Mill Hill Historical Society

Letta Jones lecture "From Philadelphia to Mill Hill": the story of botanists Peter Collinson and John Bartram
2:30 tomorrow at Trinity Church
Free for members, £2 for non-members including tea, coffee and biccies.
... https://millhill-hs.org.uk/…/from-phila delphia-to-mill-hill/
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These aren’t our photos but they are just too good not to share. Colour photos of Edgware in the late 1950s. All credit to John Cramp and David Bradley Online.
http://www.trolleybus.net/cramp.htm
The images focus on the trolleybuses but in the background you can see the building of the company Charles Wright and the Corner House pub.
... Charles Wright is an interesting company. Founded in the 1860s in Clerkenwell, they manufactured medals for the Crimean War. Their factory grew too loud for the inner city so in 1900 they moved to Edgware. In the 1920s they would manufacture 35,000 First World War medals a day! They also came to make car license plates and indeed invented the font that is used on British car license plates to this very day.
The Corner House pub was built in the mid-1930s, designed by Dawe and Carter for brewers Taylor Walker & Co. Basil Oliver in his book “The Renaissance of the English Public House” said The Corner House is a “most ably planned house with large curbed triple windowed ends to the public and saloon bars. These must be very attractive from the inside. Carried up for bedrooms above with rounded roofs over, they certainly add to the attractiveness of the cleverly contrived symmetrical main elevation.” Architecture Illustrated magazine featured it in their September 1937 issue. Around the time of the millennium it was converted into a McDonalds.
http://www.trolleybus.net/cramp.htm
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Charles_Wri ght
https://www.k-type.com/who-was-charles-wr ight/
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I'm really loving Watercolour World, a project which aims to map the world before photography with watercolours. A great tool to explore with: https://www.watercolourworld.org/
I've found two great local images:
Mr Turnbull's Mill Hill country house in 1790.
... The Edgware Road at Hyde, Hendon in 1799 when it was grassland and a haunt of highwaymen.
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On 13th February, a Thursday evening, in 1941 a bomb was dropped on West Hendon killing over 70 people and making over 1,500 people homeless.
To commemorate this tragic event there is a memorial service at Marsh Drive Community Centre on Sunday the 17th of February between 2 and 3.
After the tragedy the Dean of Hendon stood by a makeshift cross made with the branches of a damaged tree and said these words:
... "The last word shall not be with the destroyer. That is the meaning of our service, and of the simple Cross under which we stand ... Such scenes of desolation as this form a terrible monument to the wickedness of those who pursue brute force without reference to the God of Righteousness, and Justice and Love, before Whom they must one day render account for their deeds.
The 'Little People' of London's suburbs, whom they sought to smash, live on bearing the unquenchable torch of Freedom, and the rough wooden Cross at West Hendon remains as a symbol of the spirit that prevailed against the greatest peril of oppression humanity has ever had to face."
Read more on the bombing here: http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.com/…/t he-last-word-shall-n…
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The arrival of the Midland Railway in the 1860s had a huge effect on the local area. These Midland Cottages on Station Road, Mill Hill were built to house the railway workers. The road has been utterly transformed by development and the M1 now sits where they used to be.
The arrival of the railways also led to the building of the Railway Tavern in The Hale and there are very similar cottages, built for the same purpose, at "Midland Terrace" in Cricklewood which are still standing today.
Again I thank one of our followers for kindly sending these great photos in.

Some selected memories from Mr Sidney Bennet given in 1989 of a Mill Hill long past now. The last paragraph is particularly vivid.
This information was kindly donated by a member of the public, thank you.

"Votes for Women: Challenging the Mythology" a lecture by Dr Mary Salinsky.
13 February, 2:30 at Trinity Church - all welcome!
Free for members, £2 for non-members including tea, coffee and biccies.
... https://millhill-hs.org.uk/…/votes-for- women-challenging-t…/
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Some fantastic images of Edgware and Hendon from 1964 BBC documentary "A City Crowned with Green" on iPlayer.
Definitely worth a watch.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/…/…/p00sydsh/a- city-crowned-with-green

Wishing everyone a very lovely and joyful Christmas!
Thought I'd share the 1947 Christmas message from Mill Hill Union Church. The Minister mentions being reunited with his son after being parted by the war for several years, being invited to see the Royal family to give congratulations for the Royal wedding and post-war austerity Christmas.

Cathy Powers lecture on the Blue Plaque scheme which link the past to the present on over 900 buildings in the capital.
2:30, Wednesday 9th of January at Trinity Church
Free for members, £2 for non-members including tea, coffee and biccies.
... https://millhill-hs.org.uk/…/the-blue-p laque-scheme-for-lo…/
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King Richard III lecture 2:30 this Wednesday on the discovery and reburial of the last Plantagenet king by Dr Barry Walsh at Trinity Church.
Free for members, £2 for non-members including tea, coffee and biccies.
https://millhill-hs.org.uk/…/richard-ii i-the-body-in-the-c…/

Thank you very much to a kind local resident who donated her mother's sketchbooks of a wartime Mill Hill. You can see where soldier's huts, air raid shelters and decontamination centres once were.

Programme for the unveiling of the Mill Hill War Memorial on the 14th of November 1920.
It was unveiled by Lieutenant General Sir George MacDonogh KCB KC M G, Adjutant General.

Some 1948 photos from the archive of the now demolished Bittacy House at Mill Hill East.
It once known as the haunted house.
I genuinely don't know who or what on earth that figure in white is. #Halloween

The curious tale of "Mill Hill's Red Indian". A Native American who ended up attending Mill Hill School in the early 19th Century. I can't find much more on it but it is fascinating.

Last Saturday Cooksleys butchers on the Broadway sadly closed up for the last time after decades of operation in Mill Hill. We used to have three butchers, now we have none!
They were generous enough to donate to us their WW2 ledger when records had to be kept to keep track of everyone's rationing quota as well as some ledgers from the 1970s. A great insight into Mill Hill's beef and suet eating past!

78 years ago today Colindale Station suffered the tragedy of a direct hit during the Blitz.