The village is named after the Goff family, who owned much of the land in the area, and is symbolised by the original Old Oak, said to be several hundred years old before it fell in the 1950s.

The houses on Goffs Lane north-east of the memorial were opened in 1895 as the village's Metropolitan Police station,[a] possibly after lobbying from Lady Meux about rising crime on her Theobalds estate.

In the 1970s, Timeslip,[4] a popular children's science fiction series, was filmed at Burnt Farm Army Camp in Silver Street.

[6][7] Roman Catholics in the village have been served by St Martin de Porres Church in nearby Cuffley since 1963.

Buster Miekle, a member of Unit 4 + 2 (a local group who in 1965 sang the No.1 hit song Concrete and Clay) used to live in Goffs Oak.