Shops
Old Shop Sign
The former shop ‘Basket Of Threads’ that is now ‘Mosaic Floral’, used to be a Singer Sewing Machine shop as one can observe by the faded former sign that became noticeable once the old fascia was taken down to make way for the new one.
Churchyard Demarcation Posts
The Churchyard that surrounds St Mary’s Church is demarcated by these posts. Whether these are used elsewhere in Britain or just here in Hitchin, I’m not sure! There are two at the beginning of the South West corner of St Mary’s where one cuts through from Market Place past Halseys and The Triangle Café to Churchyard, two are at the South East corner by the market on Churchyard Walk South, two are at the North East corner at the end of Churchyard Walk North (Below) and the final two are at the North West corner of Churchyard Walk North by the ‘Hippy/New Age’ shop Stripe (Above) going through to Moss’s Corner.
Paternoster and Hale Printing Office
This photograph is to show the old Paternoster & Hale Printing Office building in more detail. You can see the Orange Tree Sandwich Bar as mentioned in the last blog entry.
Orange Tree Grille
The Orange Tree Sandwich Shop on Sun Street has a wonderful decorative grille on the front of it. The business is one of two in a nice three storey red brick c1800 building. This was The Paternoster & Hale Printing Office, originally Paternoster’s Bookshop and Stationers. They amalgamated with Hale in Bucklersbury and became known as Paternoster and Hale and then became a printers. (It printed the Hitchin Advertiser newspaper.) The raised lettering ‘Printing Office’ can still easily be seen on the top third of the building.