One of the many things we enjoy about our work at Freshbinz Ltd is that we get to see and know many different areas during the course of a week, places as diverse as Harlow and Furneaux Pelham for example. Some of the places that we visit on our bin cleaning rounds have interesting sites and histories, so we thought that we would do a mini series of blogs about some of the places that our Freshbinz Ltd operatives visit during the working week.
First on the list, Furneaux Pelham, no special reason apart from the fact that we love what it’s called, what a name! But where did it come from? You might guess that the origin is French, Norman French in fact. It comes from the old French word ‘fournell’ a diminutive of ‘four’ which means furnace or oven in French.
It probably means that the places named Fournell in France were originally home to the local furnace, either where glass was made or where blacksmiths plied their trade. Of course, there’s no furnace in Furneaux Pelham unless you count following behind the dustmen on a boiling hot day. But Furneaux Pelham unlike the French towns was named after Richard de Furneals who was a 12th century Lord of the Manor.
That’s the history, but what is the village like today? It’s a small parish in Hertfordshire surrounded by gently sloping fields, a very pleasant place to take a stroll. The village has the usual church, St Mary the Virgin, which has an unusual medieval carved roof, and on the spire clock is the motto “Time Flies, Mind your Business” which we think would be a great Freshbinz Ltd moto, especially when we’re chasing around after the refuse truck! Time certainly does fly, and we always mind our business.
When you’ve finished your stroll and checked out the church, The Brewery Tap is a great place for a lunchtime snack or an evening meal, they even have coffee mornings. Then there’s The Furneaux Stores which stocks the best of fresh produce, meat, fish and homemade sausage rolls, scotch eggs, and quiches. Who doesn’t like a homemade sausage roll?
All in all, we think that FP must be a great place to live, lovely views, well stocked shop, a bit of history, great pub, and of course very clean bins.