| Goffs Oak | |
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Goffs Oak
Goffs Oak shown within Hertfordshire |
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| OS grid reference | TL325035 |
|---|---|
| District | Broxbourne |
| Shire county | Hertfordshire |
| Region | East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Waltham Cross |
| Postcode district | EN7 |
| Dialling code | 01707 |
| Police | Hertfordshire |
| Fire | Hertfordshire |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | Broxbourne |
| List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire | |
Goffs Oak is a large village in the borough of Broxbourne in 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.
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 the 1950s. Its replacement fell itself in 1987 after severe damage during the hurricane of 1987. Moreover it was marked as Goff Oak on the 2nd Series Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 map. It has nearby links to London's Kings Cross Station by Cuffley railway station and to Liverpool Street by Cheshunt railway station.
The village centre is marked by a War Memorial which was unveiled on the 20th December 1920[1]. It is inscribed with the names of 32 men from the village who were killed in the First World War. A further 3 names were added following the Second World War. The houses north-east of the memorial were originally the police station. Next to the police station was a civil defence siren which was regularly tested through the 1960's, as part of the national defence at the height of the Cold War. The siren could be heard across the whole village area. Immediately adjacent to the police station and War Memorial was a Doctor Who-style police box which was removed around the time that the police station was converted to residential housing.
Goffs Oak has been used as a film location. In the 1970's, Anglia Television's Timeslip[2] , a popular childrens science fiction series, was filmed at the old army camp in Silver Street, which formed part of Poyndon Farm. A convoy of ATV production lorries could be seen each day along Jones Road during filming. At the time the former army camp and wartime spotlight instalation was used as a chicken farm, for egg production, and has since been redeveloped for housing, forming the Orchid Close development. Gerry Anderson's, The Protectors, filmed in the 1970's and starring Robert Vaughn also used the former army camp as a location.[3]
Tottenham Hotspur players used to run up and through 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.
A number of celebrities, including Victoria Beckham and Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie, have lived in or around the village. In the Swinging Sixties, one of the founding members of Unit 4 + 2 pop music group, Buster Meikle, came from the village. Buster started his carrier as lead singer of Buster Meikle & The Daybreakers. Cheshunt Boys' Club was a regular venue of theirs in the early '60's.Cliff Richard lived in nearby Cheshunt on the Bury Green estate from 1951 and went to Cheshunt Secondary Modern, the secondary school close by. This was the same school that Buster Meikle attended. Leon Everitt, a top '60s disc jockey, also lived there. The tennis player Richard Lewis lived in Jones Road, Goffs Oak and attended Goffs School during the late 1960's and early 1970's. He went on to represent Great Britain in the Davis Cup, and is now Chair of SportEngland[4]