Monken Hadley is a place in the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in North London. The borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It forms part of Outer London and is the largest ...

. An ancient country village north of

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

, it is now a suburban development on the very edge of

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

north north-west of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

, while retaining much of its rural character.

History

The old English place name "Hadley" means "heathery", a woodland clearing which is covered in heather. The prefix "Monken" refers to the fact that the parish was a possession of the monks of Walden Abbey. East Barnet Valley Civil Parish Map 1894

East Barnet Valley Civil Parish Map 1894

The main site of the

Battle of Barnet The Battle of Barnet was a decisive engagement in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict of 15th-century England. The military action, along with the subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward IV. On Sunday 14 April ...

in 1471, one of the two principal engagements of the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

, was in the parish of Monken Hadley. Yorkist troops advanced through the village, although the action took place north (Hadley Wood) and west (Hadley Green) of the settlement. Although the retreat of the forces of Lord William Hastings (at the hands of the Earl of Oxford) took place in the parish of Barnet, all of the other key engagements were within Monken Hadley parish, including the historically significant death of

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

, believed to be at the place where a monument now stands on the Great North Road. The 4 August 1827 edition of ''The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction'', provides the following short history of the area: Historically Monken Hadley was a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

forming part of a small protrusion into Hertfordshire. In 1889, under the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

, the civil parish was transferred to Hertfordshire. Under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

the parish was split with a Hadley parish becoming part of the

Barnet Urban District Barnet was a local government district in south Hertfordshire from 1863 to 1965 around the town of Barnet. Creation Barnet Local Government District was created on 25 September 1863, after the town's ratepayers decided to adopt the Local Govern ...

, while the remaining part of the parish became part of the

East Barnet Urban District East Barnet Valley was a local government district from 1863 to 1965 around the town of East Barnet. It was partly in the counties of Hertfordshire and Middlesex until 1889, when the Middlesex part was transferred to Hertfordshire. It was renamed ...

of Hertfordshire. In 1965, under the

London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...

, its area was transferred to

and combined with that of other districts formerly in Hertfordshire and Middlesex to form the present-day

.Vision of Britain �
Monken Hadley parish

historic map

Parish church

The parish church of ''St Mary the Virgin'' was built in its present form in 1494 (the date being carved in stone over the west door) although a church is believed to have stood on the site for more than 800 years. The present building is in the

perpendicular style Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

, and includes two side chapels (in transepts) dedicated to St Anne and St Catherine. The building was heavily renovated in Victorian times, and contains large quantities of Victorian woodwork furniture. The parish and church were heavily influenced by tractarianism and the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

, and it remains a focus of eucharistic worship within the surrounding district.

Sport and recreation

Monken Hadley has a Non-League football team Hadley F.C. who play at their Brickfield Lane ground in nearby Arkley. Monken Hadley has a

King George's Fields A King George's Field is a public open space in the United Kingdom dedicated to the memory of King George V (1865–1936). In 1936, after the king's death, Sir Percy Vincent, the then-Lord Mayor of London, formed a committee to determine a ...

open space in memorial to

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

. It is popular for tobogganing when there has been a good fall of snow The field descends into the

Hadley Wood Hadley Wood is an affluent suburb in the north of Greater London, close to the border with Hertfordshire. It appears to be a stand-alone village surrounded by Green Belt land, however, under the Local Government Act 1972 it is part of the ...

s, which make their way into the Tudor Sports Ground area. Hadley Green is a Local Nature Reserve which is a Site of Metropolitan Importance, and traditionally considered the main site of the

. Hadley Common has a cricket field, home to a well-known cricket club, Monken Hadley CC, which is mentioned in one of the works of

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

, who lived in Monken Hadley.

Famous residents

*The great adversarial lawyer

Sir William Garrow Sir William Garrow (13 April 1760 – 24 September 1840) was an English barrister, politician and judge known for his indirect reform of the advocacy system, which helped usher in the adversarial court system used in most common law nations t ...

(1760–1840), coiner of the phrase "innocent until proven guilty", was born and brought up in the village. * Sir Roger Wilbraham (1553–1616),

Solicitor-General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On ra ...

, lived here towards the end of his life and is buried here, and the family monument can still be seen in the Church of St Mary the Virgin. He founded the local Wilbraham's Almshouses. * Anthony Upton, a High Court judge in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, was born here in 1656. *The writers

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...

and

Elizabeth Jane Howard Elizabeth Jane Howard, Lady Amis (26 March 1923 – 2 January 2014), was an English novelist, author of 12 novels including the best-selling series ''The'' ''Cazalet Chronicles''. Early life Howard's parents were timber-merchant Major David L ...

lived for a time in

Lemmons Lemmons, also known as Gladsmuir and Gladsmuir House, was the home of novelists Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) and Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923–2014) on the south side of Hadley Common, Barnet, on the border of north London and Hertfordshire. ...

, a house near the Common, where their friend the Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis died. *

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...

(1918–2002), Comedian, lived at

Monkenhurst Monkenhurst is a house in the Victorian Gothic style at 15 The Crescent on the north edge of New Barnet in London, England. It overlooks Monken Hadley Common. The house was built in 1880 to a design by Peter Dollar and was once the home of the ...

, 1974-2002.

Transport links

Buses

Monken Hadley and Hadley Green are not well-served by bus routes, with most services terminating further south in

. The two Transport for London routes which run nearby are: * 84 – New Barnet railway station to St Albans * 399 – Barnet (the Spires) to Hadley Wood railway station – circular service; Monday to Saturday shopping hours only.

Railway

Both fairly nearby are: *

New Barnet railway station New Barnet railway station is in the London Borough of Barnet in north London, England. It is down the line from , in Travelcard Zone 5. The station is managed and served by Great Northern. Oyster card pay-as-you-go can now be used to and f ...

– Great Northern * Hadley Wood railway station – Great Northern

Tube

Two tube stations are relatively nearby: *

High Barnet Chipping Barnet or High Barnet is a suburban market town in north London, forming part of the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th-century settlement, and is located north-northwest of Charing Cr ...

(Northern Line) is the closer of the two and lies to the south, within walking distance (under a mile), and is accessible via the 84 bus. *

Cockfosters Cockfosters is a suburb of north London to the east of Chipping Barnet, lying partly in the London Borough of Enfield and partly in the London Borough of Barnet. Before 1965, it was in the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. Origins and ...

(Piccadilly Line) is accessible via a longer walk, nearly three miles, eastwards across

Monken Hadley Common Monken Hadley Common lies within the Monken Hadley Conservation Area, and is listed as a “ Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade I,” by the London Borough of Barnet. It is registered common land, and it is owned by the Tr ...

Geographic location

References

External links

Monken Hadley Parish Church websiteMonken Hadley Cricket Club websiteArchives relating to Monken Hadley
at

The National Archives (United Kingdom) , type = Non-ministerial department , seal = , nativename = , logo = Logo_of_The_National_Archives_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg , logo_width = 150px , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , juris ...

{{Areas of London Districts of the London Borough of Barnet Areas of London Places formerly in Middlesex