Enfield

“ENFIELD, a parish and town in the hundred of Edmonton, county Middlesex, 2 miles N.W. of Edmonton, and 10 N.E. of London.

It is connected with the Great Eastern railway by a branch line of about 3 miles. The parish includes the hamlets of Cock Fosters, Enfield Highway, Bullscross, and Ponder's End, where there is a railway station; and is divided into three divisions, called the Town and Chase division, Green Street and Ponder's End division, and Bullscross division, each under separate management, and containing several small villages. The New River flows through the parish, which extends eastward to the river Lea. In Domesday Survey it is called Enefelde, and was then held by Geoffrey de Mandeville. It afterwards passed to the crown, and was converted into a royal chase, well stocked with deer. Several privileges and exemptions were granted to the inhabitants by various sovereigns from the time of Richard II., and the Tudor kings built a palace here for the purpose of hunting. Edward VI., Elizabeth, James I., and Charles II., frequently held their courts here. During the Civil Wars, the parliamentary army destroyed the game and cut down the trees, and a considerable portion of the land was divided into farms. At the Restoration, the Chase was replanted and stocked with deer, and so continued till 1777, when an Act of Parliament was obtained for its disafforesting, and the land portioned out into allotments. On admeasurement, the Chase was found to contain 8,550 acres, of which the greater part is now in tillage. The town, which is situated to the W. of the Hertford road, or Roman Ermine Street, consists of two streets, in which are several well-built houses. Petty sessions are held here, and it is a polling place for the county. There is a Board of Health for sanitary purposes, and police stations in four different parts of the parish. Here is a government manufactory for small arms on an extensive scale, also a brewery, corn-mill, and saw-mills. The town and neighbourhood are lighted with gas, and well supplied with water from springs. At Ponder's End in this parish is a large manufactory for finishing crape. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London, value £1,174, in the patronage of Trinity College, Cambridge. The parish church is about 500 years old, and is thought to have belonged to Saffron Walden Abbey; having a chantry attached, now converted into a vestry. It is dedicated to St. Andrew, and contains several curious and finely-executed monuments and brasses. The register commences in 1550. There are also the following district churches, viz. St.