30/03/2023 09:58:53 AM
88. Cherry Tree Wood
This is a local nature reserve in East Finchley, on the boundary between the London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey. It is owned and managed by Barnet as one of their Premier Parks. It’s a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation.
It was once part of Finchley Wood, which stretched from Highgate to Whetstone in the medieval period, and contains ancient woodland. It was included in a larger swathe of woodland, meadow and pasture owned by the Bishop of London, including Highgate Wood, Queens Wood (see 26) and Coldfall Wood (see 1). It provided an income from harvested fuel wood and pigs.
The wood used to be known as Dirt House Wood because the night soil and horse manure cleaned from London’s streets was brought as fertiliser for the hay meadows to the Dirt House, now the White Lion pub next to East Finchley station. The woodland was reduced in size as land was taken for the railway and for house building in the 1860s.
The need for a recreational space in East Finchley was recognised in the late nineteenth century but it was not until 1912 that the wood was seriously considered for this. Then, it had a reputation for rowdy behaviour and the local authority believed they would kill two birds with one stone if it became a recreation ground. They purchased it in 1914 and it opened to the public in 1915, with the name Cherry Tree Wood.
Hornbeam and oak grow in the wood, and wood anemone grow there in spring with other ancient woodland plants including ramsons (we have these in our garden in Mill Hill – a sort of mild wild garlic, very tasty). Nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker and mistle thrush can often be seen.
The wood has playgrounds, a café, toilets, tennis and basketball courts, a picnic area, woodland walks and an open grassed area - we celebrated my cousin’s sixtieth birthday there a few years ago.
There are entrances from Brompton Grove, Fordington Road and Summerlee Avenue (all N2) and East Finchley station is a five-minute walk away.
Judith Field
Cherry Tree Wood, Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QH
23/03/2023 09:53:57 AM
87. Milner Square Garden, Islington
This square, one of many in Islington, is in the Barnsbury area. It’s bounded by early Victorian terraced houses, all listed buildings. The square has a continuous terrace of houses with no features to break up the terrace - even the chimney stacks are hidden from view. It’s protected under the London Squares Preservation Act 1931.
It was created in 1841, as London expanded over the agricultural fields that once characterised much of Islington. Individual developers built terrace streets and often included squares so that the houses benefited from a central garden. Milner Square was part of the estate laid out for Thomas Milner Gibson MP, who leased the land from the Lord of Barnsbury Manor. By the late nineteenth century, Barnsbury began to be abandoned by the middle classes who were replaced by poorer occupants.
In the first half of the 20th century the square, along with much of Islington, became impoverished. The seedy houses were converted to bed sits and small flats. The run-down buildings were bought by the local authority in 1973 and restored and converted into council flats.
The centre of the square was a vegetable garden until the nineteen thirties. Since then, it has been a playground and this was renovated in 2018. There’s also a sports court. The centre also has planted borders and a small brick pavilion.
We found space to park on a nearby street. It was interesting to visit a different sort of open space, and Jack was happy because of the playground, so it was worth slogging along the Holloway Road with all its traffic lights. I plan to visit more pocket parks – according to the government definition, occupying no more than half the size of a football field, and often considerably smaller (see, for example, no. 61, Mapesbury Dell).
Judith Field
Milner Square Garden, London N1 1TW
23/03/2023 09:40:24 AM
86 Town park, Enfield
The village of Enfield was one of the largest medieval parishes in Middlesex and was fully cultivated by the time of the Domesday Survey. Town Park is a surviving fragment, along with Bush Hill Park Golf Course of the pre-Elizabethan Old Park estate of Enfield Manor. Many rich people moved to Enfield from the seventeenth century onwards and built fine houses such as Chase Side House. Town Park was created on 23 acres of the former Chase Side House estate, which the local authority bought in 1894. It was laid out and opened to the public in 1902. A bathing lake opened in 1905.
From the entrance on Cecil road, the park opens onto flower beds and hedged rose gardens on either side of a path with a Giant Redwood Tree growing in the middle, with seating around its trunk.
There are also oak, lime and horse chestnut trees. To the south are playing fields and open grass leading to a remnant of the Enfield Loop of the New River, which separates the park from the private golf course.
This river is an artificial waterway opened in the seventeenth century to supply London with fresh drinking water. When the river loop was piped underground in the late nineteenth century, a public campaign lobbied for the preservation of the remnant for its ornamental value, and it was saved from being filled in.
The bathing lake is no longer in use, but it contained three ponds, surrounded by raised beds planted with a variety of ornamental shrubs. Today one of the ponds has an island planted with shrubs and another is now an interactive water play park.
The park also has a cafe, toilets, a playground and interactive aquatic play areas for young children. There are tennis courts and multi-use games areas. As far as I can tell there isn’t a car park and we parked on a nearby street.
Judith Field
Town Park, Enfield, Cecil Rd, Enfield EN2 6LE
Judith and Jack's Park of the Week
23/03/2023 09:40:24 AM
87. Milner Square Garden, Islington
This square, one of many in Islington, is in the Barnsbury area. It’s bounded by early Victorian terraced houses, all listed buildings. The square has a continuous terrace of houses with no features to break up the terrace - even the chimney stacks are hidden from view. It’s protected under the London Squares Preservation Act 1931.
It was created in 1841, as London expanded over the agricultural fields that once characterised much of Islington. Individual developers built terrace streets and often included squares so that the houses benefited from a central garden. Milner Square was part of the estate laid out for Thomas Milner Gibson MP, who leased the land from the Lord of Barnsbury Manor. By the late nineteenth century, Barnsbury began to be abandoned by the middle classes who were replaced by poorer occupants.
In the first half of the 20th century the square, along with much of Islington and its population, became impoverished. The seedy buildings were converted to bed sits and small flats. The run-down buildings were bought by the local authority in 1973 and restored and converted into council flats.
The centre of the square was a vegetable garden until the nineteen thirties. Since then, it has been a playground and this was renovated in 2018. There’s also a sports court. The centre also has planted borders and a small brick pavilion.
We found space to park on a nearby street. It was interesting to visit a different sort of open space, and Jack was happy because of the playground, so it was worth slogging along the Holloway Road with all its traffic lights. I plan to visit more pocket parks – according to the government definition, occupying no more than half the size of a football field, and often considerably smaller (see, for example, no. 61, Mapesbury Dell (scroll down a bit).
Judith Field
Milner Square Garden, London N1 1TW
09/03/2023 10:03:10 AM
85. Wood Green Common
Wood Green Common, in Wood Green, is a remnant of the original Wood Greene, which bordered the east side of Tottenham Wood, part of the Forest of Middlesex. It’s lined by London plane trees and is a nature conservation area.
The common is in two sections divided by a straight footpath, the west section is open grassland with a playground at the end, and the east section was laid out as a formal garden in the early twentieth century. In the formal part is a pergola, which is covered with wisteria in the spring. Four paths radiating from a circular area with a central drinking fountain (it doesn’t work). This is in memory of C W Barratt whose confectionery factory overlooked Wood Green Common from 1880 to around 1980, and who was an important local employer.
I found an article in the British Newspaper Archive, from the Tottenham and Edmonton Weekly Herald of 20 July 1910, of a teenager charged with gambling on Wood Green Common. A policeman said that he had seen him and a group of friends playing with coins. The boy's defence was that in fact they’d been playing woggle. This apparently involves sticks and a ring, and he said the policeman had mistaken a small bit of wood (the woggle) for a coin. A number of witnesses corroborated this and the case was dismissed.
Have you ever woggled? I haven’t, but clearly it’s not illegal (or, it wasn’t in 1904) and as soon as I find out the rules and the weather improves I’ll be woggling in the garden. For anyone else old enough to remember the radio programme Round the Horne, this is worthy of Kenneth Williams's character Rambling Syd Rumpo.
Judith Field
Wood Green Common, Station Road, N22 7SY
02/03/2023 09:53:56 AM
84. Trent Country Park
This is a large park in Enfield and includes varied woodlands, some of which dates from before 1600. There are also lakes, meadows and other habitats and a heritage landscape. Hay meadows in the park are harvested to encourage grassland flowers.
It used to be part of the royal hunting park of Enfield Chase. When it was enclosed after 1777, A deer park and lake were laid out and an old lodge converted into the house that’s still there, known at the time as Trent Place.
It’s the former estate of the Sassoon family of Baghadi Jews family known as "The Rothschilds of the East". Sir Philip Sassoon designed Trent Park to be the perfect venue for his political and social entertaining in the nineteen twenties and thirties. In 1951 the estate was compulsorily purchased as Green Belt land and in 1968 most of it became a public park, Trent Country Park, which was officially opened in 1973.
Trent Park is recognised by Historic England as being of national and international significance on a level with Bletchley Park. During the Second World War, the house was requisitioned by the government and used as a centre to extract information from captured German officers. The rooms at Trent Park had been equipped with hidden microphones allowing the British military (MI19) to listen to the prisoners’ conversations. These secret listeners were almost all German émigrés (most of them Jewish) who escaped Nazi persecution for Britain and signed up for military service. This provided information about, for example, the relative strengths and weaknesses of German aircraft during the Battle of Britain. Undercover interrogators were planted among the prisoners.
Later in the war the house was used as a special prisoner-of-war camp (the "Cockfosters Cage") for captured German generals and staff officers. Again, hidden listening devices allowed the British to gather important information and an insight into the minds of the German military elite. My father was involved with MI19. I don’t know if he was one of the listeners, and I wish I could ask him, even though he may not have told me.
The main entrance to the park is the west entrance on Cockfosters Road. The north entrance on Hadley Road leads into a forest, close to Camlet Moat, a small, moated island. This first appeared in local records in the fifteenth century as Camelot Moat when there seems to have been a building on the site called Camelot Manor. I've not heard of any Arthurian connections.
The Country Park has a café, toilets, visitor centre, showground, golf course, two fishing lakes, a cycle trail through the meadows, a horse-riding circuit and play area.
Judith Field
Trent Country Park, Cockfosters Road, Enfield, EN4 0PS
23/02/2023 09:55:29 AM
83. Bluebell wood
This hidden gem is a triangular fragment of oak and hornbeam forest in Bounds Green. It’s at the end of a suburban street, sandwiched between houses, allotments and a golf course. It’s designated as ancient woodland and is the last remaining piece of what was a much larger woodland called Tottenham Wood. In 1619, this covered 157 hectares, about the size of eight football pitches. The forest had been part of the Bishop of London’s estate and there’s a pronounced ditch to the north of the wood, which would have been a way of keeping the commoners’ animals out of the forest.
Later in the seventeenth century the wood was enclosed as a private hunting park by King James I. By the end of the eighteenth century the wood had become cultivated and meadow land. In the early nineteenth century the land was converted to a dairy farm, with Bluebell Wood the only part of the farm to remain wooded. The farm was eventually sold to Haringey Golf Course. It’s maintained by the Friends of Bluebell Wood.
We visited at the wrong time of year for bluebells, but apparently there are no native bluebells there. Any that you can see are hybrids that have spread from neighbouring gardens. Trees in the wood include oaks, hornbeam and the ancient woodland indicator species. wild service. What might a Wild Service at FRS look and sound like?
The colours of nature are soothing and it’s been suggested that people relax best while seeing greens and blues. We can try ‘forest bathing’. This Japanese relaxation practice, known as shinrin yoku is encouraged by Forestry England. It doesn’t involve getting into water, it’s a simple process of being calm and quiet among the trees and observing nature around you, to de-stress and boost health and wellbeing. It works for me, I look at the leaves above my head and see the different shapes and colours of each one, I breathe deeply, and wind down for a moment. It’s amazing that built-up London still has patches of woodland lingering from prehistoric times, if you know where to look.
Judith Field
Bluebell Wood, Winton Avenue, London N11 2AR
16/02/2023 09:26:28 AM
82. Broomfield Park
Broomfield Park, in Palmers Green, is a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation and is registered by English Heritage in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens for its special historic interest. It was originally the gardens of Broomfield House, built in the sixteenth century. The local authority bought the house and grounds in 1903, and they were opened to the public in the same year.
The house was Grade II listed in 1950 but was badly damaged by fire in 1984, and it’s still derelict. The local authority plan to bid for National Lottery Heritage funding for “dismantling the derelict shell of Broomfield House, and reconnecting the park and House through memorialisation, interpretation and landscaping.” I don’t know what that means, and perhaps Jack will allow usto go back in a couple of years and find out. The Friends of Broomfield Park, a group of volunteers, work with the local authority to maintain and improve the park.
The park has three lakes, a sensory garden, a conservatory and a community orchard (on the site of a former bowling green). From the former carriage drive, now a large open space, there are good views across to Alexandra Palace and the City of London and parts of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
There are also an outdoor gym, tennis and netball courts, football pitch, a children’s playground, wildflower garden and a memorial garden honouring the dead of both World Wars.
There is a model boating pond, but it’s been empty for a couple of years. It’s now in the early stages of repair and restoration. In August 2019, a wetland area was opened in the park, with the aim of creating a new wildlife habitat and improving river water quality nearby.
There’s a community café run by volunteers, open on Wednesdays and at weekends, and toilets. The main entrance to the park is on Aldermans Hill and there are also gates on Powys Lane and Broomfield Lane. There’s no car park but there is space to park on nearby streets.
Judith Field
Broomfield Park, Aldermans Hill, London N13 4HE
09/02/2023 09:28:42 AM
81. Meadow Park
Meadow Park is close to BBC Elstree Studios and Borehamwood town centre, and next to Borehamwood Football Stadium, home to Boreham Wood FC, Arsenal Women and Watford FC Reserves. It’s mostly a flat, open playing field, with a wildflower meadow but not very many trees.
I usually include something about a park’s history, but I can’t find anything for Meadow Park besides that it opened in 1929. I’ve no idea what had been there before. That shouldn’t stop anyone visiting, perhaps if you’re in the area rather than making a special trip. It’s popular with people playing sports and there are lots of things to do. It has two children’s play areas, tennis courts, multi-sports court, baseball court, interactive games with lights and music, football pitches and an outdoor gym. There’s something called a youth shelter, which appears to be a place where teenagers can meet, rather than hanging around the streets, open on one side. The park is monitored by CCTV.
Since we visited, a splash park opened there, including water jets, large columns of water to run or jump through, a fountain three metres high and “arching crawl features”. Jack won’t let us visit a park more than once, so I won’t be able to go back and find out what these features are. The park also hosts local events such as Movies in the Park, Families’ Day, Halloween Funday and an annual firework display. There’s a bandstand, home to concerts, and it’s also used as a performance area.
There’s a café, and toilets. There is a car park, but we parked on a local street and there seems to be plenty of room nearby.
Judith Field
Meadow Park, Brook Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1TL
Privacy Settings | Privacy Policy | Member Terms
©2025 All rights reserved. Find out more about ShulCloud