Goffs Oak

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Goffs Oak
Goff's Oak, The Church of St James - geograph.org.uk - 202065.jpg
St James', the Church of England parish church for the village.
Hertfordshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Goffs Oak
Location within Hertfordshire
Population8,172 (2011 Census. Ward) [1]
OS grid reference TL325035
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Waltham Cross
Postcode district EN7
Dialling code 01707
Police Hertfordshire
Fire Hertfordshire
Ambulance East of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Hertfordshire
51°42′39″N0°04′57″W / 51.7109°N 0.0825°W / 51.7109; -0.0825

Goffs Oak (Goff's Oak on Ordnance Survey maps) is a large village in the borough of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. It lies between Cuffley and Cheshunt, just north of the M25 motorway in a slightly more rural section of the London commuter belt.

Contents

History

The village is named after the Goff family, who owned much of the land in the area, and is symbolised by the original Old Oak, said to be several hundred years old before it fell in the 1950s. Its replacement fell itself after severe damage during the storm of 1987. The Spurs squad, during the mid 1950s, used to run down Burton Lane as part of their "circuit" training, back to their training ground on Brookfield Lane.

The village centre is marked by a War Memorial which was unveiled on 20 December 1920 [2] and is inscribed with the names of 32 men from the village who were killed in the First World War. A further three names were added following the Second World War. The houses on Goffs Lane north-east of the memorial were opened in 1895 as the village's Metropolitan Police station, [lower-alpha 1] possibly after lobbying from Lady Meux about rising crime on her Theobalds estate. [3] Even after the station's closure and sale in 1972, the area remained part of Y Division (later District) until it was transferred to Hertfordshire Constabulary in 2000. [3] Next to the police station was a civil defence siren as part of the national defence at the height of the Cold War, which was regularly tested in the 1960s and could be heard across the whole village area.

Goffs Oak has been used as a film location. In the 1970s, Timeslip , [4] a popular children's science fiction series, was filmed at Burnt Farm Army Camp in Silver Street. The Protectors , filmed in the 1970s and starring Robert Vaughn, also used the former army camp as a location. [5]

Education

Local primary schools are Goffs Oak and Woodside. Goffs Academy, a secondary school previously called Goffs School, is nearby in Cheshunt.

Religion

The village gained its own Church of England District Church of St James's in 1861 before it and Hammondstreet were formally split off from the ancient parish of Cheshunt ten years later. [6] [7]

Roman Catholics in the village have been served by St Martin de Porres Church in nearby Cuffley since 1963. [8] The original Goffs Oak Methodist Church was built in 1868, but was replaced by a modern building in the 1970s. It is in Newgatestreet Road, close to the War Memorial. [9]

Notable people

Victoria Beckham was raised in the village. Former Netherlands striker Robin Van Persie lived in the area. The tennis player Richard Lewis lived in Jones Road, Goffs Oak, and attended Goffs School during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He went on to represent Great Britain in the Davis Cup, and is now Chair of SportEngland. [10] In April 2012, Richard Lewis was appointed Chief Executive Officer at the All England Tennis Club, Wimbledon. [11] The former Glamorgan wicketkeeper Colin Metson, now Community and Cricket Development Manager of Glamorgan County Cricket Club, was born in the village in 1963.

Buster Miekle, a member of Unit 4 + 2 (a local group who in 1965 sang the No.1 hit song Concrete and Clay) used to live in Goffs Oak.

The nearest railway stations to Goffs Oak are Cuffley (services to London's Kings Cross station) and Cheshunt (services to London Liverpool Street).

Notes

  1. ↑ From the 1840 until 2000 the village fell in the Metropolitan Police District. [3]

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References

  1. ↑ "Broxbourne Ward population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Lowewood Museam".
  3. 1 2 3 Alan Moss, David Swinden and Peter Kennison, Behind the Blue Lamp (London: Mango Books, 2021), page 159
  4. ↑ "Timeslip".
  5. ↑ "Found Locations".
  6. ↑ "Hertfordshire Genealogy - Places - Goff's Oak Formerly part of the Parish of Cheshunt".
  7. ↑ "Goffs Oak parish magazines".
  8. ↑ "Cuffley - St Martin de Porres". Taking Stock.
  9. ↑ "Goffs Oak Methodist Church" . Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  10. ↑ "Sport England".
  11. ↑ "RFL chairman Richard Lewis appointed Wimbledon chief exec". BBC. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
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