Tributary to Salmons Brook - West Lodge

Tributary to Salmons Brook
The Tributary flows south and then turns abruptly east
Monken Mead Brook flows east and then turns abruptly south

Post to the west Hadley Wood Station
Post to the north Plumridge Hill
Post to the east Ferny Hill
Post to the south Beech Hill Park

Beech Hill
Hadley Wood Golf Club. This square covers the entrance only, the course and clubhouse lie to the south

Cockfosters Road
West Lodge Park. Hotel. One of the official lodges of the park rangers. West Lodge itself was probably built in the 1400s when the Chase was divided into sections for administration. It was also known as Potters Lodge.  Elizabeth was given the estate by her brother Edward VI in 1547. It was sold under the Commonwealth and then returned to the Crown, with complications, and said to be the only one of the Lodges with any pretensions to being posh - there were stables for 30 horses.  Henry Coventry, Secretary of State to Charles II, lived at West Lodge and was visited there in June 1676 by diarist John Evelyn. In the 18th the Dukes of Chandos were Chief Rangers of Enfield Chase and used the lodge. Much of the house was rebuilt in the early 19th but panelling on the main staircase, came from the original house. In the Great War it was used as a rest home for nurses. In 1924 North Lewis built an additional wing and opened it as a hotel, mostly for retired people as permanent residents and facilities included a pack of hare hounds. Edward Beale bought the hotel in 1945 and it became a hotel with banqueting and similar facilities. The Beale family continue to own and manage the hotel. The earliest part now extant is a two-storeyed range, which is 18th. The  central section was rebuilt in the 19th plus some extensions from 1923 and 1972. All in white stucco
West Lodge Park Garden. The Beale Arboretum has over 800 varieties of trees and shrubs, including a National Collection of hornbeam cultivars. There are conifers, oaks, maples and mountain ash as well as beehives and 2 ponds. It was founded in 1963 by Edward Beale on a ten acre site previously used for farming. He worked with consultants Frank Knight, Director of the Royal Horticultural Society, and Derek Honour, arboriculturalist for the Greater London Council. Trees include a rare bald cypress, an intact blue atlas cedar and a very old strawberry tree from 1760.

Southgate Road
Stagg Hill
Slopers Pond Farm

Sources
Stevenson Middlesex
London Encyclopedia
David Pam Enfield Chase
Walford Village London
Beales Hotels. West Lodge web site
National Gardens Scheme  web site

 

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