South Mimms

South Mimms
Middlesex
Aerial view
Location
Grid reference:	TL225015
Location:	51°41’56"N, 0°13’44"W
Data
Population:	729
Post town:	Potters Bar
Postcode:	EN6
Dialling code:	01707
Local Government
Council:	Hertsmere
Parliamentary constituency:	Hertsmere

South Mimms, sometimes spelled South Mymms, is a little village in Middlesex, in the north of the county in a mainly rural setting – rare for Middlesex. The parish of South Mimms indeed contains the northernmost village in Middlesex. To the east is Potters Bar, the county's northernmost town, once a minor part of the parish and now a great town dwarfing its mother village.

Its peace is violently disturbed however by the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) and the service station, known as South Mimms Services, by which reason the name of this tiny place is widely known.

The village is caught in an acute angle between the motorways, just north of the M25 and west of the A1. The village of Ridge, Hertfordshire is just across the M25 (and the county border), linked by a bridge, and the motorway service station, is west of the A1(M). The tiny hamlet of North Mymms is a couple of miles to the north, beyond the Mymmshall Woods, and within Hertfordshire.

The Mimmshall Brook flows to the east of the village, between it and Potters Bar, its course rudely shoved aside at times by the A1(M).

History

Potters Bar was originally a small settlement in the parish of South Mimms. Potters Bar became the location of the nearest railway station and eventually became much larger.

South Mimms served as a home for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands during her exile in Second World War. A German air attack on South Mimms at this time narrowly missed her, killing two of her guards, an incident mentioned in her autobiography.

For many years Clare Hall Hospital was used as a tuberculosis sanatorium.

See also

• North Mymms

Sign at Junction 1 of the A1(M) at South Mimms

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about South Mimms)