Walking through the past in Barnet Vale

Dave McCormick takes an evening stroll through history and community

A group of around twenty people standing in front of a tree — Walk participants

On one of the cooler July evenings, a group of people went for a sociable, gently guided walk around three publicly accessible gardens in Barnet Vale – Incredible Edible Barnet community garden at St John’s United Reformed Church (URC), Highlands Gardens and Greenhill Gardens.

Along the way we learned about the history of Barnet Vale and the gardens, how to record nature observations using a smartphone app, why the water feature at Highlands Gardens is not working, and what connects local residents to the families that founded Lloyds and Barclays Bank.

The past

Before 1849, the area had a small number of people living on the privately owned Lyonsdown and Greenhill Estates. By 1931 the Estates were history and Barnet Vale had around 11,000 people living in a mix of houses and flats.

The trigger for growth came in 1849 when the Lyonsdown Estate, which covered the area now bounded by Potters Road, the Great North Road, Greenhill Gardens, Longmoor Avenue and Pymmes Brook, was sold to the Great Northern Railway Company who on-sold the land they didn’t need to the British Land Company for development.

The following year, New Barnet Railway Station opened and the combination of a railway link into London, and the opportunity to buy a home attracted people to the area.

By 1890 the area had been transformed into a place with shops, churches, pubs, a town hall, a reservoir, a gas and water company and houses of different styles and sizes.

A number of churches of different denominations were built close to each other on, or near Station Road. One, St Augustine’s Presbyterian Church, became St John’s United Reformed Church which is now the home of the Incredible Edible Barnet community garden.

Highlands House and Gardens, on the edge of the old Lyonsdown Estate, was built in 1897 for stockbroker Joseph Bevan Braithwaite. The gardens were purchased by East Barnet Urban District Council in 1930 and Highlands Gardens was opened to the public the following year.

The Greenhill Estate, which bordered the Lyonsdown Estate, was once part of the larger Pricklers Estate which was sold by the Crown in 1558 (the local part of the Great North Road is called Pricklers Hill).

The estate stayed in private ownership until 1926 when it was broken up and auctioned for development. The lake area of the estate had been scheduled for social use by the council, but it was not until 1951 that Greenhill Gardens was finally purchased by the council and opened to the public.

The present

While Greenhill and Highlands Gardens are rooted firmly in the past, Incredible Edible Barnet has re-imagined and re-purposed the church grounds so that they provide a place for people to come together to learn about growing food and connect with nature.

The future

During the walk, conversations turned to discussing what we can do to help our gardens adapt to the changing weather and meet the current and future needs of our communities. Should we preserve the past or create a new future?

At the community garden the fig tree is thriving while other plants are desperately in need of water – possibly a figurative reminder that adaptation and resilience are vital for the health of nature and society.

Maybe more walks and discussions are needed to decide what actions we should take.

Close up of the leaves of a fig tree — The fig tree

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