Small settlements away from High Road attracted little attention in the 18th century. Tottenham Hale, which possessed an inn and which was marked separately in 1754, remained the one hamlet of any size; although comparatively close, in 1818 it had yet to be connected with High Road by building along High Cross Lane. East of the Hale there stood only the mill on the Lea and, far to the north, a few buildings in Marsh and Willoughby lanes. In the centre of the parish West Green still comprised no more than half a dozen houses in 1800. North of it stretched the largest park in Tottenham, around Mount Pleasant, which had been built on the site of an early-18th-century residence, Downhills House. (fn. 71) Wood Green was the only settlement named in the west in 1754, and was still very small in 1818. Its houses were widely scattered, some facing the green itself, known as Wood Green common, others to the north where Green Lanes ascended Jolly Butchers (later Clay Bush) Hill, and a few to the east along Lordship Lane. On the slopes farther west, the woods had dwindled to a few groves among ploughed fields by 1800. There were no houses save Nightingale Hall, on the south side of Bounds Green Lane by 1754, two buildings in the extreme north-west, facing the long strip which was Bounds Green itself, and Tottenham Wood Farm near the top of Muswell Hill.
From: 'Tottenham: Growth before 1850', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 313-317. URL:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=26985 Date accessed: 23 July 2009.