Visit to Taplow 9th Aug 2015 / Marsh Lane /The Pineapple

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Everybody.I went to Taplow ,Taplow Station and its 'Approach Road' ,the site of the Old Station Inn where BMW Car Sales now stands where a Swiss Chalet type Building replaces the Old Taplow Inn this Chalet standing directly opposite a big old Pub called the Harvester from which anyone wanting to follow the couple could have parked and watched the couple leave the Old Station Inn driving onto the Bath Road and then driving along a very short distance to Marsh Lane .I also went to the 'Pineapple Inn' referred to by Paul Foot because at its rear lies the cornfield where the gunman entered the Morris Minor.Opposite the pub stands an old red telephone Box circa 1930's [but ER is stamped on the front so maybe later after 1954 but I very much doubt it.Two pics of the Pineapple Inn - the long one shows the old telephone box and the pub standing just opposite which isn't showing it to be the Pineapple very clearly but it was the best I could do.
To my great surprise I found all the sites much close together than I had thought and certainly within easy walking distance from Taplow Station---eg its about a five minute walk from Taplow Station to the site of the Old Taplow Inn with the Harvester pub standing opposite and from which anybody going in or leaving the Old Station could have been watched in comfort.Both the Old Station Inn and The Harvester are about five minutes from Taplow Station and from either pub it would take about five minutes to reach the entrance of Marsh Lane -but not the cornfield which is a little way down past about a dozen big and some smaller detached houses.
Here are some of the photos I took today .Do look at the little picture on the right of the cornfield with the trees and which clearly shows the signposts pointing to Maidenhead on the left and Slough on the right.
[PS-I also started a new thread titled Marsh Lane Sightings which for some reason has missed the allocated M^ threads and has been placed under 'Other Mysteries'.

[Natalie Severn]

The junction of Marsh Lane and the Bath Road which caused a slight hesitation when deciding which way to go and showing the two sign posts saying Madenhead[on left] and Slough [on the right].They of course went Right as the gunman stated he was "sick of Maidenhead'.[mabe he had been keeping watch on Gregsten arriving to look at his new flat there!]

[NickB]

Great photos!

from either pub it would take about five minutes to reach the entrance of Marsh Lane

My understanding is that after leaving the pub they did not take this turning into Marsh Lane but continued on the A4 and took a later turning to Huntercombe Lane.

By the way, the Pineapple pub website says "we owe our name to the fact that Britain’s first pineapple was grown 200 yards away in the village of Dorney and presented to King Charles II in 1661 as an alternative to Nell Gwynn’s oranges."

[Natalie Severn]

Yes-that is true-I went down Huntercombe Lane today too- but the point I was wanting to make was that these places are not miles apart but surprisingly close to each other-especially Taplow Station.Anybody could have followed the couple's movements from The Harvester opposite and reaching The Old Taplow Inn was easy from Slough -there are a number of bus stops dotted along the Bath Road and several buses went past travelling from Sough to Maidenhead quite apart from the train service.
Liked the story of the origin of the name of the Pineapple pub!

[Graham]

Very nice pix, Nats, but please tell me: did you do your tour on foot or did you drive?

I've already said that on my first visit to Taplow, I parked near to Taplow Station and did the tour (A4, Old Station Inn site, A4 again, Marsh Lane all the way down to Dorney Court, and back again. I was too knackered to return via Hunterscombe Lane) on foot on a stinking hot summer day, and it nearly saw me off. If you're walking the route, Nats, it's plenty far!

And also please tell me: did you stand where The Old Station Inn once was, and if so could you see the entrance to the corn-field, as your playwright pal claimed he could? Moste made the valid suggestion that perhaps your friend was referring to The Pineapple. Did you check that out?

Purely out of possibly very limited interest, I had some customers in Slough, mostly on the Industrial Estate, including one whose premises were in the building shown on the opening credits of 'The Office', a show I detested.

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

Very nice pix, Nats, but please tell me: did you do your tour on foot or did you drive?

I've already said that on my first visit to Taplow, I parked near to Taplow Station and did the tour (A4, Old Station Inn site, A4 again, Marsh Lane all the way down to Dorney Court, and back again. I was too knackered to return via Hunterscombe Lane) on foot on a stinking hot summer day, and it nearly saw me off. If you're walking the route, Nats, it's plenty far!

And also please tell me: did you stand where The Old Station Inn once was, and if so could you see the entrance to the corn-field, as your playwright pal claimed he could? Moste made the valid suggestion that perhaps your friend was referring to The Pineapple. Did you check that out?

Purely out of possibly very limited interest, I had some customers in Slough, mostly on the Industrial Estate, including one whose premises were in the building shown on the opening credits of 'The Office', a show I detested.

Graham

Hi Graham,
I went by car but I stopped at Taplow Station and walked over towards the Shell Garage.I didn't go down the Approach Road to do this but from the other side of the railway tracks you reach from Bath Road direct -they are doing a lot of building work there but the station is running normally. It was then that I saw The Shell Garage/BMW car sales room and opposite that the Harvester pub-just a few minutes from the station with bus stops dotted along the Bath Road running from Slough to Maidenhead.Then I noticed the first turning into Marsh Lane is not far at all from the pub-about one third of a mile but the next tuning,Lake End Road where the Pineapple is is further on and Huntercombe Lane South further on again and I noticed these from the car and went down each of them.
You are quite right -it would not have been possible to see the cornfield from the Old Station Inn-no way- but from the Beer Garden at the back of the Pineapple Pub yes---you can see field after field and the Marsh Lane Cornfield is quite nearby and reached along Court Lane or Marsh Lane today.And I agree that if you went say to the Pineapple pub from the Old Station Inn site that would have been plenty far so I didn't attempt that walk no!

[Natalie Severn]

These pix may be of interest to you Graham , Nick, Moste ,Ed , SH and of course Julie and Caz and Dupplin M if you are looking in and all our other friends who drop in on this site from time to time.Two more pix: one is a view across the Bath Road of The Harvester Pub from what would have been the entrance/exit of the Old Station Inn now a BMW Car Sales place. The other pic is of Taplow Station reaching it from the Bath Road up a slight hill on foot and at the side of the Railway Arch.

[Graham]

The second time I made the trek, I went by car...wasn't going to be caught out twice. I rather fancied lunch at The Pineapple, but I couldn't get on the car-park or anywhere near the place - maybe there was a big 'do' on. It's quite a nice part of the world, though. Dorney Court these days is big on things like wedding-receptions - in even fairly recent times it was a private dwelling.

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

I rather fancied lunch at The Pineapple, but I couldn't get on the car-park or anywhere near the place

Graham

Yes Graham---I had a delicious lunch there today but like you had difficulty parking.It seems to be very popular!

[NickB]

A couple of other pilgrims to the cornfield ...

Lord Goodman went there with Foot: “Goodman begged me to show him the field where the tragedy started. I agreed. He drove me there, chatting gaily. He took one look at the field, concluded immediately (and correctly) that the prosecution case had been ‘nonsense’ and drove me back.”

Martin O’Neill is a believer in Hanratty’s innocence - or at least he was in 2001. After becoming manager at Wycombe he took his two young daughters to the cornfield.

[Sherlock Houses]

Natalie's photos of Taplow/Dorney

Thanks Natalie for uploading those photos, some great shots there.

[Graham]

Hi Nick,

did Foot reveal just why, after one look at the cornfield, Lord Goodman concluded that the prosecution case was nonsense? Seems a bit strange to me.

I wish O'Neill was back at Aston Villa....I was aware that he has an interest in true crime in particular the A6 Case.

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

What I noticed yesterday was that at the side of the Pineapple Pub is Ashford Lane which I did not go down but will do next time I go. Looking at it on Google maps you can see that from it you get a panoramic view across the fields of Dorney Reach.It strikes me that if the gunman had been dropped off at the Pineapple pub while Mr X sat and watched from the Harvester pub opposite the entrance to the Old Station Inn -both these being on the Bath Road -all Mr X had to do was ring the telephone box opposite The Pineapple Pub between 9.20-9.25 pm on August 22nd 1961 where the gunman would be waiting for the call to alert him that the couple were leaving the Old Taplow Inn [according to Mrs Lanz landlady at the Station Inn they left around 9.20 pm].The gunman would then cross Lake End Road -main road in picture - and along Ashford Lane adjacent to the pub and walk the short distance across the fields to where the car was parked in the Dorney cornfield.Ashford Land begins where the white car is parked on same side as The Pineapple pub on left of picture and alongside other parked cars in the pub car park and leads up to the Dorney fields.It is between the pub and the next houses to it.

[NickB]

did Foot reveal just why, after one look at the cornfield, Lord Goodman concluded that the prosecution case was nonsense?

Goodman was basing his decision on faulty information anyway, if Foot took him to the entrance shown in his book and claimed that is where the abduction took place.

[Graham]

Goodman was basing his decision on faulty information anyway, if Foot took him to the entrance shown in his book and claimed that is where the abduction took place.

Fair enough, Nick, but I don't understand why a visit to the cornfield should have prompted Goodman to say what he did. Seems odd to me.

Graham