St Paul's Churchyard, Mill Hill

The Ridgeway was an ancient route that ran along Mill Hill, an area unsuited to crops due to the heavy clay soil, and with no navigable river it was not much settled and was a largely forested area. There is mention of a mill in 1321 but this ceased to function by the end of the century and settlements at the top of Milespit Hill are known from 1353 and around a mill near the junction of Hammers Lane. There are various reasons for late development of the suburban growth here such as the large number of institutions in their own grounds in the area, which include Mill Hill School, Belmont School, and St Joseph's College (q.q.v.), and also the railways avoided the high ground.

St Paul's Church was designed in 1829 by Samuel Hood Page and consecrated in 1833, paid for by William Wilberforce, an important figure in the Anti-Slavery Movement, who lived at Hendon Park from 1826-1831; a blue plaque recalls this. Wilberforce, who had a long dispute with the Rector Theodore Williams (1812-1875), had moved to Highwood Hill in 1825 and gained permission to build the church on a gravel pit site on Belmont Estate. Brick was made locally at a kiln on Hendon Wood Lane, the church is rendered in cement. Until then the residents of Mill Hill had to go to the parish church of St Mary's at Hendon (q.v.). It became a parish church in 1926. The churchyard has yew in front, and iron railings and flower beds to the road.