EDGWARE
The Ancient parish of Edgware (fn. 1) lay on the northern boundary of Middlesex. The extreme width of
the parish was 1½ mile and the extreme length 2½
miles. In 1931, before Edgware became part of
Hendon U.D., the area of the parish was 2,089 a. (fn. 2)
The old parish was bordered on the north by Elstree
(Herts.), on the west by Little Stanmore, and on the
east by Hendon. The northern boundary followed
roughly the line of Grim's Dyke, (fn. 3) and the western
boundary ran from Elstree village southward along
the modern Watling Street until it reached the
Edgware Brook, which it followed until it joined
Dean's Brook; it then turned towards the north and
followed Dean's Brook until that stream petered out
within a few hundred yards of Grim's Dyke and the
eastern end of the northern boundary. This eastern
edge of the parish followed the boundary of an estate
in Hendon granted to Westminster Abbey severally
by King Edwy (955-9) and King Edgar (959-75). (fn. 4)
In the 12th and 13th centuries the vill of Edgware
included the present parish and also that part of
Little Stanmore north of the old road that branched
off Watling Street in the direction of Watford along
the line of the present Canons Drive. (fn. 5) The parish
included part of the village of Elstree in its northwestern corner, while that part of the village of Edgware which stands on the western side of Watling
Street has always been in the parish of Little Stanmore. (fn. 6) Edgware was included in Hendon R.D. on its
formation in 1895 and was transferred to Hendon
U.D. in 1931. Hendon was incorporated in 1932 and
has formed part of the London Borough of Barnet
since 1965. (fn. 7)
The soil of Edgware consists mainly of London
Clay. There is a narrow strip of alluvium along
Dean's Brook, and the higher lands in the extreme
north-west of the parish, together with Brockley
Hill and Woodcock Hill, are composed of the sand
and loam of the Claygate Beds, capped with pebble
gravel. (fn. 8) The southern tip of the parish is only 150
ft above sea level; a gentle ascent is maintained
northward for 2 miles, but beyond Edgwarebury the
land rises sharply to reach over 475 ft near Elstree.
Brockley Hill, probably the site of the Roman station
of Sulloniacae, (fn. 9) and Woodcock Hill, in the northeast corner of the parish, are both over 450 ft high.
Dean's Brook, the product of several small springs
on the south-eastern slopes of Deacon's Hill, is
joined by a small stream from Brockley Hill and
Edgwarebury at a point some 500 yards north of the
junction of Dean's Brook and Edgware Brook,
which there combine to become Silk Stream. In
modern times none of these streams has been great
enough to be more than an impediment to travellers,
but the fact that the name of the village has been
constructed to mean 'Ecgi's weir or fishing pool' may
well indicate that either Dean's Brook or Edgware
Brook was at one time of far greater volume. (fn. 10)
Moreover, the bridge known as Edgware Bridge,
which carries Watling Street over Edgware Brook,
has always been important by reason of the great
amount of traffic moving along that highway. In
1370 it was claimed that the Prior of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, at that time holding land in
Edgware, ought to repair a wooden bridge called
'Eggewerebrigge' and that his default had made the
king's road there impassable for a year past. The prior
claimed that he was not bound to repair the bridge,
and after several postponements the jury declared in
his favour, stating that the bridge was reparable by
the alms of the men of the country and others
crossing it. (fn. 11) A map of 1597 shows a bridge, of a
considerably narrower track than the actual road,
crossing the Edgware Brook; the stream, narrow on
the left-hand or Stanmore side of the bridge, is wide
and presumably shallow on the right-hand or downstream side. It seems probable, therefore, that the
normal means of crossing the brook at that date was
by fording, with the bridge used perhaps only by
foot passengers and at times when the stream was in
flood. (fn. 12) W. S. Tootell, writing in 1817, said that until
recently the cost of repairing the bridge had been
divided into four portions, two to be paid by the lord
of Little Stanmore manor and one each by the lords
of Hendon and Edgware manors. In 1814 these lords
were indicted in King's Bench for not repairing the
bridge. A witness for the prosecution said that a bar
across the bridge was invariably kept shut except in
time of floods. The judge declared that this showed
that the public had the right to use the bridge only in
time of flood, and as the indictment stated that the
public might use it at their own free will and pleasure
the defendants were acquitted. (fn. 13) Only one other
bridge is shown on the map of 1597, that taking
Edgwarebury Lane over the tributary of Dean's
Brook. There was presumably a ford where Hale
Lane crossed this stream, and until 1926, when the
first bridge was built, there was a watersplash and
regular winter flooding at the point where Hale Lane
went through Dean's Brook. (fn. 14)
Watling Street, the Roman road from London to
St. Albans (Herts.), has always been by far the most
important of the roads touching Edgware. Sulloniacae lay exactly half-way between London and St.
Albans, and Edgware, situated a mile or so to the
south of the Roman station, has also had all the
obvious advantages of this medial position. Tootell
mentions 'a few large stones which by tradition were
dropped by the Romans on their passage through
the island, to enable them to find their way back'. (fn. 15)
Another tradition is that Edgware was used as a
resting-place by pilgrims on their way from London
to St. Albans. (fn. 16) The road was certainly important in
the Middle Ages, and from time to time various
grants of tolls and pavage were made to further its
repair. (fn. 17) In 1597 the width of the road through the
village varied from 60 to 105 feet, and between
Edgware and Brockley Hill there were wide verges
on either side for considerable stretches. (fn. 18) A petition
to the Commons in 1711 stated that the part of the
London-Watford road from Great Stanmore to
Kilburn, which included the section of Watling
Street in Edgware parish between Canons and
Edgware Bridge, was so damaged by the multitude
of carriages and passengers that it was almost impassable for six months of the year, and in the same
year the Edgware-Kilburn turnpike trust was
established. (fn. 19) The turnpike road apparently extended from Kilburn to Sparrow's Herne (Herts.), (fn. 20)
but the 'Edgware' tollgate was actually situated in
Hendon, 200 yards south of the Edgware parish
boundary. (fn. 21) The turnpike seems to have made little
difference to the state of the road, for in 1798 it was
said to have four inches of mud after heavy rain in
summer and nine inches all the winter. (fn. 22) The trust
was absorbed into the Metropolitan Turnpike Roads
Trust in 1827 (fn. 23) and the road was disturnpiked in
1872. (fn. 24) Other roads in the parish, while not so
ancient as Watling Street, have a certain documented antiquity. (fn. 25) The road now known as Station
Road (Church Lane in 1845) and Hale Lane has remained unaltered in course since it appeared on the
map of 1597, and is presumably the same highway
for the making of which Richard Nicholl the elder
left 20s. in 1498. (fn. 26) In 1597 Green Lane or Piper's
Green Lane (fn. 27) ran north-west from Piper's Green
along its present course, but joined Watling Street
some 400 yards north of the present junction. Edgwarebury Lane held the same course in 1597 as it did
in 1963, but from Edgwarebury it continued northwest to join the twisting track which is now Fortune
Lane. This connexion with Fortune Lane was severed by the inclosure award of 1854, and a new way
was adopted north from Edgwarebury across the
common to meet the Elstree-Barnet road 750 yards
east of Elstree crossroads, being for the greater part
of its length a public footway only and not a public
carriageway. (fn. 28) Clay Lane in 1597 followed its modern
course. The modern development of Edgware has
caused roads to proliferate within the built-up area.
The first new road of more than local importance
was Edgware Way, part of the Watford by-pass,
which runs athwart the parish and was completed in
1927. (fn. 29) There were proposals in 1928 and 1933 for a
major road to run from the junction of Watling Street
and Edgware Way across Edgware to the junction
of the Barnet by-pass and the northern boundary of
the parish, but the project lapsed. (fn. 30) A section of the
M1 motorway, cutting north-west from Mill Hill and
westward across the parish north of Bury Farm, was
opened in 1967. (fn. 31)
During the coaching age Edgware enjoyed good
communications with London. In 1791 one stage
coach and two other coaches passed through Edgware
each day to London and back, and another coach
passed through on four days a week. (fn. 32) By 1839 there
were nine coaches from London passing through each
weekday, and three on Sundays; seven carters went
daily, with one extra on Saturdays, together with one
wagon each day and two more on three days a week. (fn. 33)
By 1851 five omnibuses were running daily to
London. (fn. 34) There was no station in Edgware on the
Midland Railway's main line from London to Bedford, opened in 1868, which ran north-east across the
parish and through a tunnel under Woodcock Hill. (fn. 35)
An Act to authorize the construction of a branch of
the Great Northern Railway from Finsbury Park to
Edgware, however, was passed in 1862; (fn. 36) the original
plan seems to have been to place the Edgware station
in Hendon, just to the south of Dean's Brook and
near the turnpike house, but eventually it was sited
in its present position between Station Road and
Dean's Brook. The line was opened in 1867. (fn. 37) By
1869 it was showing a weekly increase in traffic
and paying its way. (fn. 38) Evidently Edgware was considered to be the end of the line for economic suburban traffic, however, as the proposal to extend the
line to Watford was abandoned in 1870. (fn. 39) The
parishioners, at least, seemed to want no further
connexion with Hertfordshire, for in 1871 the vestry
refused permission to the Common Road Conveyance Co. to lay a tramway along the highway from
Watford to London. (fn. 40) During the next fifty years
there were several abortive proposals to build railways connecting Edgware with Harrow, Stanmore,
and Watford, (fn. 41) but the only important move came in
1902, when an Act 'for incorporating the Edgware
and Hampstead Railway Co., and for empowering
them to construct railways partly underground from
Edgware to Hampstead' was passed. (fn. 42) When the
extension of the underground reached Golders
Green in 1907, however, there was no mention in the
official publicity of extensions to Edgware and
Watford. (fn. 43) In fact, the surface extension of the tube
from Edgware to Watford, authorized by an Act of
1903, (fn. 44) was never built, and in 1912 powers were
obtained by the London Electric Railway to absorb
the authorized Edgware and Hampstead Railway. (fn. 45)
Work was begun on the extension of the tube from
Golders Green in 1922, and in 1924 Edgware
station was opened. (fn. 46) The intended New Works
Programme of 1935-40, which proposed among
other things the electrification of the L.N.E.R. line
to Edgware and the extension of the tube to Aldenham (Herts.), was never carried out as regards
works in Edgware, and the unfinished portions of
the original scheme were finally abandoned in 1954. (fn. 47)
In 1963 the line of the proposed extension could
still be traced on the ground as far as Brockley Hill.
In the meantime road transport had been developing. In 1904 the Metropolitan Electric Tramways
Co. opened a service from Cricklewood to Edgware,
which was extended to Canons Park in 1907. (fn. 48) By
1914 motor omnibuses were serving the village. (fn. 49) In
1936 the tramway beyond Edgware village was
abandoned, and in the same year the tram service
from Edgware to Acton was replaced by a trolleybus
route. In 1938 the trolleybus service was extended to
Canons Park. The last trolleybus was replaced by
diesel omnibuses in 1962. (fn. 50)
Settlement in Edgware has been chiefly influenced
by Watling Street. There is a possibility that the
general unrest of the late 10th century had led to a
certain amount of movement away from the highway, but there is no evidence that the village was ever
sited away from Watling Street for any length of
time. (fn. 51) The map of 1597 (fn. 52) shows the village stretched
on both sides of Watling Street between Edgware
Bridge and the church, the houses cramped together
and for the most part fronting the road, although on
the Stanmore side there are seven with their gableends to the road, and on the Edgware side some
detached houses and outbuildings stand in the
gardens and crofts behind the houses lining the road.
There are a few houses on Watling Street north of the
church, and a square structure standing actually in
the road is probably the pound, but otherwise the only
settlements of significant size are the farm-houses
and buildings at Piper's Green and Edgwarebury.
Over most of the parish there was little change in
this pattern of settlement until the great expansion
of the 20th century. At Elstree, in the extreme northwest corner, several houses were built along the east
side of Watling Street in the 18th century. By 1866
sporadic residential development had taken place at
Stone Grove on Watling Street and at Newlands in
Green Lane. There was also at least one large house
in its own grounds, Deacon's Hill, on the Elstree-
Barnet road near the northern boundary of the
parish. (fn. 53) In the late 19th century this area, occupying
high ground with fine views both to north and south,
became a favourite site for such residences. (fn. 54) This
trend has continued although the houses and their
gardens have tended to become progressively smaller.
Early in the 20th century the built-up area of Elstree
was extended both eastward along the Barnet road
and southward along Watling Street.
Edgware itself resisted wholesale development
until after the First World War. In 1914 it could still
be called a village although several streets of small
terraced houses had been laid out on the site of
Manor Farm to the north of St. Margaret's church,
and also on the Stanmore side of Watling Street. (fn. 55)
The want of quick railway communications was a
reason given in 1924 to account for its backwardness, (fn. 56) but although the estate agents and developers
began to invade Edgware after 1924, (fn. 57) the year in
which the extension to the underground railway was
completed, the railway itself was a symptom rather
than a cause of the suburbanization of the parish.
Once the first breach had been made, the southern
end of the parish soon began to fill up with houses
and shops, (fn. 58) more, perhaps, as a northern extension
of Hendon than as a separate development of Edgware village. Until the outbreak of the Second World
War building was confined mainly to the area south
of Edgware Way (fn. 59) and after the war the northern
part of the parish was included in London's Green
Belt, thus ensuring the preservation of open spaces
at Elstree, Deacon's Hill, and Scratchwood. The
construction of the M1 motorway across this area
made less visual impact than might have been
expected owing to the deep cutting in which most of
it lies. Some building estates have been planted
north of Edgware Way in the post-war period, but
they have been largely confined to the area between
Edgwarebury Lane and the main railway line. The
borough council's Spur Road estate was built only
after bitter local opposition; it is dominated by five
tall blocks of flats, the first of which, of eleven stories,
was opened in 1957. (fn. 60)
The Edgware General Hospital is outside the old
parish at Burnt Oak, Hendon. (fn. 61) The Anglican Convent of St. Mary at the Cross (Sisters of the Poor), (fn. 62)
until 1931 known as the Convent of St. Mary of
Nazareth, was founded in 1865 in Shoreditch by the
Revd. H. D. Nihill. In 1873 land was bought at
Edgware to the north of Hale Lane, and by degrees
the work of the convent and its hospital at Shoreditch were given up. In 1937 a new hospital block,
providing 50 extra beds, was opened at Edgware. It
is now a home for sick and incurable children, who
are taken in up to the age of 18 and then kept for
life if they have no other home.
Apart from the tower of St. Margaret's church the
only ancient buildings which survive in the old
village lie on the Stanmore side of Watling Street. (fn. 63)
About ten timber-framed houses, including the
former 'Chandos Arms' were recorded here in the
1930s. (fn. 64) A few of these, dating from the 16th and
early 17th centuries, were still standing in 1969. The
inn called the 'George', which stood on the Edgware
side of Watling Street half-way between Edgware
and the church, is first mentioned in 1454. (fn. 65) It
probably continued to be used as an inn until its
demolition in 1931, but this function is obscured by
the fact that the small farm attached to the 'George'
was obviously more important both to its lessees and
the lords of the manor. (fn. 66) Henry Hayley, a lessee of
the 'George' in the early 17th century, was in 1617
described as a brewer and indicted for uttering
drink beyond the rate. (fn. 67) Tootell does not include the
'George' in his list of alehouses in 1753, but states
that it was licensed in 1771 in lieu of the 'Red
Lion'. (fn. 68) It was called an inn in 1791 (fn. 69) and although
in 1834 it was called only a tavern or public house (fn. 70)
its fortunes seemed to revive in the later 19th century. (fn. 71) In 1597 the premises had consisted of four
buildings, one of them fronting Watling Street, enclosing a courtyard; a long barn, also facing the road,
stood to the north of the house, leaving a passageway
through it to the enclosed land at the back, which
contained a pond, outhouses, brewhouses, and an
orchard. (fn. 72) A photograph of c. 1880-90 (fn. 73) shows an
agglomeration of two-story buildings, brick-built
and of uncertain age, presenting to the road two
gable-ends separated by two bays, the first consisting
of a door and a shallow brick bow-front, the second
of a room over a high, wide passage, the whole suggesting a plan not unlike that shown on the map of
1597. By 1900 most of the front had been covered
with roughcast; (fn. 74) after the First World War the
courtyard was covered over and made into a dance
hall, and the whole house was demolished c. 1931 for
road widening. (fn. 75) Two other inns in Edgware were
founded in the 18th century. The 'Boot', standing at
the corner of Station Road and Watling Street, is
probably the same as the 'Boot and Spur' mentioned
in 1753. (fn. 76) About 1880-90 the inn was a plain brick
building of two stories with attics, (fn. 77) but this house
has since been demolished and a modern public
house occupies its site. The 'Leather Bottle' existed
in 1753; apparently 'silenced' in 1759, it does not
appear again until the early 20th century, and the
present building replaced an earlier and smaller
house in 1925. (fn. 78) Other 18th-century inns in Edgware
were the 'Bell', the 'Red Lion', and the 'Green Man'
alias the 'Greyhound'. (fn. 79)
Edgware Place, which stood in the village at the
junction of Watling Street and the road now called
Manor Park Crescent, was built c. 1803 by the Hon.
John Lindsay, partly, at least, from materials obtained by the demolition of the buildings at Bermondsey Spa. (fn. 80) The house afterwards became the
residence of Charles Day, who built for it a lodge
known as Blacking-Bottle Lodge, because its shape
represented one of the bottles in which Day and
Martin packed their liquid boot-blacking. (fn. 81) The
house had been demolished by 1845 but the lodge
remained for long after that date. (fn. 82) Nicoll's Farm, a
brick house of c. 1700 which stood at the junction of
Watling Street and Mill Ridge, (fn. 83) has disappeared
but its partly timber-framed barn survives. Further
north at Stone Grove are Day's Almshouses, dating
from 1828. (fn. 84) Atkinson's Almshouses beyond them,
originally built in 1680, were entirely reconstructed
in 1957. (fn. 85) Two early-19th-century stucco residences
in what is now Piper's Green Lane, Newlands
Grange and Bromfield House, have been pulled
down since the Second World War.
In the northern part of the parish two outlying
farm-houses, Bury Farm at Edgwarebury (fn. 86) and
Brockley Grange Farm, are partly timber-framed
buildings probably dating from the early 17th century. The older houses on the east side of Watling
Street at Elstree Hill South were built in the 18th
century. They include a uniform range of five twostoried brick cottages with a central feature consisting of a doorway surmounted by a fanlight and a
Venetian window above it; the range was unoccupied and partly derelict in 1969. Further south
stands Hill House, a red brick building of two stories
and attics. The front of its original block has a central doorway and a central Venetian window, flanked
by projecting two-storied bays. A rainwater-head
on one of the bays is dated 1779, but the core of the
house and a long south wing may have been built
earlier in the 18th century. Additional wings to the
north were probably added after Hill House became
a preparatory school in the late 19th century. (fn. 87)
Several imposing 19th-century mansions were still
standing in 1969 on the south side of the Elstree-
Barnet road, although Deacon's Hill had been demolished and its site was being used for the erection
of a close of neo-Georgian houses. Edgwarebury
House, now a country club, and the Dower House
date from the late 19th century and are both elaborately half-timbered externally. Other large houses of
similar date in the area include the Chantry,
Abbots Mead, and Penniwells. Much of the road
frontage between them has been built up with 20thcentury residences, mostly detached and standing
in large gardens.
Until the 20th century there were no violent
fluctuations in the population of Edgware. In the
manor of Edgware in 1277 there were 8 free tenants
(excluding the Grand Priory of Clerkenwell) and 52
customary tenants; the survey from which these
figures are taken, however, includes lands appurtenant to the manor lying in Kingsbury. (fn. 88) In 1425-6
the manor of Edgware had three free and 29 customary tenants in the parish, (fn. 89) and in 1525-6 the num
bers were two or three free and 26 customary
tenants. (fn. 90) In 1547 there were 120 communicants in
the parish. (fn. 91) In 1597 there were between 60 and 70
houses in the parish, and 44 more in the village of
Edgware but on the west side of Watling Street and
therefore within the parish of Little Stanmore. (fn. 92) In
1599 there were six free and 25 customary tenants of
the manor within Edgware. (fn. 93) In 1642 the protestation oath was taken by 103 adult males. (fn. 94) In 1664
there were 73 houses in the parish, but the hearth
tax of 1672 gives only 66. (fn. 95) During the 18th century
the average numbers both of baptisms and burials
declined gently but steadily; in the period 1717-26
the average number of baptisms was between 15 and
16 a year and the average number of burials 20, but
by 1801-10 the figures were 11 and 9 respectively. (fn. 96)
There were said to be 69 houses in the village in
1766 and 76 houses in 1792. (fn. 97) At the first census in
1801 the population was 412. Throughout the 19th
century numbers rose slowly, except for the years
between 1851 and 1871; the censuses of 1861 and
1871 show successive declines of 7 per cent., attributed in 1871 to migration and to the absence of direct
railway communication with London. Ten years later
the losses had been more than made good, and in
1901 the figure of 868 had been reached. By 1921
the population had grown to 1,516, but the great infilling of the southern part of Edgware after 1924
caused the most spectacular increase. In 1931 the
population was 5,352; this had increased to 17,513
by 1951 and to 20,127 by 1961. (fn. 98)
Apart from a few incumbents, (fn. 99) there have been
no well-known residents in the parish. The AngloIrish writer Richard Edgeworth (1744-1817) and his
daughter Maria (1767-1849), the novelist, believed
that their ancestors had lived in Edgware before
settling in Ireland, where Edward Edgeworth (d.
1595), Bishop of Down and Connor, had founded
the family's fortune. (fn. 1)