BINNS, we have established, not only sold high quality clothes, but in its heyday it had its own carpet seamstresses, French polishers, upholsterers as well as its own tailors and haberdashers, plus its own bakers.

Now we discover that it had its own range of garden rollers.

Mike Lee, of Darlington, has an absolute beauty in his back garden. On the front of its cast iron handle, it says “H Binns Son & Co Ltd, Darlington”, and on the rear it says “The Sandringham”.

The Sandringham seems to have been a fairly popular garden roller produced in the 1890s by Charles Kinnell’s foundry in Southwark Street, London. Kinnell’s usually had their own name on the front of the Sandringhams, but for a few select customers, they personalised the rollers.

Binns was formed in Bishop Wearmouth, Sunderland, in 1807 by George Binns, with his son, Henry. When George died in 1836, Henry assumed full control, and when he retired in 1865, he handed the business on to his son, Joseph. Joseph renamed the business H Binns Son & Co.

In 1897, Binns became a private limited company and in 1934 it restyled itself as Binns Ltd. Therefore, Mike Lee’s roller was made between these two dates – we suspect earlier rather than later.

The only other Binns garden roller that we know of is one which sold at Thomas Watson’s auction house in Darlington in April 2017 for £180.

Are there any other Binns rollers, or pieces of Binns garden furniture, knocking around?