National Grade: Leisurely  Distance: 6 mi / 9.7 km  Leader: Sara R Date: May 9th 2026

A beautiful sunny Spring day attracted a large, friendly group of members and visitors for our Saturday afternoon programme to hike around some of the green spaces of Pinner & Harrow. The theme was “volunteering” and our first green space was the compact Bridge Gardens in Pinner which has received an impressive makeover in the last couple of years with working parties digging out and replanting borders. The new bug hotel there is awaiting its official opening by a celebrity- perhaps spiderman or ant (and Dec)?
Next up was Pinner Memorial Park and the pretty walled Peace Garden which is a serene spot just beyond the new children's playground. We had Peace Garden volunteers amongst our ranks and some carry out mind boggling tasks in relation to pruning at height.
Onwards to Pinner Village gardens which was originally laid out as part of the Metropolitan line expansion in the 1920s. This extensive park has been maintained by volunteers since 2015 and is always evolving. We stopped for a break by the Rose Garden and the Chatty bench was soon occupied.
After viewing the ridge and furrow medieval field system we left the gardens to make our way to Yeading Brook Open Space. This is a recent volunteer project and the linear park that connects Pinner with North Harrow has been transformed since the pandemic. Unfortunately, we were too early for the planned 100th birthday party that was taking place for Sir David Attenborough in the orchard later in the afternoon.
We then walked through North Harrow and into Headstone Manor. Lots to see here. A flood relief scheme, wetlands, community orchard, cricket pitches, a medieval barn and free museum in an ancient moated manor house (staffed by volunteers) and the Coot nest & chicks were all inspected. However, due to the heat of the day the lovely cafe and outside seating area had the edge!!! Suitably refreshed, we headed back to Pinner with a gentle climb up Wakemans Hill and at its summit took another break under the trees to admire the view towards Harrow Weald.
We finished the walk with a quick look at the outside of a home occupied by Ambrose Heal and another dwelling lived in by Horatia Nelson, Ronnie Barker and David Suchet-not at the same time of course!! We returned to Pinner station along the High Street and passed buildings used in the filming of One Life, the story of Nicholas Winton, played by Sir Antony Hopkins. The beauty of this walk was that people could peel off at any time to catch public transport or return to their cars and there was only a small group of us that returned to the station. Thank you all for coming and special thanks to the back marker.

 Report by:  Sara Reeves