Goff's Oak
Encyclopedia
Goffs Oak is a large village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the borough of Broxbourne
Broxbourne (borough)
Broxbourne is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Cheshunt, other towns include Broxbourne, Hoddesdon and Waltham Cross. The eastern boundary of the district is the River Lea...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It is situated between Cuffley
Cuffley
Cuffley is a village in the Welwyn Hatfield district of south-east Hertfordshire located between Cheshunt and Potters Bar. It has a population of just over 4,000 people. Politically, Cuffley is part of Broxbourne Constituency in the House of Commons, and sends a Councillor to Hertfordshire County...
and Cheshunt
Cheshunt
Cheshunt is a town in Hertfordshire, England with a population of around 52,000 according to the United Kingdom's 2001 Census. It is a dormitory town and part of the Greater London Urban Area and London commuter belt served by Cheshunt railway station...
, just north of the M25 motorway
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
in a slightly more rural section of the London commuter belt
London commuter belt
The London commuter belt is the metropolitan area surrounding London, England from which it is practical to commute to work in the capital. It is alternatively known as the Greater South East, the London metropolitan area or the Southeast metropolitan area...
.
The village is named after the Goff family, which owned the area, and symbolised by the original Old Oak, said to be several hundred years old before it fell in the 1950s. Its replacement fell itself in 1987 after severe damage during the hurricane of 1987
Great Storm of 1987
The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on the night of 15/16 October 1987, when an unusually strong weather system caused winds to hit much of southern England and northern France...
. Moreover it was marked as Goff Oak on the 2nd Series Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
1:50,000 map. It has nearby links to London's Kings Cross Station by Cuffley railway station
Cuffley railway station
Cuffley railway station serves the village Cuffley in the Welwyn Hatfield district in Hertfordshire. It also serves other surrounding settlements, namely Goffs Oak, Northaw and the west of Cheshunt. The station opened in 1910 on the Hertford Loop Line between Enfield Chase and Hertford North as...
and to Liverpool Street
Liverpool Street station
Liverpool Street railway station, also known as London Liverpool Street or simply Liverpool Street, is both a central London railway terminus and a connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, England...
by Cheshunt railway station
Cheshunt railway station
Cheshunt railway station serves the town of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, England. It is on the West Anglia Main Line and the Lea Valley Lines, and train services are provided by National Express East Anglia....
.
The village centre is marked by a War Memorial which was unveiled on the 20th December 1920. It is inscribed with the names of 32 men from the village who were killed in the First World War. A further 3 names were added following the Second World War. The houses north-east of the memorial were originally the police station. Next to the police station was a civil defence siren
Civil defense siren
A civil defense siren is a mechanical or electronic device for generating sound to...
which was regularly tested through the 1960's, as part of the national defence at the height of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. The siren could be heard across the whole village area. Immediately adjacent to the police station and War Memorial was a Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
-style police box which was removed around the time that the police station was converted to residential housing.
Goffs Oak has been used as a film location. In the 1970's, Anglia Television's Timeslip
Timeslip
Timeslip is a British children's science fiction television series made by ATV for the ITV network and broadcast between 1970 and 1971. The series centres around two children, Simon Randall and Liz Skinner who discover the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the “Time Barrier”, that enables...
, a popular childrens science fiction series, was filmed at the old army camp in Silver Street, which formed part of Poyndon Farm. A convoy of ATV production lorries could be seen each day along Jones Road during filming. At the time the former army camp and wartime spotlight instalation was used as a chicken farm, for egg production, and has since been redeveloped for housing, forming the Orchid Close development.
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
's, The Protectors
The Protectors
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It is Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to electronic marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in the present day...
, filmed in the 1970's and starring Robert Vaughn
Robert Vaughn
Robert Francis Vaughn, , is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. His best known roles include the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s television series The Protectors, Albert Stroller in...
also used the former army camp as a location.
Tottenham Hotspur players used to run up and through as part of their stamina training when their training ground was based in Brookfield Lane, Cheshunt.
The village held a fayre celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
in 2005.
Notable people
A number of celebrities, including Victoria BeckhamVictoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...
and Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie, have lived in or around the village. In the Swinging Sixties, one of the founding members of Unit 4 + 2
Unit 4 + 2
Unit 4 + 2 were a British pop band, who had a number one hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1965 with the song "Concrete and Clay". The track topped the UK chart for one week.-Early days:...
pop music group, Buster Meikle, came from the village. Buster started his carrier as lead singer of Buster Meikle & The Daybreakers. Cheshunt Boys' Club was a regular venue of theirs in the early '60's.Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
lived in nearby Cheshunt on the Bury Green estate from 1951 and went to Cheshunt Secondary Modern, the secondary school close by. This was the same school that Buster Meikle attended. Leon Everitt, a top '60s disc jockey, also lived there.
The tennis player Richard Lewis
Richard Lewis (tennis and rugby league)
Richard Lewis is a former British Davis Cup tennis professional from Surrey.Lewis became executive chairman of the Rugby Football League in 2002. On 1 April 2009 he replaced Michael Farrar as chairman of Sport England.-Tennis career:...
lived in Jones Road, Goffs Oak and attended Goffs School
Goffs School
Goffs School is a language secondary school and sixth form college located in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England with around 1,200 students. The school was awarded 'Language College' status in the late 1990s....
during the late 1960's and early 1970's. He went on to represent Great Britain in the Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
, and is now Chair of SportEngland
Sport England
Sport England is the brand name for the English Sports Council and is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...