Finchley Common
Finchley Common was an area of land in Middlesex, and until 1816 the boundary between the parishes of Finchley, Friern Barnet and Hornsey.
Its use as a common is quite late. Rights to the common were claimed by the inhabitants of Finchley at the beginning of the 15th century, and by the inhabitants of Friern Barnet, and Hornsey by the 16th century. Sale of timber in the 16th century by the Bishop of London, who had manorial rights to the land, led to the clearance of the woods, and after this time legal disputes between the commoners and the bishop were made reference to a "common called Finchley Wood". The earliest known use of the name Finchley Common appeared in reference to refugees escaping from plague London encamped on the common in 1603. Finchley Common occurs in Nicholas Culpeper's Herbal (1652) whereas John Gerard in his Herbal (1596) refers to Finchley Wood (2).
As a place name Finchley Common continued long after the enclosure of 1816. Places, which were said to be Finchley Common, represented much of Finchley’s eastern flank. These included the Torrington public house (in what we would now call North Finchley), and also the White Lion in East Finchley. The last known active use of Finchley Common as a place name is an isolated property advert in The Times in 1897. There are sections of open ground in the London Borough of Haringey and the London Borough of Barnet which are still closely associated with Finchley Common (though no one uses the name), mostly woodland: Coppetts Wood, Coldfall Wood, and the Glebelands.
Because of various claims made by the Bishop of London, and gradual encroachment Finchley Common's size varied. It was certainly greater than 1,240 acres (5.0 km2) at its peak(2). By the time of the enclosure awards in 1816 encroachment had reduced it to around 900 acres (3.6 km2).
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