Saturday 21st September - today the Tower will be open from 2pm to 5pm as part of the London Open House Event. Climbing the Tower is free and refreshments can be purchased on site! Please come early as numbers are restricted and places allotted on a first come first served basis.

Great afternoon last Saturday for the Open House event - tower tours were very popular as usual, tea & cake stall did good business & merchandise & games stalls busy. The musicians were much appreciated by everyone & over £500 was raised to maintain the tower!

Tower Open Day 2025 - This will take place next Saturday 12th July from 2 to 5pm. Climb the Tower & enjoy the views of London! Note that entry is by timed ticket issued on the day on a ‘first come first served’ basis so arrive early! Please note our website is not correct.

Apologies for the break in posting, this was due to personal circumstances re the ‘comms’ team - however we’re back! First up the big ash tree in the High Street side of the Churchyard dropped a large branch last weekend - will need the Council to clear it..1/

2/ a similar incident happened in July 2018 when a large branch broke off the same tree & landed on the footpath - apparently this is a possibility with ash trees in very dry conditions as we are currently experiencing. We will notify the Council.

The volunteers want to give a big thank you to the Priory Park maintenance team for the work they do in the Churchyard keeping the grass cut and tidying up the graves - it looks very good!

A new bench has been installed in the south side of the Churchyard - it is dedicated to the memory of Dorothy Bransome and Eric Bacon who were both residents of Hornsey.

A very successful Tower Open Day was held last Saturday 12th July - as usual the Tower tours were the highlight & very popular with all the visitors. This year we were able to take parties of 20 so over 130 people climbed the Tower. Thanks to Chris for organising the live music!

New Store - a new storage container has been installed on the west border of the Churchyard opposite the Tower. It provides much needed space for gardening & event equipment that previously had to be ‘squeezed’ into the crypt or transported upstairs to the clock chamber.

For the 15th year running, the Churchyard has achieved the Green Flag Community Award & with top marks for the 2nd consecutive year.The GFCA is the international standard for publicly accessible parks/green spaces. Thanks to the volunteers & Priory Parks team for their efforts.

1. Gerrit van de Linde (a thread)..as some will know, Gerrit van de Linde was a Dutch Schoolmaster and poet who was born in Rotterdam in 1808. He was a talented literary scholar from an early age and regularly presented his poetry at literary fellowships while still a schoolboy.

2. In 1825 Gerrit van de Linde entered Leiden University in Holland to study divinity and continue his literary work. Gerrit had to leave Holland in January 1834 following a number of scandalous romantic affairs and his outstanding debts.

3. After a difficult start to life in his new London home Gerrit van de Linde became friends with several generous benefactors who funded him & enabled Gerrit to set up a successful & progressive (he didn’t believe in corporal punishment) boarding school.

4. In 1837 Gerrit married Caroline de Monteuuis the daughter of a proprietor of a French residential school & in 1843 Gerrit acquired Cromwell House in Highgate for his school. Gerrit became a well respected member of the community & moved in the ‘best social circles’.

5. Although ultimately very successful in London, Gerrit van de Linde never enjoyed robust health & became ill in the autumn of 1857. On the 27th of January 1858 Gerrit van de Linde died & was buried in the west border of St Mary’s Churchyard in Hornsey.

6. Following Gerrit’s passing his friend (Jacob van Lennep) in Holland published a first anthology of Gerrit’s poetry which was very successful & quickly sold out making ‘The Schoolmaster’ a household name. Additional editions also sold out & were illustrated.

7. Gerrit’s grave has lain largely forgotten in Hornsey but a few academics & interested readers have kept his memory alive. By 2025 his gravestone had become tilted & dirty so Professor Marita Mathijsen-Verkooijen raised funds via a Dutch Culture Fund to restore/clean his stone

8. The gravestone was restored & cleaned by London Stone Conservation & Royce Hall Building Services - the pictures show the cleaning in progress, repair of the foundation & replacement of the gravestone. The Friends also funded the levelling of the adjacent Wright gravestone.

On Sunday 3rd August Gerrit van de Linde’s great, great granddaughter Maggie Flowitt visited the Churchyard to see the results of the restoration.

Professor Marita Mathijsen-Verkooijen (right) with Maggie Flowitt (left) and the front cover of the first edition of ‘Poems by ‘The Schoolmaster’ published in 1859, the year after Gerrit van de Linde’s death.