Brook Farm Open Space

Explorer Tom Barnet Museum sits in an early Georgian house on Wood Street, where a small front door opens onto an alarming amount of local history. Bronze Age objects, shop life and stories of war all turn up here, but the Battle of Barnet gives Tom his favourite problem: how to find your own side when the fog is doing its best impression of a wall. The battle took place on 14 April 1471 during the Wars of the Roses. Edward IV defeated the Lancastrian army led by the Earl of Warwick, who was killed. The museum keeps the town's connection to that history visible while also collecting the lives that followed it. Founded from the Barnet Record Society's work, the museum opened in March 1938. Volunteers now care for objects, photographs, maps and an archive covering Chipping Barnet and neighbouring districts. The museum is a public local history place, with displays that also cover domestic life, shops, sport and the two world wars. Its rooms are modest, so give the individual objects time rather than expecting a vast national gallery. The museum's own site lists its visiting days; check before travelling. The nearby battlefield is a different place, and these displays are an introduction to it, not a substitute for the ground itself. Tom claims he could have navigated the battle fog by following the smell of breakfast. History records no such heroic method, and nobody sensible would hire him as a scout. Come for the famous fight, then stay for the quieter Barnet lives that usually have to shout to be heard.