Home to the rich
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| Myddleton House |
By Enfield IndependentENFIELD was once a haven for wealthy Londoners who built huge residences which were scattered across the borough. Among the early constructions of grandeur were Bush Hill Park which was built in the early 1800s. It was the residence of a Middlesex member of Parliament, William Mellish, and was demolished in 1927. Old Park, now the club house of Bush Hill Park Golf Club, was built in 1735 and was home to the Clayton family and later the Ford family until 1909. Whitewebbs House was built in 1791 by Dr Abraham Wilkinson and replaced an earlier house on the estate of the same name which was used by the Gunpowder Plot conspirators in 1605. Capel House, now the Capel Manor Horticultural Centre, was owned by Rawson Hart Boddam who was a wealthy retired East India Company official and a former Governor of Bombay. He also owned land in the Bullsmoor Lane area. At the north of Enfield near Whitewebbs Lane was part of the Theobalds Estate which was owned by the banker Sir George Prescott who lived at Theobalds House which was built in 1768 on a different site to the estate's original Tudor house. Bowling Green House, to the west of Bulls Cross, was the home of Daniel Garnault, who was a member of the Huguenot family connected with the New River Company. On his death in 1809, the ownership of the property went to his sister Anne, wife of Henry Carrington Bowles, who was a wealthy publisher and print seller. He built a new house in 1818, Myddleton House, and knocked down the house which stood next door. Myddleton House remained in the Bowles family until the death of Gussie Bowles in 1954. Enfield Court, at the junction of Parsonage Lane and Baker Street, dates back to the late 17th century and, after being owned by several noblemen, is now part of Enfield Grammar School after it was sold to the school's trustees in 1915. In other parts of the borough, Weir Hall in Edmonton dates back to the Tudor era and belonged to the Leake family and the Huxley family before demolition in 1818. On the other side of Silver Street is Millfield House, constructed around 1790. It was owned by Daniel Barbot Beale in 1801 and survives today as the Millfield Arts Centre. On the borders of Winchmore Hill and Southgate is Grovelands, originally Southgate Grove, which was built in 1797 by the Walker Gray family and is now the privately-run Grovelands Hospital. Then there is Broomfield House in Palmers Green, today a derelict shell after a fire in 1984, which was acquired by William Tash who married into the Jackson family who had possessed the property since the 17th century. Before that it was owned in the late 16th century by Alderman John Spencer, a distant ancestor of Princess Diana. 09:25 Wednesday 17th July 2002
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