The Locality
Monken Hadley Common was created as a “common” by the Act of Parliament which enclosed Enfield Chase; the Enfield Chase Act of 1777.
"Commons” are generally privately owned land over which some people other than the owner exercise limited rights "in common" with the owner(s) of the land. These people are known as "commoners", and they may, for example, have rights to graze animals, to collect firewood, or to cut turfpeat for fuel. Monken Hadley Common is unusual in that under section V of the 1777 Act, the land is not privately owned, but is held in trust for the “Commoners” - the people who still have grazing rights attached to their properties!
Monken Hadley Common is now the only remaining unenclosed fragment of the former Chase, and is situated north of High Barnet, and immediately to the east of ancient country village of Monken Hadley itself. In 1777 it was in the county of Middlesex; in 1889 it became part of Hertfordshire, and since 1965 it has been within the administrative area of the London Borough of Barnet.
The main site of the Battle of Barnet in 1471, one of the two principal engagements of the Wars of the Roses, was in the parish of Monken Hadley. Troops advanced through the village, although the action took place north (Hadley Wood) and west (Hadley Green) of the settlement. Although the retreat of the forces of Lord William Hastings took place in the parish of Barnet, all of the other key engagements were within Monken Hadley parish, including the historically significant death of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, believed to be at the place where a monument now stands on the Great North Road.
Famous Residents
The great adversarial lawyer Sir William Garrow (1760–1840), coiner of the phrase "innocent until proven guilty", was born and brought up in the village and the writers Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard lived for a time in Lemmons, a house near the Common, where their friend, the Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, died.
