Hitchin Carnival

As a child in the sixties, I remember Hitchin Carnival as quite a spectacular event. I would stand with my parents and sister and enjoy a very elaborate array of floats coming through the town. Smiling, dressed-up folks would walk by shaking tins for charity donations. However, I recall, too, hiding behind my dad when people walked by wearing enormous painted heads. Does anyone else remember them? They freaked me out when I was little!

In 1970, I was a mini-majorette, and remember having just come through an appendix operation, and finding it quite hard to keep twirling and walking. So I got a lift from Letchworth to Hitchin on one of the floats. We all ended up on Butts Close, and prizes would be given for the best floats. It was a great occasion, with lots of floats entering.

What I found really interesting, when reading Ron Pigram’s book Strange Happenings in Hitchin & North Herts, was that a hundred years before I was a mini-majorette; Hitchin Carnival was an even more spectacular occasion. Someone wrote at the time ‘It is certainly very strange, that such a normally prim and quiet town (Hitchin) should erupt in this wild fashion on one night in the year.’

The carnival would take place around Guy Fawkes’ night, and each year the festival would try to outdo the one the year before.

In the late eighteen hundreds it would be a patriotic event, and in 1870 it was normal for men to play females in the theatre. A rather large man called Herbert Barham played Britannia, and sat on the ceremonial float. It went well until, when entering Hitchin Market Square, a low-lying telegraph wire caught him round the neck – and over the side went Britannia.

The events would be expensive and collections were carried out. Some wanted to stop the festival because it disturbed the quiet of Hitchin, which had been given the nickname ‘Sleepy Hollow’ but still the festivals continued.

The festivals included an afternoon procession of floats. Until dusk Hitchin’s Market Square was filled with boys watching excitedly as poles with firework displays were mounted into position.

As night came, special lights around the town were lit, and the air was filled with the sound of exploding firecrackers. Men and boys would swing fireballs which gave out an unpleasant gas which lit the faces of the sightseers with coloured light. The last festival in this style took place in 1881, which was probably the best of them all. There were hot-air balloons, and the bands included ‘the remains of the Edinburgh Tattoo.

There are some great pictures of Hitchin Carnival from 1966-1972 HERE

& HERE

And a photo of the Hitchin Band in the 2000 Carnival HERE

Amanda Brittany
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If you like reading pyschological thrillers Amanda Brittany has written two books: HER LAST LIE features Hitchin and other local towns, and all eBook royalties are being donated to Cancer Research UK in memory of her sister.

TELL THE TRUTH is available to pre-order and is out in December in eBook & audiobook, and in paperback in February 2019

The link to buy is HERE

Shopping in Hitchin in bygone years.

I recently found this photograph of a basket full of goodies bought in Hitchin many years ago. No plastic in those days.

It made me want to have a little look through some of my old photos and postcards of  shops and the way people used Hitchin town in years gone by. I also came across this little booklet with the prices for Perk's Lavender. Inside it told me that Prize Medal Lavender Water can be bought as cheaply as 1shilling and 1penny - which is about 51/2 pence in today's money.  And Lavender Bloom Bath Power (in boxes) were 1 shilling - which is about 5p.

Perk's Lavender Distillery - High Street, Hitchin just after it closed.

I've always loved this picture from the 1960s which shows not much has changed along Bancroft, apart from the fashions and the cars. The little white car was my dad's. :-)

A great deal of change has happened with the post office. This is John Beaver (postmaster) and staff in 1880, when the post office was situated in The Market Place. Beaver was a grocer who is said to have a good sense of humour. One story about him relates to him standing outside his office listening to the Salvation Army Band, appealing for pennies on the drum and urging 'only 2 pennies more to make a shilling' He would wait until the shilling target was reached, and would then throw a couple of coppers on, as the process started again.

Vegetables are on display outside Nicholls' shop in the High Street in 1922. They were a high class fruiterer and florist. East variety of fruit would rest on a napkin in a separate basket, shown off to its best advantage and lit by gas in the winter evenings.

A great photo of The Market Place 

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Just to add my novel 'Her Last Lie' - a psychological thriller that features Hitchin and Letchworth, and published by HarperCollins is OUT NOW. All my e.book royalties are going to Cancer Research UK.  You can purchase a copy HERE

Hitchin & Letchworth Settings in 'Her Last Lie' a psychological thriller with a twist.

It was great fun including places I’ve been to, and the area where I’ve lived all my life, in my debut psychological thriller. I  enjoy conjuring up fictional settings, but to describe places I know so well, was a real treat.

My main character, Isla, travels by train into Letchworth Garden City Station at the start of the novel. ☺

Her apartment and a restaurant are fictional, but she does take a walk along the very real Greenway, and the park is based on Howard Park.

There's a scene where Isla visits Hitchin Market, and sits by St. Mary’s Church and the River Hiz. (Something I’ve done many, many times.)

The church in the scene set in Baldock, is based on St. Mary the Virgin Church.

There is also a scene set in Hunstanton, a place I visited often as a child, and somewhere I’ve taken my own children.

Me in Narvik

Further afield for Isla, she travels to The Blue Mountains in Australia, Abisko in Sweden, Narvik in Norway, and there are various scenes set in Canada.

Her Last Lie can be downloaded on ibook or ebook, with all royalties going to Cancer Research UK

Amazon: HERE

iBook: HERE 

Hitchin in Hertfordshire 1268-1800

My late aunt and I made a diary of things that have happened in Hitchin through the years, from 1268-1988. I thought it would be nice to publish it online.  So here goes with the first instalment 1268-1800.

1268: Hitchin Market property of John D’ Baliol worth 10 marks

1450: 33/34 Bucklesbury erected (later The George)

1450: The Angel Vaults built (Demolished 1956)

1460: ‘Tylehousestret’ first mention by name in The Court of Rolls formed South-West boundary of medieval Hitchin

1475: Coopers Arms built on site of even older house

1490: Red Hart built, probably as an Inn

1541: Archery Butts set up – Butts Close

1559: George Chapman (translator of Homer) born

1563: Census shows 245 families living in Hitchin

1568: First lavender grown in Hitchin

1618: The modern name ‘Hitchin’ first appears in a document called ‘Hertfordshire Feet of Fines’ although still subject to variation afterwards.

1630: Red Lion Inn in Market Place

1630: Straw Plaiting first seen in Hitchin

1637: Grammar School Founded (Free School)

1650: 2000 people living in Hitchin

1665: Plague raged in every part of Hitchin

1680: First fire engine in Hitchin

1709: Lucas brewery founded

1730: Smallpox raged 158 people died. 1580 people in Hitchin

1738: Last marriage performed at Minsden Chapel

1774: Violent storm did great damage to Sun Inn

1795: Very bad flooding in Bridge Street and Sun Street

1797: Prince of Wales passed through Hitchin