PUBLIC SERVICES.
Until the introduction of a
piped supply in the late 19th century water was
derived almost wholly from shallow wells. (fn. 57) There
was a parish pump at the upper end of the village in
1828 but none at the lower end in 1859, when the
vestry accepted the offer of a leading resident to
convey water from a spring or pond, apparently free of
charge. (fn. 58) Contamination of the drinking water was
blamed for outbreaks of cholera in 1854 and diphtheria in 1884-5 and, as the rural sanitary authority
had done nothing about the water supply 'beyond
the preparation of a report', special vestry meetings
were held in 1885. It was finally agreed that the
Barnet Water Co., which served Barnet Side, should
extend its mains to South Mimms. The laying-on of
water in 1888 was unpopular with some parishioners, however, for it had resulted in one local
farmer raising the rents of his cottages. (fn. 59) The company derived its water from wells sunk in the chalk
at Barnet and Potters Bar (fn. 60) until 1904, when other
wells were sunk outside the parish. Pumping from
the Potters Bar well had ceased by c. 1948. The
Barnet Water Co. was absorbed into the Lee Valley
Water Co. in 1960. (fn. 61)
The absence of a proper sewerage system contributed to the frequent attacks of diphtheria in the
19th century. In 1877 the local medical officer of
health reported that sewage from Potters Bar overflowed from cesspools into ditches. Following a
second report in 1884 a special committee was
appointed, only to clash with property owners who
feared unnecessary expense. The South Mimms
drainage district was created in 1887 but did not include Potters Bar, which escaped contributing to the
special rate. (fn. 62) In 1891 Barnet rural sanitary authority
built a sewage disposal works and constructed
sewers on c. 11 a. adjoining St. Albans Road which
it had purchased from the Brewers' Company of
London. A sewage farm was established on c. 22 a.
at the northern end of Cranborne Road in 1899 and
most of the houses near by had been connected by
1907. Sewers were laid in Mutton Lane in 1925 and
Grimsdyke was joined up with Potters Bar sewage
farm in 1929-30, thereby ending differential rates
in the parish for the cost of sewerage. With the increase in population in the 1930s the two disposal
works became inadequate, whereupon Potters Bar
joined the Colne Valley sewerage board (renamed
the West Hertfordshire main drainage authority in
1959), to whose new central sewage disposal works
the Potters Bar sewers were connected in 1957. The
authority, however, took only a limited amount of
soil sewage, leaving Potters Bar U.D.C. to dispose of
any excess as well as surface water. (fn. 63)
The vestry resolved in 1850 to levy a 6d. rate in
order to bring gas lighting to Barnet Side. (fn. 64) The
Potters Bar Gas and Coke Co. was incorporated in
1869 and the Barnet Consumers' Gas Co. in 1871;
the combined undertaking was amalgamated with the
East Barnet Gas and Coke Co. in 1872 to form the
Barnet District Gas and Water Co. In 1896 the
council refused to provide street lighting in South
Mimms village. In 1925 the North Metropolitan
Electric Power Supply Co. opened a transformer
station in Hatfield Road, Potters Bar. Some private
houses and the church of St. Giles were supplied
with electricity, several gas street-lamps were
adapted for electricity in Potters Bar, and two
electric lamps were placed in South Mimms village.
Gas for domestic purposes was supplied from
1930. (fn. 65)
The parish of South Mimms was added to the
Metropolitan Police District in 1840. (fn. 66) South
Mimms police station was built in Blackhorse Lane
in 1847 and married quarters were added in 1908.
Potters Bar police station in the Causeway dates
from 1891 and has replaced the Potters Bar or
Southgate station which existed in 1883. (fn. 67)
Chipping Barnet had a fire engine which in 1859
could be used by South Mimms. From 1925 South
Mimms, Barnet, and Enfield jointly paid for the
engine. In 1939 Potters Bar built its own fire and
ambulance station on land in Mutton Lane, given
by Mr. H. W. Tilbury. Control of the station passed
to Middlesex in 1948, Potters Bar being grouped in
a division with Southgate and Wood Green. By 1969
it had been joined with Hatfield and Welwyn Garden
City in the eastern division of Hertfordshire. (fn. 68)
A cottage hospital with a dispensary, supported
by voluntary subscriptions, was established in
Richmond Road, Potters Bar, in 1884. (fn. 69) In 1939 it
moved to new buildings alongside Mutton Lane,
erected and equipped by means of a loan from the
Charity Commissioners. Known as the Potters Bar
and District hospital, it is a general practitioners'
hospital with 56 beds, controlled by the Barnet
group hospital management committee. (fn. 70)
The private smallpox hospital (fn. 71) that opened at
Clare Hall in 1896 was first established in 1746 at
Clerkenwell, transferring to King's Cross in 1793 and
to Highgate Hill in 1850, before moving to South
Mimms. The hospital, a brick building for 33
patients, was erected north of the mansion, on the
corner of Blanche and Cross Oaks lanes. The villagers
protested at its siting and thought that contagion was
carried from the hospital to the village. (fn. 72) With the
increased incidence of smallpox in Middlesex c. 1901,
temporary accommodation of wood and iron, consisting of 16 large and 16 small wards, was added.
In 1905 management passed to the Middlesex Districts joint smallpox hospital board but by 1911, as
smallpox had declined, the hospital began to receive
tuberculous patients. By 1929, when it passed into
the control of the county council, there were c. 184
beds, to which an X-ray department and small
operating theatre were added in 1937. During the
Second World War Clare Hall became an emergency
hospital, with huts of brick and asbestos to provide
extra accommodation, but by 1942 all 540 beds had
to be reserved for tuberculous patients. In 1948 it
was transferred to the North West Metropolitan
regional hospital board and became a thoracic hospital. In 1972 it was scheduled to close. (fn. 73)
In 1908 there was a convalescent home in connexion with the British Lying-in hospital for poor
married women, but it had only one resident in 1911
and was no longer recorded by 1914. (fn. 74) Another convalescent home at no. 7 Alston Road, probably run
by nonconformists, (fn. 75) had 6 residents in 1891. In
1894-5 it was known as the West Barnet convalescent home, but it was not mentioned after that date. (fn. 76)
The Children's Home hospital at Hadley Highstone
was built in 1911 and a year later had beds for 20
children. By 1933 it appears to have closed. (fn. 77) The
building has since been used as a private old peoples'
home.
In 1912 a voluntary library was established at
St. John's, Potters Bar. Cranborne library opened in
1939 and another branch of the Hertfordshire
county library was established at the Elms, High
Street, in 1965. (fn. 78)
There is a cemetery in Mutton Lane, at the entrance to which stands a wooden porch dated 1909.
In 1972 (fn. 79) almost four-fifths of the area of the parish
constituted open space. Between 1934 and 1937
Potters Bar U.D.C. acquired 114 a.; Parkfield (24 a.)
was purchased in 1934 with the help of Middlesex
C.C. and a school was built on part of it. In 1935
40 a. were acquired at Furzefield, stretching from
Mutton Lane to Cranborne Road sewage farm;
18 a. have been developed as a sports centre, which
includes a covered swimming pool. In the following
year a further 25 a. north of the sewage farm were
acquired. In 1937 25 a. at Oakmere Park were
bought but later that year and in 1949 part of the
land was sold for housing and in 1957 more was sold
for a car park. Potters Bar U.D.C. also contributed
to the purchase of Dyrham Park and of Old Fold
Manor golf course and land near Southgate Road
and the Ridgeway.