News from The Barnet Society

An online election hustings is being organised by local pressure groups in the run-up to the May council elections to promote what they believe should become a shopping list of environmental targets for a newly elected Barnet Council.

Street parties, ceremonial tree plantings and the lighting of the beacon on top of Monken Hadley church tower are just some of the local events being arranged to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June.

Bus passengers mourning the loss of the 84 service from New Barnet to Potters Bar have taken to social media to express their anger. “It’s such a shame…I never thought the day would come when we would be cut off from Potters Bar,” said one Barnet resident.

Last night Barnet Council’s Strategic Planning Committee unanimously approved conversion of the existing building into a 90-place school for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), despite concerns on the part of the Barnet Society.

After missing out on so much during the Covid.19 pandemic, Barnet Choral Society are in final rehearsals for a belated 80th anniversary concert -- a performance of one of the great challenges of choral singing, Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.

The bridegroom at this fashionable Monken Hadley wedding early in the last century was William Ralph Driffill, who became an admired organist and composer.

Chemotherapy patients receiving treatment at Chase Farm Hospital will benefit from two new cooling cap systems to be purchased with funds raised by Barnet and District CancerLink. A cheque for £22,890 was handed over by members of the cancer care group at a ceremony organised by the Royal Free Charity.

Saving rainwater is becoming ever more important in the face of global warming and our unusually dry summers...so Barnet Environment Centre in Byng Road has installed a giant water butt to capture and store all it can.

A recital is to be held at St Mark's Church, Barnet Vale, in April to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of a celebrated organist and composer who lived in Barnet and whose organ and piano scores reflected the musical fashions of the Victorian era.

Eighteen months ago, the Barnet Society wrote that flouting of planning laws at 1 Sunset View and 70 High Street would be tests of Barnet Council’s will to enforce its planning decisions. Both owners appealed against Enforcement Orders, and both have lost. The decisions are significant victories over the degradation of Barnet’s Conservation Areas.

After the go ahead was given last month for controversial plans to build tower blocks of flats on the two car parks at Cockfosters tube station the government has intervened at the last minute to halt the project.

Volunteer working parties have managed to clear fallen branches and mark with hazard tape some of the twenty or so trees on Monken Hadley Common which were brought down in Storm Eunice.

To celebrate women's history month two guided walks are being held to raise awareness of the buildings and places that are associated with inspirational women from Barnet's past.

Sheila Hunt, who for almost fifty years was an inspirational leader for the Girl Guides movement in High Barnet, has died at the age of 93.

Pieces of medieval pottery and broken roof tiles have been discovered during a three-day archaeological dig at the rear of traditional sweet shop Hopscotch at 88 Barnet High Street. Significant finds that dated from later centuries included clay pipes from the 1600s and various bottles from the Victorian era.

Family history enthusiasts might be able to help in the search for memories, reflections or even photographs of school days in Barnet in the 1920s and 1930s. Marion Griffin is researching the life of her father John Samuel who was one of three boys and a girl born to a domestic servant at Barnet Workhouse.

A second attempt to get approval for an enlarged development of blocks of flats on the former gas works site at New Barnet has been refused -- and for now Barnet's largest brownfield site will continue to remain unused.

Of all the curiosities in High Barnet, perhaps the one which evokes the greatest pleasure is a collection of intricate tiny houses which decorate a tree stump in St Albans Road.

New premises are to be found for the neighbourhood police teams serving the wards in and around High Barnet before the Metropolitan Police goes ahead with the sale of the police station in the High Street.

A day's work pruning some of the trees which produce fruit for Barnet's foodbanks was the latest initiative for volunteers of Barnet Community Harvesters. Last autumn they collected not far short of 900 kilos of apples and pears which would otherwise have gone to waste, and they were distributed to food banks across the borough.