THE BOROUGH OF ENFIELD

Enfield Heritage Strategy

‘A Living Landscape’

September 2008

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Preface

This document aims to demonstrate how and why heritage is important to the London Borough of Enfield. It presents a bold and imaginative approach that reflects the borough’s existing commitment to heritage, its progressive place-shaping agenda working across all council services, policy and planning, and the role of heritage as an important part of a shared future. The Strategy will form a vital part of the evidence base for the Council’s Local Development Framework documents, which will collectively shape the future of the borough over the next twenty years.

The literal and metaphorical theme of ‘a living landscape’ encapsulates a progressive vision for Enfield’s heritage: the London Borough of Enfield is a living landscape of people and places.

This Strategy provides both a frame of reference and planning mechanism through which this landscape can be better understood, valued, cared for and enjoyed by existing and future residents of Enfield and by visitors to the borough.

The Heritage Strategy must contribute directly to local needs as expressed in Enfield’s Future: A Sustainable Community Strategy (2007-2017). In the Community Strategy local needs are grouped together under the following five themes which are also at the heart of this Heritage Strategy:

• Children and Young People • Safer and Stronger Communities • Healthier Communities • Older People • Economic Development and Enterprise

The partners delivering the Community Strategy have the ambition to ensure that Enfield has ‘a healthy, prosperous, cohesive community living in a borough that is safe, clean and green’. The Heritage Strategy is committed to help deliver this vision.

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Contents

Introduction: Then and Now 5

1. Why the Need for a Heritage Strategy? 6 1.1 Place Matters 1.2 Meeting the Challenge of Change

2. Defining Enfield’s Heritage 7 2.1 What is Heritage? 2.2 What is Enfield’s Heritage?

3. The Strategic Context 8 3.1 The National Context 3.2 The Regional Context 3.3 The Enfield Context

4. A New Vision for Enfield’s Heritage 14 4.1 The Vision 4.2 Our Mission 4.3 Our Aims 4.4 Key Outcomes

5. Issues and Opportunities 15 5.1 The Natural Environment 5.2 The Historic Environment 5.3 Material Culture 5.4 Intangible Heritage 5.5 Community-based Heritage

6. Priorities and Aims 31 1. Site Specific Priorities 2. Conservation areas 3. Collecting Enfield 4. Mapping the Intangible 5. Enfield as a Learning Resource 6. Partnerships and Promotion

7. Monitoring and Evaluation: Next Steps 34

8. Conclusion 34

Appendix: Definitions 35

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Introduction: Then and Now

The London Borough of Enfield as understood today is a palimpsest 1 of topography and past lives. The borough has been shaped over centuries by people, by their needs and aspirations. Enfield’s heritage is found where the values and traditions of people and places intersect.

Enfield and its neighbourhoods exist as much in the mind as they do in the streets, buildings and landscape. Heritage is not only about the distant or even recent past, it is also about the present, the now. Conceptions of heritage can unite older more established communities and newer arrivals.

Enfield’s heritage has its roots in the natural topography of river valleys and clay uplands that prehistoric settlers began to utilise and manage as an agricultural landscape.

Enfield’s heritage is the routes of movement and communication used from the earliest times, by the Romans along Ermine Street, and continued in underground and overland road and public transportation systems; it’s the 191 bus to , the line to and the Great Cambridge Road.

Enfield’s heritage is industrial achievement and decline, urban regeneration and ambition.

Enfield’s heritage is the relationship between centre and periphery, between the City of London and the County of Middlesex, between the urban and the rural. It has the potential to explain the significance of a place and its peoples. Understanding a place aids the growth of people’s connectivity to that place and supports and strengthens sustainable communities.

Enfield’s heritage is a creative resource. It is not to be dismissed as a passive backdrop to daily life. It is an active ingredient of change.

1 Palimpsest - ‘Writing-material, manuscript, the original writing on which has been effaced (rubbed out) to make room for a second”. Oxford Dictionary

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1. Why the Need for a Heritage Strategy?

1.1 Place Matters

Place is latitudinal and longitudinal within the map of a person’s life. It is temporal and spatial, personal and political. A layered location replete with human histories and memories, place has width as well as depth. It is about connections, what surrounds it, what formed it, what happened there, what will happen. Lucy Lippard 2

It is increasingly being recognised that locality and place matter in a rapidly globalising, urbanising world. Place, and the quality of place, matters to us more than ever before. Within the context of this Heritage Strategy, place and places emerge as key features and characteristics of Enfield’s living landscape. Place and places are given value, and are valued, by people.

This Heritage Strategy acknowledges that whilst perceptions of place and places do not necessarily adhere to artificial administrative boundaries, Enfield has a responsibility to understand and care for the distinctiveness of its valued places whilst recognising that the borough is open and connected to the world locally and globally.

1.2 Meeting the Challenge of Change

Change appears to be an elemental characteristic of the whole universe. But when change destroys those qualities of our places that are anchors, reference points for our memories and hence our being, I worry about the effects on human lives, present and future. Change defines existence.

Robert Archibald 3

At some point in 2007, the human species became urban; over 50% of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities – a figure that continues to grow.

London is always changing, and with change comes opportunities and challenges. Enfield too is changing: socially, economically, culturally, and physically. What does this mean for local communities living on the edge of a world city, where urban and rural environments meet?

This Heritage Strategy is founded on the idea that a better understanding and appreciation of heritage can inform change, help to direct and manage change, and also help to ensure that communities are more involved in and engaged with the processes of change at a local level. It is these broad themes that will inform the Council’s Place Shaping agenda; while the Heritage Strategy will be a key part of the evidence base for the LDF, our statutory plan and the Parks and Open Spaces Strategy. Together, these mechanisms will help to ensure that Enfield makes the most of our heritage and manages change in the most beneficial way for the people of Enfield.

2 The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentred Society (1997) 3 The New Town Square: Museums and Communities in Transition (2004)

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2. Defining Enfield’s Heritage

Heritage is everywhere mixed.

David Lowenthal 4

2.1 What is Heritage?

Despite wide-spread public support for the heritage, the view persists within a vocal minority that it is negative, nostalgic and re-active. This Heritage Strategy aims to combat these prejudices and approaches the definition and value of heritage positively as engaged, open and pro-active.

In many ways defining ‘heritage’ is as difficult a task as defining ‘culture’ or ‘nature’. To address this, we have adopted and adapted a ‘family’ of related definitions produced by and UNESCO (see Appendix 1 for these definitions in full). In doing this we are taking a ‘whole landscape approach’ that weaves together the cultural and natural, material and intangible. The following open definition of heritage is broadly applied throughout the Heritage Strategy:

All inherited resources which people value for reasons beyond mere utility.

2.2 What is Enfield’s Heritage?

Five inter-connected areas of Enfield’s heritage are identified. These areas help to organise key issues and opportunities as priorities for action.

1. The Natural Environment: the natural environments and wildlife habitats of the borough, including but not limited to the Green Belt, parks and open spaces and designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). 2. The Historic Environment : including, but not limited to, the officially designated parts of the borough including scheduled monuments, listed buildings (both statutory and local), registered landscapes, conservation areas and archaeological sites. 3. Material Culture: a sub-set of Cultural Heritage focusing on movable items in museum and archival collections, both those owned by the borough and those owned by other groups, organisations and individuals. 4. Intangible Heritage : languages, the visual and performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events that provide communities with a sense of identity and continuity. 5. Community-Based Heritage : local faith groups and special interest groups associated with the cultural, natural and intangible heritage of people and place.

4 ‘Natural and Cultural Heritage’, International Journal of Heritage Studies , 11.1 (2005), 81-92

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3. The Strategic Context

Heritage can no longer be considered a minority interest, existing in isolation from everyday reality. Increasingly, heritage is recognised as something which permeates daily life, bringing a sense of meaning and identity to an increasingly dislocated world. (English Heritage 5)

3.1 The National Context

The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) is the lead government department on matters concerning the historic environment, museums and galleries, tourism, architecture and the built environment. The Department of Communities and Local Government also has responsibilities towards the built heritage through planning laws and regulations. In particular, it provides national policy guidance on Planning and the Historic Environment (PPG 15, 1994) and Archaeology and Planning (PPG 16, 1990).

In 2001 these two departments jointly published The Historic Environment: A Force for Our Future , in which the government set out a vision of the future in which:

• public interest in the historic environment is matched by firm leadership, effective partnerships, and the development of a sound knowledge base from which to develop policies; • the full potential of the historic environment as a learning resource is realised; • the historic environment is accessible to everybody and is seen as something with which the whole of society can identify and engage; • the historic environment is protected and sustained for the benefit of our own and future generations; • the historic environment’s importance as an economic asset is skilfully harnessed.

This Heritage Strategy shares and supports these national aspirations.

DCMS is also promoting changes to heritage protection though the 2007 White Paper Heritage Protection for the 21 st Century . A draft Heritage Protection Bill is at present being prepared, which will seek to put in place a simplified unified protection system, removing the distinctions between listing, scheduling and registration. Primary responsibility for designation is to be transferred from the Secretary of State to English Heritage.

A new educational initiative aimed at using the built environment to teach has been developed through a partnership between DCMS and the Department for Children, Families and Schools (DCFS),who worked with related agencies such as English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). Engaging Places includes the whole built environment, not just its specifically historic aspects, and includes a broad range of approaches and subject areas. A year-long pilot of this project is due to report soon.

One outcome of the wider project has been the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto. The Manifesto defines learning outside the classroom as ‘the use of places

5 People and Places: A Response to Government and the Value of Culture (2004)

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other than the classroom for teaching and learning’ and ‘provides a powerful route to the Every Child Matters outcomes’: Learning outside the classroom is about raising achievement through an organised, powerful approach to learning in which direct experience is of prime importance. This is not only about what we learn but importantly how and where we learn.

The Manifesto is explicitly intended to generate a new learning ‘movement’ focused on school-aged children. Learning outside the classroom begins with the school grounds, then moves outwards to the local environment, places further afield and residential places. The Manifesto has been endorsed by national, regional and local agencies, organisations and local authorities including English Heritage, CABE, Natural England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the London Wildlife Trust.

Enfield’s heritage is found throughout the borough. The development of this Heritage Strategy provides an opportunity to engage directly with the whole local environment as a learning resource.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has transformed the landscape of heritage policy, planning and provision over the past decade. HLF operates several grant schemes, including Heritage Grants and Parks for People. As of April 2008 HLF will be changing and simplifying its processes for funding applications. However, as set out in Our Heritage Our Future , the Fund’s report towards its next strategic plan for 2008-2013, its three core strategic aims remain:

• conserve the UK’s diverse heritage for present and future generations to experience and enjoy • enable more people, and a wider range of people, to take an active part in and make decisions about their heritage • enable people to learn about their own and others’ heritage.

HLF will also introduce a renewed focus on outcomes for conservation, participation and for learning, and have the expectation that all applicants ‘green’ their projects and put greater emphasis on minimising environmental impacts.

This Heritage Strategy aims to deliver across HLF’s strategic aims ‘centred on achieving benefits for both heritage and people’ with a view to achieving long-term sustainability. The Strategy will also set out key outcomes for delivering on its aims, and aims of any individual project.

The latest Strategic Plan from English Heritage (2005-2010), People and Places: Making the Past Part of Our Future 6 has established a ‘virtuous heritage cycle’ to communicate its key aims of understanding, valuing, caring for and enjoying the heritage:

• AIM 1: Help people develop their understanding of the historic environment • AIM 2: Get the historic environment on other people’s agendas • AIM 3: Enable and promote sustainable change to England’s historic environment • AIM 4: Help local communities to care for their historic environment • AIM 5: Stimulate and harness enthusiasm for England’s historic environment • AIM 6: Make the most effective use of the assets in [its] care.

6 On the front cover of the English Heritage strategic plan is a photograph of underground station, in the south west of the borough.

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A similar approach is taken by its ‘sister’ agency for the natural environment, Natural England . Newly formed in 2006, Natural England has adopted four key outcomes in its first Strategic Direction Report for 2006-2009. The outcomes of ‘enjoyment of the natural environment’ places access to the natural environment highly, believing that with access comes a greater duty of care. Within this is the objective to ‘increase everyone’s understanding of, and ability to take care of, the natural environment’.

Comparable aims for the historic and natural environments are articulated throughout this Heritage Strategy at a local level.

The UK has yet to ratify the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2006), concerned with ‘the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage’. Nonetheless, the inaugural meeting of the UK National Commission for UNESCO in 2006 recognised the potential significance of this intangible heritage, ‘not only for its intrinsic value, but also in giving identity and a ‘sense of belonging’ in a fast changing world and in supporting social cohesion and inclusion’, and grass roots involvement.

In terms of this Heritage Strategy Consultation Draft, the concept of intangible heritage is recognised as being significant and a part of the borough’s long-term planning for Enfield’s heritage.

Sponsored by DCMS, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is the strategic body responsible for national policy across these three domains of cultural life in England. Key strategic developments from MLA include Renaissance in the Regions (2001) for museums and galleries, and the Inspiring Learning for All (2006) framework.

Learning is at the heart of national heritage policy and the funding priorities of the Heritage Lottery Fund. Inspiring Learning for All is informing the development of learning policy, planning and provision across the cultural sector, using a broad and inclusive definition of learning:

Learning is a process of active engagement with experience. It is what people do when they want to make sense of the world. It may involve the development or deepening of skills, knowledge, understanding, awareness, values, ideas and feelings, or an increase in the capacity to reflect. Effective learning leads to change, development and the desire to learn more.

Supporting this definition of learning is a set of four interconnected principles:

• People: providing more effective learning opportunities • Places: creating inspiring and accessible learning environments • Partnerships: building creative learning partnerships • Plans, Policies, Performance: placing learning at the heart of the museum, archive or library.

Positively contributing to the wider learning agenda across the Borough is a core priority of this Heritage Strategy.

A final key part of the national strategic picture has been the Lyons Inquiry into Local Government published in 2007 as Place-shaping: a shared ambition for the future of

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local government . This is now influencing the future planning of Enfield as are earlier changes to national planning legislation. Importantly, the Lyons Inquiry restates the importance of having a local voice and that ‘place remains relevant’ in the contemporary world. Indeed, the Inquiry suggests that the role of local government is in fact ‘place-shaping’; a term aimed at integrating roles and responsibilities across the public, private and voluntary sectors. To better facilitate the delivery of this far- reaching agenda, the Council has created a new Place Shaping and Enterprise Department, within which its Conservation and Design service is located.

3.2 The Regional Context

Enfield is Greater London’s northernmost borough – on the urban fringe – and marks a boundary between urban and rural London life.

The Greater London Authority (GLA), headed by an elected Mayor , was established in 2000 to provide a strategic, regional tier of London government. The Mayor’s Spatial Development Strategy for Greater London, The London Plan (2008 onwards) sets out the Mayor’s objectives: • To accommodate London’s growth within its boundaries without encroaching on open spaces • To make London a healthier and better city for people to live in • To make London a more prosperous city with strong and diverse economic growth • To promote social inclusion and tackle deprivation and discrimination • To improve London’s accessibility • To make London an exemplary world city in mitigating and adapting to climate change, and a more attractive, well-designed and green city.

Within these overarching objectives, the London Plan includes policies on the protection and enhancement of London’s historic environment, waterways and natural heritage.

Sustaining Success , the GLA’s Economic Development Strategy (2006-2016) was developed with the London Development Agency (LDA). The Strategy focuses on four major investment areas, all of which pertain to this Heritage Strategy:

• Places and infrastructure • People • Enterprise • Marketing and promoting London

Within these over-arching investment areas, the following specific proposals are particularly relevant to Enfield’s heritage and are supported by this Strategy:

• Deliver healthy, sustainable communities in high quality urban environments • Maintain and develop London as a top international destination and principal gateway for visitors, tourism and investment.

The GLA’s Cultural Strategy 7, Cultural Capital: Realising the Potential of a World City , (2004) focuses on four key objectives; excellence, creativity, access and value. The following policies outlined by the Strategy are most relevant to, and are supported by, this Heritage Strategy:

7 Which is now being taken forward by the London Cultural Consortium

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• London needs to ensure its cultural institutions and events are of a high quality, world-class status. • London needs to develop its brand and promote itself as a world cultural city and tourist destination. • Education and lifelong learning must play a central role in nurturing creativity and providing routes to employment. • There should be a spread of high-quality cultural provision across London at all levels – local, sub-regional and regional. • The cultural value and potential of London’s public realm should be fully realised.

The LDA is also in the process of developing a new Visitor Economy Development Plan . The Council has submitted responses to the LDA’s consultation phase on this new Plan, promoting the cause and significance of ‘green’ and heritage-based tourism in the outer London boroughs.

Finally, the planning and preparations for the 2012 London Olympics will be of real significance for the whole of the capital, directly and indirectly. The Lea Valley Regional Park forms the eastern edge of Enfield, and the regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley as the main Olympic site is already having a significant impact on London.

In 2002 English Heritage published Changing London . The report sets out a vision for London which this Heritage Strategy fully endorses and supports. Some of its most relevant aspects include:

• The historic and natural environments are two sides of the same coin – they are both part of the green agenda. We need to help people understand that looking after the historic environment is intrinsically linked to making London a sustainable city. • Conservation is about managing not preventing change. • Conservation is about the entire historic environment, not just about listed buildings. We must value the streets and spaces in between and act to improve the quality of London’s streetscape. • We must not allow banality and uniformity to replace local distinctiveness. • Nurturing its historic environment will make London a better place in which to live, to do business, to relax and to play.

In 2007, MLA London published Museum Metropolis , its strategy for museums in the capital (2006-2010). The following aims are of most relevance to Enfield’s Heritage Strategy:

• Broaden museums’ access and ensure that their work reflects the full diversity of cultural heritage in the capital. • Develop programmes, partnerships and profile to ensure museums derive maximum benefit from the 2012 Olympic Games. • Develop, coordinate and promote the tourism offer of London’s museums. • Improve the quality of the museum offer, particularly in outer London and in key regeneration areas. • Support museums to maximize the opportunities presented by the local government modernisation and improvement agenda. • Develop strategies to ensure preservation and greater public engagement with museum collections in London. • Support, coordinate and profile the networks and partnership activity of London’s museums.

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This Heritage Strategy fully supports and contributes towards the regional context for heritage.

3.3 The Enfield Context

Putting Enfield First is the London Borough of Enfield’s Council Business & Improvement Plan for 2008-2011. The Borough’s key aims for this period are:

• A cleaner, greener, sustainable Enfield • Ensure every child matters and provide high quality education for all • A safer Enfield • A healthier Enfield where people are able to live independent lives • Provide high quality and efficient services • Build prosperous, sustainable communities

Enfield Strategic Partnership’s Sustainable Community Strategy, Enfield’s Future – 2007-2017 , sets out the future strategic direction for the borough. The strategy identifies children and younger people, and older people, as key ‘themes’, each of which has been designated a Thematic Action Group within the Enfield Strategic Partnership. Leisure and Culture is embedded within the Community and Economic Development Thematic Action Group.

The Strategy is underpinned by the Local Area Agreement – Every Child Really Does Matter and the emerging Local Development Framework (LDF). The LDF will provide the long term spatial vision, policies and implementation programmes to help shape the future of the borough over the next twenty years and achieve the Enfield Strategic Partnership’s ambition that Enfield has ‘a healthy, prosperous, cohesive community living in a borough that is safe, clean and green.’

This Heritage Strategy forms a vital part of the LDF evidence base and will be used to inform policies affecting the spatial aspects of the borough’s heritage. It will inform a wide range of LDF documents including the Core Strategy, Area Action Plans, Development Management Document and Enfield Design Guide, together with other place shaping initiatives.

The Council is currently preparing a Place Shaping Strategy and will be developing detailed delivery and investment plans for the Council’s place shaping priority areas. This strategy will help to inform the detailed proposals as they emerge. In addition, the Council is preparing a Parks and Open Spaces Strategy. Together the three strategies will be mutually reinforcing.

This Heritage Strategy is predicated on the belief that understanding, valuing, caring for and enjoying Enfield’s heritage is a vital part of the borough’s future, contributing across the borough’s corporate and community aims and priorities.

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4. A New Vision for Enfield’s Heritage

4.1 The Vision

The London Borough of Enfield is a living landscape of people and places.

4.2 Our Mission

Our mission is better to understand, care for and promote Enfield’s diverse heritage for the enjoyment of all residents and visitors to the borough, and to ensure that heritage makes a full contribution to our shared future.

4.3 Our Aims

1. To increase understanding and awareness of Enfield’s diverse heritage. 2. To enable everyone, alone or collectively, to benefit from Enfield’s cultural heritage, contribute towards its enrichment, and participate in decisions about its future. 3. To work in partnership with local, regional and national organisations and agencies in understanding and caring for Enfield’s heritage. 4. To work in partnership with local communities to understand what they value as their heritage and to share what it means to them. 5. To develop use of Enfield’s heritage as an educational and lifelong learning resource. 6. To promote Enfield’s heritage more effectively to local residents and visitors to the borough. 7. To ensure that heritage opportunities and considerations are at the heart of Enfield’s place-shaping agenda. 8. To establish heritage as a cross-departmental responsibility within the Council. 9. To actively create, through Enfield’s place-shaping agenda, buildings and places that have the potential to be tomorrow’s heritage.

4.4 Key Outcomes

Borough-wide • Enfield’s heritage is understood as a living landscape of people and places. • Enfield’s heritage is safeguarded for present and future generations. • Local residents actively participate in understanding, safeguarding and enjoying Enfield’s heritage in greater numbers. • The profile of local heritage participants broadens to better reflect the borough’s diverse population. • Enfield’s heritage is more widely understood and valued as an important contribution to London life. Site specific • & Estate is successfully enhanced as a high-quality heritage resource for local residents and visitors to the borough. • Enfield Museum service is successfully re-located and re-launched at Thomas Hardy House in the centre of Enfield Town. • Sustainable solutions are found for each of the borough’s historic ‘Buildings at Risk’ – particularly . • The Conservation Area Review is satisfactorily concluded and new designations put in place which will be taken forward as part of the LDF.

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5. Issues and Opportunities

At this early stage in the development of a Heritage Strategy, the tangible, material heritage is more easily identifiable. Greater attention is therefore placed on these aspects of the local heritage in this Consultation Draft. However, the key areas of intangible and community-based heritage are included and draw attention to the need to pursue further work in these areas and so give greater balance to the final Strategy.

5.1 The Natural Environment (Fig. 1)

Enfield is primarily an urban Borough. However, the northern-western part is open countryside which falls within the Green Belt. This is a typical ‘ enclosure landscape ’, a patchwork of relatively small fields with straight boundaries, set amid rolling hills, the ridges of which run west- east and drop towards the Lea valley. The fields were largely created between 1777 and 1803, with the enclosure of , a former Royal hunting park. Most is still in agricultural use, though garden nurseries, paddocks for horses and golf courses are very common. While not outstanding as a landscape or as an ecological habitat, it makes quite attractive countryside. Proximity to the town means that it is well used and appreciated by local people as an informal amenity, a place to cycle and walk. It plays a vital role in creating a sense of place for London as a whole by defining the outer edge of the capital.

Clay Hill

Three large areas in the Green Belt are managed by the Council, at least in part, as public parks: Whitewebbs Park , the Forty Hall Estate and Trent Park . These are of particular value as public amenities, and are very well used. The less intensive management regime means that they are of greater value than the surrounding countryside as a wildlife habitat. The Forty Hall Estate has been identified as being of particular value as an insect habitat. The woodlands in Whitewebbs Park and Trent Park are recognised as sites of nature conservation importance, managed as a local nature reserve, as are two other areas of woodland in the extreme north-west of the Borough, Fir Wood and Pond Wood . The nearby Five Acre Wood is designated a site of nature conservation importance.

The area immediately around the forms part of the Lea Valley Regional Park. The King George and William Girling Reservoirs are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (the only ones in the borough) for their value to wildfowl and wetland birds and as sites of nature conservation importance.

Within the urban area there are many public parks , often formerly parks attached to large private houses such as Trent Park, which have considerable heritage value as historic places, provide valuable green space for local people and are often attractive spaces in their own right. Other open land, including churchyards, cemeteries, allotments, playing fields and unused land has an amenity value to local

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people and is often of some ecological value as a habitat. Railway lines, streams, the and the river Lea also provide valuable habitats and corridors for wildlife.

Fig. 1: Designated natural heritage assets in Enfield

5.2 The Historic Environment

The historic environment of Enfield is diverse, but there are several key themes which have shaped and continue to shape the place. These can be defined as follows:

• earliest inhabitants • the forming of the Borough • medieval manors • suburban villas, • town houses and cottages • transport infrastructure • industry • mass housing • public buildings

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In terms of statistics, the formally-designated heritage (shown on the map, Fig. 2) can be summarised as follows:

Scheduled monuments 6 Areas of Archaeological Interest 22 Statutorily listed buildings 451 Locally listed buildings 93 Registered Parks and Gardens (national) 5 Registered Parks and Gardens (local) 26 Conservation areas 16

Schedules detailing the individual entries in each of the above categories can be found on the Council’s website at www.enfield.gov.uk

Fig. 2: Designated elements of Enfield’s historic environment

Earliest inhabitants

The land that now forms the borough of Enfield, particularly the Lea valley on the east side, has always been an attractive place for humans. The river valley and its tributary streams provided a corridor that permitted relatively easy movement. Its marshy banks provided a rich source of food for pre-historic hunter-gatherers and the higher slopes easily cultivatable soil for the first farmers. However, this occupation has left

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few visible traces in the landscape. Evidence from the Bronze Age (from about 2500BC) is more plentiful, and very much focused on the Lea, with the buried remains of a group of timber round houses recently discovered at the Innova Park site. During the Iron Age, from about 700BC, this process of landscape utilisation tended to intensify, but there is little direct evidence for activity in Enfield beyond traces of a settlement at . Two earthworks, one at (bisected by the east coast main line in 1850) and another at , may date from this period.

The shaping of the modern landscape began almost 2000 years ago, with the Roman conquest in AD 43. The Roman road north from the provincial capital of London – Ermine Street - followed the Lea valley, and is the first ‘man made’ feature in the borough that can still be seen today (Fig. 3). It survives as Tottenham High Road, as far as the borough boundary, and its line is preserved in Lane in the north of the borough. It has also been found by excavation in Bush Hill Park, Snells Park and Donkey Lane, and it probably ran close to Edmonton Church, where its line can be inferred from the surviving street pattern. There are signs that Ermine Street provided the basis for a co-axial field system along the west bank of the Lea valley. While this was largely superseded by medieval field systems, and later housing and industry, it has contributed to moulding the map of the east side of the borough. The most obvious relicts are the straight east-west boundaries of the parish of Edmonton: the southern one now forms the borough boundary. The only known Roman settlement in the area was just off Ermine Street, in what is now Bush Hill Park, remains of which continue to be discovered in house gardens. This was probably primarily a staging post on the main road, but also most likely formed the focus of a dispersed agricultural community of villas of farmsteads.

While agricultural use of considerable areas of the western slopes of the Lea valley undoubtedly continued after the end of the Roman occupation, there is as yet little direct archaeological evidence for the Saxon period from the Borough.

Fig, 3: Roman Enfield

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The forming of the Borough (Fig. 4)

An area very similar in extent to the modern Borough of Enfield first emerges as an historic entity in Domesday Book. In 1066, the manors of Enfield and Edmonton were both held by the same Royal official, Ansgar the Staller; after the Norman conquest, Ansgar’s estate was granted to the Norman knight Geoffrey de Mandeville. Only two buildings remain standing from the medieval period, parts of the churches of Enfield and Edmonton . However, much of the underlying structure of the borough, including the road network and the layout of the centres of its older settlements, including Enfield itself, Edmonton , Southgate and , is medieval. The pre- eminence of Enfield and Edmonton as the main population centres in the Borough was also established by the 11 th century. Topography greatly influenced development, with agriculture, roads and settlement concentrated on the slopes of the Lea valley, with marshy ground along the Lea providing pasture. The less productive higher ground was occupied by Enfield Chase , a royal hunting park enclosed by the mid-12 th century, indeed probably of pre-conquest origin, and which grew to occupy most of the north-western part of the borough.

All Saints Church, Edmonton Geophysical survey of

Medieval manors

One of the characteristics of the medieval borough was the large number of small manor houses surrounded by moats, the result of the sub-division of the two great 11 th century manors. Most of these disappeared under 19 th century urban expansion but good examples survive at Camlet Moat , in Trent Park and on the golf course at Worlds End . At Elsyng manor, on within the present Forty Hall Park, now known to have been occupied since at least c1100, the moat survives as an archaeological feature which has been partially excavated.

Elsyng was acquired by Henry VIII in 1539/40, and part of the Chase was hived off to form a deer park for the newly-extended palace before 1548. Elsyng was one of the principal residences of two of the King’s children, the future Edward VI and Mary I, and their sister Elizabeth visited frequently during her reign. The archaeological remains, free of later development on the site, are among the best-preserved remains of a Tudor royal palace in England, with great research potential.

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Fig. 4: Medieval Enfield

Suburban villas

The growth of London made Enfield an attractive suburban retreat for the rich. Between the 17 th and early 19 th centuries, wealthy merchants or minor gentry built a series of suburban villas in extensive grounds, many of which are now nationally and locally designated Historic Parks and Gardens. One of the first, and most interesting, of these is Forty Hall , built in 1629-32 for Nicholas Rainton, a textile merchant and former Mayor of London. His nephew, who inherited the house, added a landscape park on the site of Elsyng Palace, which he purchased and demolished in 1656. Later owners have greatly altered both the house and park. Other important examples include Broomfield House (16 th century and later), the early 18 th century Arnos Grove , Capel Manor (mid 18 th century), Myddelton House and Grovelands (early 19 th century), Whitewebbs (rebuilt in the later 19 th century) and Trent Park (18 th century, rebuilt in the early 20 th) . Of these, only Trent Park has the scale, and the landmark structures, of a truly rural estate, thanks largely to 's work around 1930.

Forty Hall Grovelands

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As well as being interesting in their own right, these estates have to a large degree shaped the later development of the Borough. The refusal of the owners of Forty Hall and Trent Park to sell land for development contributed greatly to the present semi- rural nature of these parts of the borough, eventually secured by the designation of the London Green Belt. To the south, the designed landscapes associated with estates like Grovelands and Broomfield have become public parks.

Town houses and cottages

No medieval (pre-1485) domestic buildings are certainly known to survive in Enfield, but may remain to be discovered embedded in seemingly later structures. A relatively large number of high quality small and medium sized houses from the 16 th to early 19 th century do survive. These tend to be modest in size but make an important contribution to the look and feel of the historic settlements of the borough. Particularly interesting early examples are to be found in Enfield town itself (the Coach House and Clarendon Cottage , Gentleman’s Row), but most are to be found in the less intensively developed north and west of the borough, such as the 16 th /17 th century Fallow Buck Inn and the Rose and Crown in Clay Hill , and the mid 17 th century Dower House and impressive baroque-fronted Worcesters in Forty Hill . A few early buildings also survive in the more developed south and east, such as the late 16 th or early 17 th century Salisbury House , Bury Street West, and ye Old Cherry Tree on Southgate Green .

The Fallow Buck, Clay Hill Worcesters, Forty Hill The 18 th and early 19 th centuries saw the transplantation of the Georgian townhouse from central London to what became growing suburbs. Specifically urban forms of house appeared from the beginning of the 18 th century in what were at the time very rural areas. The best examples are in Gentleman’s Row in Enfield . Nos 236-8, 258-60 Fore Street and Angel Place , 183-195 Fore Street, in Edmonton , and The Cresecent , 84- 132 Hertford Road, in Edmonton are particularly urban in character. Other examples are to be found in both towns, as well as in Southgate, Clay Hill, Forty Hill and Winchmore Hill . More modest cottages, built in the local vernacular, are more typical in smaller, more rural, settlements such as Bulls Cross .

The Crescent Maiden’s Bridge

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Transport and infrastructure (fig. 5)

Transportation has played a key role in shaping the Borough. The earliest means of communication was the river Lea, which was canalised after 1571, and superseded by the Lea Valley Navigation , a purpose-built canal, after 1770. While few historic canal-side structures survive, it remains a working waterway. The New River , an aqueduct transporting drinking water from springs in Hertfordshire to London, first constructed between 1609 and 1613 and much improved since, is a fascinating and unusual feat of engineering. The 19 th century iron footbridges crossing the New River are particularly distinctive.

Railways played a vital role in opening up the borough to residential and industrial development. The Great Eastern line to Cambridge, opened in 1840, followed the Lea valley. The network was expanded with a branch to Enfield and Edmonton in 1849, a branch connecting Edmonton to Bethnal Green in 1872 and the opening of a line to Cheshunt in 1891. To the west, the Great Northern Railway loop line via Stevenage, which began in 1871 as a branch to Winchmore Hill and Enfield, opened up the centre of the borough. Railways were late to reach the west of the borough, with the extension of the to Cockfosters , completed in 1933.

With the exception of the closure of the Cheshunt branch, the railway network remains largely intact. However, stations and line-side architecture were generally unremarkable and extensive modernisation has changed their appearance dramatically. The most interesting part of the overground network is the Stevenage Loop line, where the late 19 th century stations erected by the Great Northern Railway survive largely intact. By contrast the Piccadilly line extension was architecturally far more innovative, with fine stations by Charles Holden , of which the best is the circular station and parade at Southgate , which have been little altered.

The road network has been modernised by the building of the Great Cambridge Road in 1930, incremental upgrading of the North Circular, and of course by the building of the M25 in 1981.

The New River Southgate Station

Industry

Improved transport links stimulated industry in the Lea Valley. This phase of development has been relatively short-lived, and little now remains of Enfield’s industrial past. The two most important surviving sites are Wrights Flour Mill, , originally a water-powered mill on the Lea, founded in the 18 th century and still producing flour, and the British Small Arms Factory at . This was founded soon after 1804 and rebuilt on a grand scale in 1854. The factory turned out not only huge quantities of small arms but also bicycles and motorcycles. Much of the 1854 factory building survives, at the centre of a new housing area, along with early

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worker’s housing along the canal. The best surviving 20 th century factory is the art deco former Ripaults factory of c.1930. However, the once dominant industrial structures, the cooling towers of the Brimsdown Power Station, were demolished 1976. The Banbury, King George and William Girling Reservoirs of 1906, 1913 and 1951 are now the most spectacular industrial structures.

Ponders End Flour Mill British Small Arms Factory

Mass housing (fig. 5)

Housing now dominates most of the borough, and has been shaped largely by the developing transport links. The Great Eastern Railway’s policy of including 3 rd class carriages on all trains encouraged the development of simple, cheap workers’ housing in the east of the borough. However, there are some areas of larger, more architecturally ambitious 19 th century estates, the best being Bush Hill Park , which was developed from 1880. Those associated with the Great Northern Railway’s lines, around Winchmore Hill, and , were aimed at the middle class and are larger and of reasonably good architectural quality. The best of these, such as Grange Park and Hadley Wood , date from the turn of the 20 th century and draw on garden city layouts and arts and crafts detailing.

Grange Park The Meadway

Twentieth century housing tended to be concentrated around the Piccadilly line stations and the North Circular and Great Cambridge Roads. Earlier development tended to be aimed at the middle class, of which the best is The Meadway , Southgate, with its cottage-style details and generous landscaping. Later houses, constrained only by building bylaws, tended to be built to the lowest cost: the quality of both architecture and landscaping deteriorated. A distinctive and new building type to emerge in the suburbs of London in the 1930s was the purpose-built apartment block . There are good surviving examples in Southgate, for example Tregenna Close , near Oakwood Station, dating from 1938.

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Much of the interesting housing of the early 20 th century has tended to be social housing, concentrated in the east of the Borough. Early distinctive workers’ housing can be found in Enfield in Landseer Road (1902), Cecil Avenue (1903) and also Sketty Road . Pioneering early 1920s council estates in Enfield and Edmonton, such as the Hyde Estate in Edmonton, were influenced by the work of Raymond Unwin (architect of Letchworth and Hampstead Garden Suburb) and garden city theorists; and also by the early London County Council cottage estates, with plentiful open space and plain exteriors in brick or render. Of the later council estates, the best is by Edmonton Borough Council at Beaconsfield Road ( c.1950-60), to a masterplan by Sir Edward Gibberd, with butterfly roofs and crinkle-crankle walls.

Sketty Road Beaconsfield Road

The growth of suburbia prompted the development of new urban centres around railway stations, mainly consisting of parades of shops . The best of these are at Palmers Green , where there is a fine group of Edwardian shops, and Southgate , where Charles Holden’s circular station and parade is surrounded by terraces of varying quality.

In many of Enfield’s residential areas, street trees, grass verges and green spaces are important to the character and quality of streets, but together with front gardens they are vulnerable to the pressures of increasing car ownership, demand for parking, and simplification of maintenance regimes. The quality of the houses and apartment blocks themselves is tending to be reduced by the ‘personalisation’ of the exteriors of houses and flats, especially the loss of traditional joinery, eroding their integrity and the sense of local distinctiveness.

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Fig. 5: The growth of Enfield from c.1800

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Public buildings

The earliest public buildings in Enfield are the medieval churches of Enfield and Edmonton. The earliest surviving secular public building is Enfield Grammar School , the present building being erected c.1586, a good example of essentially domestic architecture of the period.

Expansion in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries was accompanied by a surge in the provision of social, educational and leisure facilities – schools, libraries, parks, swimming baths, hospitals and council offices. Just as these services and institutions had an immense influence on the life of the community, so the surviving examples continue to define and identify local communities even where (as is increasingly the case) their original use is long gone.

These ‘civic markers’ identify local centres in the conurbation, and are usually notable for their size, their quality of detailing and their confident design. Examples of high-quality survivors include elementary schools by the first independent and local authority school boards, secondary schools by Middlesex County Council , Carnegie libraries at Enfield and Edmonton, the postal sorting offices at and , and the electricity station at Ladysmith Road . The architecture of hospitals tended to be particularly distinctive, the best being Chase Farm (opened 1886) and Highlands , formerly Northern Hospital (opened 1885). The best of the new churches are Butterfield’s St Mary Magdalene on Road (1883) and J. O. Scott’s Church of St John the Evangelist, Palmers Green (1904-9).

Expansion to the west along the Piccadilly Line created a new wave of public building. The best of these are in the modernist style, such as the De Bohun School, Bowes Road Health Centre and Library , Green Road and the Arnos Pool and Library , all by Curtis and Burchett, 1938-39.

Southgate Post Office Fore Street Library Bowes Road Library

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5.3 Material Culture

Collections of material culture in Enfield include those owned and managed by both the Council and external organisations and communities. The Council is directly responsible for the Enfield Museum Service .

John Constable, A Dell , 1796 Quarter guinea coin, 1818

Electric bed warmer made by famous local company, Belling, 1961

The Museum Service collects material in six main areas: social history; a sound archive of oral history; fine and applied art; natural sciences; industrial history, and archaeology. There are approximately 12,000 objects in the main collection and around 2,000 objects available as a ‘handling’ collection for people to touch and hold, which is regularly used as a learning tool by schools and community groups.

Victorian costume and object handling session for schools, Forty Hall, June 2007

The current collecting policy is to collect only items made in, owned in, used in, or bought in the London Borough of Enfield (including pre-1965 constituent boroughs of Enfield, Edmonton and Southgate).

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The collection includes the exhibition and oral history archive called ‘Enfield Revealed’ which is a fascinating deposit of the stories, memories, and interests of the peoples of Enfield past and present; both young and old, and new or established residents.

The Museum collection has been housed rather awkwardly at Forty Hall. The Museum Service, the borough collection and its activities will benefit considerably from the planned relocation to new premises at Thomas Hardy House in Enfield Town Centre. The new premises will allow the Council to establish a new fit for purpose local history museum within the regeneration scheme for Enfield Town.

Equally, now relieved of the future need to house the Museum collection, the exciting proposals for Forty Hall and Estate can be planned and implemented.

The Local History Unit at Southgate Town Hall is responsible for archival material related to the history of the borough, and houses records relating to the three constituent historic boroughs of Enfield, Edmonton and Southgate. Together with the Museum Service it has an important role to play as a learning resource that can give a better understanding and sharing of Enfield’s heritage and support social adhesion and inclusivity.

In addition to the borough collection, there are three other significant collection, at , Whitewebbs Museum, and at the Royal Small Arms site in the Lee Valley. The Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture at the Middlesex University Cat Hill site is a nationally renowned collection of domestic design, furniture, and architecture; and includes the significant ‘Silver collection’ of wallpaper designs from the 20 th c. The Whitewebbs Museum of Transport at is managed by local volunteers to keep alive the transport heritage of Enfield and is linked to the Enfield Pageant of Motoring which takes place every spring. The Royal Small Arms Interpretation Centre is independently managed as a visitor attraction within a residential development and centre for small businesses. It tells the story of arms manufacturing, the inventions and the industrial product development in the Lee Valley in the 19 th c and 20 th c.

Most of these sites are located in the north of the borough. The Heritage Strategy is an opportunity more accurately to reflect the geographical spread of diversity of the borough’s heritage.

5.4 Intangible Heritage

Intangible heritage is less easy to identify than the material, tangible heritage. This Enfield Heritage Strategy is the first time that the intangible aspects of heritage have been formally recognised and it is perhaps unsurprising that no work has yet been carried out to map what might constitute the intangible heritage of Enfield.

Nevertheless, given the definition of intangible heritage of languages, visual and performing arts, social practices, faiths, rituals and festive events, there is clearly a broad-range of such heritage throughout the borough, its people and places. All of this activity is there to be embraced, understood and valued as a part of Enfield’s diverse heritage. The task is to identify and reveal it for our common enrichment.

The key to making this rich diversity of heritage more visible and better valued is to find and make opportunities for people to learn and share their cultural heritage traditions and their modern manifestations. In so doing heritage will play a leading role in ensuring the creation and strengthening of sustainable communities and be a

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beacon of continuity and adhesion in these uncertain times. The achievement of this aim will depend on organisations and individuals working together to learn, understand and celebrate the cultural heritages within the diverse communities of Enfield. There are many exemplars of best practice in this regard to be found in Enfield’s schools, community and cultural organisations, Council services and policies, and are often expressed through group activities, networks, festivals and events in local neighbourhoods.

The Green Man The diverse culinary heritage

Salsa and samba

To this contemporary mix we can add the ‘ idea of Middlesex’ . Although this historic English county has been divided between various London boroughs and administrative areas, Middlesex survives as a powerful and evocative name still used by many people throughout Enfield and indeed other parts of London. It has a meaning and value that continues to unite people and places.

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5.5 Community-based Heritage

There are many community-based heritage organisations throughout the borough, including the Enfield Archaeological Society , Friends of Forty Hall , The Enfield Society , and many study groups contributing to the stewardship of conservation areas and other historic areas, as well as the deliberations of the Council’s Conservation Advisory Group.

In light of the more inclusive definition of heritage being used within this Strategy, to these groups should be added the different faith groups of the borough, Greek and Greek Cypriot, Eastern European, Turkish and Turkish Cypriot, the African and Caribbean Society, and many more cultural and community organisations. There exists a wide range of agencies and groups within the Borough who work to support community development and care; Enfield Race Equality Council , Enfield Asian Day Centre , Enfield Age Concern , the Enfield Women’s Centre, Enfield Disability Action, Enfield Voluntary Action, Children & Young Peoples Services, and various residents and tenants groups, to mention but a few. Many of these groups are focused on the east of the borough where high deprivation levels and transient populations are of particular concern.

All of these community-based organisations have important roles to play in the future of Enfield’s heritage and the development of this Strategy.

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6. Priorities and Aims

Competition within Council’s for scarce resources and staff time has never been more intense and it is clear that the Council cannot fund or support every heritage opportunity that arises. It is vital therefore, that tough choices are made so that the most effective use of resources is made. The Council has decided that the following key aims are its top priorities for action in the near future. They relate to a 3 – 5 year time frame, which will be reviewed from time to time to measure progress and allow new emerging priorities to replace those successfully completed.

1. Site Specific Priorities

Forty Hall & Estate

Forty Hall & Estate is the heritage crown jewel of Enfield. It also has the potential to act as a catalyst for the positive development of Enfield’s wider heritage. The realisation of Forty Hall & Estate as a ’Regional Heritage Visitor Centre’ is a key action of the Council’s current Improvement and Best Value Performance Plan 2007/2010. In the context of Enfield’s heritage, Forty Hall & Estate is the Council’s top priority for action.

Key aim 1: To secure funding for the imaginative enhancement of Forty Hall & Estate as a cultural landscape and destination heritage attraction.

Enfield Museum

The re-location of Enfield Museum service to its central Enfield town centre site at Thomas Hardy House is already being planned, and is a key action of the current Improvement and Best Value Performance Plan 2007/2010.

Key aim 2: To allocate funding for the successful re-location of Enfield Museum Service from Forty Hall to Thomas Hardy House and its re-launch as a local history museum for the people of Enfield.

Broomfield House & Park

Broomfield house is an important historic building, but has been extensively damaged by fire and relatively little of the historic fabric remains. The house was the focus of an important formal garden and wider designed landscape which essentially took on its present form in the early 18 th century, incorporating earlier features. A study has been commissioned to define the extent and importance of the surviving fabric in its landscape context, and to investigate possible ways forward.

Key aim 3: To look for a viable solution for the Broomfield House site and to consult with English Heritage, community groups and local residents on taking it forward.

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2. Conservation areas

The designation of conservation areas provides the Council with a means of recognising and managing areas which are of ‘special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’ in the local, borough, context. The Council has recently approved character appraisals and management proposals for the 16 areas currently designated, and commissioned both a characterisation study of the Borough as a whole, and a review of designation criteria, as part of its present wide-ranging Conservation Area Review.

Key aim 4: The Council will use the Borough-wide characterisation study as the basis for establishing consistent criteria for selecting and designating areas of ‘special architectural or historic interest’ at borough level.

Key aim 5: To conclude the Conservation Area Review, the Council will, on the basis of established criteria, and through public consultation, bring forward further areas of the borough to be designated as conservation areas.

3. Collecting Enfield

Although collections are found in the ‘institutional’ contexts of local museums and the local studies collection, it remains to be discovered what other collections exist in Enfield. This is not necessarily to add to Enfield Museum’s collections, but to identify aspects of material culture from individuals and groups that should be recognised as being valued by people, and therefore part of the borough’s wider heritage.

Key aim 6 : The Council will consult widely throughout the borough on collections of material culture held by individuals and groups.

Key aim 7: To consider different forms of communicating and exhibiting these collections, including physical displays and digital technologies.

4. Mapping the Intangible

The intangible heritage is currently under-researched at borough level. Successfully mapping and representing the intangible heritage of the borough presents new opportunities to develop greater levels of involvement and participation in the heritage at a more grass roots level and from a wider range of potential audiences and communities.

Key aim 8: The Council will consult widely to audit the breadth and diversity of intangible heritage resources in Enfield and find new ways to record and recognise them and, where possible, open up wider public access to them.

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5. Enfield as a Learning Resource

The whole of Enfield is a learning resource. Learning is not limited to historic sites and museums and the whole built and natural environment that makes up Enfield’s landscape is a potential learning resource to be explored and understood.

Key aim 9: The Council will consult with learning providers of all kinds on the potential of Enfield’s heritage as a learning resource.

Key aim 10: The Council will pursue the potential of learning from the environment in terms of curriculum-shaping at both Primary and Secondary schools.

Key aim 11: The Council will become a signatory to the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto.

6. Partnerships and Promotion

The extension and development of existing and new partnerships, for example the Partnership Schemes in Conservation Areas (PSiCA) projects with English Heritage in the east of the Borough, are vital to ensure the successful positioning and promotion of heritage as an important part of Enfield’s shared future. We already have a strong record of successful working in partnership with national and local groups to deliver heritage pilot projects; for example the work with English Heritage, in response to the challenge to the sector from the Government, to deliver the conservation area character appraisals, management proposals and the borough-wide characterisation study.

Other challenges, for example Heritage at Risk entries and Trent Park, together with opportunities such as at and the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, will continue to demand tenacity, imagination and flexibility when working with others towards solutions and more sustainable long-term management.

Key aim 12: The Council will build on existing partnerships and seek, wherever opportunities arise, to establish new partnerships.

Key aim 13: The Council will set imaginative new aims for its heritage and pilot new heritage projects in partnership with others.

Key aim 14: The Council will seek, in partnership with neighbouring organisations and bodies, to explore the potential of Enfield’s northern green landscape as a sustainable heritage tourism brand and destination.

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7. Monitoring and Evaluation: Next Steps

This Strategy has been widely circulated throughout the Borough and with key stakeholders beyond for discussion and comment. The consultation process has endeavoured to address the - currently understandable - imbalance in favour of the tangible, material heritage of the past as opposed to aspects of the intangible heritage valued by individuals and communities today. The findings and implications of the consultation have been fed into the Heritage Strategy and will inform the development of individual Key aim projects. At that stage, specific responsibilities, timescales, resource implications and outcomes will be identified against each of the Key aims which will relate, where relevant and appropriate, to the Council’s performance management system.

Heritage initiatives and projects have the potential to contribute to national and local performance indicators and LAA targets, particularly with regards conservation area performance, planning performance and in the areas of education, social cohesion, community development, community safety, positive activities for children and young people, economic wellbeing and regeneration targets for positive change in local neighbourhoods. New Key aim projects will incorporate an evaluation process to monitor outcomes, so that the overall impact and benefits of projects, and on the Heritage Strategy overall, can be assessed as a symbiotic process.

8. Conclusion

Enfield has a rich past, a present full of opportunities and challenges, and an exciting future. The inclusive conception of heritage embodied within this Strategy ensures that heritage has a key role to play in our shared future.

A more deeply held and better promoted understanding of Enfield’s heritage has the potential to contribute towards the delivery of excellent services across the Council and to make a real difference to the lives of all residents and visitors to the borough.

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Appendix: Definitions

Heritage includes ‘all inherited resources which people value for reasons beyond mere utility’; it is the attachment of value (’an aspect of worth or importance’) that makes a resource ‘heritage’. That resource may be tangible, like a building or a street, or intangible, like oral traditions or dance. This distinction between ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ heritage is often made according to whether the resource concerned is or is not ‘material’, physical rather than abstract. Such a distinction is, however, made for essentially practical purposes. Heritage values attached by people to places are a public interest in largely private property, which justifies protection through specific legal and policy constraints on its owners, whereas intangible heritage tends to be largely in the domain of those who attach value to it.

English Heritage has recently developed a group of heritage definitions specifically related to the (tangible, immovable) historic environment. Although relatively open and inclusive, as one might expect, they necessarily focus on the heritage values that people attach to places that are certainly ‘material’ and may be obviously ‘historic’:

Heritage: All inherited resources which people value for reasons beyond mere utility

Cultural Heritage : Inherited assets which people identify and value as a reflection and expression of their evolving knowledge, beliefs and traditions, and of their understanding of the beliefs and traditions of others

Natural Heritage : Inherited habitats, species, ecosystems, geology and landforms, including those in and under water, to which people attach value

Historic Environment : All aspects of the environment resulting from the interaction between people and places through time, including all surviving physical remains of past human activity, whether visible or buried, and deliberately planted or managed flora

Place : Any part of the historic environment, of any scale, that has a distinctive identity perceived by people

Value : An aspect of worth or importance, here attached by people to qualities of places

Conservation Principles: Policies & Guidance for the Sustainable Management of the Historic Environment , Final version, English Heritage, forthcoming April 2008

Ideas of ‘intangible heritage’ can provide a real link to local communities and be expressive of their cultural diversity, beyond the ‘top-down’ statutory designations of buildings, townscapes and landscapes. In 2003 UNESCO published the following definition of intangible heritage in its Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which came into force in 2006 in those countries (not including the UK) which have ratified it.

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The ‘intangible cultural heritage’ means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.

The ‘intangible cultural heritage’ is manifested inter alia in the following domains: a) oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage; b) performing arts; c) social practices, rituals and festive events; d) knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; e) traditional craftsmanship

Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage , UNESCO, 2003

This document has been subject to public consultation. It was drafted by:

The Paul Drury Partnership 114 Shacklegate Lane Teddington TW11 8NE 75 Ambergate Street Tel 020 8977 8980 Kennington Fax 020 8977 8990 London SE17 3RZ Email: [email protected] Stuart Davies m 07821 382 998 [email protected]

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