Place Name
So named because Barnet was historically in Hertfordshire, and Hertford is the county town. The London Borough of Barnet was created following the London Government Act 1963. This legislation abolished the former Barnet Urban District and East Barnet Urban District councils in Hertfordshire, transferring them – along with areas from Middlesex – into Greater London. The town of Hertford is first recorded by Bede in AD731 as Herutford, meaning a ford where harts are found (harts being an antiquated name for deer), with the Domesday Book of 1086 giving the spelling Hertforde. An earlier reference may be from AD672, when the first synod of English bishops was held either there or at Hartford in Cambridgeshire. In AD913, Edward the Elder ordered the building of burhs on either side of the River Lea to defend against Danish attacks. By the time of Domesday, Hertford already had two churches, two markets, and three mills, and under the Normans, a castle and priory were established. Henry II rebuilt the castle in stone, but in 1216 it fell after a 25-day siege by Prince Louis of France. The castle continued to serve as a royal residence, with Queen Isabella, widow of Edward II, dying there in 1358. The priory was dissolved in 1536, and in 1563 Parliament met at Hertford Castle because of the plague in London. Hertford developed as a market and county town, benefitting from improved communications through the Lea Navigation Canal in 1767 and the railway in 1843. This is one of a small cluster of streets that are named after county towns.
