Archive for September 2007
William Ransom Physic Garden
Physic being Greek for ‘Body’ I think belies the garden’s supposed usage. Ornamental, rather than functional. It is called the ‘William Ransom Physic Garden’ after the 19th Century Millionaire Hitchin Physician and Chemist, William Ransom, who founded the pharmaceutical chemist in Bancroft (Which is now Sainsbury’s and the new Lavendar Fields apartments); and is laid out with plants and herbs that the 17th Century Herbaslist Nicholas Culpeper might have used medicinally too.
The garden was opened by Prof Harold Ellis on 20th May 1990 after the land was given over from Hitchin Museum that lies immediately to it’s west. It opens daily as part of the Hitchin Museum Experience and is a wonderful haven of tranquility. Note worthy is the Bronze/Brass sundial that has been made to resemble a Physican’s/Herbalist’s/Chemist’s Mortar and Pestle. Art using form to immitate function. A nice touch I think.
Market Place Cabin
This Edwardian Cabmen’s Shelter used to stand on the forecourt of Hitchin Railway Station and was paid for by the donations of rail users collected by Edward Boxall who ran a cab business from The Red Lion that used to be in Bucklersbury (Now the new age shop ‘Harvest Moon’) It was used as a shelter for cab drivers waiting for fares until 1976 when it was sold by British Rail and stood in the garden of John and Patsy Myatt. They donated it to the town, whereby it was restored and promoted by The Hitchin Historical Society and Hitchin businesses. On the 10th Of October 1998, it was finally handed over to the Hitchin community and moved to The Market Place.
Since then, the Hitchin Historical Society have lampooned the Cabin on their Christmas cards; one famous card’s comments being, it was designed by a little known Chinese architect Lu Tien. He thought he’d been asked to design a lantern, and when the drawings were returned to the railway company, the engineers misunderstood his size specifications and accordingly built it as a full sized shelter. The text was littered with shameless clues such as the name Crisp. E. Duck as well as the name Lu Tien, which is a parody of Sir Edward Lutyens name. (A great Victorian Architect) Unfortunately, this story was picked up by a local railway historian who failed to spot the obvious clues and included the curious history of the cabin in his recently published book on the local railway.
Bridge Street Bridge
Bridge Street in Hitchin takes its name from the bridge itself, crossing the River Hiz, that was built in 1784 and rebuilt in 2001. ‘Bridgefoot‘ is also mentioned in a survey dated from 1676. At one end of Bridge Street is ‘The Triangle’ (because of a triangular bit of land that had a tree with railings around it) and the other end leads to The Priory and Tilehouse Street.
Earlier on in Hitchin’s Medieval history, the road was known as Spital or Spittle Street as it led to Spital Field that had a Hospital on it. (Spital being a contraction of Hospital)
St. Mary’s Graffiti
Much to the chagrin of the good citizens of the parish of St Mary’s Church in Hitchin, graffiti has appeared (or I should say more has appeared) on the north door. This is not a modern or ‘new’ phenomenon at all. One should look at the pillars of the door frame on both sides, to see lots and lots of carved graffiti dating back to the 1960s, 1950s, 1930s; even back a hundred years. In churches all around the parishes of Britain, one will find similar graffiti (and going back to 1700 say) Things such as names, love tokens or just dates. The Romans did this too, as did the Egyptians, Greeks, Vikings et al. As the expression goes, ‘There is nothing new under the sun’!
Warner’s Almshouses
Detail of the rather grand door in to the Warners Almshouses that were originally the parish Poor Houses. Then in 1760, they were rebuilt by Daniel Warner and then again in 1893 (and enlarged too) by funds left by Miss Elizabeth Ann Lucas, formerly of Hitchin who died in 1860. These Almshouses stood (and still stand) within the grounds of St Mary’s Church in the South East corner, by the River Hiz.
