Goff's Oak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Goffs Oak | |
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| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| District | Broxbourne |
| Shire county | Hertfordshire |
| Region | East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Waltham Cross |
| Postcode district | EN7 |
| Dial code | 01707 |
| Police | Hertfordshire |
| Fire | Hertfordshire |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | Broxbourne |
| European Parliament | East of England |
| List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire | |
Goff's Oak (which can be spelt with or without the apostrophe) is a large village in the Broxbourne district of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. It is situated between Cuffley and Cheshunt, just north of the M25 motorway in a slightly more rural section of the London commuter belt. Goff's Oak has achieved some fame by being the hometown of Victoria Beckham.
The village is named after the Goff family, which owned the area, and symbolised by the original Old Oak, said to be several hundred years old before it fell in 1987 after severe damage during the hurricane of 1987. A more recently planted oak is growing again outside "The Goff's Oak" public house which hosts a quiz night every Monday and Wednesday. It has nearby links to London's Kings Cross Station by Cuffley railway station and to Liverpool Street by Cheshunt railway station.
A number of celebrities besides Victoria Beckham have lived in or around the village. In the "Swinging Sixties", one of the founding members of the famous Unit 4 + 2 group, Buster Meikle, came from the village, as did his neighbour Leon Everitt, a top 1960s disc jockey. Cliff Richard lived in nearby Cheshunt on the Bury Green estate from 1951 and went to "Cheshunt Secondary Modern", the newly built secondary school close by. This was the same school that Buster Meikle attended.
There used to be a Doctor Who style police box next to the war memorial in the 1950s.
Tottenham Hotspur players such as Danny Blanchflower , Tommy Harmer "The Charmer" et al. used to run up to and through Goff's Oak as part of their stamina training when their training ground was based in Brookfield Lane, Cheshunt.
The village held a fayre celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005.
The Goffs Oak Lodge of Freemasons has its own web site at www.GoffsOakLodge.org.uk and in 2006 members of the Goffs Oak Lodge laid a wreath at the Goff's Oak war memorial on Remembrance Sunday.
