A farming hamlet in north-west Arkley, right on the border with the Hertfordshire’s borough of Hertsmere. The first half of its name dates from the late thirteenth century, when it meant a ‘rough woodland clearing’; the later second part indicated the presence of a village green, now lost to trees and shrubs since cattle grazing stopped after the Second World War.

Adjacent to Arkley golf course (in fact almost enveloped by it), the twelve-acre Rowley Green Common is a remnant meadow with two large ponds and a bog formed from old gravel diggings, surrounded by mature oaks and birches. The common was made a local nature reserve in 1991 and thus accorded statutory protection. It is jointly managed by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and the London Wildlife Trust.