Woodland on the southern slope of Featherstone hill

Image: © Marathon Taken: 5 Oct 2016

Featherstone Hill is part of the stretch of old countryside on the southern slopes of Mill Hill known as Arrandene Open Space. Although it is surrounded by houses on three sides, it has retained a rural quality. To the north are small fields, divided by tall hedgerows and small pockets of woodland which are reminiscent of many Hertfordshire and Middlesex farms before the building boom of the 1930s. The grasslands were once used for producing hay for sale in London at a time when there was a large population of working horses. Most of the site was purchased by the local authority in 1929. The landscape is undulating, with its highest points at Featherstone Hill in the west and Mill Hill Ridge in the north-east. There are fine views west across the valley of the Silk Stream towards Harrow-on-the-Hill and Stanmore Common, although the growth of surrounding trees has cut the view from Featherstone Hill in other directions. The field at Featherstone Hill was actually a cornfield before the Second World War and until the late 1940s. Towards the south-west of the site, the grass was left unmanaged for many years and as a result woodland has grown up, to engulf many of the oak, ash and crack-willow trees as seen here.

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