Did you know

                                      Did you know?
                          101 facts about where we live and work.
1. High Barnet founded by monks from St Albans Abbey in the 12th Century.
2. In 1196. Barnet was known as "Bernet".
3. King John granted Barnet a market charter in 1199.
4. A Chapel was built on site of Barnet Church in 1250.
5. In 1219. Barnet was known as "Barnatt".
6. The First reference to East Barnet was in 1249.
7. The First reference to Chipping Barnet was in 1329.
8. in 1420 St Johns Church (Barnet Church) was extended.
9. Barnet Fair and market were granted a charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1588.
10. The Great North Road built through Barnet in the 17th Century. It was the main coach route from London to Scotland.
11. Samuel Pepys visits the Barnet physic well in 1667.
12. The Hadley Highstone obelisk is erected in 1740.
13. Market day is changed from Monday to Wednesday in 1758. The fair changed from April to September.
14. The first stage coach service through Barnet opened in 1784.
15. In 1870 the last horse race in Barnet, "The Barnet Stakes" was held where High Barnet station now stands.
16. Hadley Brewery closed down in 1969.
17. The gold doorknob in Barnet church is supposed to in line with the cross on top of St Paul’s cathedral.
18. On the eve of the Battle of Barnet in 1471, 3 kings slept in the town of Barnet Edward IV, Henry VI and the Duke of Gloucester, who later became Richard III.
19. It was reported in the Times that in September 1834. Barnet fair was the largest cattle market in England, with up to 40,000 animals on offer and £100,000 being taken in trade on the first day.
20. In 1349 84 Barnet residents died of the Black Death, a plague that swept Europe.
21. Warwick the Kingmaker, who died at the Battle of Barnet, was the second richest man in the country (after a king).
22. The top of Barnet church is the highest point to the Ural Mountains in the East and York to the north.
23. Barnet won the FA Amateur cup in 1946.
24. The first 35mm was made and shown in Barnet by Birt Acres
25. There is a rumour that Charlie Chaplin worked in Barnet.
26. The East Barnet Festival is the largest free festival in London
27. The oldest pub in Barnet is The Kings Head in the High Street (1626). The Mitre is the second oldest (1633). This is according to Richard Selbys excellent book “Barnet Pubs – Another Round”
28. The famous explore David Livingstone lived in Hadley.
29. The oldest church is St Mary the Virgin in East Barnet
30. New Barnet station opened in 1850
31. The Prince of Wales pub in East Barnet dates back to 1876.
32. Mallard, the fastest steam train in the world used to pass through New Barnet station.
33. Barnet Museum was opened in March 1938.
34. There is a rumour that the Beatles recorded in New Barnet at Livingstone studio back in the 60’s
35. The Clash and the Dammed used to play at the Duke of Lancaster (now flats at the back of Sainsburys).
36. In the 1850’s a William Aldridge purchased some land near the railway station and decided to build a hotel. As there was another hotel called the Railway Hotel already built near by he decided to call his the Railway Tavern
37. Lee Thompson of Madness lives in Barnet.
38. The original Cat and Lantern used to be on Cat Hill.
39. Spires was opened on May 1989.
40. St Johns Church (Barnet Church) was built in 1420.
41. The site of Spires used to be a church.
42. Stephanie Beecham was born in Barnet.
43. There could be up to ten thousand bodies buried after the Battle of Barnet bit nobody knows where they are.
44. Emma Bunton was born in Barnet.
45. The Bull Theatre building dates back to about 1750.
46. More than 10,000 people attend the East Barnet Festival.
47. The cockney rhyming slang for hair is “Barnet” after our Barnet Fair.
48. Charles Dickens used to drink at the Red Lion. He heard that his wife had given birth to a daughter here.
49. Samuel Pepys used to visit the Physic well in Well Road
50. Barnet hill was built in 1827
51. Before Barnet Hill was built the road into Barnet went pass the Old Red Lion and came out at Victoria Lane.
52. The Battle of Barnet was listed in the top ten battlefields by the Sunday Times.
53. Sainsburys in New Barnet was opened on the 30th September 1980.
54. There used to be a cinema where Budgens in the village now stands.
55. During World War II a bomb nearly hit the museum in Wood Street.
56. General Monck is reputed to have stayed at the Mitre.
57. 150 coaches used to travel through Barnet High Street in the 18th century.
58. There has been a fair in Barnet since Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter in 1588.
59. According to Charles Dickens Oliver Twist met the Artful Dodger near Victoria Bakers in the High Street.
60. Barnet is mentioned in H,G,Wells “The War of the Worlds”
61. Barnet football club was formed in 1888.
62. The film “Party Party” was filmed in Lytton Road and New Barnet
63. Barnet Odeon was built in 1935 and is a Grade II listed building,
64. The Tudor Hall dates back to 1577
65. Elizabeth I is said to have stayed in Barnet and would have passed through the town travelling between Hatfield House and London.
66. Chipping (as in Chipping Barnet) means Market.
67. The Cat and Lantern in the village, the Bell and Buck and the Duke of Lancaster in New Barnet and the Green Man in the High Street are no longer there. All these were music pubs.
68. Kitts End Lane used to be the main road to Holyhead.
69. The oldest school in Barnet is Queens Elizabeth school for boys (1573)
70. Paul Young lives in Barnet.
71. The St Albans Road was built in 1828.
72. There used to be a cinema in Barnet High Street.
73. The ghost of Geoffrey de Mandeville is supposed to haunt Oakhill Park.
74. Did you know we had another museum in Barnet? It was called the ABBEY FOLK PARK. In 1934 John Ward established an open-air museum at Hadley Hall, 89 Park Road, New Barnet which featured a prehistoric village, a 13th-century tithe barn from Kent, and a 17th-century well. This became the nucleus of the English Folk Park, to which in 1935 he added an Ethnographical Folk Park. It was England’s first outdoor museum. The Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were among its many visitors. In May 1945 Ward was charged with enticement and was went bankrupt. He went abroad shortly afterwards.
75. Kingsley Amis (the author of “Lucky Jim) lived in Hadley.
76. The Poet Laureate C. Day-Lewis died at the home of author Kingsley Amis in Hadley in 1972? He was the father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis and documentary filmmaker and television chef Lewis. His epitaph reads: "Shall I be gone long? / For ever and a day / To whom there belong? / Ask the stone to say / Ask my song"
77. On September 1st 1909, a Miss Frances Trehearn opened  St Catherine’s school in Stapylton Road and two years later there were 62 children being taught there - 27 boys and 35 girls.
78. In May 1931 and Lord and Lady Hampton opened Highlands Garden in New Barnet.
79. Barnet is mentioned in H.G Wells “War of the Worlds”.
80. EBOGS (East Barnet Old Grammarians) was formed in 1948 and resulted directly from the efforts of Mr.Allan Clayton,the first headmaster of East Barnet Grammar
81. Livingstone School opened in January 1954.
82. The famous actor Trevor Howard lived in Arkley
83. Norman Wisdom lived in Arkley.
84. The Salisbury in the High Street was demolished in 1988. The sign is in the Barnet Museum.
85. The borough was named Barnet in 1965 and we still wonder why they chose us instead of Hendon. (perhaps because we have the best history and heritage in the borough).
86. Jeremy Beadle used to live in Hadley.
87. Originally known as The Hadley Wood Hotel (now the Hadley hotel) there has been a public house on this site since 1861.
88. Great Northern Railway Company build New Barnet Station in 1850.
89. Oakleigh Park Station opens in 1873.
90. The Barnet Cinema built was built in 1913 (On the site of the current post office in the High Street).
91. In 1935 a lorry killed four people at Barnet Fair
92. High Barnet station becomes part of the London Underground in 1940.
93. The Wellhouse Hospital was renamed Barnet Hospital in the 1950s.
94. Spires shopping centre opened in 1989.
95. The old fire station near Lytton Road closed in 2005.
96. Barnet reached the third round proper of the FA Cup for the first time on 9 January 1965, meeting the previous season's runner-up Preston North End at Underhill. 2–0 down inside the first 10 minutes, the second half saw Barnet, urged on by 10,500 spectators, level the score at 2–2, before a last minute own goal sent them out.
97. In October 1946, the first live televised football match was broadcast by the BBC from Underhill.
98. A police station was opened at the junction of Edward and Margaret Roads in 1884, with one inspector, three sergeants, and 15 constables, but was closed in 1933, and the building demolished in 1985.
99. Comic Genius Spike Milligan lived in Hadley.
100. The most senor officer to survived the sinking of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller, lived in Hadley
101. Barnet 4U is the best historic site in the country.