In the mists of time
When the last ice age receded it left behind a deposit of boulder clay. Melt waters flowing west into the Thames washed away gravel and formed the valleys of the Dollis and Mutton Brooks, while other waters drained northeast towards the River Lea, leaving behind the characteristic triangle we know as Finchley.

Stone Age travellers left some evidence of passage, from early Stone Age flint tools in the centre of the triangle, to late Stone Age flints around Muswell Hill but there is no evidence of any settlement. The nearest prehistoric track-way was probably the early route of Hampstead Lane, which formed Finchley’s southernmost boundary.

The Romans mostly avoided these northern heights, constructing straight roads Watling Street and Ermine Street in the valleys either side. They did visit the area leaving coins and pottery quite close by.

Finchley is by origin a late Anglo-Saxon name meaning, probably, Finch’s clearing or the clearing with finches. The county of Middlesex was divided into 7 or 8 administrative units known as “Hundreds” and Finchley was in the Hundred of Ossulstone, centred on London and with its court near Speakers Corner, marked by Oswald’s stone. The Dollis Brook formed the boundary between the hundred of Ossulstone and the neighbouring hundred of Gore.

Around AD 700, the King endowed the Bishops of London with an estate at Fulham, to which Finchley belonged. As a result Finchley gets no specific mention in the Domesday Book.

Development begins
The triangle and its topology greatly influenced the early history of Finchley. The soil was patchy, heavy to work, poorly drained and covered by Middlesex Forest. When settlements eventually appeared, the clayey and patchy nature of the ground led to them being scattered, the well drained south and west slopes of the Mutton and Dollis Brooks being especially favoured. Access to the area would have been from the south west corner, with tracks along the west and south ridges (Ballards Lane and East End Road today.) The land was developed from here, and the village of Church End established. A large swathe of land on the opposite fringes of the triangle remained undeveloped (the wastes of the Manor of Finchley), known as Finchley Wood. It was a source of raw materials and ‘commoners’ were able to gain rights of access for collecting brush wood for heating, or beechnuts for fodder (pannage). As clearings arose, rights extended to grazing (herbage). There were many conflicts between the Bishop and Finchley men over pasture rights vs. timber protection. Scattered hamlets arose alongside – the East End – and the Manor House (not necessarily the first) was sited on East End Road half way between. Although originally belonging to the Bishop, the Manor was leased on. The family of Adam de Basing, a Lord Mayor of London and friend of Henry III, owned it from 1248 for a hundred years; the Allen family held it from 1627 until 1830.

The Bishops Park
By the 1200’s the Bishops had established a hunting park of 1070 acres across the south of Hornsey and Finchley,
stretching from present day Spaniards Inn in the west, to Highgate Gatehouse in the east and East Finchley to the north, with gates at these extremities. Turners Wood, Bishops Wood, Cherry Tree Wood and Highgate Wood are vestiges of this park, which was bordered by a ditch and hedge to keep the deer in (part of this hedge remains in the corner of Lyttleton Playing Fields; the boundary hedge is clearly visible on the 1894 OS map) and there was a hunting lodge, visited by kings, in the centre near the present day club house of Highgate Golf Club. The moat remaining from the lodge is marked on the 1895 ordnance survey map. The Hunting Park, sometimes known as Hornsey Park, ceased to be used as such in the 1500’s.

The High Road is built
In the 1300’s the Bishop provided a new toll route north though his park, as an alternative to the boggy main route along Colney Hatch Lane. It left the park at a new gate, located roughly where the Northern line crosses the High Road today, below the hamlet of Park Gate. The first recorded toll collection was in 1321. Subsequently the road was extended across the Common via Brownswell, the only settlement on the common, avoiding the East
End settlements and rejoining the original route at Whetstone. It remained virtually un-built on until the late 1800s, and a haunt of highwaymen until enclosure in 1816. A gibbet was erected near the intersection with present-day Lincoln Road.

The new road improved East End’s opportunities for trade, stimulating the Hog Market and allowing better access to London for the hay and other products. Returning carts carried the soot and manure and gave rise to the “Dirthouse” where the Old White Lion now stands. East End was ideally placed to service the needs of travellers and grew larger than Church End.

In 1488 Robert Warren left land at Pointalls to the church for the support of the poor and in 1506, Thomas Sanny left three tenements and land called Foreryders, Manypenyes and Stukefields (now named Homefield. These and other bequests formed the Finchley Charities, which, in 1776, built parish alms houses at Pointalls. In the late 1600’s Thomas Odell opened a hog market next to the George, which he also built. The market developed a national reputation and lasted until 1869. Many of the public houses stem from the 1700s. The Fleur de Lys/Dirthouse/White Lion in 1716, the Bald Faced Stag in 1738 and many long gone, although the Five Bells is mentioned as far back as 1484.

Enclosure of the Common
Despite the High Road, Finchley remained a largely rural community, with not more than 250 households at the best of times until the early 1800’s, when several factors coincided which were to change the face of East End beyond recognition. The first was the enclosure of the common.

By the 1700s encroachment had already started to take place and by 1800 the Common was virtually denuded. The land was wet, poorly drained and covered with furze and pollarded trees and grazed by sheep and pigs. It was ripe for development. On 4 April 1811 an act for ‘inclosing land in the Parish of Finchley’ was introduced into the Commons and in 1816 the remainder was enclosed.

Three solicitors were given the work, which included, in addition to the enclosure of the main areas, the settlement of the boundaries between Finchley, Friern Barnet and Hornsey and the allocation of the road verges. Roads were reduced to 33ft without exception. In East Finchley it included Hunts, Hunters or Bells Green, a triangular area between Stanley Road, East End Road and Church
Lane. A new 20ft wide road was to be constructed, paid for by Finchley parish, and in return the parish was awarded a gravel pit.

In the apportionment, 15% of the land (139 acres) was sold to defray expenses (including 120 to the Regents
Canal Company for a reservoir, and the strips of land along the roads), the Rector of Finchley then received 13% (in lieu of glebe and tithe), Thomas Allen 11%, the Bishop received 5%, and the rest was divided proportionately among the freeholders, copyholders, and lessees. The largest allotments were to John Bacon (10%), the Marquess of Buckingham (5%), Sir William Curtis (4%), Alexander Murray as lessee of Bibswell (2.8%), and the Earl of Mansfield as lessee of the demesne woods (2%). The Regents Canal Company sold on 16 acres immediately to James Frost as Strawberry Farm and he subsequently bought the rest (75 acres meadows and 17 of woodland) in 1820 when the reservoir scheme was abandoned and the reservoir was drained. Frost pioneered fire resistance in buildings which he demonstrated in Hawthorn Dene, one of the villas he built at Strawberry Vale. The other villas were demolished to make way for the housing estate in 1975.

Part became a brick works, subsequently called the rough lots.

There was an obligation to provide for the poor; 1 acre and 1 rod at Highwood Avenue were rented out to provide money to compensate the poor for loss of rights. 15 acres were set aside for ‘fuel lands’ whose rent was to be used for buying fuel for the poor. These were overseen by the wardens of the Church and the Finchley Charity (not Charities) was set up. After some shady dealings, the land became allotments in 1889.

Middle class East End
With the introduction of the horse-drawn omnibus, speculative development between landowner and builder enabled a London-wide house building boom which spread across the Euston Road around 1800, reaching Highgate within 50 years and East Finchley soon after. Around the time of the enclosure, in 1809, four villas were built on Park Place, a large field at the southern corner of the High Road and Fortis Green that had been High Reding until the Bishop sold it in 1800. The sunny slopes on the south side of East End Road far enough away from the smells of the Hogmarket were home to middle class families in elegant houses in spacious grounds. In order these were: The Vicarage, Cromwell Hall, Belle Vue, Finchley Cottage, Elmhurst, The Old House and Knightons. Elmhurst, originally Elm House back in the 1600’s, became home to Anthony Salvin, an architect of national renown specialising in restorations, including Norwich and Alnwick Castles. He was appalled at the morality of the workers in East End and was largely instrumental in East End getting its own church, Holy Trinity, and Church School, now the Bobath Centre, both built in 1846-7. Bulls Lane became Church Lane. To the west was Park Farm, where circus proprietor George Sanger wintered his animals and was murdered in 1911. Other significant houses were built at this time, including the Grange, on Oak Lane in 1863. A row of villas was built on Willow Way.

Only The Old House remains as Fairview; all others were sold for developments, mostly in the inter-war years, Park Farm being demolished in 1959.

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