1. Crescent West
gets a makeover.
INSIDE THIS MONTHS ISSUE
SEPTEMBER 2012 ISSUE
Beehive behaviour
HADLEY WOOD NEWS
Playground progress
New housing project in Union St.
Nicola Forsyth. On her bike for charity. Again
Rowan trees. Not looking good
Letters. Covenden. Cycle paths Photo by J.Leatherdale.
DESIGNED & PRINTED BY PRINTWAREHOUSE TELEPHONE: 020 8441 4482

2. Beehive News
In Beech Hill Avenue, at the bottom of our
garden, is a leaking nuclear reactor, or
that’s what our neighbours must think as
I don the white beekeeping suit and
smoker, and make my way slowly
towards the hives.
We’ve all read much about the demise
of the honeybee over the last few years. It
is believed that there are no wild bees left
in the UK and any wild colony has
escaped from a beekeeper. That means
no beekeepers, no bees! As Einstein
said, when the last bee has gone we only
have four years left. So no excuses about
not having enough space or stroppy
neighbours, bee hives can now be found
on top of Harrods and The Berkeley, on
balconies in high rise blocks and, just in
case you thought this was the hobby of
suicidal, pipesmoking fools who can’t get
into the golf club, they even come
delivered to your door made from funky
coloured plastic from Omlet
(www.omlet.co.uk/shop/beekeeping).
Bee-keeping is almost cool!
A few bee facts. Typically a hive will
contain about 20-50,000 females who, of
course, do all the work and about 200
males or drones that do nothing but put it
about (sounds familiar?), but female bees
are not as soft hearted as their human
equivalent and boot the drones out to die
when the mating season is over. They like
the hive to be a steady 32C and only go
out when the temperature reaches 13C.
What is so wonderful is the illusion that I,
a mere man, am in control of thousands
of women - for illusion it certainly is. If they
aren’t happy they will be off and it’s my
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3. CONCERT DINNER
Friday 12th October
Ben Baker (violin) & Petr Limonov (piano)
Reception at 7.00pm with sparkling wine and canapés, three
course dinner, coffee, tea and petits fours and concert.
Price: £56.50 per person – table wines extra.
Dress code: Black tie.
job to keep them sweet.
The best time to check out the progress
GARDEN OPEN DAY
Sunday 28th October 2012 – 1-4pm
of your hive is around mid-day when the Visit The Beale Arboretum, support the National Garden
majority of the girls are out shopping for Scheme and help us to raise money for various charities,
including MacMillan Nurses. Optional tours available.
nectar and pollen. The rest of them are £4 Adults, children free. Afternoon teas will be available
dancing. Sounds like a normal weekend in the lounge throughout the afternoon.
in Hadley Wood!
There’s the adrenaline high of opening
the hives, which, no matter how often I do
WEST LODGE PARK
it, deep inside something screams ‘get YO U R C O U N T RY R E T R E AT
the hell out of here!’. Once you have Cockfosters Road, Hadley Wood, Herts, EN4 0PY.
T: 020 8216 3900 Email: wlpreception@bealeshotels.co.uk
prized the lid off no amount of smoke can
www.bealeshotels.co.uk
HWN63
smother the primal sound of thousands
of pissed off bees, they are under attack
and words of assurance will not calm Like a single malt to a blend, or a 55,000 miles it takes to produce one jar).
them, until you put the lid back on and Budvar to a Budweiser, your own honey If I have piqued your curiosity there is a
leave them alone. has a taste like nothing you ever bought great beginners course, and loads of
Finally your reward. Taking over the from Waitrose. Your stolen harvest is 30- support available, at the Barnet Bee
kitchen in late August, turning everything 40 pots of honey per hive per year, and Keepers Association (www.bbka.org.uk)
sticky, pursued by bees who really don’t you even feel it’s okay to claim all the to get you started.
feel being pickpocketed is fair. credit (as if you personally had flown the Nigel Forsyth
HADLEY WOOD
COMMUNITY
PLAYGROUND UPDATE
As many of you will have seen, work begun
during the summer holidays on the renovation
of the community playground.
So far, the playground area has been
extended and four new pieces of equipment
have been installed including a zip wire, birds
nest swing, climbing frame and a whizzer stick.
But we haven't finished yet.The final phase
of the playground renovation will include a new
toddler multi-activity piece, new junior multi-
activity piece with new flooring, refurbishment
of the existing swings, fencing and benches
and two new picnic benches.
All work will take place during school holiday
time to minimise disruption.
We aim to have the playground completed
by April 2013.
We would like to thank everyone that
has supported this project and hope you
enjoy using the new playground. If you
have any questions please email us
at hwcpr@yahoo.co.uk
3

4. Rowan trees Apparently there are
fungicides available to
Some Rowan trees (including ours) in the treat PM but otherwise
Hadley Wood area are looking very it is recommended
unhealthy at the moment turning yellow that the fallen leaves
early and shedding their leaves. are picked up and
Also known as Mountain Ash these disposed of. This
trees are usually robust and long lived. reduces the load of
Their berries are a valuable source of spores lying dormant
food for songbirds. However they are around the tree
susceptible to several tree diseases waiting for a further
notably, ahem, Powdery Mildew, Crown attack next Spring. On
Gall and Fire Blight. (I know this as I just the debit side this
read it on Wikipedia). Looking at locally leaves you with a bad
affected trees I wonder if Powdery Mildew back and a feeling that
is the most likely problem and would you must constantly
welcome an expert opinion. Apparently wash your hands. Hopefully the trees will
the leaves become invaded by white be OK next year and your hands recover
fungal Powdery Mildew (PM) spores without developing black necrotic spots
causing black necrotic spots to develop, and falling off.
the leaves to distort and then fall off. Rod Armstrong
VOLUNTEERS WANTED
As a Cherry Lodge Volunteer
Shop Assistant you get the
chance to undertake a variety of
tasks from serving customers to
dressing windows. You can
choose the
hours and days that you'd like to
work and you will get plenty
of training and support.
You will work in a team of
volunteers, supervised by the
charity shop manager. We need
volunteers desperately in our
Borehamwood Shop.
Cycling for Charity. Please contact Darryl on
As 1 in 175 babies are stillborn, I was 0208 953 1094
galvanised into signing up to cycle from 111 Shenley Road,
Panama, through Costa Rica and on into Borehamwood. We look
Nicaragua in 6 days, to raise money for forward to having you on
Professor Robert Winston’s Genesis
board! We really value our
Research Trust. I met some of the
volunteers at Cherry Lodge
scientists involved, on a cycle ride from
Cancer Care
London to Paris, last year and was so
Reg 1011629
saddened to hear how hard it is for some
mothers to get their babies safely to full-
term. The route will be just under 500kms
but it’s the day we only do 49kms
that worries me most – it’s obviously
going to involve what they call ‘hills’ – but,
judging from my experience in China, are
actually mountain passes! If you would
like to support this wonderful charity my
web page is www.justgiving.com/Nicola-
Forsyth
4

5. Letter from Australia
To the Editor ‘Hadley Wood News’
Perhaps at times you wonder what the results are for your
hard work in compiling and presenting ‘The Hadley Wood
News’ online, and whether archiving past issues is useful. Let me
reassure you that your efforts do indeed affect lives in the most unexpected
manner.
I am emailing this from Canberra, the capital city of Australia where my
husband, Robin, and I read the ‘Hadley Wood News’ online occasionally.
Robin was born in Barnet in 1941, was adopted at seven and brought to
Australia by his adopted mother in 1949. It was forty years ago, when our son
was born, that we obtained Robin’s birth and adoption certificates. The birth
Neighbourliness certificate listed ‘Covenden’, Beech Hill’ as his birth mother’s address in
As a local resident, I’d like to share with March/April 1941.
you plans for an exciting small housing Ten years ago, intending to compile a family history for our three
project in Union St High Barnet. If it grandchildren, I began seriously searching online for ‘Covenden’. A decade of
comes off, this will see on the site of the searching brought up nothing. This year, during a final trip to London, Robin
disused St Martha’s school the and I travelled one hot, sunny Sunday in May to Hadley Wood and Beech Hill.
development of a ‘cohousing community’ We asked shopkeepers and the occasional local we met for any clues to where
– the first of its kind in such a house named ‘Covenden’ might be to no avail, so we concluded that it
the UK for the 50+ must have been demolished. Our walks took us along Beech Hill, just past the
age group. Copying Golf Club entrance. We photographed the beautiful surroundings along the way
a model familiar in and Robin felt satisfied he had returned to the area.
Denmark and Checking information to label some of these photos on our return to Australia,
Holland, we want to I again, as a last effort, entered the name into search engines. Imagine (after
bring together a seven decades of Robin wondering, my decade of solid searching) our
group of women who will already know astonishment when ‘The Hadley Wood News’ of June 2009 came up as a
each other before they move in. Why am reference! The letter from Dr Carol Norris, asking for information about
I involved with this? It feels just right for ‘Covenden’ including the street number, was the first information we’d
me – I am still fit and very active, but I unearthed in forty years. A quick reference to Google maps even provided us
know that living alone can become more with a photo of the beautiful house and the name writ large on the gates. We’d
of a problem as one gets older and I walked within less than a kilometre of it.
would like the assurance of neighbourly The information that some babies from ‘Covenden’ may have been baptized
support and companionship while still in St Paul’s was an additional pleasure so we also looked up that church.
having my private space. I would also like Perhaps Robin Gadd, born March 12 1941 is listed in the register? This 1941
to ‘downsize’ from my house and garden date, and Dr Norris’s 1946 date, indicate that the house sheltered women in
and share a garden with others. Forming need, possibly for extended periods, for many years, so we would like to
a group of neighbours who already know express our appreciation to the people involved. What they did was worthwhile
each other is what a ‘cohousing indeed, reverberates through generations and must give the current owner of
community’ is about, along with shared ‘Covenden’ much satisfaction at living in such an historic and caring
activities, some common meals and environment. Robin was brought up in Tasmania by a wonderful woman,
mutual support, as well as personal Eleanor Brinton.
space and privacy. This is definitely not Thank you so much ‘Hadley Wood News’ from three generations of our family
sheltered housing – our group has a in Australia. Meanwhile, now that we have an appreciation of the area from our
wider age-range, many of us are still walks that day, and such a connection, we will continue to read ‘The Hadley
working and we are going to run the Wood News’ here on the other side of the planet, your influence is indeed ‘world
whole project ourselves. We also see wide’. The presentation and the photographs are first class too.
ourselves as a demonstration project in Kind regards,
independent living for other people in our Barbara and Robin Brinton.
age-group to learn from. (Nice to hear that the online version gets read too. Actually the HW website badly
Most of us will buy flats and there will needs an update. We need help with this and would be absolutely delighted if
be flats at social rents for women from anyone could assist us. Ed.)
Barnet Homes who are eligible. We want
more women to join us and we are
holding an information session at the Jill Northam also received this mail and replied.
Stapylton Rd Library on Monday Sept 17, Dear Barbara and Robin,
4.30 – 6.30. Anyone who can’t get to that I was fascinated to receive your email. I am the assistant minister at St Paul's church
meeting could take a look at our website, and I think I can be of some help to you in your search simply because I spent quite
www.owch.org.uk or phone 07974 a bit of time helping Carol Norris with her own search a couple of years ago.
737125 for further information. We now know that the Hampstead Mother & Baby home moved to Covenden, 17
Angela Ratcliffe Beech Hill in 1940 as their premises in Hampstead had been damaged by a bomb.
5

6. The home then moved back to
Hampstead in 1947 and eventually The Autumn 2012 clothes sale!
closed in 1970. With the proceeds of sale Dawn Ledgard Events…
the Fitzdale charitable trust was set up
beautiful clothes at amazing prices!
and we were able to contact a trustee
who kindly sent us a brief history from
some of the files in Holborn Public
Wednesday 31st Oct 2012
Library. 10.30am until 7.30pm
I looked in the church Baptism register
THE HADLEY WOOD ASSOCIATION CENTRE Dr Keith Garber
yesterday morning after the service but
7 CRESCENT EAST, HADLEY WOOD, EN4 0EL Dr Andrew Halmer
sadly found no record of Robin's
(behind the tennis courts & near the station)
baptism. However I'm sure you'll be Dr Tina Chrysostomou
interested to know that in 1946 there is a £1 entrance & commission from your sales to All aspects of general dentistry
record of 3 babies being baptised from Cherry Lodge Cancer Care Reg Charity No offered throughout the week
Covenden and all have just their mother's 1011629 – please come & support a great
and much needed local charity!
including Saturday morning
name recorded.
appointments
How frustrating to think that you were For more info
only a few yards away from Covenden 01344 454423 or 07790326981 Please contact our reception
last May but at least with modern 16 Crescent West, Hadley Wood,
technology we can fill many of the gaps. Barnet, Herts, EN4 0EJ
I was able to contact the present owners graciously invited inside by the owner Tel: 020 8441 0257
of Covenden and when Carol travelled although she was obviously coping with a
down from Scotland she and I were very sick husband at the time.
She did tell us a story that one of her
daughters when quite young often used
to say she heard babies crying in the
night – I don't know what you make of
that?!
I will contact Carol and ask her
permission to send you her email
address.
With very best wishes in your research.
Jill Northam
Dear Editor
Re your proposed cycle track.
Congratulations on the continued
success of the Hadley Wood News.
Although I have not cycled for some
50 years I am aware of a purpose
built cycle path which was created
about two years ago starting at the
South Mimms Service Station. It runs
north alongside Swanland Road as
far as Hawkeshead Road, near
Brookmans Park. Part of the path
runs away from the road and is tree
lined, two photos on the website of
the Brookmans Park Newsletter
(www.brookmans.com/) show it to
be a very attractive ride. I would
guess it to be about a mile long and
although it means loading the bikes
in or on the car the round trip would
be a good outing for a family and
most of all it would be safe.
Martin Thain
3 Beaumont Place,
Hadley Highstone.
(previously of Kingwell Road
50 years ago)
6

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7

8. From Cottages to Country Estates
OFFICES AT BARNET TOTTERIDGE HADLEY WOOD BROOKMANS PARK RADLETT HADLEY GREEN
HADLEY WOOD £1,695,000 HADLEY WOOD £1,595,000 HADLEY WOOD £1,150,000
Entrance hall Cloakroom 3 Receptions Reception hall Cloakroom Gym/Media Room 6 Bedrooms 4 Receptions 4 Bathrooms
Kitchen/Family room Utility 6 Bedrooms 4 Kitchen/Breakfast Room 2 Receptions 5 Bedrooms DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY WITH PLANNING
Bathrooms South aspect rear garden Detached 4 Bathrooms South aspect rear garden approx. PERMISSION GRANTED FOR A SIX BEDROOM
double garage. 134’ DETACHED HOME
HADLEY WOOD OFFICE 020 8440 9797 HADLEY WOOD OFFICE 020 8440 9797 HADLEY WOOD OFFICE 020 8440 9797
PROOF ONLY
NOT FOR PRINT
HADLEY WOOD £950,000 HADLEY WOOD £475,000 HADLEY WOOD £379,950
Entrance Hallway Cloakroom Lounge/Dining Room Guest Cloakroom Kitchen Open Plan Reception Entrance Hallway Kitchen Lounge 2 Bedrooms
Study Kitchen 4 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms Room 3 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms and Allocated 2 Bathrooms Part boarded loft Garage en bloc.
Garage and Rear Garden Parking.
HADLEY WOOD OFFICE 020 8440 9797
HADLEY WOOD OFFICE 020 8440 9797 HADLEY WOOD OFFICE 020 8440 9797
SALES OFFICES AT: BARNET 020 8449 3383 TOTTERIDGE 020 8445 3694 HADLEY WOOD 020 8440 9797 BROOKMANS PARK 01707 661144
RADLETT 01923 604321 NEW HOMES SHOWCASE HADLEY GREEN 020 8441 9555 PREMIER LETTINGS HADLEY GREEN 020 8441 9796 RADLETT 01923 608383
www.statons.com Associated Offices in Mayfair & Moscow
The Hadley Wood Association
7 Crescent East Hadley Wood Herts EN4 0EL 8449 7193
hadley.woodassoc@btconnect.com www.hadleywood.org.uk
Chairman Graham Sharp 020 8449 2133 sharpie14@btinternet.com
Editor Publisher Rod Armstrong 020 8449 5924
Advertising and Centre Manager Lisa Winston 020 8449 7193 hadley.woodassoc@btconnect.com
Advertising Manager Betty Brough 020 8441 6859 bbr1934@aol.com
Hall Bookings Annie 07903 138 235 hallbookings.hwa@gmail.com
Security Task Force Membership Secretary/Admin Caroline Berlyn 020 8441 8020
HWA Membership Secretary Mrs Sue Finlay Tel. 0208 441 2595
The Hadley Wood News is published usually during the first weekend of each month. It is a community publication with the objective of bringing local news,
views and events to the residents and friends of Hadley Wood. It is non-profit making with any surplus going to the Hadley Wood Association (HWA) for the
direct benefit of residents. Content is produced voluntarily with the make-up, printing and distribution paid for by advertising. Thank you to all our advertisers,
without whom this magazine would not be possible. If you would like to contribute to a future issue or receive updates via email, please contact the Editor
and Publisher. The HWA and anyone associated with the content of this newsletter cannot accept any responsibility for the accuracy, claims or views
expressed. The Hadley Wood News does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the advertisements or other information accessed
directly or indirectly from this publication, nor the quality of any products, services, information or other materials displayed, purchased or obtained by
anyone as a result of an advertisement or any other information or offer in connection with those products, services, information or other materials.Hadley
Wood News shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions contained in any advertisement or other information within this publication.
The Publisher reserves the right to amend, abridge or reject any copy supplied for publication. E&OE HWA December 2011
To download a copy of this and/or previous issues of Hadley Wood News, please visit www.hadleywood.org.uk
8