Pymmes Brook - East Barnet
Pymmes Brook
Pymmes Brook continues to flow south east
Urban area and part of Barnet, some industry and the remains of woodland
Post to the north Cockfosters
Post to the south Oakleigh Park
Bohun Road
Named for Bohun Lodge, now the Middlesex University site.
Brookhill Road
38 Royal British Legion
43-45 Day Plant Hire. Buildings of Oakleigh Park Laundry
Brookhill Nursery School
30 Currie Motors. Previously Clockhouse Garage and Clockhouse. Engineering and Instrument Co. Hydraulic and Pneumatic Control Equipment
85 East Barnet Library
77-79 Ludlow Court. Flats on the site of the Lancaster Electrical Company Works. Claude Lane was an electrical engineer with a business in Lancaster Road in 1931 and moved here to produce light electric traction vehicles and also sold domestic electrical equipment. In the 1940s he built and designed a small miniature tramway on ground at the back of the works and took it to local fetes and fairs. He set a line up in St Leonards, Hastings, as a seaside. Attraction but this failed and eventually they moved to Eastbourne, and the Barnet works closed. Some Barnet built trams remain in use on the Seaton tramway.
Cat Hill
Pymmes Brook Bridge. The bridge here was Katebrygge in 1406. A settlement grew up round this area and was known as East Barnet from the 13th.
Littlegrove. On the brow of the hill was a large house by 1291 originally called Danegrove. By the mid-16th it was called Littlegrove and in 1719 it was changed again to New Place but reverted to Littlegrove by the early 1800s. Later a chapel and a lake were added. It was demolished in 1932 but some parts of the grounds remain in Cat Hill gardens.
Clockhouse. Large house on the site now covered by the parade. Demolished in 1925. In the 17th this was Dudmans, and home of the keeper of the lions at the Tower.
East Barnet War Memorial. Unveiled in 1920 in the centre of the road junction until c.1970 when it was moved in front of the Methodist church. Second World War names added in 2010
The Cat Inn. Burned down in 1955. Beer from Sedgwick’s Brewery, Watford.
Brookside Methodist Church. Opened in 1967.
Church Hall. A new Wesleyan Methodist Church was opened in East Barnet adjoining an iron church opened in 1915. The new building was opened by the Hon Mrs J Arthur Rank.
Clockhouse Parade. Neo-Georgian shops built in 1926. The clock tower from Clock house was reused as the centrepiece.
East Barnet Vet's Surgery in what was The Drum Pub. This was previously the Kings Head on site since at least the mid 18th. It was known locally as The Drum and the name changed to that. It was a Beskins house and closed in 2009.
Chestnut Road
East Barnet School is a secondary ‘academy’ with various specialisms. It opened as a Modern School in 1937 with students transferred from other schools. Soon after the name changed to East Barnet Grammar School. There were additions in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. It was transferred to the London Borough of Barnet in 1965 and became comprehensive in 1971 as East Barnet Senior High School, with a junior branch in the old John Hampden School in Westbrook Crescent. The schools were combined in 1976. In 2010 the buildings at Chestnut Grove were demolished and a new school provided here in 2010 following various disputes over planning.
Church Hill
The road name dates to at least the 16th
Parish Hall in the national school of 1871. An Anglican National School had been established in 1822, and these buildings were financed by a Mr. Thornton.
2 Prince of Wales. Pub
Littlegrove
The road is named for Littlegrove House which stood in Cat Hill.
St.Marys Church of England Primary School
East Barnet Road
East Barnet followed the valley along Pymmes Brook which belonged to St.Alban's Abbey in the Middle Ages. It was a southern peninsula of Hertfordshire until 1965. Until the suburbs began to expand in the late 19th there was little more here than the church and some big houses.
East Barnet Baptist Church. Founded in May 1910, this met in a 'tin tabernacle. The current corner site was used for a new church built in traditional style in 1931. This was burnt down in 1980, leaving only the church hall and the church was the rebuilt.
Heddon Court Avenue
The road is the site of a house called Belmont, which was owned by Elias Ashmole, and which was called Mount Pleasant in the 17th. In the 1890s it was called Heddon Court at which Sir John Betjeman once taught and during the Great War it was a private school, scout masters were trained here in the 1920s but it was demolished in the 1930s.
Jackson Road
First suburban road in the area built in 1889 with plain brick pairs of houses built by William Jackson, licensee of the Prince of Wales.
Oak Hill Woods Nature Reserve
Oak Hill Woods are a local nature reserve in the wider Oak Hill Park. They can be dated to before the 11th when they were in the ownership of the manor of Chipping and East Barnet, itself owned by St Albans Abbey. After the dissolution, the area was incorporated into Oak Hill Estate owned by the Barings from the 1860s until 1928. It was eventually taken over in the 20th by East Barnet Council. The woods, which were declared a Local Nature Reserve by the London Borough of Barnet in 1997. There are ancient wood indicators - oak, hornbeam, ash and Wild Service Tree and Victorian plantings - cedar of Lebanon, London Plane. The Pymmes Brook, which runs through the park, is bordered by willows, and there are two small tributaries. There is an ancient wood bank and ditch along the northern edge and that is dominated by ash.
Ridgeway Avenue
Danegrove School. Formerly Littlegrove Junior School and Oaklands Infant School. This school’s design is said to have made Hertfordshire County Council famous by use in 1950 of the Architects Co-Partnership. Makes use of a modified form of a steel frame with precast concrete panels and coloured panel infill, on Hills 8' 3" system. It buildings are on a green slope, with a tall assembly hall facing the entrance. The hall had a mural by Fred illett.
Source material for this section
London Encyclopedia
Walford Village London
Pevsner & Cherry London North
Hertfordshire Churches
London Borough of Barnet Pocket Histories web site & Barnet Histories web site
Modern tramways, Barnet Works web site
History of the Seaton Tram web site
East Barnet School web site
London Wildlife Trust web site
Day Plant Hire web site
Pymmes Brook continues to flow south east
Urban area and part of Barnet, some industry and the remains of woodland
Post to the north Cockfosters
Post to the south Oakleigh Park
Bohun Road
Named for Bohun Lodge, now the Middlesex University site.
Brookhill Road
38 Royal British Legion
43-45 Day Plant Hire. Buildings of Oakleigh Park Laundry
Brookhill Nursery School
30 Currie Motors. Previously Clockhouse Garage and Clockhouse. Engineering and Instrument Co. Hydraulic and Pneumatic Control Equipment
85 East Barnet Library
77-79 Ludlow Court. Flats on the site of the Lancaster Electrical Company Works. Claude Lane was an electrical engineer with a business in Lancaster Road in 1931 and moved here to produce light electric traction vehicles and also sold domestic electrical equipment. In the 1940s he built and designed a small miniature tramway on ground at the back of the works and took it to local fetes and fairs. He set a line up in St Leonards, Hastings, as a seaside. Attraction but this failed and eventually they moved to Eastbourne, and the Barnet works closed. Some Barnet built trams remain in use on the Seaton tramway.
Cat Hill
Pymmes Brook Bridge. The bridge here was Katebrygge in 1406. A settlement grew up round this area and was known as East Barnet from the 13th.
Littlegrove. On the brow of the hill was a large house by 1291 originally called Danegrove. By the mid-16th it was called Littlegrove and in 1719 it was changed again to New Place but reverted to Littlegrove by the early 1800s. Later a chapel and a lake were added. It was demolished in 1932 but some parts of the grounds remain in Cat Hill gardens.
Clockhouse. Large house on the site now covered by the parade. Demolished in 1925. In the 17th this was Dudmans, and home of the keeper of the lions at the Tower.
East Barnet War Memorial. Unveiled in 1920 in the centre of the road junction until c.1970 when it was moved in front of the Methodist church. Second World War names added in 2010
The Cat Inn. Burned down in 1955. Beer from Sedgwick’s Brewery, Watford.
Brookside Methodist Church. Opened in 1967.
Church Hall. A new Wesleyan Methodist Church was opened in East Barnet adjoining an iron church opened in 1915. The new building was opened by the Hon Mrs J Arthur Rank.
Clockhouse Parade. Neo-Georgian shops built in 1926. The clock tower from Clock house was reused as the centrepiece.
East Barnet Vet's Surgery in what was The Drum Pub. This was previously the Kings Head on site since at least the mid 18th. It was known locally as The Drum and the name changed to that. It was a Beskins house and closed in 2009.
Chestnut Road
East Barnet School is a secondary ‘academy’ with various specialisms. It opened as a Modern School in 1937 with students transferred from other schools. Soon after the name changed to East Barnet Grammar School. There were additions in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. It was transferred to the London Borough of Barnet in 1965 and became comprehensive in 1971 as East Barnet Senior High School, with a junior branch in the old John Hampden School in Westbrook Crescent. The schools were combined in 1976. In 2010 the buildings at Chestnut Grove were demolished and a new school provided here in 2010 following various disputes over planning.
Church Hill
The road name dates to at least the 16th
Parish Hall in the national school of 1871. An Anglican National School had been established in 1822, and these buildings were financed by a Mr. Thornton.
2 Prince of Wales. Pub
Littlegrove
The road is named for Littlegrove House which stood in Cat Hill.
St.Marys Church of England Primary School
East Barnet Road
East Barnet followed the valley along Pymmes Brook which belonged to St.Alban's Abbey in the Middle Ages. It was a southern peninsula of Hertfordshire until 1965. Until the suburbs began to expand in the late 19th there was little more here than the church and some big houses.
East Barnet Baptist Church. Founded in May 1910, this met in a 'tin tabernacle. The current corner site was used for a new church built in traditional style in 1931. This was burnt down in 1980, leaving only the church hall and the church was the rebuilt.
Heddon Court Avenue
The road is the site of a house called Belmont, which was owned by Elias Ashmole, and which was called Mount Pleasant in the 17th. In the 1890s it was called Heddon Court at which Sir John Betjeman once taught and during the Great War it was a private school, scout masters were trained here in the 1920s but it was demolished in the 1930s.
Jackson Road
First suburban road in the area built in 1889 with plain brick pairs of houses built by William Jackson, licensee of the Prince of Wales.
Oak Hill Woods Nature Reserve
Oak Hill Woods are a local nature reserve in the wider Oak Hill Park. They can be dated to before the 11th when they were in the ownership of the manor of Chipping and East Barnet, itself owned by St Albans Abbey. After the dissolution, the area was incorporated into Oak Hill Estate owned by the Barings from the 1860s until 1928. It was eventually taken over in the 20th by East Barnet Council. The woods, which were declared a Local Nature Reserve by the London Borough of Barnet in 1997. There are ancient wood indicators - oak, hornbeam, ash and Wild Service Tree and Victorian plantings - cedar of Lebanon, London Plane. The Pymmes Brook, which runs through the park, is bordered by willows, and there are two small tributaries. There is an ancient wood bank and ditch along the northern edge and that is dominated by ash.
Ridgeway Avenue
Danegrove School. Formerly Littlegrove Junior School and Oaklands Infant School. This school’s design is said to have made Hertfordshire County Council famous by use in 1950 of the Architects Co-Partnership. Makes use of a modified form of a steel frame with precast concrete panels and coloured panel infill, on Hills 8' 3" system. It buildings are on a green slope, with a tall assembly hall facing the entrance. The hall had a mural by Fred illett.
Source material for this section
London Encyclopedia
Walford Village London
Pevsner & Cherry London North
Hertfordshire Churches
London Borough of Barnet Pocket Histories web site & Barnet Histories web site
Modern tramways, Barnet Works web site
History of the Seaton Tram web site
East Barnet School web site
London Wildlife Trust web site
Day Plant Hire web site
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