Having lived in this parish all my life I have been repeatedly asked by
my friends to write a short account of my early recollections of
Tottenham.
I feel a little diffident at doing so, and this being my first attempt at
committing my recollections to paper I trust my readers will pardon any
mistakes and omissions, and that it will be as interesting to some of
them to read as it has been to me to write.
My father was born at Palmers Green in 1798; my mother was born in this
parish in the year 1800. They were married at All Hallows Church in
1825, and continued to reside in Tottenham; my father died in the year
1866, and my mother at the ripe old age of 94, in the year 1894.
I can now see in my mind’s eye the dear old village as it was in my
childhood, surrounded by meadows, cornfields, and pretty country lanes
and a great number of stately elm and other trees. It hardly seems
possible that the population was then so small that all the inhabitants
were known to one another, and the appearance of strangers was at once a
matter of speculation as to who they were.