In
Anglo-Saxon times, the
manor of Enfield was held by
Ansgar the Staller ( – 1085), a nobleman and
staller to King
Edward the Confessor (). The name 'Enfield' most likely came from
Old English Ēanafeld or similar, meaning "open land belonging to a man called Ēana". At the time of the
Domesday Book in 1086, the manor of Enfield, spelt 'Enfelde', was the property of
Geoffrey de Mandeville, a powerful
Norman granted large estates by
William the Conqueror. A priest is recorded in the Domesday Book as holding about 30 acres of land in Enfield, leading some to believe that a priest may have ministered there at
St Andrew's Church in this period, although the earliest written evidence of the
parish church in Enfield dates from when the parish of Enfield (dedicated to
St Andrew) and St Andrew's Church were endowed to the
monastery of
Walden Abbey in Essex in 1136. In 1303, by
charter of King
Edward I, nobleman
Humphrey de Bohun and his heirs were granted a licence to hold a weekly market and two annual fairs, one on
St Andrew's Day and another in September. The village green became a marketplace, making the town of Enfield (also known today as Enfield Town), at the core of the parish, a
market town. The parish was the largest in
Middlesex (if one excludes from the parish of
Harrow on the Hill its
Pinner north-west corner, which broke away in 1766); Enfield measured 12,460 acres in 1831, i.e. . Proximity to the megalopolis of London saw Enfield "engulfed" by the capital in the
inter-war period of the 20th century.
Notable people, places, and events The parish church, located on the north side of the marketplace, is dedicated to
St Andrew. While some masonry from the
thirteenth century remains, the nave, north aisle, choir, and tower constructed of random rubble and flint, date from the late fourteenth century. The clerestory was added in the early
sixteenth century, and the south aisle was rebuilt in brick in 1824. Adjacent to the church is the old school building of the Tudor period,
Enfield Grammar School, which expanded over the years and became a large comprehensive school in the late 1960s.
Enfield Palace A sixteenth century manor house, known since the eighteenth century as Enfield Palace, is remembered in the name of the Palace Gardens Shopping Centre (and the hothouses on the site were once truly notable; see below). It was used as a private school from around 1670 until the late nineteenth century. The last remains of it were demolished in 1928 to make way for an extension to Pearson's department store, though a panelled room with an elaborate plaster ceiling and a stone fireplace survive, relocated to a house in Gentleman's Row, a street of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century houses near the town centre.
Enfield Charter Market In 1303, King Edward I granted a charter to Humphrey de Bohun and his wife to hold a weekly market in Enfield each Monday, and James I granted another in 1617, to a charitable trust, for a Saturday market. The market was still prosperous in the early eighteenth century, but fell into decline soon afterwards. There were sporadic attempts to revive it: an unsuccessful one of 1778 is recorded, and in 1826 a stone Gothic market cross was erected to replace the octagonal wooden market house, demolished sixteen years earlier. In 1858 J. Tuff wrote of the market: "several attempts have been made to revive it, the last of which, about twenty years ago, also proved a failure, It has again fallen into desuetude and will probably never be revived". However, the trading resumed in the 1870s. In 1904 a new wooden structure was built to replace the stone cross, by now decayed. The market is still in existence, administered by the Old Enfield Charitable trust.
Enfield Fair The charter of 1303 also gave the right to hold two annual fairs, one on St Andrew's Day and the other in September. The latter was suppressed in 1869 at the request of local tradesmen, clergy and other prominent citizens, having become, according to the local historian Pete Eyre, "a source of immorality and disorder, and a growing nuisance to the inhabitants".
New River The
New River, built to supply water to
London from
Hertfordshire, runs through the heart of Enfield. A unique feature in the town centre is the Enfield Loop, which was cut off from the main route of the New River in 1926 after major straightening works. The Enfield Loop, although redundant, has been retained for its ornamental value and continues to be maintained by Enfield Council. A public footpath follows the loop for most of its length, except for when it passes through the playing fields of Enfield Grammar School. It ends at
Town Park, which is the last remaining public open space of
Enfield Old Park.
Hothouses Enfield was the location of some of the earliest successful
hothouses, developed by Dr
Robert Uvedale (1642–1722), headmaster both of
Enfield Grammar School and of the Palace School. He was a Cambridge scholar and renowned horticulturalist; George Simonds Boulger writes of Uvedale in the
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 58: As a horticulturist Uvedale earned a reputation for his skill in cultivating exotics, being one of the earliest possessors of hothouses in England. In an
Account of Several Gardens Near London written by J. Gibson in 1691 (
Archæologia, 1794, xii. 188), the writer says: "Dr. Uvedale of Enfield is a great lover of plants, and, having an extraordinary art in managing them, is become master of the greatest and choicest collection of exotic greens that is perhaps anywhere in this land. His greens take up six or seven houses or roomsteads. His orange-trees and largest myrtles fill up his biggest house, and ... those more nice and curious plants that need closer keeping are in warmer rooms, and some of them stoved when he thinks fit. His flowers are choice, his stock numerous, and his culture of them very methodical and curious."
White House, Silver Street The White House in Silver Street – now a doctors' surgery – was the home of
Joseph Whitaker, publisher and founder of ''
Whitaker's Almanack''; he lived there from 1820 until his death in 1895.
World's first ATM Enfield Town had the world's first cash machine or
automatic teller machine, invented by
John Shepherd-Barron. It was installed at the local branch of
Barclays Bank on 27 June 1967 and was opened by actor and Enfield resident
Reg Varney.
Enfield Civic Centre Enfield Town houses the
Civic Centre, the headquarters of the Borough administration, where Council and committee meetings are also held.
John Keats The poet
John Keats (1795-1821) attended progressive Clarke's School in Enfield, where he began a translation of the
Aeneid. The school's building later became
Enfield Town railway station, but was demolished in 1872. The current building was erected in the 1960s. In 1840 the first section of the
Northern and Eastern Railway had been opened from
Stratford to
Broxbourne. The branch line from Water Lane to Enfield Town station was opened in 1849. ==Demography==