Church Farmhouse Museum The Garden |
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Church Farm is surrounded by a small garden, which is accessible by the public even outside Museum opening hours. The garden occupies the house’s former farmyard and orchard, and still has a well (recently restored) and a dew pond, and although the farm out-buildings were demolished in the 1950s, some of the old fruit trees remain. There are many other trees as well: the front wall of the Museum is lined by pleached limes (trained to grow sideways, rather than upwards), and there are magnificent horse-chestnut trees to the east and west of the building. To the rear of the Museum are C19 milestones and mileposts taken from other parts of the Borough, and set in the grass is a Victorian tyring-platform (used in the construction of cartwheels), once used at the premises of the still-extant Hendon firm of Hammond’s Coachbuilders. The newest feature of the garden is a maze, installed in 2006. A turf maze, constructed of nearly a thousand bricks marking out pathways in the grass, it is the only public maze in Barnet Borough. The maze, which is particularly enjoyed by children, was paid for by a generous bequest to Church Farm by the late Colette Fontaine, with additional funding kindly being given by the Friends of the Museum. The garden is home to squirrels and many varieties of
birds, and in the Spring it is brilliant with daffodils and narcissi.
But the garden is a pleasure all year round- a quiet haven just yards
from the busy A41; and for those feeling more energetic, a gateway leads
from the garden into Sunny Hill Park, with its cricket and football pitches,
tennis courts, and children’s playground.
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