Wood Floor Sanding
Harlow

Harlow

Old Harlow village retains its identity and character. The parish church of St Mary has an old chest and a good collection of brasses.

Its monuments include two to recipients of the Victoria Cross in the Great War: Sir Evelyn Wood and Colonel John Neville Marshall.

Marshall earned his VC a few days before the Armistice, leading his men to retake a broken bridge – and falling as he rushed across it.

The 1930s Hollywood actress, Jean Harlow, would have been surprised to have had a pub named after her within an English new town. There’s no record of the famous Platinum Blonde ever having visited her namesake (ok – her real name was Harlean Carpenter) although one suspects she would have enjoyed the chance of the odd cocktail.

She is remembered for her good-natured sex appeal that constantly pushed the boundaries within her films – helping to bring on the restrictions of the infamous Hollywood Code. She wisecracked her way through such entertaining movies as Hell’s Angels, Public Enemy, Red Dust and Dinner at Eight.

Thrice married, she managed to survive the scandal of one of her husband’s notorious suicide – or possible murder – two months after their marriage.

The rumour spread that she did not survive the misfortune of having a Christian Scientist for a mother. When Jean fell ill, so went the story, her mother refused to allow treatment.

It would make a juicy plot for a film, but the facts are more mundane, yet still tragic. Jean died from then incurable kidney disease aged 26 – at the height of her stardom.