Tiled Floor in St. Mary’s Church
These tiles appear to be Late Medeival in date and can be found in the west end of St. Mary’s Church between the font and the bell tower.
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.
Christmas Market Place
The Christmas Tree in The Market Place in Hitchin forming part of the Christmas decorations around the town.
Grove Road Bridge Graffiti
Walking along the far end of Grove Road up towards the crossroads, one could see some graffiti (sadly now painted over again) done by a local artist. It might not have been be to everyone’s taste but it livened up a dark and dank walk along the River Hiz under the rail bridge with colour and style. There have been other more complex pieces previously, but hopefully some new ones will be done again soon.
St George’s Day.
At the junction of Whitehill Road and St John’s Road at the top of Hollow Lane, is a house that has an absolutely wonderful roof finial in the shape of a dragon. Today being St. George’s Day (April 23rd), I thought the dragon finial would tie in nicely with the story of St. George and The Dragon. (http://tinyurl.com/2v6vfa)
As well as being the patron saint of England, St George is also the patron saint of Armenia, Georgia, Greece, Ethiopia, Palestine and Russia. Pretty good going for a man who was born in Lydda – Modern day Lod in Israel (but was Palestine before Israel invaded) and lived in Nicomedia – The once capital of Bithynia (part of Modern day Anatolia in Turkey)
It has been suggested that perhaps England could have an English martyr for its patron saint, such as St Oswald – King of Bernicia (north part of Northumbria) or even a British saint such as St Alban who was martyred at Verulamium (St.Albans) rather than a foreign imported saint. Who knows, but until then, we have St. George.
Hitchin Library Frieze
This photograph is part of the frieze that hangs on the wall of Hitchin Library in Payne’s Park, though it originally used to be on the wall of Argos on Brand Street when it was Sainsbury’s.
Foggy Hitchin
A photograph taken of St Mary’s Church on a very foggy night on Friday 11th of December. The diffused light giving it an even more serene look and feel. This was taken from the a corner of St Mary’s Square car park that over looks the river Hiz and Portmill Lane.
St. Mary’s Church
The iconic view of Hitchin is of this one above; The great eastern window of the chancel of the Church of St. Mary’s built in c1450. When the High Altar was moved against the wall of the chancel in the 19th century, 4 feet of the great eastern window was lost. Imagine just how much more impressive this perpendicular style stainded glass window would have been with that extra length added!