Hitchin memories
Here are memories of Hitchin and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Hitchin or a Hitchin photo.
My Heritage
Personally I don't have a memory of the Sun Hotel, but my late mother told me once that she thought her father's family either owned or ran the hotel. Their name was Taylor and they came from Hitchen and the surrounding area.
Halsey's Delicatessen
Our grandparents used to visit Halsey's weekly from Old Stevenage to buy their provisions. Now I with my sister visit regularly especially as we love the new owners' Kirsty and Damien's Tea Room. We take our children for 'tea' there and they think it's a real treat! Christmas simply wouldn't be Christmas without our Christmas Pudding Coffee, and Wild Boar and Black Seal Rum Pate!
Car in The Churchyard
This car was parked in the Churchyard outside the provisions shop Halseys.
Queen Street
The road is called Queen Street and shows St Mary's Square on the left where the market was held on Tuesday and Saturday every week. Beyond that is Portmill Lane and the back of shops and offices at the top of Hermitage Road. On the immediate right is the Telephone Exchange.
Man in Picture 1965
The white-haired man in the photograph, I believe, is my father John Neville. He was a police sergeant in Hitchin from 1941 until his retirement in the late '50s.
Visiting
The lady in the centre of the photograph walking towards the camera is Mrs Kate Silsby my grandmother who lived at 8 Tilehouse Street. When this was taken we think she would have been walking to St Ippollytts to visit her daughter Mrs Babs Brown.
Memories of Hertfordshire
Evacuation 1939 - 1945
I was evacuated with my elder brother from Dagenham, London in 1939 aged four. We went first to North Norfolk until Christmas 1939 then to Boxford near Newbury until 1942. As our father was posted to Henlow he managed to get us to Holwell at Church Farm, with Mr & Mrs Tott. We were not treated too well there and we then went to Ickleford at the far end of the village on the common towards Arlesly. We stayed with Mr & Mrs McClure but their son was missing in Burma and we became too much for Mrs McClure who was very upset, so we then came up to St Katherine's Cottages behind the church with Mr & Mrs Howie who were very kind to us. Mr Howie worked at the mill and every evening Mrs Howie would go a few doors down to the Plume and Feathers and bring back a bottle of stout for him to have with his meal. I went to the local village school but... Read more
This is Not A Memory But A Plea!
My late wife was born in March, Cambridgeshire but her mother was born in Great Wymondley in 1911, the date being 2nd July, 1911. This was just after the Census of that year. However, I would like to find the rest of the family on the 1911 Census which should give me names and ages of the rest of the family. They all eventually moved into Cambridgeshire but to find entries on the Gt. Wymondley Census would be a start.
What details I have are -
Father - William Henry Rose.
Mother - Florence
A known address - Nine Springs, Gt. Wymondley. Baldock(or Hitchin) Herts
Father's occupation given as Cowman, could have lived on a far
If this a first posting on the message board I'm sorry it is not a memory but this is a brick wall I cannot get through. But if someone could come up with some ideas it would be very much appreciated.
Recollections of Letchworth Swimming Pool, From Mid 60's
As I look at this picture of the Letchworth swimming pool and notice the date is c1950… it would be only a few years later (mid 60’s) that my friends and I would cycle there with our towels and trunks fastened to the backs of our bikes (no expensive designer sports bags for us!). We’d padlock/chain our bikes outside the pool and hope that the worst that could happen to them is someone let our tyres down and nothing more. This picture captures the pool very much as it would have been when we were there. Usually we’d spend most of the summer holidays there. Getting out of the pool and then lying on the very hot floor to dry off on sunny hot days…Or if it was raining just staying in the water believing that the rain was actually causing the water temperature to rise. Of course if there was a lightning storm we were told to get out of the water. In the deep end there was a... Read more
Letchworth Childhood
Seeing the fountain in this picture brings back childhood memories from the 1950/60s of sailing boats up and down the paddling pool at weekends or when your parents took you down on a sunny afternoon. Summer fetes and funfair on the grass area between the paddling pool and Norton Way South, last but not least playing in the small wood behind the paddling pool before the Council cut it down and spoilt it!
Winter at The Pool
I lived in Birds Hill (the start of Works Road) just opposite Howard Park. The paddling pool was always emptied at the end of summer but just enough water remained in to make for great slides during winter when the water froze.
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Places this week
Here are some of the places you've shared memories of this week:
- Walsall, West Midlands
- Broadstairs, Kent
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- Gawber, South Yorkshire
- Greenock, Renfrewshire
- Osterley, Greater London
- Padstow, Cornwall
- South Woodford, Greater London
- Frimley Green, Surrey
- Chadwell Heath, Essex
- Savernake, Wiltshire
- Kibblesworth, Tyne and Wear
- Huyton, Merseyside
- Ilfracombe, Devon
- Burnt Oak, Middlesex
- Edlington, South Yorkshire
- Mitcham, Surrey
- Hill Of Beath, Fife
- Lowestoft, Suffolk
- Aldbury, Hertfordshire
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