Barnet Common was an area of

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has ...

to the south of the town of

Chipping Barnet Chipping Barnet or High Barnet is a suburban market town in north London, forming part of the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th-century settlement, and is located north-northwest of Charing C ...

in what is now north London. The Common was created after a wood was cleared in the 16th century and was mostly used by local people to graze their animals. It was the location of a

Digger Digger or diggers may refer to: *Excavator, heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper, bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". * Backhoe loaders and backhoes are often known as diggers or mini diggers in British ...

colony and of the Barnet Physic Well at which mineral water was consumed. Part of the Common was enclosed in 1729 and the rest in 1815, leading to development on the north and south sides, and later infilling.

Extent

The Common was created by the clearance of a wood around the 16th century, possibly Southaw or ''Suthawe'' wood which at one time belonged to the Abbey of St Albans. It covered the area south of Chipping Barnet's Wood Street and Barnet Road, which run broadly east–west between the town centre and

Barnet Gate Barnet Gate is a hamlet on the northern edge of the London Borough of Barnet to the west of Arkley, in England. There was a settlement there during the Roman occupation of Britain and in the Anglo-Saxon period it was known as ''Grendeles Gatan'' ...

, and went as far south as Ducks Island, Underhill, and the

Dollis Brook Dollis Brook runs through the London Borough of Barnet in north London. It is a tributary of the River Brent, which is itself a tributary of the River Thames. The Dollis Valley Greenwalk follows almost all of Dollis Brook, apart from a short sec ...

.Barnet Common and Physic Well.
London Borough of Barnet. Retrieved 10 July 2021.

History

Barnet Physic Well became popular during the second half of the 17th century and there was a

colony on the Common in 1649. In the 18th and early 19th century the Common provided pasture for grazing horses which were traded at the Barnet horse fairs.Hewlett, Jan; Ian Yarham & David Curson. (1997) ''Nature Conservation in Barnet''. Ecology Handbook No. 28. London: London Ecology Unit. p. 10. ISBN 1871045274 In 1729, of the Common were enclosed by the Lord of the Manor, the

Duke of Chandos The Dukedom of Chandos is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. First created as a barony by Edward III in 1337, its second creation in 1554 was due to the Brydges family's service to Mary I during Wyatt's rebellion, w ...

. This prevented local people from grazing their animals on that part and in return for the loss of that right, the Duke set up a charity for the poor whereby some land was designated as "fuel land" and the rent from it used to buy winter fuel for the "

deserving poor In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of he ...

". The remainder of the Common was finally enclosed in 1815 after which there was development on the north side of the Common in the Wood Street area, such as the six almshouses built by the Eleanor Palmer Trust in 1823History Of The Eleanor Palmer Trust.
Eleanor Palmer Trust, 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2021. and the construction of the Barnet Union Workhouse in 1836–37 on Wellhouse Lane which led to the Physic Well.
Lost Hospitals of London. Retrieved 13 July 2021. Housing was built on the south side at Ducks (or Duck) Island. In 1876, James Thorne wrote in his ''Handbook to the Environs of London'' that the area around the former Common had "increased considerably" since the opening of the railway on the site of the former Barnet race course in 1872. Later development in the area includes the construction of

Barnet Hospital Barnet Hospital is a District General Hospital, district general hospital situated in Chipping Barnet, Barnet, in North London. It is managed by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Overview The original hospital on the site was the Wellho ...

and its predecessors on the site of the former workhouse, and the creation of Barnet Recreation Ground in the 1880s from some of the last remaining common land. It was of a formal design with winding

serpentine Serpentine may refer to: Shapes * Serpentine shape, a shape resembling a serpent * Serpentine curve, a mathematical curve * Serpentine, a type of riding figure Science and nature * Serpentine subgroup, a group of minerals * Serpentinite, a ...

walks and was later renamed Ravenscroft Gardens after local philanthropist James Ravenscroft.Ravenscroft Gardens.
London Gardens Trust. Retrieved 14 July 2021. Bell's Hill Burial Ground was opened in 1895.Hewlett et al, pp. 88–89.

Barnet Physic Well

The waters of the Barnet Physic Well, located on the Common, were recommended as a remedy for various medical complaints in

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Ann ...

's ''Brittania'' (1586) as "The Barnet Whey" but only became well-known as a source of

mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may usually be still or sparkling (carbonated/effervescent) according to the presence or absence of added gases. T ...

during the second half of the 17th century. In 1652 the well was described as producing "an excellent purging water" that worked as well as that of

Epsom water Magnesium sulfate or magnesium sulphate (in English-speaking countries other than the US) is a chemical compound, a salt (chemistry), salt with the formula , consisting of magnesium cations (20.19% by mass) and sulfate anions . It is a white Cr ...

but with half the quantity. A well-house was built in 1656 and in 1661 the Well was described as "famous" by

Joshua Childrey Joshua Childrey (1623–1670) was an English churchman and academic, antiquary and astrologer, the archdeacon of Salisbury from 1664. He was a "country virtuoso" (in the sense used at the time, implying intellectual distinction), and an avowed Bac ...

in his book ''Natural Rarities of England, Scotland and Wales''. In 1662,

Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...

in ''Worthies of England'' hoped that its waters would save as many lives as were lost in the

Battle of Barnet The Battle of Barnet was a decisive engagement in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict of 15th-century England. The military action, along with the subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward IV. On Sunday 14 April ...

, and

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no marit ...

recorded his visits in 1664 and 1667 in his ''Diary'', drinking five glasses of the water on his first visit which caused him to need to urinate "seven or eight times upon the road" home. The Well was also mentioned by Daniel Defoe in his ''Tour of the Whole Island of Britain'' (1720s). It was popular into the 18th century but subsequently declined until being restored in the 20th century. A new Tudor-style well-house was built in 1937"Barnet's Physic Well" by Brian Wise in W. H. Gelder (Ed.) (2002) ''Historic Barnet''. 5th edition. Barnet: Barnet & District Local History Society. pp. 49–54. ISBN 0951334247 which was restored in 2018.Historic ‘healing’ well of Barnet restored.
London Borough of Barnet, 21 November 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2021. The well has been

listed Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

since 1983.

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.644, -0.224, type:landmark_region:GB-BNE, display=title Common land in England Chipping Barnet Water wells

Extent

History

Barnet Physic Well

See also

References

External links