PINNER is a village and parish on the borders of Hertfordshire, on high ground, on the road from Harrow to Rickmansworth, 2 ¾ miles north-west from Harrow, 4 south from Watford and 13 from London, and has stations on the London and North Western and Metropolitan railways, the former being 1 ½ miles north-east from the village: the parish is in the Harrow division of the county, Gore hundred and petty sessional division, Hendon union, Watford county court district, and in the rural deanery of Harrow, archdeaconry of Middlesex and diocese of London. The village is lighted with gas by the Pinner Gas Co. Lim. and is supplied with water from works at Bushey, the property of the Colne Valley Water Co. Pinner was formerly part of the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Harrow. A small stream called the Pin, rising near Pinner Wood, runs through this parish, and flows into the river Colne. The church of St. John the Baptist is an edifice of flint and stone, the earliest portions of which date from the 14th century, but many additions, including the tower and porch, were made in the 15th century: it now consists of chancel with aisle (built in 1879 and appropriated to the use of the Commercial Travellers’ schools), clerestoried nave, with an arcade of five bays, transepts, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower, with angle turret and pyramidal roof, containing a clock and 8 bells, dated 1772: there are seven stained windows; the east window was presented in memory of the Rev. Edward Thomas Burrow, vicar from 1833, who died in 1861; the stained west window was given by Frances and Caroline Rummens of The Grove, as a memorial of their children: the reredos was erected in 1871 by the late John Weall esq. and surviving family, in memory of his wife and two daughters: there are also monuments and a tablet with kneeling effigy to Mr. John Day, some time minister of the church, dated 1622; to Thomas Hutchinson, dated 1656 and to Christopher Clitherow, grandson of Sir Christopher Clitherow, Lord Mayor of London, dated 1685; in the vestry is a brass to Eustace Bedingfield, “a chrysom child,” dated 1580: the organ was given to the church by William Barber esq.: in the south transept is a piscina: in 1880 the church was restored at the cost of William Arthur Tooke esq. of Pinner Hill, under the direction of Mr. J. L. Pearson R.A., F.S.A, and over the inside door of the south porch is a brass plate with the Latin inscription recording the event: there are 450 sittings. The register dates from the year 1654. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £230, with 26 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the vicar of Harrow, and held since 1886 by the Rev. Charles Edward Grenside M.A. of Wadham College, Oxford. The great tithes are held by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford; the small tithes by the vicar of Harrow. St. Anselm's church, Hatch End, built in 1894 at a cost of nearly £4,000, as a chapel of ease to the parish church, was consecrated in 1895, and will seat 450 persons. There are also Baptist and Wesleyan chapels. The cemetery, of about two acres, occupies an elevated site above the village on the east: it has two mortuary chapels, and is under the control of the Pinner Parish Council. A small pleasure fair is held on Whit-Wednesday. Pinner Place is the residence of Sebastian H. Garrard esq. The principal landowners are A. Helsham-Jones esq. J.P. and Daniel William Hill esq. The soil is clay; subsoil, clay, sand, limestone and gravel. Here are limekilns, and bricks are made here. The chief crops are hay. The area is 3,772 acres of land and 10 of water; rateable value, £31,746; the population in 1861 was 1,849, in 1881 2,519, and in 1891 was 2,727 in the civil and 2,546 in the ecclesiastical parish.

Moat House, in this parish, was at one time the residence of Cardinal Wolsey; Oliver Cromwell was also stated to have once tenanted the house.

Schools

In 1882 Pinner was made a contributory district to the Harrow School Board, sending one member.

The Commercial Travellers’ Schools for orphan & necessitous children, are situated about one mile and a half east of the village & were opened in 1855 by his late R.H. the Prince Consort: the buildings, of red brick with stone dressings in the Gothic style, were enlarged in 1868 by the addition of wings; further additions were made in 1876—7, at a cost of £17,000, raised by subscription, & in 1878, an infirmary, baths & other buildings were erected in memory of the late George Moore esq.; there are now (1898) about 232 boys & 126 girls in the establishment, who are clothed, maintained & educated at the expense of the institution, which is sustained by voluntary subscriptions; Henry J. Evans, 37 Milk street, London, sec.

National (boys, girls & infants), built in 1841, enlarged in 1887, for 120 boys, 110 girls, & 90 infants; average attendance 100 boys, 100 girls, 75 infants.