The Churchgate Hotel - Harlow - Aug 2015

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At the south end of Churchgate Street stands the 16th-century Chantry House, later to become the Churchgate hotel. 

It was built after the Reformation on land that had formed the endowment of John of Staunton's chantry in the parish church. 

It was bought by Alexander Stafford in 1615 and was sold some time after his death in 1652 to Samuel Harrison, whose descendants sold it to J. W. Perry-Watlington in 1855. 

The building, timber-framed and plastered, had a fine doorway and original features, but has been much altered in the 20th century.

Stan Beare's Barbers Shop

Stan Beare's name appears over the years to have been changed by local word of mouth to Beard. This is probably understandable as he was Harlow’s longest serving Barber.

Not a lot seems to have been documented about Beare’s career but we do know from a newspaper clipping that he owned a barbers shop at Mulberry Green in the late 1920s.

Sometime after this Stan appears to have moved the business to New Road where he worked alongside his daughter Kathy.

After Stan Beare’s death it would appear that Kathy kept the business running herself for a while until her own death when the ownership of the Barber shop fell into the hands of Kathy’s husband Basil who I believe worked as a tractor driver on Soper’s Farm.

It is said that when the Cowlin’s were built the developer wanted to buy and demolish the shop to incorporate the land into the new development but Basil wasn’t interested in selling

Basil sadly died in late 2014 and with no children to hand the property onto it’s future is uncertain.

I’m not exactly sure how long the Barber shop has been derelict and unused but I did find a newspaper on the window sill dated April 1981.