purpose of the society was defined as 'to commemorate the two Sir David Salomons ... the men and their works', though the focus tended to be on the scientific and technical interests of the second.

The Society encouraged research, presented lectures, and printed leaflets and guide books . In 1985 its chairman, John Wheeler, became curator of the Museum which until then had been run on a more informal basis. The Society's 'Newsheet / Journal', produced over nearly twenty years, documents its activities.

One of the Society's main aims was to get the Welte organ restored. This was probably always a little over-ambitious for a voluntary society, but it did prepare the ground for later successful campaigns (see below), and the Society did, in the 1990s, restore the 'Echo Organ' to operational use*. By 2000 the Society had been absorbed into the Southborough Society.

* The Echo Organ, sadly, has again fallen into disrepair. An approach to the HLF for a grant in 2018 was unsuccessful.

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Journal of the Sir David Salomons Society - design based on family bookplate. DSH.M.0xxxx.

Broomhill Opera

Broomhill Opera was a more high-profile operation. The Broomhill Trust was set up in 1990 by the operatic tenor, Kim Begley. Its aim was to restore the Salomons theatre and to use it as a summer school for young singers. It attracted grants from the Arts Council and others. Some of these were used to provide dressing rooms under the stage, better seating and an orchestra pit.

A series of summer seasons followed, offering a combination of talented young performers and celebrity names. Brigitte Fassbaender, the mezzo-soprano, appeared in 1992 and Jonathan Miller directed 'Ariadne auf Naxos' in 1993. In 1994 there were linked performances of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' - the play, and the opera by Benjamin Britten . In 1995 Simon Callow directed 'Il Trittico' .

Unfortunately, difficulties arose over the lease and the 1997 season was moved to Christs Hospital. In 1998 Broomhill Opera moved to Wilton's Music Hall in London.

Picture needed

Brochures advertising performances by Broomhill Opera. DSH.M.01078.

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University 1996 - 2013

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CCCU - Canterbury Christ Church University.

Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU)

Canterbury Christ Church College was founded in 1962 as a teacher-training college. By the 1980s it was also training health- and social-care professionals - much like the work being done at Salomons. In 1996 it took over the 'Salomons Centre' which by then was operating as a separate trading agency of the RHA.

Canterbury Christ Church became a University College in 1998, and a University in 2005*. At Salomons the focus was always on health-care (rather than teacher-training) and in particular on Clinical Psychology.

In 2001 the Grade II* listed stable block, which had previously been used by the Blood Transfusion Service, was carefully converted to provide offices, teaching space, and a library. It was renamed Runcie Court . In 2004 the coach houses were converted into a cafe area for staff and students.

* Read about the history of CCCU here.



Restoration of the organ / refurbishment of the museum.

In 1998 CCCU was granted £316,425 by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the restoration of the Welte organ. It took some time to raise the remaining funds and then over three years for the work to be done - by the specialists Mander Organs and AC Pilmer & Co. In September 2006 an inaugural concert was held - the first time the organ had been heard for well over half a century. The 280 organ rolls were restored with a second HLF grant . The organ is occasionally used for concerts and other events .

In 2006, a grant from the Arts & Humanities Research Council, enabled CCCU to have the museum items professionally catalogued and registered with Jisc ArchivesHub. The displays were re-arranged and the museum was formally re-opened by Anne Harrington-Lowe, a great-niece of Ethel Salomons .

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The Welte organ restored by CCCU with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Pic: Colin Jilks, Kent County Organists' Association.

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Conference and Events Venue 2013 - Present

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South front, with 'Salomons Estate' branding.

Elite Leisure Collection (Markerstudy Leisure)

In 2013 Salomons was acquired by the Markerstudy Group - primarily known for its association with insurance brands such as Zenith. CCCU retained Runcie Court for a while but in 2017 moved to the newly-opened Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology in Meadow Road, Tunbridge Wells.

Salomons 'Estate' is now operated by Elite Leisure Collection (ex-Markerstudy Leisure) who have extended and enhanced the conference and events facilities which the building has offered since the 1980s (see links below). With its picturesque grounds, fine architecture and on-site accommodation it is particularly suited to weddings. (Elite Leisure also runs Bewl Water, and the One Warwick Park hotel in Tunbridge Wells.)

In 2019 parts of the main building were refurbished to give a more 'country-house' feel , and 'The Pub & Dining Rooms' were opened to allow members of the public to enjoy a visit*.

The museum remains open to the public (pandemics permitting). Tours of the museum and other parts of the house including the Science Theatre (subject to it not being booked for other uses) can be arranged with the curator.

* In 2020 the North Lodge was also re-furbished and opened as the Salomons Cottage .

Salomons Estate: Weddings - Dining - Accommodation - Conferences

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Please do not copy without permission. 16/03/23.