Year: 2021

The Cannon Lane Post Office will reopen in it’s previous location at 88 Cannon Lane at 1pm on the 8th July 2021.

The services offered will include bill payment, cash withdrawals and foreign currency, postage, and home shopping collections and returns.   The opening hours will be 8am to 5.30pm from Monday to Friday, and 8am to 12pm on Saturday.

Members of Harrow and Pinner Lions Club were spotted doing a litter pick in Pinner this morning.  Thank you for your efforts

Just in case you were wondering what happened to of The Showmen’s Guild Pinner Fair this year.  A token stall was set up by its members on the corner of Chapel Lane and Bridge Street.

 

Let’s hope next year we can see the return of the full fair.

The Pinner Association understands that, as last year and due to the current Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, Pinner Fair will not be held on 2nd June 2021.

However, contrary to the “urban myth” that by not holding the fair the charter granting the right to hold a fair would lapse, this is not the case and therefore Pinner Fair could be held again in 2022 (Covid permitting).

The article below is taken from our magazine The Villager (edition 249, March 2021) and explains why Pinner Fair will continue in future despite the effect of the pandemic curtailing the festivities in 2020 and 2021:

Pinner Fair

Pat Clarke’s scholarly article in The Villager (edition 247, July 2020) about the Royal Charter establishing Pinner Fair in 1336 posed the question whether legislation would be required to abolish it.  This set me thinking.

I remembered that when the Whitsun Bank Holiday was abolished in the 1960’s and replaced by the Spring Bank Holiday, Pinner Fair continued for some years to be held on the Wednesday following Whit Monday, which only occasionally fell on the Spring Bank Holiday.  Particularly since school half-terms invariably include the Bank Holiday, this meant that attendance at the Fair was usually much lower than before the change in the Bank Holiday.  I recalled that, some years later, the date of the Fair was changed to bring it in line with the Bank Holiday, although I could not remember when this happened.

Knowing that legal machinery existed to achieve this change, I was sure there would be a simple answer to Pat Clarke’s question and was prompted to re-read the late Jim Golland’s informative and entertaining book “Fair Enough”*.  Sure enough, this provided the answer.  Attempts to abolish the Fair have been made in the past but always without success.

The Fairs Act 1871 empowered the Home Secretary to abolish a fair if it was thought to be “unnecessary or injurious to the public” or that its abolition would be “for the convenience and advantage of the public”.  Representations accordingly had to be made by the local magistrates.  The passing of the Act precipitated the abolition in 1872 alone of some seventy fairs (including the one at neighbouring Harrow-on-the-Hill, which was alleged to be “to the detriment of the morals of the neighbourhood”).  From 1894, the Act was amended so that representations to the Home Secretary were to be made by local councils rather than by local magistrates.

It was the Fairs Act of 1873 that empowered the Home Secretary to change the date of a fair.  It was presumably pursuant to this Act that the Home Secretary of the day agreed, in 1972, to the change of the date of Pinner Fair from the Wednesday after Whitsun to the Wednesday after the Spring Bank Holiday.  (It had at some previous time been changed from the 24^th June and the Charter had originally provided for a three-day fair, from the 23rd to the 25^th June.)

The answer to Pat Clarke’s question thus appears to be that Harrow Council would need to persuade the Home Secretary (no doubt in the face of vehement counter-representations by interested groups) that the Fair was “unnecessary or injurious to the public” or that its abolition would be “for the convenience and advantage of the public”.  It could then be abolished pursuant to the Fairs Act 1871 (as amended).  Given the enthusiasm of most Pinner inhabitants for their fair, and its increasing popularity with the public over a much wider area, however, let us hope that this never comes to pass!

Michael Treisman,

Pinner Local History Society.

 

This is a message from Pinner Village Hall.

Following yesterday’s Government announcement, PADCA are pleased to advise that Pinner Village Hall will be re-opening on Monday 17th May 2021.  Whilst the Government Roadmap is going to plan, please do not forget that not all restrictions have been lifted and you will still be required to adhere to the attached guidance to help keep Pinner Village Hall Covid-19 secure.  To summarize, the main points to following are:

• Everyone will need to “check-in” on the NHS app using the NHS QR Code Poster located at the main entrance.  If you know that some of your attendees/members do not have smart phones, please keep a register of those in attendance and their contact details in case NHS Track & Trace need to be informed.
• Everyone will be expected to wear face coverings whilst moving around the building, particularly when using more confined areas such as the toilets.
• Everyone will be expected to maintain social distancing of 2m, or 1m plus with extra precautions (face coverings).  Whilst indoors, the “rule of six” must still be followed.
• Use the hand sanitizer provided on entering the premises and wash your hands regularly.

Whilst I know that many of our regular users have now received both vaccinations, please remember that this doesn’t mean that you are immune from catching COVID-19 or from passing it onto others.  Lets help everyone feel safe by respecting each other and abiding by the rules for just a bit longer.  Hopefully “normality” will return and all restrictions will be lifted by 21st June!

I would like to say a specific “Welcome Back” to the following activities that will be resuming over the next couple of weeks and wish you all the best with your return:

• Jazzercise
• Drama with Sue
• 1st Steps Linedance
• Community Theatre with Marion
• Pinner Players Theatre Company
• Pinner Village Healing Centre
• Phonics with Robot Reg
• Catch The Fire Church

For those that will be returning after all restrictions are lifted, we look forward to seeing you then. 

With best wishes,

Lea
Booking Administrator
Pinner Village Hall
Chapel Lane
Pinner
HA5 1AA

Telephone:  020 8429 4320
www.pinnervillagehall.org.uk