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Place Name
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- The highstone in question was erected sometime around 1740 by Sir Jeremy Sambrook to commemorate the decisive Battle of Barnet between the Yorkists and Lancastrians during the War of the Roses. The stone obelisk is about 12ft high with the inscription: “Here was fought the famous battle between Edward IV and the Earl of Warwick, April 14,th 1471, in which the Earl was defeated and slain.” The obelisk stood originally about 200 yards further south, but was moved to the present site circa 1840. Hadley was first recorded in 1248 as Hadlegh when the manor was granted to the Benedictine monks of Walden Abbey, in Essex. By 1349 it was Hadele and Hadley Monachorum in 1485 and later becoming Monken Hadley in 1489. and even Munkyn Hadley in 1553. The name comes from two Old English words hæth and lēah meaning the clearing where heather grows.
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