Ordained priest in 1939, he went that year as assistant priest to Harrington, Cumberland. The following year he joined the staff at Workington, and in 1943 returned to Harrington as parish priest, and remained there for twelve years. Those were probably the happiest and most fruitful years of his priesthood.
In 1955 he was appointed parish priest of St Oswald's, Warrington, where he found the climate milder, the people less responsive, and himself at sixty-one faced with a fast-expanding parish of a very awkward shape.
In 1961 his rheumatism was worsening, his sight deteriorating, and he worked on for a year without an assistant. In 1962 he was retired owing to ill health to be chaplain to the sisters at St Vincent's, Kingussie, Inverness-shire. He remained there for eighteen years until his death on 5th September, 1980 at the age of eighty-six.
Fr Cyprian was both tough and sensitive, in the best sense of both words. A man who carried a much bigger man than himself, suffering from shell-shock, out of the crater left by a shell which narrowly missed them both in the trench warfare of World War I, had to be tough. But he never talked much about that. He could be tough with parishioners who made unreasonable demands, and tough in defending parishioners who needed help. At the same time he was also sensitive and sympathetic to the dispositions, circumstances and needs of those with whom he was dealing.
In the churches of which he had the care he paid much attention to quality and taste, whether in furnishings, vestments, flowers or anything else concerned with dignified worship.
A lover of plants and flowers, and a knowledgeable one, he kept a small piece of garden weedless even up to his last years. He was also a talented musician, with a wide knowledge of classical music, and considerable skill and sensitivity at the piano and the organ.
A keen sense of humour helped to carry him through the humdrum events of everyday life with an appreciation of the odd quirks of character in those among whom he worked - an appreciation which was always kindly and understanding.
Deteriorating sight in later years brought many trials, but none so great as the difficulty of reading his breviary.
DOM HAROLD GODDARD CYPRIAN BROOMFIELD 5 Sep 1980
1894 4 Aug born King's Somborne Hants
1925 8 Apr Received in the Church
1932 19 Sept Habit at Ampleforth Abbot Matthews
1933 21 Sep Simple Vows " "
1936 21 Sept Solemn Vows " "
1937 Apr Tonsure & Minor Orders " "
1937 18 Jul Subdeacon Bishop Shine
1938 17 Jul Deacon " "
1939 23 Jul Priest " "
1939 Sept Harrington - Assistant
1940 Sept Workington - Assistant
1943 Nov Harrington - PP
1955 Jul Warrington St.Oswald's - PP (arrived August)
1962 Sept Retired due to ill health to St.Vincent's Kingussie
1980 5 Sept died late pm at St.Vincent's Kingussie
1980 9 Sept Requiem and burial at Pluscarden Abbey Elgin