Growth Before 1850.
An Anglo-Saxon settlement, otherwise unrecorded, is indicated by the
reference to Tottenham, `Totta's ham', (fn. 4) in Domesday Book. (fn. 5) Presumably it bordered the Roman
road, the medieval Tottenham street, along which
most of the population was concentrated until the
19th century. Eastward lay rich pastures on the
marshes by the river Lea, (fn. 6) while to the west
stretched poorer soil, with woods whose bounds were
gradually pushed back towards Muswell Hill in the
course of the Middle Ages. (fn. 7)
The existence of a weir by 1086 and of a mill by
1254 (fn. 8) suggest early habitations at the Hale (later
Tottenham Hale), midway between High Road and
Mill mead, although the name first occurs only in
1318, in a reference to John of the Hale. (fn. 9) The manor-house of Tottenham, described in 1254, (fn. 10) may have
stood west of High Road, close to the church recorded by 1134 and the later site of Bruce Castle. After
the division of the manor in 1254 there were probably three manor-houses; in addition the farmstead of the 14th-century sub-manor of Mockings
was marked by a moat on the south side of Marsh
(later Park) Lane, between High Road and the
marshes. A rectangular 'homestead moat' was shown
in the 19th century in the park of Downhills but
was not recorded earlier. (fn. 11) The hospital of St.
Lawrence at Clayhanger, once assumed to have been
in Clayhanger parish (Devon), probably stood at
Clay Hill, mid-way along the border with Edmonton; (fn. 12) it was recorded only from 1229 to 1264 and is
not known to have been connected with the equally
obscure 15th-century hospital of St. Loy, which
itself seems to have disappeared before the Reformation. (fn. 13) Chapels, of unknown date, were later said
to have stood by a hermitage close to High Road (fn. 14)
and St. Loy's well. (fn. 15)
Accessibility from London led many citizens and
religious houses to acquire property in Tottenham
from the time of Ughtred of London, who by 1152
held land which afterwards passed to the nuns of
Clerkenwell. (fn. 16) The Black Death is not known to have
changed the pattern of settlement, although many
deaths were presented: in 1348 on the manor of
Daubeneys 15 copyhold tenements fell vacant and 10
reverted to the lord, presumably because the heirs
had died. (fn. 17) Despite the plague the late 14th century
saw considerable pressure of population on the
land. (fn. 18)
The centre of Tottenham village, in so far as the
roadside settlement possessed one, was marked by
the high cross and by a green, the modern Tottenham Green, immediately south. (fn. 19) The cross, crowning a slight rise in High Road, was once associated
with the funeral cortege of Eleanor of Castile (fn. 20) but
was later found to have been no more than a wayside
cross, first mentioned in 1409. (fn. 21) It stood on a mound
and was of wood capped with lead c. 1580, some
twenty years before its replacement at the expense of
Owen Wood, dean of Armagh, who lived on the
east side of the green. (fn. 22) Wood provided a plain
octagonal brick column of 4 stages, surmounted by a
weather-vane. The cross was stuccoed and ornamented in the Gothic style in 1809, since which date
its appearance has not changed. (fn. 23)
Except along High Road and at the Hale medieval
settlement took place around a number of greens. In
the west assarting had permitted the building of a
farmstead called Ducketts, north of the later Ducketts Common, by 1293. (fn. 24) Page Green, mentioned in
1348, stretched eastward from High Road a little
way south of Tottenham Green, along Broad Lane
towards a crossing of the Lea below Tottenham mill;
the Page family, recorded from 1319, (fn. 25) still held
land there in 1395. (fn. 26) West Green, midway along the
lane linking High Road opposite Page Green with
Green Lanes at Ducketts, was mentioned in 1384.
Beans Green, south of Ducketts at the junction of
Green Lanes with Hanger Lane, was recorded in
1393 and Chapmans Green, where Lordship Lane
later met Snakes Lane, in 1381, (fn. 27) but there were
probably no hamlets at either place during the Middle
Ages.
By the late 14th century traffic through Tottenham was in places impeded by residents, to judge
from fines on tenants who had erected 'levesells'
or bowers on the king's highway. (fn. 28) As many as 6 inns
were recorded in 1455-6, all of them probably in
High Road. (fn. 29) Many were large timber-framed
buildings, of which the last remains survived until
the 19th century. (fn. 30) Brick-making, the only medieval
industry of note, also flourished in 1430. (fn. 31) A tenement called the hermitage was recorded in 1455-6. (fn. 32)
Henry VIII, when greeting his sister Margaret at
Bruce Castle, made a payment to the hermit of
Tottenham in 1517. (fn. 33)
Tottenham itself became well known, presumably
because of the many travellers who passed that way.
Although it had no fair, a mid-15th-century satire
on chivalry called the Tournament of Tottenham describes a rustic joust which was held there, attended
by 'all the men of the country, of Islington, of Highgate, and Hackney'. (fn. 34) The expression `Tottenham
shall turn French', signifying something that could
not possibly happen, was quoted by many local historians from the time of William Bedwell but used as
early as 1536 by Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk,
when assuring Thomas Cromwell of his loyalty. (fn. 35)
Wards, recorded from 1515, were probably created
on the basis of population; if their boundaries were
those later described by Bedwell, three-quarters of
the inhabitants lived in Lower, Middle, or High
Cross ward, each of which contained sections of High
Road, and the remainder in Wood Green ward,
covering the western half of the parish. (fn. 36)
The early 16th century also saw considerable extensions to the parish church, (fn. 37) followed from 1514
by the complete rebuilding of Bruces manor-house
(the core of the modern Bruce Castle), on a scale fit
to receive royalty. (fn. 38) At the Reformation the hermitage became a private residence (fn. 39) and the division of
monastic lands further increased the influx of outsiders, many of whom provided themselves with
fine houses. (fn. 40) Alms-people were accommodated in
cottages by the churchyard, under a charity established by George Henningham (d. 1536) and a range
of alms-houses, endowed by Balthasar Sanchez, was
built in High Road south of Scotland Green in
1600. (fn. 41) In the early 18th century it was thought that
the alms-houses occupied the site of the offertory of
St. Loy, (fn. 42) described by Bedwell as a poorhouse. (fn. 43)
In 1619 (fn. 44) most parishioners still lived along High
Road, mainly around the green at the high cross,
farther north near the junction with Berry (later
Lordship) Lane, and along the stretch from Marsh
(later Park) Lane to the Edmonton boundary. The
hermitage stood in High Road between Page and
High Cross greens. There were many places where
farm-land bordered the road, which had no houses
on either side between Stamford Hill and Tottenham
Green or along the west side for some distance north
of the cross. Buildings stood closest together to the
north of Marsh Lane, providing a contrast with the
deserted portion of High Road in the extreme south
of the parish.
East of High Road there were four houses at Page
Green, more at the Hale, and a few along Marsh
Lane as far as Asplins Farm, slightly east of the
modern Northumberland Park railway station.
Roses were grown along Marsh Lane, and elsewhere
in the parish, (fn. 45) but the marshes themselves lay
deserted, save for Tottenham mills, where both
flour and leather were made. West of High Road,
Berry or Lordship Lane led to the manor-house, the
church, and a near-by farm, and Apeland Street
(later White Hart Lane) led to the vicarage and
rectory houses. Eight buildings around West Green
constituted the only hamlet amidst the farm-land in
the centre of Tottenham.
Much woodland survived in groves interspersed
with fields in the western third of the parish. There
were isolated houses at Hangers Green, where Black
Boy Lane joined Hanger Lane, and at Ducketts
Green, but there was none at Beans or Chapmans
greens. The sole hamlet was Wood Green, where
four houses occupied plots beside the New River
and others faced the green itself, which was backed
by the slopes of Tottenham wood. Close by, a little
to the east, there were a few dwellings where Green
Lanes joined Lordship Lane at Elses Green and
White Hart Lane at Smiths Cross. There was also
a farm at Clay Hill. (fn. 46)
A notable feature from the 16th century was the
number of large houses, most of them leased to
Londoners as country retreats. The Black House, in
High Road opposite White Hart Lane, was said by
Bedwell to boast an inscription recording that
Henry VIII stayed there as George Henningham's
guest. (fn. 47) Awlfield Farm, next to the church, was described as a fair tenement in 1585, as was the moated
manor-house of Mockings, (fn. 48) although neither was
among the grander buildings in 1619. By far the
most imposing were the 'lordship house' or Bruce
Castle and the parsonage house, together with
Mattisons, the seat of Sir Julius Caesar, on the far
side of Tottenham wood and in reality in Hornsey
parish. Several spacious houses bordered High
Cross or Tottenham Green, while others stood at
Tottenham Hale or farther north, along High Road;
Ducketts farm-house was termed a mansion and
Asplins farm-house was large, as were Willoughbies
along a lane to its north, and Crokes farm-house,
belonging to Sir Edward Barkham, at the south
corner of White Hart Lane and High Road. (fn. 49) The
Black House survived as Rydley, belonging to
Alderman William Gore and perhaps already a
summer retreat for Sir John Coke, the secretary of
state, who was to stay there regularly between 1625
and 1640. (fn. 50) Rydley was considered sumptuous, as
was a newly built house of Nathaniel Martin. On
the north side of Wood Green another fine house
belonged to Ambrose Wheeler. (fn. 51) It was partly an
interest in benefactions made by the Barkhams,
Wheelers, and other wealthy families which prompted William Bedwell to write his 'Brief Description'
in 1631 (fn. 52) and which later led Henry Hare, Lord
Coleraine (d. 1708), to compose his 'History and
antiquities of the town and church of Tottenham',
a work expanded by his grandson and namesake. (fn. 53)
Bedwell singled out three local wonders, all of
them arboreal. The chief one was a walnut tree,
which flourished without growing bigger and was
popularly associated with the burning of an unknown Protestant. It stood, encircled by elms, at the
eastern end of Page Green beside High Road, where
trees were shown in 1619. Bedwell, who supplied no
name, made it clear that interest centred on the walnut itself, (fn. 54) which survived in 1724. (fn. 55) The clump was
known as the Seven Sisters by 1732, when the lord's
licence was sought for the lower boughs to be
lopped. (fn. 56) Although the walnut had died by 1790 (fn. 57)
the clump survived or was renewed, to give its name
to the new road in 1833 and, (fn. 58) like the high cross, to
a locality.
The construction of the New River and the wholesale felling of trees were deplored by Bedwell, (fn. 59) who
saw that they greatly changed the appearance of the
western part of the parish. A residence built south
of the church by Joseph Fenton, in modern times
called the Priory and converted into the vicarage
house, survives as an example of the activities of
wealthy Londoners. (fn. 60) Other examples were the
mansion used by Sir John Coke where, according to
Bedwell, the former Black House served as outbuildings, (fn. 61) and a large house on the north side of
Tottenham Green owned by Sir Abraham Reynardson, (fn. 62) who restored it in 1647 and lived there after
his deposition as lord mayor of London in 1649. (fn. 63)
In 1664 there were at least 15 large houses assessed
at more than 10 hearths, headed by Sir Hugh
Smithson's with 22 and Sir Edward Barkham's with
21. The population was still fairly evenly distributed
between the wards. Lower ward contained 56 houses,
Middle 57, and High Cross 72; there were 58 houses
in Wood Green ward, where no building was
assessed at more than 8 hearths. (fn. 64)
In 1631 Bedwell found the air wholesome and
temperate and described the marshes as pleasant
meadows, sometimes flooded but too remote to be
dangerous. (fn. 65) Such praises were repeated in 1724 (fn. 66)
and, combined with easy access from London, may
explain why Tottenham attracted many private
schools. At least two select academies preceded the
endowment in 1686 of a local grammar school for
boys, which also had to compete with institutions
run by the Society of Friends. The Friends, who
were to provide the district with many distinguished
names during the next two centuries, opened their
first permanent meeting-house in High Road in
1714. (fn. 67)
While building continued during the late 17th and
18th centuries, the pattern of development remained
essentially that of 1619. (fn. 68) Defoe, in the 1720s, was
struck by the many new houses along the main road
from London to Enfield, notably in Tottenham and
Edmonton where they seemed to form 'one continued street'. (fn. 69) In reality builders tended to concentrate on those stretches of High Road which
were already popular: around Tottenham Green,
the high cross, and northward, especially along the
eastern side. Apart from some houses on the boundary at Stamford Hill, the southern stretch remained
empty as far as Page Green in 1754, when there was
also open country on the west side of High Road between Lordship and White Hart lanes. North of the
cross building had become almost continuous along
the east side of High Road by 1800 and most of the
gaps on either side had been filled by the grounds of
big houses. South of Page Green, however, the road
still passed through fields, presumably because of
damp ground near Stonebridge stream. The open
approach and the juxtaposition of large and humble
dwellings perhaps explain a comment that Tottenham village, with an unpleasantly flat situation,
chiefly comprised one long street of straggling and
unequal houses, with little rural charm. (fn. 70)
Small settlements away from High Road attracted
little attention in the 18th century. Tottenham Hale,
which possessed an inn and which was marked separately in 1754, remained the one hamlet of any size;
although comparatively close, in 1818 it had yet to be
connected with High Road by building along High
Cross Lane. East of the Hale there stood only the
mill on the Lea and, far to the north, a few buildings
in Marsh and Willoughby lanes. In the centre of the
parish West Green still comprised no more than
half a dozen houses in 1800. North of it stretched
the largest park in Tottenham, around Mount
Pleasant, which had been built on the site of an
early-18th-century residence, Downhills House. (fn. 71)
Wood Green was the only settlement named in the
west in 1754, and was still very small in 1818. Its
houses were widely scattered, some facing the green
itself, known as Wood Green common, others to the
north where Green Lanes ascended Jolly Butchers
(later Clay Bush) Hill, and a few to the east along
Lordship Lane. On the slopes farther west, the
woods had dwindled to a few groves among
ploughed fields by 1800. There were no houses save
Nightingale Hall, on the south side of Bounds Green
Lane by 1754, two buildings in the extreme north-west, facing the long strip which was Bounds Green
itself, and Tottenham Wood Farm near the top of
Muswell Hill.
Most visitors, finding nothing of great note, discussed the antiquities and proverbs mentioned by
Bedwell. Such character as the parish possessed still
came from the substantial merchants' homes. Defoe
considered them 'unequalled in their degree, . . .
generally belonging to the middle sort of mankind,
grown wealthy by trade, and who still taste of
London'; many owners, dividing their time between
the City and the country, were immensely rich. He
singled out one villa, the first to strike a traveller
from London, newly built by a former goldsmith
called Wanley; (fn. 72) although small, its architecture and
gardens made it the most beautiful house in the
entire region. (fn. 73) Such houses stood mainly around
Tottenham Green or along the west side of High
Road.
Much costly new building, alteration, and landscaping took place c. 1800. (fn. 74) Near Stamford Hill,
on the east side of High Road, Markfield House was
built by William Hobson, a Quaker building contractor, (fn. 75) who acquired neighbouring farm-land to
make an estate of 37 a. by 1840. At the Seven Sisters,
on the corner of High Road and Page Green, an
earlier house was replaced c. 1800 by a villa which
was afterwards bought by Hobson and occupied by
the first minister of Holy Trinity chapel. Cottages on
the south side of Page Green were replaced c. 1806
by the residence of William Row, set in 12 a. of
grounds laid out by Humphry Repton and considered one of the finest in the parish. (fn. 76) Row also bought
a neighbouring villa at the eastern end of Page
Green, built at about the same date and later called
the Hurst. On the north side of Tottenham Green
Reynardson's house made way for two villas c. 1810
and on the west side Grove House, a boarding
school from the mid 18th century, was greatly
altered. Dean Wood's house by the high cross was
divided and in 1820 three villas were built where a
pond had been filled in at the corner of High Road
and High Cross Lane. Farther north, at the corner of
Lordship Lane, stood a house possibly dating from
before 1700 but refaced in the Palladian manner and
provided with curved flanking colonnades c. 1740,
when it had been owned by a London merchant
named Philip de la Haize. It passed to a City draper,
Samuel Salte, and was enlarged by his brother
William, in whose day it was called the Corridor and
for whom the gardens were landscaped by Repton.
William Salte, noted for his lavish but informal hospitality, entertained the dukes of Cambridge and
Sussex there in 1808. (fn. 77) Alterations were also carried
out at the early-17th-century Asplins farm-house,
which received a three-storeyed façade c. 1750, (fn. 78) and,
in the 1820s, at the near-by Willoughby House.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the spread
of villas along some of the lanes branching off High
Road was more noticeable than the growth of separate hamlets. The most uniform building, made
possible by the break-up of the manorial estate in
1789, took place along the new road called Bruce
Grove; superior, semi-detached houses, soon associated with rich Quaker families, (fn. 79) lined part of its
south-western side by 1800. At the north-western
end of the row the residence later called Elmhurst
had been built by 1818 and on the south side of
Lordship Lane Elmslea faced the park of Bruce
Castle by 1843. (fn. 80) Building also took place along the
north side of White Hart Lane: in 1816 it boasted
several capacious villas, probably including Moselle
House and Moselle Villa near the vicarage, and the
new Tottenham Terrace, whose only defect was
thought to be that the dwellings stood too close
together. (fn. 81) The same row contained Trafalgar
House, from 1821 the home of the topographer and
local historian William Robinson, (fn. 82) who acquired
many neighbouring properties. (fn. 83) Farther west the
lane passed between Rectory Farm, on the north,
and the park of the rectory house, then called the
Moated House. Beyond lay open country, apart
from a farm afterwards called Tent Farm on the site
of the late-19th-century potteries.
Rich parishioners left their mark in many charitable institutions, nearly all of them housed along
High Road. The Blue Coat school was built in 1735,
Reynardson's alms-houses were opened in 1737, and
the Pound or Phesaunt's alms-houses, after demolition of the old structures around the churchyard,
a few years later. Close to High Street, in Marsh
Lane, a workhouse was built in 1783. The Green
Coat school of industry was established in 1792,
followed by Lancasterian schools in 1812 and 1815.
While Quakers continued at their meeting-house,
other nonconformists used private rooms from the
1790s until the first permanent chapel was built, for
Methodists, in 1818. Roman Catholics worshipped
in Queen Street, close to the Edmonton boundary,
from 1793.
The residential nature of most new building gave
late-18th-century Tottenham the appearance of an
extended, semi-rural suburb rather than a town.
Industry, apart from brick-making, was virtually
confined to riverside mills until the construction of a
lace-factory in 1810 and a silk-factory five years
later, a tanyard in the grounds of White Hall having
proved short-lived. (fn. 84) The factories, near High Road
in Love and Factory lanes respectively, passed
through several hands before 1837, when one of
them became a rubber mill, whose owners soon
faced lawsuits for causing pollution. (fn. 85) There were no
other businesses of any size, except breweries, in the
mid 19th century. Meanwhile private schools continued to benefit from the relatively healthy air;
among them were establishments opened in 1827 at
Bruce Castle and in the following year at Grove
House, both of which became nationally known. As
late as 1859 the authoress Mrs. J. H. Riddell described Tottenham as a very quiet and secluded
town, where fortunes could be made by enterprising
traders or craftsmen who secured the patronage of
the local gentry. West Green, where she lived, might
be a hundred miles from London and did not take
easily to strangers from Tottenham itself. (fn. 86)
A doubling of the population between 1811 and
1851 was reflected in many new schools and chapels
and in the first modern Anglican church, built at
Tottenham Green in 1830. (fn. 87) The opening of a railway station in 1840 and of a church at Wood Green
in 1844 presaged the establishment of a local board
in 1848 and a transformation of the old parish, when
the social standing of much housing along High
Road would be lowered and the contrast between
concentrated development there and open country
to the west would be ended. In 1840, however, it was
still possible for William Robinson to claim that the
pattern of settlement did not differ greatly from that
of 1619. All but a few of the inhabitants lived in or
near High Road. Tottenham Hale was a village with
with an inn and some 125 houses, containing over
600 people. Around West Green there were about
18 houses, some of them considered respectable
family residences, and at Wood Green Common
there were only ten. (fn. 88)
Tottenham had 355 communicants in 1547. (fn. 89) The
protestation oath was taken by 252 adult males in
1641-2 (fn. 90) and there were 87 conformists and 43
nonconformists in 1676. (fn. 91) Some 119 houses were
recorded in 1619 (fn. 92) and 243 in 1664. (fn. 93) By 1801 there
were 3,629 inhabitants, whose numbers rose steadily
over the following decades to reach 6,937 in 1831
and 9,120 in 1851. The population remained fairly
evenly distributed between the three wards covering
High Road: Lower, Middle, and High Cross wards
contained 1,612, 1,343, and 1,187 persons respectively in 1811 and 3,165, 2,273, and 2,413 in 1851.
Wood Green ward, which included West Green,
contained 429, less than a tenth of the total, in 1811
and 1,269, less than a seventh, in 1851. (fn. 94)