Tottenham (All Saints)

TOTTENHAM (All Saints), a parish, in the union and hundred of Edmonton, county of Middlesex, 4 miles (N. by E.) from London; containing 8584 inhabitants. This place, written in Domesday book Toteham, and now sometimes called Tottenham High Cross, is a genteel village, consisting chiefly of one long street formed by houses irregularly arranged, on the road from London to Cambridge. It is lighted with gas, and well supplied with water from several fountains produced by boring. The immediate vicinity is adorned with numerous villas. Near Tottenham Green, a cross has stood for a long period: the present structure, superseding the original one of wood, is an octagonal brick column, erected in 1600 by Dean Wood, and repaired and decorated with various new architectural features, in 1809, by subscription. At the entrance of Page Green, on the east side of the high road, is a remarkable circular clump of elm-trees called the Seven Sisters, in the centre of which was formerly a walnut-tree, that, according to tradition, never increased in size, though it continued annually to bear leaves: these trees appear to have been at their full growth in 1631, but no authentic account of their being planted is extant. Within a short distance from the road is Bruce Castle, a mansion built in the seventeenth century, on the site of a castellated edifice erected in the reign of Henry VIII., and honoured in the year 1516 with the presence of that monarch, who came hither to meet his sister, Margaret, Queen of Scots. In 1578, Elizabeth also visited it. A still more ancient structure on the same site was the residence and property of Robert de Bruce, father of Robert, King of Scotland. The present building has been converted into a school, and a detached brick tower, which covers a deep well, is the only vestige of the castle built in the reign of Henry. In the parish is a well of water similar in its properties to that at Cheltenham; also a spring called Lady's Well, of reputed efficacy for disorders in the eyes, and of which the water, it is said, never freezes. There are extensive flour and oil mills, the former established time immemorially, a pottery for coarse brown ware, and a brewery; and near the entrance of the village, on an ancient stream now called the Moselle, are the works of the London Caoutchouc Company, for the manufacture of India-rubber solution, and for making tie-bands, ropes, cables, webs, and various other articles to which the use of India-rubber has been appropriated. The navigable river Lea passes by the parish, and the Eastern Counties railway has a station here. The parish comprises 4402 acres, of which 90 are common or waste.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £14; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, London: the great tithes have been commuted for £863, and the small for £800; the appropriate glebe consists of 90 acres, and the vicarial of nine. The church stands about a quarter of a mile west of the high road, and is in the later English style, with a square embattled and ivy-mantled tower: on the summit was a lofty wooden cross (whence, according to some, the adjunct to the name of the village), which was destroyed during the civil war. On the south side of the church is a large brick porch, erected prior to 1500. At the east end of the north aisle is a vestry of circular form surmounted by a dome, erected in 1696 by Lord Henry Coleraine, and repaired in 1790, underneath which is the family vault. The east window, divided into eight compartments, and containing representations of the Evangelists and some of the Prophets in fine old painted glass, was given to the parish in 1807, by J. Eardley Wilmot, Esq.; the font is of great antiquity, and many old monuments adorn the interior, of which one in white marble, to the family of Sir Robert Barkham, is worthy of especial notice. The building was repaired in 1816, at an expense of £3000. A district church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in the later English style, with turrets at each angle, and pinnacles over the aisles, was erected in 1829 on Tottenham Green, by aid of the Parliamentary Commissioners and by subscription: the living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £309; patron, the Vicar. A church was consecrated at Wood-Green in October 1844; it is in the early English style, and has accommodation for 200 persons. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics.

The grammar school, founded by means of a bequest from Nicholas Reynardson, alderman of London, in 1685, was endowed in the following year by Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Somerset, with £250 for enlarging the buildings, and £1100 for extending the benefits of the institution. Almshouses for four men and four women were endowed about 1600, with a small rentcharge, by Balthasar Sanches, pastry-cook to Philip of Spain (with whom he came over to this country), and the first who exercised that trade in London. An almshouse for six men and six women, with a chapel in the centre, was endowed with £2000 by Nicholas Reynardson. The Fishmongers' and Poulterers' almshouses, Wood-Green, were commenced in June 1847, Lord Morpeth laying the first stone. Some almshouses on the high road are occupied by four women, chosen by the parishioners; and there is a savings' bank in the parish, one of the first established in England.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.