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The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 from the Municipal Borough of Finchley, Municipal Borough of Hendon and the Friern Barnet Urban District of Middlesex and the East Barnet Urban District and Barnet Urban District of Hertfordshire. The Act did not include a name for the new borough. A joint committee of the councils due to be amalgamated suggested "Northgate" or "Northern Heights". Keith Joseph, the Minister of Housing and Local Government, eventually chose Barnet. The place name Barnet is derived from the Old English bærnet meaning "Land cleared by burning".
The area covered by the modern borough has a long history. Evidence of 1st-century Roman pottery manufacturing has been found at Brockley Hill and Roman coins from the 3rd and 4th centuries were found at Burnt Oak. Both sites are on the Roman road Watling Street from London (Londinium) and St Albans (Verulamium) which now forms the western border of the borough.
Hendon is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, but the districts of Barnet, Edgware and Finchley were not referred to possibly because these areas were included in other manors.
In 1471 the Battle of Barnet was fought in Monken Hadley, just within the present borough's boundary. It was here that Yorkist troops led by King Edward IV killed the "Kingmaker" Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and his brother, John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu.
Barnet has two Grade I Listed buildings, both designed by Edwin Lutyens: the Church of St Jude, the parish church of Hampstead Garden Suburb with a Gothic spire and on the opposite side of Central Square, the Free Church, of similar design but with a concrete dome. The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum built on part of the site of Hendon Aerodrome, dedicated to the history of aviation, and the British Royal Air Force in particular.
Church Farmhouse Museum on Greyhound Hill in Hendon is a grade II* listed 17th-century farmhouse used by Barnet Council as an exhibition space and museum until the Council closed to save money on 31 March 2011. Early in 2014 it was given the classification of "vulnerable" by English Heritage after having stood abandoned for almost three years. Friern Hospital was a large Victorian psychiatric hospital located in Friern Barnet, which has been converted into flats.
The Jewish Military Museum is a museum located in Hendon. It features exhibits about Jews serving in the British armed forces from the 18th century to the present day.
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