Harrow Council granted locally listed status for a historic vicarage in September - triggering memories of growing up there for one long-time resident of the borough.

Hope Purchase was born in a ground-floor bedroom of St George's Church Vicarage, Pinner View in 1927 after her father took over as vicar the previous year.

She told the Observer of an idyllic childhood there with her two brothers and one sister.

"It was a lovely house for children," she said. "It wasn't so big that you would get lost, but it was excellent for hide and seek.

"There was also a hatchway between the kitchen and the study door that I was just big enough to fit in to for when you wanted people to think you had disappeared.

"And we had great fun on the stairs with metal trays."

'Apple pie beds' were another favourite of Hope and siblings Marion, David and Donald.

The practical joke had nothing to do with the traditional dessert but involved a sprig of prickly holly placed halfway down a bed to surprise the occupant.

Mrs Purchase, nee Milton, also has pleasant memories of visits from the undertaker, who often had cause to visit the vicarage.

She said: "He would give me or my brother a sovereign if the vicar wasn't around."

She also remembered family prayers at 9am each Saturday being strictly observed.

But it wasn't all fun growing up in a house attached to the church.

The grandmother-of-five said it could be like living in a goldfish bowl with the constant stream of visitors.

One that stuck in her mind was the eccentric then Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram.

The senior churchman would travel around the capital visiting parishes and expecting to be offered a bath wherever he went.

Mrs Purchase remembers: "He was a very eminent figure but when he arrived he always expected a bath, which was a bit difficult. The boiler couldn't really cope with it."

The former Eastfields pupil said she also felt guilty about the small room the two maids lived in, but said it was a "wonderful" house for children and the current Reverend's three children were very lucky to live there.

The Vicarage was built for the Reverend Ramsay Couper in 1923 and the architect was James A Webb, director of housing and town planning for the Hendon Rural District Council.

The land had been donated by the Bishop of London's Fund and the cost of building the house and landscaping the garden was £3,200.

Recommending it for listed status earlier this year Harrow Council's conservation team said: "The Vicarage is of fine architectural quality due to its elegantly decorative design and use of high quality materials. These suggest a high level of craftsmanship and an arts and crafts influence."