Turkey Brook - Enfield

Turkey Brook
Turkey Brook flows north eastwards

Suburban area of Enfield

Post to the west Chase Farm
Post to the north Whitewebbs Park
Post to the east Forty Hall

Acacia Avenue
Laid out 1876 by the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society

Beggar’s Hollow
The old course of the New River crosses slightly north of the golf club car park. There is said to be a bridge which carries the road over it.
South Lodge to Whitewebbs Estate.  A house painted pink confection.  This is a 19th cottage orne with bargeboards, a patterned roof and battlemented chimneys.
Claysmore Lodge.  18th single storey house. Lodge to Claysmore House, now gone.
Whitewebbs Golf Course and Clubhouse.  The golf course was built by Hawtree and J.H.Taylor Ltd, and opened in 1932

Birkbeck Road
The Birkbeck Freehold Land Society bought some land from the Connop family and before 1887 laid out ten streets. This was called New Enfield but remained under occupied initially.

Brigadier Hill
The road follows the boundary of Enfield Chase. This may have been named after a Brigadier Franks who lived locally in 1772
30A St Faith's Cottage. 18th house with 19th shop front
Brigadier Free Church – evangelical church which is the name of what is also Brigadier Hall youth centre.
36 part of the Brigadier Youth Centre; it has been decorated with mosaic.

Brodie Road
Laid out 1896

Browning Road
Formerly known as Cocker Lane this name was used in the late 18th. The name Browning Road derives from a Richard Browning who lived on Brigadier Hill and originally only applied to the length south of Phipps Hatch Lane.
Cedar Park Nursery. In what is now called Hymus House which was the rectory to St. Luke's built 1900 by James Brooks.
Church of St Luke the Evangelist and its parish room. Built 1899 by James Brooks in red brick with a tower and spire. It had previously been in an iron mission room.
Brigadier Hill House previously occupied the site. - This was an 18th house, since demolished, but which stood on the site of the church. Browning Road Estate now covers the area of the grounds.

Burlington Road
Laid out 1896

Clay Hill
This road name was in use in the 16th.  It is probably the name of a medieval resident. ‘Clayhyil’ as an old name may seem self-explanatory – but the soil here is not clay! So it is thought to be associated with William atte Cleye in 1274.  In the 16th a stretch of it was called Bridge Street – referring to the crossing of the Turkey Brook.
Telephone Kiosk K6. This is near the junction with Browning Road.
Claysmore. The name is that of an earlier name for the area. This was an estate with a housewhich before 1847 was owned by Edward Harman and then the home if James Bosanquet who financed the building of St. John's church. In 1896 it became a school founded by Alexander Devine which moved elsewhere in 1902. Devine organised the school as a reformed public school, and extensions were built in the grounds.  The house burntdown in 1930.
Brayside Farm – equestrian facilities. The farm is on the site of Claysmore House.
Bramley House.  Built in 1750 in brown brick. There are extensions on either side from the 19th and 20th. The house was originally known as Great Pipers.  It became a private mental home in 1913 and in 1930 was taken over by Middlesex County Council, for handicapped females – as a ‘Certified Institute’, and where they made rugs and socks for the hospital at Shenley. In 1948 it joined the NHS as part of the South Ockendon Hospital Management Committee.  It closed in 1977. Since 1982, it has been Bramley House Court, providing sheltered accommodation. There is a date plaque on the main building '1881' and there is a turret on the roof which appears to contain a wheel.
The Cottages - these may once have been lodge building for Bramley House
Woodbury.  This was built as Clay Hill House for Joseph Toms of Derry and Toms.  It lies in grounds with Victorian planting.  It is an Italianate house of 1860 in pale brick. Now a residential care home.
Clay Hill Lodge. 19th ornamental lodge now divided into two.
Kingswood –equestrian facilities
Little Pipers.  This lies behind a high wall and is a 19th casing on an older house.
The Firs, elaborate 19th stucco house.
Rose and Crown.  The oldest building in the area. It is said one of the landlords was Dick Turpin’s grandfather and that they were a Huguenot family. The ghost of the highwayman is around in the area too. It has a timber frame and brick front plus later extensions. The pub name symbolises the union of York and Lancaster in the marriage of Henry VI and Elizabeth of York. It is first noted in 1716.

Gloucester Road,
Laid out 1896

Hawthorn Grove
Laid out 1876 by the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society
North Enfield Recreation Ground. This had been Tucker’s Field used as a playing field by a local football club since 1896.  The council took it over in 1907. It was later funded from the King George's Fields Foundation

Hilly Fields Park.
Enfield Council bought Park Farm in 1909 and opened the park in 1911
Bandstand. The Council built the bandstand in the early 1920s and it proved popular but began eventually to fall out of fashion and the bandstand became derelict. Its restoration was undertaken by a group of local people and it is now the site of many events.

Morley Hill
Laid out by the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society Possibly named after John Morley (1838-1923), a leading Liberal politician.
St Luke’s Youth Club

Myrtle Grove
Laid out 1876 by the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society

New River
An old course of the New River runs through this square.  The river was originally built on the 100 ft. contour. In order to achieve this it made a three and half mile detour through Whitewebbs - its return out of the loop which this area covers was to skirt Forty Hill.  In 1820 the loop was shortened under William Chadwell Mylne and it was finally abandoned when Docwra built an aqueduct over Maidens Brook. The stretch of the old course can still be followed, although over the golf course it has partly been filled in.

Phipps Hatch Lane
The name recalls a former gate to Enfield Chase.

Turkey Brook
There is a boardwalk on the muddy bits in the woods.

Violet Grove
Laid out 1876 by the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society

Woodbine Grove
Laid out 1876 by the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society

Sources
Brigadier Free Church. Web site
Essex Lopresti, The New River
London Borough of Enfield. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Pam. History of Enfield
Pevsner and Cherry. North London
Rose and Crown. Web site
St.Luke. Web site
Whitewebbs Golf Club. Web site

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thank you for putting up this blog! I spent a couple of hours yesterday reading the South London section (as it's more relevant to me) and I was hooked.
Anonymous said…
Why were so many roads named after medicinal plants? Were they used to supply London hospitals?

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