Paula Gabb says her much-celebrated cat Millie – known locally as Barnet’s “library cat” and latterly “Waitrose” cat – has died “peacefully” after being poorly for some time with a thyroid problem.
Tributes after death of feline celebrity
Tag: People and personalities
Raydean Road houses – a tribute to modernism
A row of square, flat-roofed houses in Raydean Road are among the buildings in and around Barnet that are highlighted on a website that celebrates modernist and art deco architecture in the London suburbs that became known as Metro-land.
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“What’s a selfie?” – asked Fred, 94, next birthday
Before Selfies is the title of a collection of photographs taken during the lifetime of Fred Jarvis, Barnet’s oldest and most famous trade union leader.
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Death of popular organiser of Barnet art exhibitions
Fred Howett, a long-standing member of the Barnet Guild of Artists, who helped to organise regular and numerous local exhibitions of members’ art work, has died at the age of 74.
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High Barnet’s hedge-layers in action
A double-brush Hertfordshire hedge – re-laid in a way passed on by a Romany gipsy who lived at Welham Green – is the latest addition to the Barnet Environment Centre in Byng Road.
Keeping the High Street tidy
Keeping the High Street in High Barnet spick and span gives veteran road sweeper Douglas Shrubb so much satisfaction that he has opted to continue working rather than take retirement.
Millie the cat: online sensation
Millie the Waitrose cat, already dubbed High Barnet’s most sociable feline, has been inundated with good will messages after shoppers at the Spires were told she had recently had a pre-Christmas tummy upset after being given too much unwanted food.
A fun day for Barnet children
A damp Sunday afternoon did little to dampen the excitement for countless children who enjoyed the traditional fun fair that has become such a popular attraction at Barnet’s annual Christmas Fayre.
Hairdo sing-along for Barnet centenarian
A sing song going through favourites of yester-year is a highlight at a Barnet hairdressing salon when 102-year-old Greta Nellie Druce pays her weekly visit to have her hair done.
Last butcher’s shop closes
End of an era. Butcher’s Hook, the last remaining butcher’s shop in High Street, Barnet, has ceased trading and the premises are for sale or to let.
Toast to Barnet’s top trade unionist
Neil Kinnock led the tributes at a party to celebrate the 93rd birthday party for Fred Jarvis, Barnet’s most celebrated trade unionist – and a New Barnet resident for over 60 years.
Childhood memories of 1930s Barnet
Roads running between High Barnet and New Barnet merge together almost seamlessly today, but in the 1930s, when farmland still separated the two towns, the footpath up to the shops in the High Street was through fields filled with cows.
Barnet loses another link with past
The Barnet Press, once one of the most respected weekly newspapers in North London, has ceased publication after steadily losing circulation and struggling financially.
Wood Street’s miniature railway
Generations of Barnet children have enjoyed a trip on the miniature railway that circles the Wood Street garden of Ian Johnson, a well-known retired doctor and skilled model engineer, famed his collection of model steam engines.
Accolade for Normandy Avenue garden
A 120ft garden at a traditional Edwardian semi-detached house in Normandy Avenue, Barnet, has secured recognition from the National Garden Scheme – a long-held ambition for the owners.
Barnet’s link to the The Crown
Providing period cars featured in the hit television series, The Crown – being filmed at Elstree Film Studios, Borehamwood – is just one of the many commissions for a Barnet supplier of vehicles for film and television productions.
Wanted: Advice on protecting Barnet’s whalebones
Preserving two massive jaw bones from a ninety-foot-long blue whale is just one of the challenges facing the new owners of Barnet’s historic Whalebones House, one of the town’s oldest residences surrounded by woods and fields that are now threatened with redevelopment.
Continue reading Wanted: Advice on protecting Barnet’s whalebones
Barnet’s royal pastry chef
Celebrations for the Queen’s Sapphire Jubilee, marking her 65 years on the throne, brought back fond memories for former Buckingham Palace pastry chef, George O’Connor, who lives in sheltered housing in Barnet.
Barnet’s footpath pioneer remembered
After years of uncertainty answers have finally been found to questions about the identity and motives of an early pioneer in the continuing task of defending the footpaths and green spaces that mean so much to members of the Barnet Society.
Free to speak her mind?
After what for her personally – and for the rest of the country – has been a momentous political year, the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers, will be the guest of the Barnet Society at our annual question and answer session at 3pm on Friday 20 January.
John Brown
Two sculptures by the noted Barnet sculptor John Brown are due to appear in Steven Spielberg’s most recent science fiction adventure, Ready Player One, which is being filmed in Birmingham and at the Warner Studios in Leavesden.
High Street packed for Christmas Fayre
Brilliant sunshine and crystal blue skies put some added sparkle into the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre which filled the High Street with a wide variety of stalls and plenty of seasonal cheer.
Milly the cat puts road safety first
In the feline appreciation stakes there is currently no contest in determining High Barnet’s most sociable – and safety conscious – cat.
A misty Easter Sunday morning, just north of Barnet
A print of Graham Turner’s celebrated painting of a young Richard III looking apprehensively across towards the Lancastrian army at the 1471 Battle of Barnet, is to go on display at Barnet Museum to help promote the current archaeological survey to determine the precise site of the battlefield.
Continue reading A misty Easter Sunday morning, just north of Barnet
Russian spy’s poisoning and Barnet Hospital
The tenth anniversary of the poisoning with radioactive polonium of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko brings back memories for an ex-Barnet journalist who reported on the role of Barnet Hospital in the story surrounding one of London’s most alarming assassinations.
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Appeal for amateur footballers
A football team for former East Barnet grammar school boys that has expanded over the last sixty years to become a community-based amateur football club, has been celebrating the performance of its top players.
Barnet’s artists publicise work
Local residents will get more opportunities to view the work of members of the Barnet Guild of Artists if arrangements can be made to increase the number of public displays of their paintings and other art forms.
Barnet’s love of poetry
Celebrations surrounding the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death gave an added impetus to the monthly gathering of the Barnet Poetry Group when members spent an April Saturday afternoon discussing the playwright’s many soliloquies and speeches.
Blue plaque for hospice pioneer
A campaign is being launched to persuade English Heritage to award one of its renowned blue plaques to the Hadley Green home of the late Dame Cicely Saunders, the Barnet-born founder of the hospice movement.
The end of Friends Reunited
The sun sets on the Barnet inspired networking site. Friends Reunited, the social networking website created in the back bedroom of a semi-detached house in Barnet, has finally closed down after being left with only “a handful” of active members.
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