The area’s name was first recorded as Myllehill in 1547 and appears to mean “hill with a windmill”
Nan Clark is a famous local ghost. She is allegedly seen ‘frequently’ in the Rising Sun (c.1665), and is also said to appear at midnight in the lane that bears her name. The legend is that Nan Clark was murdered by her lover and that her ghost has haunted the village ever since…
Peter Collinson lived in Mill Hill in 1749. He had shown an interest in botanical specimens and was able to assemble and develop the botanical collection and carry out the research that considerably improved the English horticultural system.
He obtained samples of seeds and plants from around the world and brought some 170 new plants to Mill Hill from America.
William Wilberforce’s was an English politician, philanthropist anda leader of the movement to stop the slave trade.
After 20 years of dogged persistence, he succeeded in stopping the ocean trade in slaves by British ships and completed emancipation of slaves in every British possession.
Co-founder of Punch Magazine, Mark Lemon lived in Church Farm between Hendon and Mill Hill. Punch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841.
Dr. Murray was responsible for A-D, H-K and the lettersO, P and T of the propose publication of ‘The New English Dictionary’ in 1879. This was considered the greatest lexicographical achievement of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
He taught at Mill Hill School and built the Scriptorium, where he worked on the dictionary in his ‘spare time’’, with help from Many Mill Hill students. Murray then moved to Oxford, hence ‘The Oxford Dictionary”.
Grahame-White established Hendon Aerodrome, which was an important centre of aviation from 1908 to 1968. It was known as a place of pioneering experiments including the first airmail, first parachute descent, first night flights, and the first aerial defence of a city.
With fears the aerodrome would be a bomb target for the RAF, HendonAerodrome ceased operation. The entrance of Hendon Aerodrome can be seen in the 1967 film The Dirty Dozen.
After World War I, the first RAF “Pageant” was held at Hendon in 1922, and it soon became a regular event, known from 1925 as the Royal Air Force Display, and in 1938 as the Empire Air Day.
Queen Elizabeth planted a cedar tree (Cedrus atlantica), to mark the 150th Anniversary of the school Mill Hill School. They sit next to Peter Collinson’s already planted Pin oak (Quercus palustris), and Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia).
