Totteridge Green is a five hectare Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade II, in

Totteridge Totteridge is a residential area and former village in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a mixture of suburban development and open land (including some farmland) situated 8 miles (13 km) north north-west of Charing Cross. It ...

in the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in north London, England. Forming part of Outer London, the borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It is the ...

. It is also registered common land. The nature reserve is the land on both sides of the road, Totteridge Green. A typical English

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

, it comprises open grassland, small pockets of scrubby woodland and a pond. Much of the grassland is dominated by perennial rye-grass, with a good diversity of common wild flowers, and there are also areas of dry acid grassland. Several damp hollows, probably former ponds, contain tussocky grassland with uncommon wild flowers such as

great burnet ''Sanguisorba officinalis'', commonly known as great burnet, is a plant in the family Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae. It is native throughout the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, northern Asia, and northern North America. It ...

, bog stitchwort and

common marsh-bedstraw ''Galium palustre'', the common marsh bedstraw or simply marsh-bedstraw, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae. This plant is widely distributed, native to virtually every country in Europe, plus Morocco, the Azores, Turkey, Turkme ...

. A map of the 1840s shows fourteen ponds, but only Laurel Farm Pond survives. This is frequented by large numbers of geese and mallards. Trees include

pedunculate oak ''Quercus robur'', the pedunculate oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe and western Asia, and is widely cultivated in other temperate regions. It grows on soi ...

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

and

horse chestnut The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with notable species including buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with ...

. The site includes a short footpath through woods to Coppice Walk, and there is also access from Totteridge Village and Laurel Way. A footpath which starts next to Laurel Farm Pond goes through Folly Brook Valley to

Woodside Park Woodside Park is a suburban residential area in the London Borough of Barnet, in the North Finchley postal district of N12. Description The area to the east of the tube station consists predominantly of large Victorian and Edwardian hous ...

Totteridge Croft Field (or Dell's Down Acre)

Totteridge Croft Field is a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade I, between Totteridge Green and Darland's Lake at Grid Ref . It was a field bounded by tall unmanaged hedges on unimproved clay grassland. It appears to have been a hay meadow in the past which reverted to rough grassland and scrub. Much of the field was covered with

tufted hair-grass Tufting is a type of textile manufacturing in which a thread is inserted on a primary base. It is an ancient technique for making warm garments, especially mittens. After the knitting is done, short U-shaped loops of extra yarn are introduced thr ...

, and it had scattered oak and crab apple trees and a good variety of wild flowers. There were some uncommon species, such as

sneezewort ''Achillea ptarmica'' is a Eurasian species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the genus ''Achillea''. Common names include the sneezewort, sneezeweed, bastard pellitory, European pellitory, fair-maid-of-France, goose tongue, sneezewort y ...

and

pignut Hognut or pignut can mean any of a number of unrelated plants: * ''Bunium bulbocastanum'' (black cumin) or ''Conopodium majus'' (kippernut) of the Apiaceae * rushpeas, particularly ''Hoffmannseggia glauca'' (Indian rushpea) and ''Hoffmannseggia den ...

. The field provided a good habitat for birds and cover for mammals such as rabbits and muntjac. It was private land with no public access. As of March 2024 it is publicly accessibly woodland and scrub crossed by footpaths. It is between

Folly Brook Folly Brook is a long Stream, brook in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a tributary of Dollis Brook, which is a tributary of the River Brent, which is a tributary of the River Thames. Folly Brook is lined for most of its length by narrow str ...

and a track leading south from Totteridge Green.

Gallery

File:Totteridge Green.JPG, Totteridge Green File:Totteridge Green Oak.JPG, Oak tree on Totteridge Green File:Totteridge Green, Laurel Farm Pond.JPG, Laurel Farm Pond File:Totteridge Green, footpath to Coppice Walk 2.JPG, Footpath to Coppice Walk

Totteridge Croft Field (or Dell's Down Acre)

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading