Grovelands Park

Grovelands Park is a park located in Southgate in the London Borough of Enfield.

Address: Grovelands Park, The Bourne, Southgate, London N21 6RA (Map:; OS grid reference TQ307944)

History
The park was initially part of a large wooded area that was near the border of Enfield Chase. Mr. Walker Grey is the earliest known owner of the Grovelands Estate. Between 1796 and 1798 he purchased 230 acres of land and constructed a large house designed by John Nash. The grounds of the house, the area which would become Grovelands Park, were designed by Humphry Repton.

After Grey's death the house and its grounds were purchased by Mr. John Donnithorne Taylor. He was a relative of Walker Grey. Taylor added 100 acres to the estate and gave it the Grovelands name.

Taylor was a proficient hunter and kept a small herd of deer on the estate. To prevent the deer coming up to the house he asked for a sunken fence to be constructed. This is still mostly visible today. When Taylor died in 1885 the Grovelands Estate had grown to encompass 600 acres.

In 1916 the house was used as a temporary hospital for injured troops returning from France in World War I. The NHS continued to use the house until 1977. Some time later the house was re-opened as a private hospital and it remains in use as such today.

Southgate Urban District Council bought 64 acres of land from the Taylors in 1911 for £22,893 and Grovelands Park was opened in April 1913.

Rowing boats were available for hire on the boating lake until the late 1960s.

Access and Facilities
Entrances to the park are located on all edges of the park with the main gate - Inverforth Gate - being located on The Bourne. Other gates are located on: All gates have space for parking cars on local roads. Parking on Broad Walk is restricted between 11:00-12:00. Inverforth Gate on The Bourne has a small number of disabled car parking spaces as well as limited parking on local roads.
 * Branscome Gardens
 * Broad Walk
 * Church Hill
 * Queen Elizabeth's Drive
 * Seaforth Gardens

The park is poorly served by public transport with no buses serving any of the gates. The nearest train stations are Winchmore Hill railway station (served by First Capital Connect) and Southgate (served by the London Underground's Piccadilly Line). Both of these stations are a 20-30 minute walk away from the nearest park entrance.

The park has two children's play areas, a café, toilets, tennis courts and a pitch-and-putt. There is also ample space for playing football.

Habitat
The park still contains small, wooded areas - relics from when the area was heavily wooded. Other habitats include the former boating lake and large expanses of grass, both mowed and wild.

An area worth inspecting is the woodland near the ranger's hut as this is one of the quietest parts of the park. It can be accessed from the Broad Walk entrance by turning right where the main path splits into three (map). In winter this is where a pair of Firecrests can sometimes be found. Nuthatches and Great Spotted Woodpeckers sometimes nest in the trees here.

Another area worth looking at is the pitch-and-putt just inside the Inverforth Gate entrance on The Bourne (map). In winter especially Stock Doves and various thrushes can be found feeding here. It is also used by other species including finches and occasionally wildfowl from the lake.

Species Sighted
''These are the personal records of one birder - Katy McGilvray - and do not reflect the park's overall records. They are provided solely as reference. Other contributions are more than welcome. Rare birds for the park are noted in bold.''

Black-headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Barn Swallow, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Brambling, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Coot, Cormorant, Curlew, Egyptian Goose, Fieldfare, Firecrest, Goldcrest, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (last seen 2008), Great Tit, Green Woodpecker, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail (first noted November 2011), Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, House Martin, Jay, Kingfisher, Little Grebe, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Magpie, Mallard, Mandarin Duck, Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Northern Wheatear, Nuthatch, Pochard, Redwing, Red-throated Diver, Ring Ouzel, Ring-necked Parakeet, Robin, Ruddy Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Shoveler, Siskin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Flycatcher, Starling, Stock Dove, Gadwall, Teal, Treecreeper, Tufted Duck, Willow Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Reed Warbler, Woodcock, Woodpigeon

Breeding Birds
(Incomplete, lacking data on small birds.)

Blue Tit, Canada Goose, Coot, Egyptian Goose (bred for the first time in summer 2012), Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Mallard, Mandarin Duck, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Nuthatch

External links and resources
Interactive map

Printable map