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10
PAST HISTORY.
Edmonton is an ancient town mentioned in the Domesday Book as
"Adelmeton" (or the town of Aldhelm). It is seven miles from London,
in the Enfield Division of the County, Hundred, Petty Sessional Division,
Union and County Court District of Edmonton, Rural Deanery of Enfield,
and Archdeaconry and Diocese of London, in the Northern Metropolitan Postal
District, and was added to the Metropolitan Police District on the 13th
October, 1840. The parish adopted the Public Health Act of 1848 on the
21st June, 1859, but by the operation of the Edmonton Local Board (Division
of District) Act, 1881, it was divided into two Urban Sanitary Districts,
Edmonton and Southgate.
Two well-known men resided in Edmonton, viz.:— Keats and Lamb.
The latter and his sister, Mary, are both buried in All Saints' Churchyard.
The little house in which they lived is still in use, as also the mansion built
by Sir Hugh Myddleton, the constructor of the New River, which runs
through the grounds. A large house in Bury Street is said to have been the
country residence of the infamous Judge Jeffries. Many large houses have
within recent years been dismantled, and their grounds occupied by rows of
smaller ones. "The diverting history of John Gilpin," by Cowper, with its
references to Edmonton as the best place for a pleasant picnic outside London,
must be well-known to all my readers.
RECENT HISTORY.
The district was divided into three Wards— Church Street, Fore
Street and Bury Street— by an order of the Middlesex County
Council in 1903, and is controlled by an Urban District of 27 members,
nine of whom retire annually. It is represented on the Middlesex County
Council by three members.
The population is now almost entirely industrial, and a large
proportion of the workers travel daily by train and tram to their employment
in the City and other parts of London. There are, however, in Edmonton,
several large works, notably the cartridge factory of Messrs. Eley Bros.,
Messrs. Ridley Whitley's linoleum works, the Gothic gas-meter works, the
New Pegamoid Co., and Aerators, Ltd., whose employees are, for the most part,
residents of Edmonton. In the first-mentioned factoiy, however, where most
of the workers (about 1,100) are women, nearly one-quarter of their number
reside in London, and come daily to their work by tram and rail.
The Distress Committee, under the Chairmanship of Councillor Mason,
has been exceedingly busy in finding useful work for the unemployed and in
putting to good use the monies supplied by the Government. All the men
" set on " have been given three weeks' work at 6d. per hour. Some selected
families have been assisted to emigrate to Canada.