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Amberley Publications have come up with another publication of Pinner’s rich history and famous heritage. The book is overflowing with pictures from past and present including Ancient maps. We took a trip down memory lane and reflected on some of the locations mentioned in the latest book.
The book beautifully illustrates past and present facades of the iconic High Street leading up to the ancient St John’s Church which was one of Pinner’s first buildings in 1321.
There are past images (see below) and present images of the Queens Head and rather fittingly pictures of publican Jill Tindall who has recently retired. Locals could always be assured of warm welcome from Jill who will be sadly missed. |
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The Queen’s Head, c. 1912 - This is a mid-sixteenth-century building. It was an inn by 1636 and has so remained. Known by 1692 as The Crown, the Queen’s Head acquired its present name in 1714, though it was the UpperQueen’s Head from 1722 to 1766. The signpost and beam are a reminder of its coaching days. Here we see an early twentieth-century licensee, Dawson Billows, with a bear he kept briefly. Image Courtesy of Pat Clarke
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There is a fascinating page documenting the Lines family
early plumbing business to the modern day wallpaper shop run by Kara and Jarad.
The wood cladded building midway up the high street which
is now Friends Restaurant started early life as a cottage and subsequently changed
into Tea rooms. This is now a highly successful restaurant run by Terry Farr
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Gurneys Grocery, c. 1900, and Pulfords Greengrocery, c. 1908 - It was in the High Street that routine shopping was done, and great care and pride went into some window displays. In Edwardian times, Frederick Gurney’s grocery shop and wine store occupied today’s Prezzo and Hand in Hand Wine bar (Nos 36–38). Below is Pulford’s1908 Christmas display of fruit and vegetables. The shop is now the hairdresser Visage (No. 25). Its painted brick façade disguises a much earlier, timber-framed building of late fifteenth-century date. Image Courtesy of Pinner Local History Society
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Beyond the High Street little has changed to Pinner station albeit modern day London Transport signage minus chimneys.
There are fascinating references to the early shopping in Pinner with an early incarnation of the “Sainsbury” brand delivering orders from their Greenhill branch. Deliveries don’t appear to have to have changed that much except you can now go online! Are we progressing? Who knows?
The book makes reference to the recently sadly demolished George public house,which had played its own part in Pinner’s history, removed despite its listed building status. There are interesting historic references to West House documenting its early years.
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Barber’s Fields and Rural Love Lane - These fields were on William Barber’s Barrowpoint estate, the footpath crossing the Pinn near where Avenue Road is now. The distant houses were in Paines Lane. Barber apparently maintained the paths as a pleasant walk. Nearby Love Lane, below, sometimes called Mud Lane, remained rural until around 1900, when development began, Barber having died in 1892. In 1914, during a dispute over responsibility for the roadway, seventy-eight-year-old Crimean War veteran George Paradine said he had been born in Love Lane in ‘the Clay Hut’ made by his father of hurdles, furze and grass. Image Courtesy of Pinner Local History Society
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We could not let the review go past without evoking memories of the Langham Cinema which used to be in Bridge Street and is now a supermarket. Memories just remain of Saturday morning pictures and Pathe News
The book richly documents the surrounding area and illustrates the preservation of historic buildings in and around the Pinner area.
We sadly have only just touched the surface of this fascinating illustrated story of Pinner and its surrounding area, and for those fascinated by history and in particular Pinner, we would thoroughly recommend this book.
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The book is available for purchase at Lines in the High Street
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