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College Farm is the last farm in Finchley
Finchley

Finchley is a place in the London Borough of Barnet, London, England. It is predominantly a residential suburb with a number of retail districts....
, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. It is essentially a city farm and visitor attraction.

In 1868 George Barham, founder of "Express Dairies", leased a property of about in Finchley called Sheephouse Farm. In 1882/83 he had it rebuilt by a Fredrick Chancellor as a model dairy farm renaming it after Christ's College Finchley
Christ's College Finchley

Christ's College is a secondary school in East Finchley, London, United Kingdom. It falls under the London Borough of Barnet Local Education Authority....
 College Farm.

By the 1900s the company believed that farm would not be viable as a real farm, so it was decided to adapt it to become visitor centre in 1909, buying out the lease on the property of the farm buildings, and retaining a handful of the adjacent fields from the original estate.






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College Farm is the last farm in Finchley
Finchley

Finchley is a place in the London Borough of Barnet, London, England. It is predominantly a residential suburb with a number of retail districts....
, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. It is essentially a city farm and visitor attraction.

In 1868 George Barham, founder of "Express Dairies", leased a property of about in Finchley called Sheephouse Farm. In 1882/83 he had it rebuilt by a Fredrick Chancellor as a model dairy farm renaming it after Christ's College Finchley
Christ's College Finchley

Christ's College is a secondary school in East Finchley, London, United Kingdom. It falls under the London Borough of Barnet Local Education Authority....
 College Farm.

By the 1900s the company believed that farm would not be viable as a real farm, so it was decided to adapt it to become visitor centre in 1909, buying out the lease on the property of the farm buildings, and retaining a handful of the adjacent fields from the original estate. By the 1930s the residue of the farm was surrounded by houses, and was organised for public visitor, with tea rooms and an exhibition of objects related to the dairy industry. In 1973 the Express Dairy company left the site, and the dairy museum was broken up.

In 1974 the Department of the Environment purchased the estate with the intention of giving it to the London Borough of Barnet
London Borough of Barnet

The London Borough of Barnet is a London borough in North London and forms part of Outer London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and five other London boroughs: London Borough of Harrow and London Borough of Brent to the west, London Borough of Camden and London Borough of Haringey to the south-east and London Borough of Enfield to the...
 in exchange for open land at Henly’s Corner needed for a flyover (which was never built). The farm was leased by Chris and Jane Ower, who ran it successfully as a popular local attraction from 1980 until February 2001, when an outbreak of foot and mouth disease
2001 UK foot and mouth crisis

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in the spring and summer of 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism....
 meant the site had to be closed. With the support of local organisations such as the Finchley Society, the College Farm Trust was set up in 2004 with the intention of re-establishing it as visitor centre, and by June 2005 there was cattle in the fields between Regents Park Road and the farm.