Salmons Brook - Bush Hill

Salmons Brook
The brook continues to flow south eastwards
TQ 32605 95555

Posh suburban area with many interesting relics of the New River, as well as its present course.

Post to the west Grange Park
Post to the south Winchmore Hill
Post to the east Bush Hill Park
Post to the north Enfield Town Centre



Amwell Close
Was part of the Bush Hill Park Estate
The New River used to run behind the gardens on the south west side between them and the golf course. This was abandoned when the river was sent through pipes between Southbury Road and Bush Hill in the early 1920s. However the pipes were bombed and the old course was reopened to take the flow.  When the pipe flow was re-established householders were able to take land from the old course as an extension to their gardens.
A footpath leads to Bush Hill.  

Bush Hill
Posh suburban inter war development.
Riverdale Court. The New River used to reach Bush Hill here and it ran up what is now 3a,
3a the New River used to run along the area of the drive and under the new house to link up with the present course.
Bush Hill Park Mansion stood until 1927 between Bush Hill and Park Avenue, close to the New River
Bush Hill Golf Club. Opened in 1893 on the old Home Park of Enfield Manor. From where 397 oak trees went to the Navy in the Great War. The Golf Club House entrance is partly from 1705. The building is in red brick, extended in 1838 and there are 18th stables with clock turret. It was built by the Clayton family and later belonged to the 19th antiquarian Edward Ford, who collected a number of items which included two 15th heads which were once displayed on the stables; and three carved 15 figures of saints. The original house was the Rangers Lodge for Enfield Chase. 
Iron Age camp on which the club house stands. This consisted of a single rampart built of packed earth and riveted with timber, and a ditch beyond it. It is the largest hill fort in Middlesex and has a huge breadth of view around the whole area and beyond.  In the east part is a modern pond, fed by a spring which would have been inside the fort, and ensured a water supply.
Car park – this covers a lake which was to the west of the house.
Trees in the grounds – near the house are three Cedars of Lebanon – one of which were planted in 1846 and was a sapling from the first such cedar planted in Britain in the 16th.  There is a holm oak at the back of the house with branches so long they have split from the trunk.  There is an American swamp cypress in the car park, another nearer to Bush Hill and another near the brook – which has soft spongy growths which provide the roots with air.  In front of the house is an American sweet gum and there are also lots of yew trees around. At the 11th green is a Marshall sugar maple

Bush Hill Road
Gauge house - classic New River. A sluice house spans the New River as it passes under the road. Built 1796 probably by Robert Mylne, for the New River Company. It is of brick over a stone arch straddling the watercourse. The flow of the New River was controlled by means of adjustable stop boards. From here sluice gates were operated to control  water flowing over the Bush Hill frame
Halliwick School.  The New River runs alongside the site of this house, since demolished, where Hugh Myddleton lived while the river was being built.  Halliwick House was built by him in 1613 and was then Bush Hill House. This was the largest house in the parish and in the 17th called Halliwick.  It was recased in brick in 1850 and leased to Samuel Cunard until 1878. Later it became the Halliwick School for Physically Handicapped Children – which has previously been the Cripples Home for girls set up in the Marylebone road.  In 1985 it was taken over by I CAN but by then very little of the original house remained. Demolished for a Laing Homes development.
Crossing of Salmons Brook. Originally the New River crossed the brook over the 'Bush Hill Frame' –a lead-lined trough, 666 feet long. This was removed in 1784-6 and while this work was done the remains of an elephant were discovered in the ground. The work of replacing the frame included the Clarendon Arch. The embankment extends as far as Ridge Avenue  

Carrs Lane 
The name comes from a William Carr who owned Chase Park in the 19th. The road went to Old Park from Windmill Hill.
Entrance Lodge to Bush Hill Park Golf Club. 19th picturesque cottage, with fancy bargeboards and thatched roof.

Clarendon Way
Approaches Salmons Brook on the north-west of the New River. The garden at the end is privately owned.
Clarendon Arch.  Brick tunnel culvert which carries the New River over Salmon's Brook, via an embankment. This brick archway replaced the original timber-boarded aqueduct, of 1682. It is the oldest surviving structure on the New River. The top of the arch can be seen plus a stone in the wall. It is supported by buttresses, with a coat of arms and the inscription "This Arch was Rebuilt in the Yeare 1682, Honourable Henry Earle of Clarendon being Govr". An eighteenth engraving of the arch shows a plaque with the inscription "The Frame was raised one foot higher AD 1725".  "This Bank of Earth was raised and formed to support the channel of the New River. And the Frame of Timber and Lead which served that purpose for 173 years was removed and taken away. MDCCLXXXVI. Peter Holford esquire Governor,   Listed Grade II but for a long time was shored up with timber.

Faversham Avenue
Occupied by 1926

Halliwick Gate
Housing of the 1990s which replaced a 18th wing of Bush Hill House which was also called Halliwick

London Road
A continuation of Green Lanes which was part of a Drove road into London.

Old Park
This was the name given to the area land of the medieval manor of Enfield

Old Park Ridings
Ornate bridge built by the developer over Salmons Broom

Park Avenue
A continuation of Green Lanes and a drove road into London
Riverside Park and a sports field covering the southern end of the pipe-run under Enfield

Quakers Walk
Water Tower.  An artesian bore was sunk here into the chalk in 1877 to supply the new housing estate of the Bush Hill Park Company. The waterworks scheme failed and supply was taken over by the New River Company. The unused brick water tower, four storeys high with slit windows and stair turret, was converted into a house.

Sittingbourne Avenue
Occupied by 1926

Walnut Grove
New River. Iron gates where New River enters pipes. The course of the pipes can be seen on the surface in the strip of allotments and open land over it alongside Walnut Grove.

Sources
Bush Hill Golf Club. Web site
Essex Lopresti. The New River
Industrial Archaelogy of Enfield
London Borough of Enfield. Web site

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