Hitchin Heritage

Today we explored Hitchin more thoroughly.  Many of the buildings are ancient, and I can’t stop gazing in awe at them.  Some are on a slant, but it’s nothing to do with earhtquakes, it simply that they’ve been there for hundreds of years and maybe sunk a little.

Tudor buildings, Bancroft

I have a “Little Book of Hitchin” which tells me that Edward III in 1375 gave Hitchin to his mistress Alice Perrers for life.  However she had it for only a year.  Parliament took it fron her for ‘performing illegal acts’ and banished her from the royal household.  Royal auditors camer to Hitchin to see how much it was worth and took as much as they could to pay her debts.

We walked down Tilehouse Lane and saw the home of George Chapman, who was the first man to translate Homer, inspiring Keats to write “On first looking into Chapman’s Homer”, and Michael Parekowhai to sculpt the large bulls that were displayed on Madras Street recently.  Chapman said he was inspired by the ghost of Homer which he saw in Hitchin.

On first standing by Chapman’s home

I bought souvenirs in Brookers, where George Orwell also shopped, and we had morning tea near the market place.

Tea Shoppe by St Mary’s Church

St Mary’s Church

St Mary’s is the “largest and jolliest” church in Hertfordshire.  Some of it dates back to the 12th century, and there are recycled Roman bricks in the tower.

“Since well before the Tudor age
living in Hitchin was the rage.”