Park of the week

49. Dollis Valley Greenwalk – selected bits

The Dollis Valley Greenwalk is a footpath route, set up in the London Borough of Barnet in the nineteen thirties. It runs for about 10 miles between Moat Mount Nature Reserve (in Mill Hill) and Hampstead Heath, passing through many green spaces and wildlife corridors along the way. The route mainly follows the course of Dollis Brook, which rises at Moat Mount near Arkley, meets the Mutton Brook at Hendon. There it becomes the River Brent, flows into the Welsh Harp Reservoir (see Park of the Week 10) and eventually into the River Thames at Brentford.

It’d take many hours to walk the whole length of the Greenwalk and we haven’t done it, but we have visited several places along the route: 
•    Fields next to Barnet Lane, where I took the photo of Jack we use for this blog;
•    Brook Farm Open Space, where hay used to be grown for London’s horses;
•    Riverside Walk, on each side of Argyle Road, Woodside Park. We went there early in the first lockdown when many people seemed to have decided to get out their bikes and we spent a lot of time jumping out of their way;
•    A not particularly appealing section that runs alongside the Benighted North Circular Road and connects with Windsor Open Space (see number 21) – there’s an entrance at Henly’s Corner (where the A1 and the Benighted briefly meet) on either side of Finchley Road. Park where you can, then walk;
•    Little Wood and Big Wood (see number 18);
•    Whetstone Stray (or Strays). We spent the most time here. It’s parkland created during the twentieth century from former farmland. ‘Stray’ in this context means a common or piece of unenclosed land, on which there is a common right of pasture. 

We accessed Whetstone Stray from Totteridge Lane, N20. It’s a meadow park, quiet and peaceful, with a wide, tree-lined footpath running alongside the brook. There’s plenty of room on the path for cyclists, dog-walkers, and others not to have to dodge each other. There’s no café or toilet.

I suppose Whetstone Stray could be said to separate Totteridge from Whetstone. We parked outside the shops on Totteridge Lane by Totteridge and Whetstone station, which is opposite the Stray and next to Brook Farm Open Space.

Judith Field

Whetstone Stray, Totteridge Lane, London N20 8HH