Editing Whetstone, London (section)

===The Whetstone===
[[File:The Whetstone.jpg|thumb|right|The Whetstone]]
[[File:The Griffin pub Whetstone.JPG|thumb|The Griffin pub with the Whetstone visible in the left foreground]]

John Heathfield of the [[Friern Barnet & District Local History Society]] writes that according to the [[Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England]], the stone outside ''The Griffin'' [[public house]] commonly known as the Whetstone, is a [[mounting block]], and if so "it would have been connected to the toll gate erected by the Whetstone & Highgate Turnpike Trust about 1730."<ref>Transport for London</ref>{{Better source needed|date=May 2022|reason=The current source is very general and the quote cannot be found.}}

An historic legend regarding the whetstone itself tells that the stone was used by soldiers on their march towards High Barnet (approx. 3.5 miles north of Whetstone) in preparation for the battle of Barnet in 1471.

He also states that the earliest evidence for the existence of the stone is a photograph taken in 1861 which shows it much closer to ''The Griffin'' than it is now. The stone was moved to its present location when the toll gate was removed in 1863.<ref name=friern/>

Until the late 19th century this was the northern hamlet, centred on a crossroads, of the medieval parish of Friern Barnet which stretched {{convert|3|mi}} south-southeast and was half as wide as long. The very rural parish until then had one other main population centre, equally a hamlet, [[Colney Hatch]].<ref>A P Baggs, Diane K Bolton, M A Hicks and R B Pugh, 'Friern Barnet: Introduction', in ''A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6'' ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1980), pp. 6-15. Part of the [[Victoria County History]] collaborative professional historians' project. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol6/pp6-15</ref>