Local History

photo of signpost at palmers green triangle

© Copyright Stephen McKay and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

If you're interested in the local history of Palmers Green, Southgate, Winchmore Hill, Edmonton and Enfield, there are a number of societies which put on regular lectures and talks and provide research facilitiies. We list some of these in our Community Directory in the History category, but you should also investigate the Conservation Groups, Residents' Associations and North London on the Web categories.

News about interactive sessions delving intoTrent Park's past being developed for local schools, plus a potted history of the mansion.

It was a day for celebrations in Southgate on Sunday, as people got together to mark the 90th anniversary of the first day of operation of the Piccadilly Line extension from Arnos Grove to Oakwood, and in particular the opening of Southgate Station. Naturally, there was a birthday cake, created by local shop Wiltons.

On Tuesday last week people gathered in the function room at the Fox to celebrate the awarding by Enfield Council of a Lifetime Achievement award to Roger Hallam, who until a couple of years ago lived in Burford Gardens, and before that in Old Park Road. Francis Sealey tells us why Roger was given the award.

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If you worked, shopped, ate at or just visited the IKEA store in Edmonton (or was it in Tottenham?), you're invited to contribute towards one of the projects in the Untold Edmonton programme.

The Trent Park House Trust will be running an oral history project during 2023 and is keen to contact people with a personal connection to the house. The Trust is also recruiting volunteers to interview people and record their memories.

Have you ever wondered what exactly Chase Side in Southgate was the side of, or indeed what Southgate was the South Gate of? The Enfield Society is making available free of charge two books that tell the fascinating stories behind these two local names, and many more.

It's ten years this month since the Palmers Green Community website was revealed to the world (actually, to a handful of people in PG). How did it come about? What did it look like and report? What was in the first newsletter? What events were happening locally back then?

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On Saturday Enfield Town's Culture Palace (located inside the Palace Gardens shopping centre) will be hosting a grand celebration of the stories of some of our borough's many communities. Stories of Enfield Celebration Day will consist of activities for people of all ages run by eight of the 13 community organisations who were awarded lottery funding to run projects under the banner of Stories of Enfield.

The Enfield Society has published two new local heritage walk booklets, for Southgate and Winchmore Hill, both produced with help from Southgate District Civic Voice.

Archaeological work at the site of a Tudor royal palace in Enfield restarts next month. There will be opportunities to join in the "dig" and also to act as oral historians by interviewing people involved in the project or by helping film the interviews. Also during July there will be family days at the site of the palace and a definitive archaeological and historical study will be published.

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The Enfield Society is looking for volunteers to help it and Enfield Council update the borough's local heritage list.

Gemma Singleton, an inhouse producer at television company DSP, has been in touch in connection with an future documentary about the 1952 Great Smog: