Pinkneys Green

Location

Pinkneys Green is located at grid reference SU857820, just north-east of the A404 road and north-west of Highway. Stubbings is to the west and Bisham and Cookham Dean some way to the north.

History

Established as a hamlet circa 1650, it became known as Pinkneys Green by the early 1700s, although it is unclear whether the name derives specifically from Ghilo de Pinkney, a Norman knight who supported William the Conqueror, or in reference to the Pinkney family as a whole. This prominent family, whose main estates were in Northamptonshire, owned the original manor of Pinkneys Court, then in the parish of Cookham, from the 12th to the 15th century.

The wooded Maidenhead Thicket, also owned by the National Trust, is at Pinkneys Green. The banks and ditches of a small Iron Age farmstead, called 'Robin Hood's Arbour' may be seen there. The Thicket was originally a much larger area of wilderness, famous as the haunt of highwaymen in the 17th and 18th centuries. Maidenhead's coaching inns grew rich on the travellers' fear of crossing the Thicket at night.

Character and amenities

Pinkneys Green is a dormitory residential area and contains very few businesses or services. It does, however, have two public houses and a restaurant, and it is only a short distance from Maidenhead town centre and railway station. Pinkney's Green Common is frequented by dog-walkers at all hours of the day from across the area. It is owned by the National Trust.

Carter's Steam Fair stops at Pinkneys Green each year in the Spring.

Scouts have been in Pinkneys Green since 1909. Pinkneys Green Scouts on Winter Hill Road has over 135 members. The first Girl Guide Company in the world was the 1st Pinkneys Green Guides (Miss Baden-Powell's Own).

Ellington Morris - Maidenhead's Morris Dance side are based in Pinkneys Green. Formed in 1972 the side practices throughout the winter at the Scout hut and perform their traditional Mummers play on Boxing day followed by dancing out from May 1 at pubs, fetes and events in the area throughout the summer. The side dances traditional Cotswold dances together with their own Ellington tradition which continues to show that traditional morris is alive and thriving within this rural community.

Sports

Cricket has been played on Pinkneys Green since 1885. Michael Parkinson officially opened the new Pinkneys Green Cricket Club pavilion in May 2007 following the destruction of the previous one in an arson attack in February 2004.

Pinkneys Green F.C. was founded in 1978. The club currently plays in the Thames Valley Sunday Football League Division 2.