History

Gorsey Brow

Before the 1930s, Gorsey Brow was the name of the area or hamlet which surrounded the current location of the community centre. Following the building of the Humphrey Park estate in the 1930s, the name was adopted by a row of four tall cottages which stand on Humphrey Lane close to the junction with Bradfield Road (previously Chadwick Lane).

The cottages were built around 1870 by John Taylor of Newcroft Hall as a result of a quarrel which had broken out between him and Thomas Chadwick, a cotton merchant who had just built a large palatial mansion nearby called The Grove. The cottages were intended to deliberately block the view of Mr Chadwick from his home, which at the time was of orchards and fields. John Taylor let the cottages to poor people rent free, as they were unfurnished and unfinished at first.

The original name for the cottages was Summerfield Terrace. They were known locally as Spite Cottages or Spite Row.

In 1962, a letter addressed to Spite Cottage found its way to Gorsey Brow.