Totteridge
Last Updated on Saturday, 23 August 2008 12:08 Saturday, 16 August 2008 15:09
Totteridge
Parish church of St Andrews (1570)
A village at the
south-east angle of the county, between Whetstone and Highwood
Hill, Middlesex. One mile west of he Great North Road, where is
totteridge and Whetstone station of the Great Northern railway.
The only inn is the Orange Tree. The name is derived
probably from the Anglo Saxon root Tot, a height, an
elevation and ridge; although other opinions suggest that
Tot may indicated a place of worship. Totteridge occupies the
summit, 437 feet, of the line of high land which stretches
westward from Whetstone to Highwood Hill, 402 feet, and thence
north-west to Elstree. The country is varied and agreeable, richly
wooded, and affords extensive views, and Totteridge is as yet
little defaced by the builder. About the Green are some good old
houses, standing in the midst of fine grounds. the church is
picturesque placed on their highest point of the hill. From an
early period Totteridge was united with Hatfield, and held by the
Bishop of Ely, till surrendered to Queen Elizabeth for an annuity
of £ 1,500, to be paid out of the Exchequer to the Bishops of
that see. The living of Totteridge is still held with that of
Hatfield, forming together one of the two richest livings in the
country; it is in the gift of the Marquis of Salisbury. Elizabeth
gave manor in 1590 to John Cage, from whom it passed to Peacock,
then to Sir Paul Whichcote, who sold it in 1720 to Sir James
Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By Henry, second Duke of Chandos, it was
sold to Sir William Lee, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.
The church, St
Andrew, on the right of the road from Whetstone, is a plain
brick building erected in 1790, but enlarged in 1869 by addition
of an apsidal chancel and transept, organ chamber and vestry, and
rendered more accordant with current ecclesiastical taste. Painted
windows were at the same time inserted as a memorial to Lord
Cottenham