Scratchwood
Scratchwood is an extensive wooded, country park in Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. The 57-hectare site is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation and together with the neighbouring Moat Mount Open Space it is a Local Nature Reserve. Scratchwood is a remnant of the once great Middlesex Forest, has the largest area of ancient woodland which survives in Barnet. Parts of it may go back to the woods which grew up after the end of the last ice age, the Younger Dryas, 11,500 years ago; the ancient woodland consists of sessile oak and hornbeam, with some wild service trees, while secondary woodland areas are birch and sycamore. In the view of the London Ecology Unit, "Scratchwood is the Borough's best woodland in terms of floral diversity of ancient woodland indicator species"; the herb rich grassland and the pond have a number of rare plants. Breeding birds include lesser whitethroat and cuckoo; the area of Scratchwood south of the entrance was once hay meadows, growing food for London's vast horse population, but in 1866 Scratchwood and Moat Mount were part of a 400-hectare estate, purchased by Edward William Cox, Scratchwood was used for sport and rearing game.
The areas which are now nature reserves were purchased by Hendon Urban District Council in 1923. The main entrance is by the car park, accessed from the northbound lane of Barnet Way, a dual carriageway, part of the A1 road, near Stirling Corner. There is access by a footpath from Barnet Lane in Elstree; the London Loop crosses the reserve. Mill Hill Golf Course is a 60-hectare Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade I south of Scratchwood at Grid Ref TQ206 942. 150 years ago it was farmland, it became part of a country estate which included Scratchwood and Moat Mount. The golf course was created in 1927; the most important feature of the site is its rich birdlife, including the rare willow tit. Deans Brook rises on the course, a number of small streams converge towards Stoneyfields Lake, created by damming the brook when the site was a country estate; the lake and streams support many species of water loving plants. The area close to Scratchwood is acid grassland which has uncommon species such as dyer's greenweed and heath speedwell.
There are some larger areas such as Hemmings Wood at the southern end of the course. Barnet parks and open spaces Nature reserves in Barnet Scratchwood on the VisitWoods website
Pinner
Pinner is a town in the London Borough of Harrow in northwest London, England, 12 miles from Charing Cross. It is in the historic county of Middlesex. Pinner was a hamlet, first recorded in 1231 as Pinnora, although the archaic -ora suggests its origins lie no than c.900. The name Pinn is shared with the River Pinn; the oldest part of the town lies around the fourteenth-century parish church of St. John the Baptist, at the junction of the present day Grange Gardens, The High Street and Church Lane; the earliest surviving private dwelling, East End Farm Cottage, dates from the late fifteenth-century. The village expanded between 1923 and 1939 when a series of garden estates, including the architecturally significant Pinnerwood estate conservation area – encouraged by the Metropolitan Railway – grew around its historic core, it was from this time onwards that the area assumed much of its present-day suburban character. The area is now continuous with neighbouring suburban districts including Eastcote.
Pinner contains a large number of homes built in the 1930s Art Deco style, the most grand of, the Grade II listed Elm Park Court at the junction of West End Lane and Elm Park Road. Pinner has had an annual street fair held in May since 1336, when it was granted by Royal Charter by Edward III. Pinner is one of few places in the United Kingdom that still holds an annual fair, it remains popular. Harrow Council has been governed by the Labour Party since 2014. Pinner has two wards and Pinner South, each represented by three councillors. Pinner is in the Brent and Harrow constituency for the London Assembly, represented since 2008 by Navin Shah. Since the 2010 general election, Pinner has been part of the new Ruislip and Pinner parliamentary constituency represented by Nick Hurd. Pinner is part of the London European Parliament constituency which elects nine MEPs by proportional representation – three Conservative, three Labour, one Liberal Democrat, one Green and one UKIP member. Pinner is considered to be the wealthy side of the London Borough of Harrow, with wide tree-lined streets, a conservation area, large houses and flat conversions in attractive Edwardian buildings.
The information research group Experian, describes the demographic as the "Business Class - The dominant type of people living here are business leaders approaching retirement who live in large family homes in the most prestigious residential suburbs." Pinner has the lowest crime rate in the whole of London, with several independent schools and single-sex schools with a prestigious reputation, making it a popular area for affluent families. Pinner is both a religiously and culturally diverse area, with the ethnic minority population having grown since the 1970s. Pinner ward nonetheless has the highest concentration of people describing themselves as White in the London Borough of Harrow, at 62 per cent of the population in 2011. Pinner South ward has the next highest proportion of White people at 59.4 per cent. A local synagogue and various churches serve the religious needs of the local community. Pinner's St John the Baptist parish church was consecrated in 1321, but built on the site of an earlier Christian place of worship.
The west tower and south porch date from the 15th century. Pinner Underground station is on the Metropolitan line in zone 5. Horatia Nelson, daughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, lived in Pinner from 1860 until her death in 1881. Brian Lane grew up in the village. Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore was born in Pinner in 1923. Monster Raving Loony Party leader Screaming Lord Sutch, who lived in nearby South Harrow, is buried in Pinner New Cemetery; the Poet Laureate Henry James Pye retired to East End House at the end of his career in 1811. Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote Eugene Aram at Pinner Wood House in 1832. Samuel and Isabella Beeton lived on the Woodridings estate between 1856 and 1862, during which Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management was published; the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett was born in the village in 1884, the playwright W. S. Gilbert, though he did not live in Pinner, was a magistrate there from 1893 onwards. Another Victorian food writer, Agnes Marshall, whom most credit with the invention of edible ice cream cones, had a country home there and died there in 1905.
Twentieth-century figures include the cartoonist William Heath Robinson, who lived in Moss Lane between 1913 and 1918, the former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen, who writes children's books such as We're Going on a Bear Hunt, lived in Pinner from the time he was born in 1946, until 1962. Sir Elton John, educated at Pinner Wood Junior School, Reddiford School and Pinner County Grammar School, until age 17, when he left just prior to his A Level examinations to pursue a career in the music industry. Actor David Suchet and comedian Ronnie Barker were both one-time owners of 17th-century Elmdene in Church Lane.
Selsdon
Selsdon is an area located in South London, England in the London Borough of Croydon. Selsdon and Ballard is a ward of Croydon Council. At the 2011 Census the population of the ward was 11,719; the leafy suburb was developed during the inter-war period during the 1920s and 1930s, is remarkable for its many Art Deco houses. It is well known for the Selsdon Park Hotel, the venue of a 1970 meeting of the Conservative Shadow Cabinet to settle the party manifesto for the impending general election. Labour Party leader Harold Wilson coined the phrase Selsdon Man to describe the free market approach, agreed, the Selsdon Group was formed within the Conservative Party to campaign for its retention. One side of the residential area of Selsdon is bordered by Selsdon Wood, the whole area used to be part of Selsdon Park Estate, once well known as hunting and shooting grounds in the area. In the early 1920s the estate was divided into smallholdings. After concerns were raised about the rapid development of the village a committee was formed to ensure that an area of 200 acres would be set aside and saved for a nature reserve and bird sanctuary, opened to the public in 1936 and given to the National Trust after Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council and the Corporation of Croydon agreed to manage it jointly.
Selsdon Wood now consists of five large meadows surrounded by extensive woodland and ancient hedges and it still retains the character of a historical woodland. In the second meadow of the Selsdon Wood area there is a bomb crater, another in Selsdon recreation ground just inside the woods which are closed off. Much wildlife may be found in the wooded areas of Selsdon such as deer, more parakeets; the main street has changed much over the years. In 2013 many of the shops or offices were fast food takeaways, hair salons, financial services and charity shops. Deo Gloria Trust. In January 2007 the prominent Selsdon Clock, in rustic style with a brushwood motif round its face, was installed on the Selsdon Triangle, on the plinth of a former public lavatory, in front of the library and Sainsbury's supermarket. Selsdon Hall is based underneath the library, it is designed to be a hub for the local community. It comprises a hall that can be hired and a coffee shop, open to all members of the public; the area is undergoing a gentle renovation with the well known disused garage being converted into retail and residential units.
Sanderstead South Croydon Farleigh Warlingham Forestdale Addington Sanderstead railway station South Croydon railway station Gravel Hill tram stop John Ruskin College
The Shard
The Shard referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge and London Bridge Tower, is a 95-storey supertall skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, that forms part of the Shard Quarter development. Standing 309.7 metres high, the Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, the tallest building in the European Union, the fifth-tallest building in Europe. It is the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the concrete tower of the Emley Moor transmitting station, it replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block built on the site in 1975. The Shard's construction began in March 2009. Practical completion was achieved in November 2012; the tower's operated observation deck, The View from The Shard, was opened to the public on 1 February 2013. The glass-clad pyramidal tower has 72 habitable floors, with a viewing gallery and open-air observation deck on the 72nd floor, at a height of 244 metres; the Shard was developed by Sellar Property Group on behalf of LBQ Ltd and is jointly owned by Sellar Property and the State of Qatar.
The Shard is managed by Real Estate Management Limited on behalf of the owners. In 1998, London-based entrepreneur Irvine Sellar and his then-partners decided to redevelop the 1970s-era Southwark Towers following a UK government white paper encouraging the development of tall buildings at major transport hubs. Sellar flew to Berlin in the spring of 2000 to meet the Italian architect Renzo Piano for lunch. According to Sellar, Piano spoke of his contempt for conventional tall buildings during the meal, before flipping over the restaurant's menu and sketching a spire-like sculpture emerging from the River Thames. In July 2002, the then-Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, ordered a planning inquiry after the development plans for the Shard were opposed by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and several heritage bodies, including the Royal Parks Foundation and English Heritage; the inquiry took place in April and May 2003, on 19 November 2003, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced that planning consent had been approved.
The government stated that: Mr Prescott would only approve skyscrapers of exceptional design. For a building of this size to be acceptable, the quality of its design is critical, he is satisfied. Sellar and his original partners CLS Holdings plc and CN Ltd secured an interim funding package of £196 million in September 2006 from the Nationwide Building Society and Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander; this enabled them to pay off the costs incurred and to buy out the Southwark Towers occupational lease from the building's tenants, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Vacant possession of the site was secured a year after PricewaterhouseCoopers completed the relocation of their operations. In September 2007, preparations for the demolition of Southwark Towers began; however that same month, turbulence in the financial markets put the Shard's construction in jeopardy, threatening to render the project an example of the Skyscraper Index. In November 2007, building contractor Mace was awarded the contract to build the Shard for a fixed price of no more than £350 million.
However, this price increased to £435 million in October 2008. In April 2008, demolition of Southwark Towers was visibly under way, by October, the building had been reduced in height, was no longer visible on the skyline; the demolition was completed in early 2009, site preparation began for the construction of the Shard. In late 2007, the gathering uncertainty in the global financial markets sparked concerns about the viability of the Shard. However, in January 2008, Sellar announced that it had secured funding from a consortium of Qatari investors, who had paid £150 million to secure an 80% stake in the project; the consortium included Qatar National Bank, QInvest, Qatari Islamic Bank and the Qatari property developer Barwa Real Estate, as well as Sellar Property. The deal involved a buyout of the Halabi and CLS Holdings stakes, part of the Sellar Property stake; the new owners promised to provide the first tranche of finance, allowing construction of the tower to begin. In 2009, the State of Qatar consolidated its ownership of London Bridge Quarter, including The Shard, through the purchase of the private Qatari investors' stakes.
Shard Quarter is today jointly owned by the State of Sellar. Renzo Piano, the project's architect, designed The Shard as a spire-like sculpture emerging from the River Thames, he was inspired by the railway lines next to the site, the London spires depicted by the 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto, the masts of sailing ships. Piano's design met criticism from English Heritage, who claimed the building would be "a shard of glass through the heart of historic London", giving the building its name, The Shard. Piano considered the slender, spire-like form of the tower a positive addition to the London skyline, recalling the church steeples featured in historic engravings of the city, believed that its presence would be far more delicate than opponents of the project alleged, he proposed a sophisticated use of glazing, with expressive façades of angled glass panes intended to reflect sunlight and the sky above, so that the appearance of the building will change according to the weather and seasons.
The building features 11,000 panes of glass, with a total surface area of 602,779 square feet equivalent to the area of eight Wembley football pitches. The Shard was designed with energy effic
Stanmore
Stanmore is a suburban residential district of northwest London in the London Borough of Harrow. It is centred 11 miles northwest of Charing Cross; the area, based on the ancient parish of Great Stanmore includes southern slopes of the unnamed ridge of hills rising to Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, 152 metres high. The population of the appropriate London Borough of Harrow Ward was 11,229 at the 2011 Census; the Canons ward which covers Stanmore railway station and eastern areas had a population of 12,471 at the same census. The area was recorded in the Domesday Book as Stanmere, the name deriving from the Old English stan,'stony' and mere,'a pool'. There are outcrops of gravel on the clay soil here and the mere may have been one of the ponds which still exist. By 1574 the area had become known as Great Stanmore to distinguish it from Little Stanmore; until the late 19th century, Stanmore was a small rural community. In the Middle Ages, a monastic community of cell of Augustinian Canons was established at Bentley Priory.
It was dissolved in 1536 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1729 Andrew Drummond, the founder of the Drummonds Bank and Jacobite sympathiser, purchased Stanmore House and the Stanmore Park estate as his country residence; the Drummonds leased Stanmore House to the Countess of Aylesford and to Lord Castlereagh. The Marquess of Abercorn acquired the estate, along with Bentley Priory, in 1839. In 1848, Stanmore House was sold again to 1st Baron Wolverton; the house was used as a boys' preparatory school. It was demolished in 1938 and the site was taken over by the Royal Auxiliary Air Force as the headquarters of Balloon Command; the wealthy businessman James Duberley commissioned Sir John Soane to design a large mansion house north of the original Bentley Priory in 1775. This house was added to throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by various owners, it was extended in 1788, again by Sir John Soane, for John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. The Priory was the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV, before her death there in 1849.
In 1882 Bentley Priory was acquired by the hotel millionaire Frederick Gordon, who turned it into a country house hotel for wealthy guests. The railways first reached Stanmore in 1890 when Frederick Gordon opened the Stanmore branch line to improve access to Bentley, in the hope of attracting more affluent customers. Great Stanmore Parish Council stipulated that Gordon's new station building should be of the highest quality, so Stanmore station was designed to resemble a small English church, complete with a spire and gargoyles. Trains were run by the North Western Railway. Gordon purchased land near the station and laid out a wide avenue—named Gordon Avenue—lined with new superior houses, in the hope of attracting wealthy Londoners to come to live in the country and commute into the city on his new railway. Despite his efforts, Gordon's business ventures at Stanmore were not successful, in 1899 he sold the railway to the LNWR. Gordon died in 1904 at his Hotel Metropole in Cannes, his body was brought back to Stanmore and buried in the family grave at the church of St. John's Church.
In the early years of the 20th century as the population of London grew, Stanmore was affected by increasing urbanisation and the small rural village was becoming a suburb of London. In December 1932 the Metropolitan Railway opened a new electric railway with a station at Stanmore; this rapid, direct route into London presented strong competition for Gordon's old railway as branch line passengers had to change trains at Harrow & Wealdstone for London services. After years of decline, Stanmore Village station was closed by British Railways in 1952; the opera librettist W. S. Gilbert lived at Grim's Dyke, a country house located between Stanmore and Harrow Weald. In 1911, Gilbert drowned in the pond at Grim's Dyke, he was cremated at Golders Green and his ashes buried at the churchyard of St. John's Church, Stanmore. During World War II, Stanmore played an important role. Stanmore had an outstation from the Bletchley Park codebreaking establishment, where some of the Bombes used to decode German Enigma messages were housed.
Bentley Priory was taken over by the RAF, in 1940 the Battle of Britain was controlled from RAF Bentley Priory. Stanmore was home to RAF Stanmore Park, the headquarters of Balloon Command. RAF Stanmore Park is now a housing estate. RAF Bentley Priory closed in 2009; the first parish church was the 14th century St Mary's, built on the site of a wooden Saxon church which itself may have been built on the site of a Roman compitum shrine. It has now disappeared; this building was replaced by a new one built in the current churchyard consecrated in 1632 and dedicated to St John the Evangelist. Built of brick and consecrated by Archbishop Laud, it is one of the small number of churches built in Britain between the medieval period and the eighteenth century. By the nineteenth century, this church had become considered unsafe. After its replacement, its roof was pulled off and it became a ruin. A new church was constructed in the Gothic Revival style from 1849–50. Queen Adelaide's last public appearance was to lay the foundation stone of the new church.
She gave the font and when the church was completed after her death, the east window was dedicated to her memory. The suburb is characterised by numerous small restaurants and cafés, several public houses, many unique s
Arkley
Arkley is an area of North London, within the London Borough of Barnet. It is located 10.6 miles north northwest of Charing Cross. It consists of a long village strung out between Barnet and Stirling Corner centred on the "Gate" pub, composed of the ancient hamlets of Barnet Gate, Rowley Green and Arkley. At 482 feet above sea level, Arkley is one of the highest points in London; the origins of the name Arkley are unclear. The first element of the name appears to come from the Old English word arc, while the second element is from leāh, a woodland clearing or glade. –lond in the earlier name means "cultivated ground". The name Arkley would thus mean "woodland clearing by the ark or by the place where arks are made", it is thought by some that Hendon Wood Lane was a minor Roman road. The name,'Grendel's Gate', is associated with the monster from the Saxon epic, Beowulf; this implies that the place was of modest importance as early as 1005. It may have been a centre of a significant community, founded on a woodland economy.
The area is referred to in medieval documents as'Southhaw', may have predated the settlement at Chipping Barnet. Barnet manorial court was held here in the 13th century. From at least the early 19th century until the 1890s, Arkley was known as'Barnet Common' or'West Barnet'; the establishment of the civil parish of 830 acres in 1894 confused matters further, as it was defined by the rural area around'Barnet Town', included places as far east as Duck Island and Underhill. It is from the civil parish, the ward of Barnet Urban District that we have population statistics for Arkley. Between 1901 and 1971, Arkley's population rose from 483 to 16,832, it was transferred from Hertfordshire to Greater London in 1965. St Peter's Church, designed by George Beckett, was built in 1840 as a private chapel at a cost of £5,000, it contains a wall tablet of its benefactor, Enoch Durant, who died in 1848. The chancel was added in 1898. After Durant's death the advowson was transferred to the rector of Barnet, an ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1905.
Arkley Windmill was in use by 1806. It is marked as "corn" windmill on the Ordnance Survey of the 1860s. From photographs, it appears to have had only two of its original sails by the 1890s, by which time it may have been powered by steam, it ceased to be a functioning mill during World War I, was restored in 1930, but not as a working mill. The Gate Inn retains some of its original features; the sign, in the form of a hanging five bar gate, has an inscription which reads:This gate hangs high, hinders none. Until the early 1960s a large tree grew up from the floor of the pub and out through the roof. For its size, Arkley has more Sites of Importance for Nature Conservations than any other district in Barnet: Arkley Lane and Pastures Arkley South Fields Barnet Gate Wood Glebe Lane Pastures Rowley Green Common Rowley Lodge Field Totteridge Fields and Highwood HillIn addition, Dollis Brook and Folly Brook, which are Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation, rise in Arkley. Nearest: High Barnet - Northern line 107 - New Barnet Station to Edgware Station via Borehamwood 307 - Barnet General Hospital to Brimsdown via Barnet and Enfield 614 - Queensbury Station to Hatfield Business Park via Barnet 384 - Barnet to Cockfosters Station Local clay has been exploited for brick-making and pottery over the centuries.
During the 1950s, a 13th-century kiln at Dyke Cottage was excavated, revealing a large cooking pot, 19th century Ordnance Survey maps mark a "Tile Works". In the 1970s, John Britten produced a small racing car named the "Arkley" in the area. Arkley Golf Club was founded in 1909; the course was designed by James Braid and Harry Vardon.. On 29 November 1975, a Piper PA-23 Aztec aircraft piloted by retired Formula One racing driver Graham Hill crashed on the golf course, killing all six people on board. Tony Blackburn - radio disc jockey Graham Hill - retired F1 driver and Embassy Hill car owner, lived between Borehamwood and Shenley, he was killed when his private plane crashed on Arkley Golf Course in 1975. Mark Heap - actor Trevor Howard - actor, lived for many years in Arkley and died there. Humphrey Lyttelton - musician W. E. Shewell-Cooper - organic gardener, used Arkley Manor for many years as a home and show garden Norman Wisdom - comedian Jermaine Jenas - footballer Bacary Sagna - footballer Marouane Chamakh - footballer Zayn Malik - musician of One Direction Perrie Edwards - musician, member of girlband Little Mix Theresa Villiers - MP for Chipping Barnet.
Arkley Media related to Arkley at Wikimedia Commons
North Weald
North Weald is a village in the civil parish of North Weald Bassett in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. The village is within the North Weald Ridges and Valleys landscape area. A market is held every Bank Holiday Monday at North Weald Airfield; the market used to be the largest open air market in the country but reduced its size over the years. In 1086 North Weald was one of the most thickly wooded places in Essex. Peter de Valognes' manor in North Weald was said to contain woodland sufficient for 1,500 swine, showing how wooded the area was. The'wood of Henry of Essex' in North Weald was mentioned in 1248. In 1260 Philip Basset, Henry's successor as lord of the manor, complained that many robberies were being done in this wood near the road between Ongar and Waltham, he secured the king's permission to assart 6 acres of the wood. Norden's Map of Essex, 1594, does not show North Weald as a densely wooded parish. In 1777 there was no woodland there apart from Weald Hall Coppice; this is specially interesting in view of the survival of large woods in neighbouring parishes.
Weald Hall Coppice still survives, there is a small wood at Canes farm. North Weald formed 1,739 acres of the Ongar Hundred; the ancient manor houses were Weald Hall, near the centre of the parish, Canes and Paris Hall at Hastingwood. In addition to the four manor houses there were substantial medieval dwellings at Tylers Green, Bowlers Green, Bridge Farm, one or two other places; the parish church, St Andrew's, which dates from the 14th century, is ½ mile east of Weald Hall. Apart from the church the oldest existing building in the parish is Tylers; this is a timber-framed and plastered house consisting of a central block with a gabled cross-wing at each end. It may date from the 16th century but there is some evidence that the central block was an earlier open hall with a screens passage at its south-west end. The'King's Head' at Weald Gullet is a timber-framed building of the same period, it was restored about 1927. Two ancient timber-framed cottages which stood on the north side of the main road near the end of Church Lane were destroyed in a German air raid in 1941.
Until the 17th century the Epping-Chelmsford road was the most important in the parish. In 1786 a petition was presented to the Epping Highway Trust by the people of North Weald asking that the road should be taken over by the trust. An Act of Parliament for this purpose was passed in the following year. A toll-gate was erected at the junction of Woodside; the gate-keeper lived at first in a rented cottage but a toll-house was built about 1818. This still survives: a single-story building of brick, now plastered, with a tiled roof. In 1801 North Weald, with 620 inhabitants, was one of the more densely populated parishes of the area. In the 19th century the population followed the trend normal in rural Essex until about 1861: there was an increase to 886 in 1831 and a subsequent slight decrease, but between 1861 and 1901, when the agricultural depression was depopulating most villages, the population of North Weald rose from 842 to 1,135. This was due to the coming of the railway in 1865. New places of worship in the 19th century were the Congregational chapel in Weald Bridge Road, built about 1830 but closed about 1874, the Chapel of Ease at Hastingwood, the Iron Mission Church at Thornwood, the Wesleyan churches at Thornwood and Weald Gullet.
The original school was relinquished in favour of a larger building and the new school was extended in about 1842 and again in 1871. In 1865 coach travel in this area was superseded by the opening of the railway through Epping to Ongar, with a station at North Weald; this brought London within easy reach. This line was electrified as far as Epping in 1949. Beyond Ongar public transport was poor until the introduction of motor buses. There are now infrequent bus services to Epping, Brentwood. North Weald was late in getting its own post-office because it was served directly from Epping. In 1883 a day mail was established at North Weald. A telegraph office was set up in 1886; the telephone service was introduced in 1920. The population rose little during the first 20 years of the 20th century, was only 1,239 in 1921 with the Post Office Radio Station established at Weald Gullet in 1921. There was an increase to 1,642 in 1931 and a burst of building lasting until the Second World War. A few council houses were built before 1939.
In the 1940s, the North Weald Bassett Parish was formed and North Weald was removed from the Ongar Hundred and placed, along with Thornwood and various other small villages in the parish. Since 1945 three large housing estates have been built. In 1953 the estimated population of North Weald was 3,200-an increase of 100 per cent. On 1931; the iron mission church at Thornwood was replaced in 1923 by a brick church and in 1931 the Wesleyan church at Weald Gullet was rebuilt. In 1939, the Wesleyan church at Thornwood was closed owing to lack of support. A village hall was built on the south side of the village. In 1967, the village hall was rebuilt. North Weald is represented at Westminster by MP for Brentwood and Ongar, it is a Conservative area with the Conservatives winning 60% of the vote in 2015's local elections. Confusion may arise between Brentwood and Ongar constituency and Epping Forest constituency. North Weald is represented on Essex County Council by the Conservative county councillor for North Weald and Nazeing, having won the 2017 election with 78.5% of the vote, followed by Labour with 12.7%.
North Weald Bassett parish is governed by a parish council, incl
