Hitchin

The hunt for the Henry and Joyce Collins mural in Hitchin wasn't initially promising. My first lead was to Sainsbury's in Brand Street (quite an appropriate name), but the reality on the ground was a change in use and not a mural in sight. Not to be daunted, Google maps showed that there was a Sainsbury's on the edge of the town centre, which, given that Hitchin is only a medium-sized town, was not very far away. Alas, the result of the short walk was only to confirm that the mural had not been transferred to the new store. Ho hum.

Back home, a bit of further research showed that the concrete mural had been transferred to the library, a fact confirmed by checking on Streetview. Moral - do your homework in full before venturing out.

And so the following pictures are the result of my second visit to Hitchin.


And here is the library wall, with its splendid mural (dating from 1972/73).

Because of its new location, you can step back to get all of the mural in the picture, and without the risk of getting run over. I was also fortunate in that there were no cycles parked in front of it to obscure the view.

It is clearly in the style of the other Henry and Joyce Collins murals that we have looked at so far.

And helpfully it has a plaque which says where the mural came from and when it was moved.....

…..and another one which identifies who the work is by and a summary of what it shows.

And what does it show? Why, a history of Hitchin of course. Starting from the left, we have the phrase Rex tenet Hiz, or the King holds Hitchin, which is a reference from the Domesday Book of 1086. "z" is of course pronounced as "tch".

The Hitchin coat of arms granted in 1936 includes a lion (which references links to the monarchy), a fleshing knife (tanning industry) and a sheaf of barley (malting and brewing).

We then move on to three figures above a carriage.

The three figures being Offa, Tovi and John de Balliol. Offa was King of Mercia (757 - 796). Although better remembered for Offa's Dyke, a defensive earthwork built between Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms, his connection with Hitchin is that he founded a Bendictine religious house on the grounds which became St Mary's church. Tovi was the first Lord of the Manor, and John de Balliol was a member of the family which owned the land for generations (and more famous for founding Balliol College in Oxford).

The vehicle which sits below these gentlemen is Kershaw's Coach, a stagecoach which started in the early 1800's and run the 36 mile London - Barnet - Hitchin route in 4.5 hours. The coming of the railway to Hitchin in the 1850s was of course the death knell for this service.

Hicce is another old name for Hitchin. We then have the Carmelites and the Quakers, and silver pennies and a plough, and all the little bits of local history and Henry and Joyce put into their murals.

"Hycchyn" sits above a representation of St Mary's church, and then there are a host of agricultural references.

Icknield Way is a prehistoric route which passes just to the north of Hitchin, and is sometimes claimed to be the oldest road in Britain.

The historical story telling of the mural has been recognised by others. There is a delightful video telling the history of Hitchin using old slides, including many of the different aspects of the mural, which can be found at https://northhertsmuseum.org/tag/hitchin/

Photographs taken on 19 April 2019.