“ This is a comment by Dennis Bird:
I read with interest your article on the Dollis Valley (“How Green is our Valley”).Unfortunately there are many errors.
Firstly the geology of the valley and the Barnet area is vastly more complicated than “Ice Age Melt Water”.
Secondly,so often repeated,the old myth that High Barnet existed originally as a “Settlement on the key Road from London to York”.Ermine Street c.8miles East of Barnet was the way to Lincoln and York.The so called “Great North Road “ through Barnet probably dates from the 15th century and even in the coaching era only took c.20 per cent of the traffic going north through Barnet.Any medieval traveller on the way to York coming through Barnet was hopelessly lost!
The “High” Road through Barnet by passed the worn out and waterlogged Roman Watling Street to St Albans and the north ,and was always more important than Ermine Street.Barnet was founded as a result of this,York was irrelevant.
Thirdly,the article suggests that Barnet Fair dates From the arrival of the Railway In 1872.In fact Barnet Fair dates from 1588.In 1834 The Times reported that the Fair was England’s largest cattle market with up to 40,000 animals on display.The Railway meant the Fair changed character ,but you cannot deny its history,and now it hardly exists thanks to the machinations of The London Borough of Barnet formed in 1965.
Sorry but you need to be a bit more careful with our history. ”