Trails and Walks:
Local Trails
Wartime walks
You can get a vivid picture of wartime Enfield by walking around in it. To help you do that, we've put together several heritage trails with maps and an accompanying guide.
- Enfield Town WW1 heritage trail (PDF, 3MB)
- Enfield WW2 heritage trail (PDF, 5MB)
- Edmonton WW2 heritage trail (PDF, 688KB)
Local History Factsheets
Our Local History Factsheets provide an insight into many aspects of Enfield's varied history, from its industry and railways to its religion and its architecture. Click on subjects below to open the factsheets.
- A Chronology of Enfield
- Buses In Enfield
- Bush Hill Park - A Brief History
- Edmonton - Lower Edmonton - A Brief History
- Edmonton - Upper Edmonton - A Brief History
- Enfield - A Brief History
- Forty Hill - A Brief History
- Industry In Enfield - A Brief History
- Jewish Settlement In Enfield - A Brief History
- Literary Figures In Enfield - A Brief Chronology
- Palmers Green - A Brief History
- Poor Relief In Enfield - A Brief History
- Southgate - A Brief History
- Water Supply In Enfield
Archival Projects:
The Enfield at War project
Enfield at War is an innovative project that ran until September 2015. It aimed to increase understanding of the impact of the First and Second World Wars in Enfield and received £79,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to help fulfil this goal.
Enfield at War explored the story of the people, places and events which took place in Enfield during both World Wars. As with most towns during this time, Enfield suffered greatly from bomb damage. Being heavily industrialised, Enfield was an important target during bombing raids. It also contributed massively to the war effort – famously, the Royal Small Arms factory produced the ‘Lee-Enfield rifle.’
The project provided opportunities for volunteers to gain experience in archive research, oral history collection and the digitisation of historic documents and images. These volunteers helped to produce an online database containing a collection of newly digitised wartime images, interactive kiosk points, wartime heritage maps, educational work packs for local schools and a digital book, as well as to collect oral histories.
Local people responded and generously gave their time to talk to us. This collection of 33 memories with accompanying images was undertaken between September and October 2015. You can view this as a free ebook (requires Flash) or in PDF format (PDF, 11MB). Residents were also invited to share their memories, photographs and other materials at two special ‘Enfield at War’ days.
The shooting down of the Cuffley Airship
You can view our video about the shooting down of the Cuffley Airship during the Second World War below:
Visit the Enfield at War blogto for more information about the Enfield at War project.
Reginald Shipway's WW1 diary
Reginald Shipway's diary tells one man’s experience of the First World War. Donated by Reginald Shipway's granddaughter, the diary is the story of a soldier who lived in Winchmore Hill and fought in the trenches at Cambrai, Amiens and at St. Quentin Canal in 1918.
You can view the diary here
School packs
As part of the 'Enfield at War' project, WW1 and WW2 school packs have been created. For more details on borrowing the Enfield at War school packs contact Local Studies and Archive centre.
You can find accompanying images in the PDFs below:
- Enfield WW1 Presentation.pdf
- Enfield WW2 Images
- Edmonton WW2 images (PDF, 4MB)
- Southgate WW2 images (PDF, 4MB)
- Enfield at WW2 School Pack
- Enfield at WW1 School Pack