Along the Dollis Valley Greenwalk

Q. What do the Ice Age, finches, St Cyril, ravens and an Art Deco Cinema have in common?
A. They all featured in our walking group’s March ramble up the Dollis Valley Greenwalk.

We’ve been following the Dollis for some time, and were tackling the section that runs from North Finchley to Barnet Underhill. As we started out, our walk’s leader, John, produced two unexpected facts  – this valley goes back to the fourth Ice Age, and was likely to have been cut by melt waters from the glacial ice that reached Finchley when the ice sheets were at their maximum extent. (Geologists term it the Finchley Gap.)  Also, he said, once upon a time flocks of finches frequented the area, hence the name, first recorded in the early 13c.

St Cyril was the next surprise. As our walk continued downhill into the valley, by Woodside Park we came across a very unusual little building – the first wooden church built in London since the Great Fire of 1666, and dedicated to him. St Cyril of Turau (826 – 869AD) was a Greek missionary who brought Christianity to the Slavic nations. The church was consecrated in 2016, and is a reminder of home for members of the local Belarusian community, many of whom moved to the UK after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. Its design, though modern, includes many traditional features, such as the domed spire and shingled timber roof.

When we reached the Dollis Brook we found it in full spate, thanks to some recent heavy rain. The Greenwalk runs alongside it for about ten miles, linking areas of countryside and public open space. It includes grassland, thorny hedgerows and woodlands with oak, hazel, ash, field maple and wild service tree. It’s a leafy haven for nature lovers and dog walkers, and a lot of care has gone into its planning and conservation.

One field had been brightened by a swathe of daffodils, and everywhere branches were coming alive with spring blossom.

The area we were walking through once produced hay for London’s horses. Today, part of Brook Farm Open Space continues this tradition; the managed meadows beside the stream are mown annually and provide a summer habitat for flowers, butterflies and insects.

Surprisingly, the only birds visible that morning were crows, although there was a lot of twittering coming from hedgerows. There were several tall trees beside the path. One looked at first glance to be housing a number of bird nests – these turned out to be clusters of mistletoe, soon to be hidden by leaves.

The path was rather muddy, but we watched our footing and were delighted to have sunshine all the way. Towards the end, by Underhill's playing fields, the back gardens of what looked like almshouses could be glimpsed behind a hedge. A minor detour to their entrances in Grasvenor Avenue revealed these were Ravenscroft Cottages, part of the Jesus Hospital Charity set up in 1679 by James and Mary Ravenscroft for the care and support of six ‘poor and ancient women’.

A coat of arms bearing three ravens is on the wall by the front gate. The first almshouse was in nearby Wood Street, but many more were built in subsequent years and there are now 54 of them in the area.

Our final surprise was a bit away from the Greenwalk – actually on the Great North Rd, and spotted as we waited for a bus home. It's the grand Art Deco facade of the Everyman Cinema.  Originally an Odeon, it was designed by Edgar Simmons and opened in 1935 with a Moorish-style foyer and an auditorium that mixed Moorish and Art Deco styles. It has had major refurbishments over the years, being converted into a five-screen complex, and was reopened in 2000 by Emma Bunton (Baby Spice). It closed in 2015, but then became an Everyman. It now has listed building status, so hopefully will grace the area for many years to come.  

The Dollis trail: Brent Cross to Woodside Park

It was a grey, damp February morning when we set off from Brent Cross in north London to follow the Dollis Valley Greenwalk as far as Woodside Park. It had been raining the night before – the paths were muddy and the stream was in full spate, carrying fallen branches and debris downstream.

But everywhere were early signs of spring. Crocuses were pushing their way up through the carpet of leaves and nestled under the trees some tiny double snowdrops had emerged.

Birds were out too, paddling through the water in search of food.

We even spotted an egret.

The Greenwalk runs for about ten miles through much of the valley, linking areas of countryside and public spaces. It’s now surrounded by London suburbs, but you can still get glimpses of what the area was once like. The Abbots of Westminster had property there by 1284 AD, and the Decoy Ponds, at the north end of Brent Park, are thought to be remnants of a lake created by them as a duck decoy.

In the 18^th century a stuccoed mansion, Brent Bridge House, later the seat of the Whishaw family, was built just north of the stream next to Decoy Wood, and some of it survived as part of the Brent Bridge Hotel. By the bridge are two picturesque but rather dilapidated pavilions that may have heralded the entrance to the property.

An Ordnance Survey map of 1900 shows both the mansion and, on the south side of the stream, Brook Lodge, once a farmhouse but converted to a gentleman’s residence by Charles Whishaw shortly before 1828. It was demolished in 1935, after serving as an annex to the hotel.

Following the Dollis (now a brook) north, we came to the 13-arched viaduct that soars up 60 feet above Dollis Rd and is the highest point on the London Underground system. It was built in 1863 as part of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway and originally provided a link to the rail network for steam trains. A triumph of Victorian engineering, it is still in service, now carrying Underground trains on the Northern Line to Mill Hill East.

Windsor Park is also part of the Greenwalk. There we found a memorial stone to Flying Officer Kenneth Charles Legge, of 571 Squadron. A former resident of Village Rd, Finchley, he took off from RAF Oakington in Cambridgeshire on Feb 6 1945, piloting a Mosquito plane on a bombing mission to Berlin. But that was the last time he was seen – he and his plane vanished without trace.

The memorial was erected by his mother, Mary Elizabeth Legge. A Google search reveals that it was a second tragedy for the family - Kenneth Legge’s wife, Ruby, had been among the hundreds killed in a devastating bombing raid on Manchester on December 23, 1940.

To the north of Windsor Park, still following the Dollis, are the Fursby Avenue allotments. It was encouraging to see evidence of dedicated gardeners having being hard at work, despite the weather, and at least one walker in our group left determined to go home and get to work in the garden, repairing some of the winter's ravages.