Sometimes you just want to go for a nice walk, nothing too taxing, a bit of a stroll, lots to see, great views, woody streams, open fields, proper Green Belt, close to public transport, won't take long. So here's a gentle mile and a quarter following a brook in Enfield, nowhere near enough to make a day of it but a nice walk all the same.
The Merryhills Way is a recent public right of way, signed off in 2018, which crosses fields between Trent Park and Enfield. A local residents association persuaded the council that people had walked unchallenged and openly along these paths for years, reached an agreement with the landowners, added footpath markers and kissing gates, and hey presto. Only took them ten years. [leaflet pdf]
Let's start on Fairview Road, just behind The Ridgeway Tavern, not far from Chase Farm Hospital, half a mile from Gordon Hill station. If none of that made any sense this may not be the walk for you, or you could just get the 313 bus and give it a go. Don't worry, there'll be a tube station at the other end. The walk begins by plunging incongruously between two rows of houses into scrubby woodland. I managed to take the wrong path within 30 seconds - you need to keep left - but soon got back on track and enjoyed the shady solitude. The trees are only a brief interlude, though, because before long you reach a gate and ooh, won't you look at that.
Welcome to the valley of the Salmons Brook (not that salmon could live in it, there's nowhere near enough water) and the land rising on the far side is Hog Hill (ditto, no pigs). It's rural, it's quiet and it's very empty, but that's this corner of Enfield for you. You could walk direct to the far corner of the meadow but the public right of way only applies to the footpath following the hedge so please stick to that. Also I understand that this is a quagmire in the winter, indeed a lot of this walk is, but it proved perfectly solid in mid-October.
The brook's quite shallow and shielded by trees so you won't see it until the path dodges across it via a minor footbridge. Wave goodbye to the edge of Enfield's built-up area and please put your dog on a lead because the path's supposedly just entered farmland. That'll be horses because this corner of Enfield is very horsey, indeed expect to see a lot of 'Do Not Feed The Horses' signs ahead, but initially just empty scrappy paddocks. The path then enters a compound occupied by half-overgrown prefabs, which it turns out used to be part of a rifle range, encouraging "Are you sure I'm meant to be here?" vibes. Fret not, you are.
If the first half mile has been too much you can escape here down an unmade private track to the shopping parade at World's End. The Merryhills Way instead crosses into another field, which is where I saw my only horse, and here joins the lower reaches of the Merryhills Brook. This minor stream rises just behind Cockfosters station, but we won't be following it that far because a golf course gets in the way. What follows is the nicest bit of the walk, with the path and the stream tracking the foot of Hog Hill beneath broad grassy slopes. You don't get proper open fields like this in the centre of town.
Technically the footpath is the only right of way but I saw dogwalkers wandering much higher - all the way to the top of the spinney - to give their hounds a good runaround. These fields aren't cultivated, at least not any more, and one is liberally scattered with patches of Michaelmas daisies so is quite pretty at present. The stream stays mostly out of sight but I did find a half-damaged crossing which allowed me to peek across to, oh, another empty field. It wasn't clear how Vicarage Farm could be making any money. And that line of yellowing trees in the distance is where the Merryhills Way finishes, attaching itself to the midpoint of a sheltered bridleway.
Turn left for a short walk to Enfield Road, and from there to Oakwood station - you could be on the Piccadilly line in fifteen minutes. Or turn right for Trent Park, that lovely massive undulating woody country park with its historic mansion in the middle. Alas it's also got now luxury homes at its core, because that's inevitably what happens if you sell off a university campus these days, and I'd say it looks like the builders are about halfway through the project. I recommend the turning right option if you have the time, but officially the nice walk ended a paragraph ago.
Or at least it's a nice walk for now. When I got home and did some research I swiftly discovered that this entire landscape is under threat from development, which given this is Green Belt land was somewhat unexpected. A housing company bought Vicarage Farm several years ago, viewing it as 160 acres of "developable land" potentially delivering "between 3000 and 5000 quality homes". What's more Enfield council agreed with them and included the project in their draft Local Plan, officially proposing the “de-designation” of Green Belt land. They're under constant pressure to deliver more housing and smothering these fields with homes would, they argue, be a price worth paying. It's hard to find anyone else who agrees.
The proposals would cover my first photograph with homes, rising to a neighbourhood centre on the top of the ridge. They'd sanitise my second photograph as part of a green corridor retaining thin strips either side of the existing streams. They'd also cover my third photograph with homes - nothing affordable - to be marketed via the dream of living close to a tube station (whereas in reality Oakwood's a mile away so only car drivers need apply). Other weasel words in the Vicarage Farm Vision include "sustainable living in a green setting", "improved access to the wider countryside" and "good connectivity to local services". By the time I reached the end of the developer's document I had utter contempt for the sly bastard who wrote it.
It might never happen. New councillors have been elected since the draft plan was published, the Mayor says he's opposed and removing Green Belt designation doesn't come easy. The Enfield Society are battling hard, submitting a petition with over 4000 signatures which allowed them to present a deputation at last night's council meeting. It's possible to argue that what's proposed here is exactly what happened to multiple adjacent fields before Green Belt legislation halted London's outward spread, and people are happy to live in those now. But these wouldn't be homes for the masses, they'd be homes for wealthier incomers, and is it really worth sacrificing a natural landscape for them? A nice walk erased.
