Pinchbeck, Annie – Was knocked over by top jazz trumpeter

Annie Pinchbeck (1888-?)

ANNIE Elizabeth Pinchbeck –known to everyone as ‘Annie Pinch’, was a loveable eccentric.

She never married and invested her money in property, owning several houses in the New Street area where she lived for much of her life.

When the new Bradley Alms Houses were built in Church Street, Annie moved in as one of the first tenants and it was no surprise when she left most of her estate to St Wulfram’s Church.

She usually wore fur coats and/or fox stoles and rode about town on a pre-war pushbike complete with wicket basket on the front.

One day, in the early 1960s, she collided with a car driven by a motorist who turned out to be well known jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker who sent flowers every day to her in hospital.

A diabetic, she lived on a diet of raw cooking apples, burnt toast and milk.