Bush Hill Park Golf Course

Bush Hill Park Golf Course is situated on part of what was formerly Old Park, a Royal property pre-dating Enfield Chase and the Domesday survey of 1086, where evidence of early settlement has been found, including a Roman coffin (which is now housed at Forty Hall). In 1660, on his restoration to the throne, Charles II granted the Old Park Estate to General George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, in recognition of his support. Since that time the then-225 hectare estate passed through many owners, sometimes expanding in size, sometimes diminishing. In the C19th land at Bush Hill was owned by William Mellish (d.1838), a Tory MP for Grimsby and later Middlesex who was Director of the Bank of England. He is buried at All Saints Edmonton (q.v.).

The Bush Hill estate was sold in 1871 and broken up for building, the development of the area particularly accelerating as a result of the Great Eastern Railway opening Bush Hill Park station in 1880; by the mid 1930s the area was fully built up. Part of the estate became Bush Hill Park Golf Course in 1921 and Old Park mansion is now the golf clubhouse, the oldest part of which dates from c.1705, with later additions and extensions carried out in 1838, 1873 and the C20th. In the C19th the house had belonged to a local antiquarian, Edward Ford, co-author of a history of Enfield and who had a collection of mediaeval fragments here including two C15th corbel heads, which he installed on the clock turret of the C18th stables. Enfield Urban District Council purchased c.11 hectares in order to create a recreation ground, now Town Park (q.v.). The New River Loop passes through the site and divides the Golf Course land from Town Park. A public footpath, Carr's Lane, runs through the site which is otherwise private for club users only. It can be seen across the New River Loop which forms the boundary with Town Park although this affords no view of the old mansion.