The dual carriageway of the A10 bisects the district, and being the first area of derestricted speed when leaving London it was characteristic of most motorists to drive at, or perhaps over, the maximum permitted speed. The impression when leaving the Enfield boundary is one of rural tranquillity, and Oyler’s Farm is one of the largest cultivated areas in the district. South of the eighteenth century farmhouse is a thatched refrigerator barn, an uncommon structure at least two hundred years old. Further south is the moated site of the manor house of Cullings. North of the farmhouse a footpath, which was known locally as the Twopenny Tube, connected Park Lane with Bullscross Ride.
At the junction of Park Lane (Paradise) and the Great Cambridge Road was the Orange Cafe, which was until recently a Little Chef resturant. In 2005, planning permission was granted for the redevelopment of land (Park Plaza) adjacent to A10 Great Cambridge Road between Winston Churchill Way and the M25. The Little Chef was demolished and the site is now occupied by the printing works of News International and a Travelodge Hotel.
At Theobalds Lane on the west side is one of the several lodges built by the Meux family; a little further into the estates is Hennons, a private house, but once a farmhouse dating from the late seventeenth century. The fire mark is one obtained by purchase from an antique dealer and not connected with the property. On the east side and south of Theobalds Lane a copse of trees obscures the site of a boating lake contemporary with Burleigh’s Theobalds.
North of here was a large area of reclaimed land which was worked for gravel in 1936. After the Second World War, the land was developed as a sports area, known as the Gothic sports ground. In 1949/50, it became the home of Cheshunt Football Club. On both sides of the road lies Albury Farm; the main house was built in 1860. Immediately north of the house is a surving fragment of the Theobalds park wall. Opposite were the huts of a war-time anti-aircraft site, which were for many years used as farm buildings and the production of mushrooms. These buildings have recently been demolished and the site is now occupied by business units of A.J. Maxwell. It was near here that an American bomber crashed in 1944 with a full bomb load (see Cheshunt at War) A memorial to the crew can be found in the Cheshunt Library and a similar plaque is in the American cemetery near Cambridge.
A10, looking north towards College Road in about 1960
At the south end of a row of houses, more recent development marks the site of the former Tram Cafe. The original premises opened about 1935 in a disused Metropolitan tram. This was later replaced with a brick building. The former, Cheshunt Service Station, on the corner of College Road, was one of the first petrol stations on the road and opened soon after the road’s construction in 1924.
North of the traffic lights a notable building is Robson’s Almshouses, built on the site of the parish pest house in 1826. The pest house was a place for isolating infectious persons and gave rise to the name Pest House Fields, which in turn has produced a widely held but erroneous story that victims of the great plague of London were buried here.
A10 Brookfield Lane junction looking south
The building of the bungalows opposite in the 1930s caused the then vicar of Cheshunt to attempt to form a local branch of the Society for the Preservation of Rural England. It was a far-sighted protest at the ribbon development which was allowed to occur along this arterial road in the 1930s. Modern developments such as that southwards from Brookfield Lane to Church Lane, on the east side, are allowed no access to the A10. On the west side and also south of Brookfield was the training ground of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, with Arsenal F.C., shared local support and popularity, but the site was sold in 1986 for housing (Brookfield Lane).
North of Brookfield Lane a new trunk road by-pass for the towns of Hoddesdon and Ware leaves the course of the present road, which opened in the spring of 1974. North of here, the Turnford Pumping Station of the Metropolitan Water Board houses an engine purchased from Hampstead Water Works Company in 1856 and constructed by Boulton and Watt. Water is pumped into the New River from a well six hundred feet deep. The old engine was superseded by oil driven electrically operated plant in 1956, but is being retained here because of its historical interest.
North of the Pumping Station, and the recently built housing estate is the Turnford Aqueduct. This was built in 1854-5 by Thomas Docwra to the designs of William Chadwell Mylne. William was the son of Robert Mylne and succeeded him as architect to the New River Company in 1810, remaining in this post until 1859. In the 1850s he widened, deepened and straightened the New River. His aqueduct replaced an enormous loop of the New River, the course of which extended well into Cheshunt Park. At the point where this loop crossed a stream (Turnford Brook) Myddleton had a “flash” – ingeniously constructed to take the New River over the stream and also to allow storm water in the brook to shoot over the New River and thus not contaminate the water supply.
At the northern end of the arterial road is the New River Arms, constructed as a roadhouse in 1936.
