The first roundabout in the country opened in 1909 at the Sollershott
junction with the Broadway in Letchworth’s new garden city.
The idea was not to help cars negotiate the road more easily but
to make sure pedestrians could cross the road. As it was 20 years
before motorists all had to go in the same direction, that may have
remained rather difficult.
For the first three years of its life Girton College, Cambridge,
was located in Benslow Rise, Hitchin. Girton was set up in 1869
as the College for Women by Emily Davies, who wanted to keep her
students away from amorous males. But when it became clear that
lecturers would not travel to Hitchin she moved the college to Cambridge.
It remained women only until 1979.
The association of Royston and the hooded crow dates back until
at least 1648 when Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads called the
residents of Royston ‘Crows’ as an insult because the
bird was so common in the area. The name stuck and the bird is now
featured on the town’s coat of arms, perching on the Roysia
stone, and its black and grey colours are used by sporting teams.
North Herts District Council’s coat of arms features a lion
(to show that Hitchin was once a Royal manor) and emblems of its
past trades including tanning, malting, farming and wool. A fleece
and barley sheaves, also relevant to Baldock, now form part of the
NHDC coat of arms which includes ermine (for the Lyttons of Knebworth
House and the Roman road Ermine Street). It is topped by the Royston
Crow and the Latin motto translates as ‘We are mindful of
the past and careful for the future.’
In 1618 King James I signed the death warrant of adventurer Sir
Walter Raleigh at his hunting lodge in Royston, which he visited
as often as he could. He had first stopped in the town on his way
to claim his throne in 1603 and one of his early actions as monarch
was to send Raleigh to the tower. He didn’t release him until
1616 and finally had him beheaded for failing to find gold on a
botched expedition to the Orinoco. The desk James signed the warrant
at is still in the Old Palace in Kneesworth Street.
Legend has it that King Henry VIII almost drowned when he fell into
a brook near Hitchin in 1525, while out hawking. One examination
board has even set an MA question asking candidates to assess his
reign if the accident had been fatal. Henry gave 40 shillings to
Hitchin Priory in 1530 but only eight years later the Carmelite
friars had to leave when Henry dissolved the monasteries.
The birthplace of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1900 has always
been a matter of controversy with two competing claims for the honour.
London does look the more likely contender but her childhood home
St Paul’s Waldenbury near Whitwell is often cited and she
did spend much of her childhood there.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show was so popular that when it
arrived in Hitchin on June 23, 1904, it attracted 24,000 visitors
to Butts Close. Owner William Cody was backed by a 700-strong team
but proved to be the main attraction himself, shooting down balls
thrown into the air while riding a horse.
Edwardian residents of Hitchin took great delight in poking fun
at the new community in Letchworth Garden City, calling them ‘Hairy-headed
banana munchers’ and ‘Long nebbed, sandal footed, raison
snifters.’ A newspaper cartoon laughed at the non-tox pub
and urged visitors not to tease the citizens.
The Cloisters in Barrington Road, Letchworth GC, is one of the country’s
most unusual and interesting buildings. It dates from 1906 when
philanthropist Annie Lawrence unveiled her plans for a school for
teachers, complete with hammocks for sleeping in the open air and
outside bathing. The Cloisters, with its quirks and architectural
joys, can be viewed on special occasions when it is opened by the
present owners, the Freemasons.
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