People
North Hertfordshire Museum opened fully in July 2019 and, before the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic sparked our temporary closure, we had been celebrating eclipsing the annual visitor figures of both the old museums of Hitchin and Letchworth in just over six months.
The situation we find ourselves in is eerily similar to the early years of Hitchin Museum. The museum, in those days going hand-in-hand with the library, opened in 1938 (or 1939 by other accounts), gaining the attention of local people shortly before a worldwide event changed everything: the start of the Second World War.
I have been reading the account of Robert F Ashby, the first Librarian and Curator of Hitchin Museum. When he was appointed in 1938 Robert was remarkably young, at the tender age of just 21. Robert’s account, which you can read below, talks about how the museum and library of Hitchin came together on the site of ‘Charnwood’ on Paynes Park. He gives brilliant (and frank) opinions of grand local dignitaries, local and county council officials and of library and museum workers. Robert reveals that Percival Westell, the first and long-standing curator of the Letchworth Museum, did not agree with the idea of multiple local museums. Despite this initial resistance, Robert records that that the ‘old fashioned’ Westell, did provide the young curator with invaluable, albeit ‘off the record’ help.
Hitchin Museum and Library as Robert Ashby knew it
Upon hearing of the plans for the merger of the old museums of Hitchin and Letchworth into the North Hertfordshire Museum, Robert Ashby, then in his mid 90s, was said to have remarked “About time!”, declaring that the museum was too small even in his day. He sent someone to visit the museum on its final day on 1 September 2012 to pass on his regards and record his message in the comments book.
Hitchin Public Library and Museum – the early days by Robert F. Ashby
Some time in 1936 or 1937 the then Urban District Council of Hitchin took an innovative, and, some would say, overdue, decision: this was to establish a Library and Museum in the town. That Hitchin, with its long and meticulously researched history, its ancient streets and its well-known literary and artistic associations had not taken the step long before, as its Johnny-come-lately neighbour Letchworth had done, is a matter of some wonder. Perhaps the prudent council and influential householders were disinclined to put yet another charge on the Rates.
The council of that time had a very good reason for taking the step they were about to take. Two generous citizens, Mr Herbert and Mr Wallace Moss, both local business men, had offered to give to the town a mansion and its surrounding grounds for the purpose.
The house, called ‘Charnwood’, stood, as it does now, on a triangular site only a few minutes’ walk from the Market Place and the main shopping centres, an ideal place for its future function. It was part of the donors’ intentions that this pleasant area should be preserved ‘to prevent undesirable development and to secure a permanent open space in the built-up area’. There is a remarkably modern ring to this far-sighted intention, from which the people of Hitchin still benefit.
‘Charnwood’ in its original form dates from 1825, and has had several different occupants and names since then. The front door used to face south, i.e. towards Paynes Park. In converting the building to its two new uses, the then District Surveyor, Mr J Whittle, had the ingenious idea of moving the door and the entrance hall around so that they looked up the plot towards the Tilehouse Street/Luton Road junction, as the museum’s front door does now. This gave a convenient entrance lobby, as well as providing additional length to the ground floor room which was to become the Lending Library.
Interior walls were removed and replaced with steel joists which proved just about strong enough to cope with the not inconsiderable weight of the desk-type showcases later installed in the Museum room above.
Although this was to be the first rate-supported Public Library and Museum that the town had ever had, and in fact was the first museum, there had for a century or more some form of library provision available to the citizens. As with everything in Hitchin this has a long history.
In 1824 there had been a ‘Library for Tradesmen, Apprentices and Others’, which had been succeeded by ‘The Working Mens’ Library’, which in turn provided the basis for the Hitchin Mechanics’ Institute. In 1828 there was a ‘Public Library’, of which little record remains, and a ‘Permanent Book Society’ in approximately 1835. These were of course supported by the subscriptions of members and by altruistic backing on the part of leading citizens, many of whom belonged to the Society of Friends.
In 1860 the various threads came together, and a room was built in Brand Street by public subscription especially for the Mechanics’ Institution and Public Library (later to be called the Hitchin Library and Reading Room). The building is still there – but now it provides refreshment to the bodies rather than the minds of its customers.
This building was serving as the town’s public library in 1938 when the writer of this monograph arrived on the scene. It was a room of high windows and tall ladder-requiring bookshelves containing rows and rows of books long out of date, but the service was amplified by the infusion of a regularly-changed collection of more modern books supplied by the Hertfordshire County Library. An annexe in the adjacent Old Town Hall was the Reading Room providing newspapers and magazines.
The Librarian was Miss M Fitch, a gentle self-effacing, thoroughly efficient lady, who had been in post for 35 years i.e. almost from the beginning of the century. Some of the older present-day residents in the town must surely still remember Miss Fitch. Her services were never, I think, publicly recognised in the hustle and bustle of moving to the new building. It is a pleasure, though long overdue, to pay a tribute to her services to the town.
The two generous donors had given Charnwood to the town to provide a Museum and Library, of which the order of words may have been of significance, but the District Council could not just take over without formality. To run a Museum and Library and spend ratepayers’ money on them, a legal procedure known as ‘adopting the Acts’ had to be gone through.
Over the years some boroughs and urban districts had adopted the Acts and thus become responsible for the provision of library and museum services within their areas: this is what Letchworth had done in 1906. For all the rest of the County of Hertfordshire the County Council, under a 1919 Act, established itself as the Library Authority for all those places which had not already taken powers unto themselves.
It is my impression, confirmed by later experience that Hitchin was primarily interested in the first of the functions which the Moss brothers had specified i.e. the Museum. The County Council were, as already mentioned, exercising their library powers in the town by providing the collections of books in the former Mechanics’ Institute in Brand Street. As library and museum powers ran together under the law at that time, it was not possible for the local authority to provide one without the other.
To solve this dilemma an arrangement was arrived at with the County Council whereby the Urban District Council could become the Library and Museum Authority, subject to agreeing to continue to take books from the County Library as if the town library were still a branch of the latter. In return, the town would pay a proportion of the County Library Rate. Apart from this the District Council were free to do as they liked.
From the library point of view this was not an entirely satisfactory position. County Library provision in those pre-war days was still little more than ‘a box of books in the village hall’ and unsuited to the more exacting requirements of a busy town. Not one box of books but many were exchanged every six months or so – a regular event quite laborious in its way -but there was little or no control over the selection and condition of what was provided, whilst library routines had to conform to the County Library’s methods. It also excused the District Council from making proper provision for the regular purchase of new stock – always the life-blood of any public library. Nevertheless this is how Hitchin obtained its Public Library and Museum.
The North Hertfordshire District Council’s website says that the Museum was founded by the Hitchin & District Regional Survey Association. This may be true in the sense that they formed a powerful pressure group urging the Council to embark on the project. The main activists in this body were Reginald L Hine (who because of his position in the town was undoubtedly the main moving spirit), Mr E F D Bloom, the HM Inspector of Schools who had a large following in the town especially among the school teachers, and Dr A H Foster, a specialist in Natural History and particularly in Entomology. This triumvirate either had items suitable for the Museum in their possession or knew where to find them, but so far as I was aware there was no existing collection waiting for new premises. Thus the museum was rather founded on individual collections of single items held by specialists in their respective fields, supplemented by donations from well-disposed townspeople.
As soon as Charnwood had formally come into the Council’s ownership the work of conversion began.
The museum came to occupy two rooms with a small office on the first floor. The public library on the ground floor consisted of a long room on the Paynes Park side which formed the lending library, a small room facing Nun’s Close which became the reference library, and a room on the left of the entrance door which was fitted out as a reading room for newspapers and periodicals.The curator’s office; this photograph, which dates from the 1960s, could have been taken at almost any time in the museum’s history, as the room changed little in more than 70 years
The larger of the museum rooms was fitted with display cases built against the walls and with desk-type cases in the middle. The wall cases had a home-made look; one of the larger ones had early on had its glass front replaced because it consisted of an unframed sheet of glass which was dangerous to move. There were storage lockers underneath, and it says much for the trust placed in the general public in those days that they were not in fact locked. At one time they had masses of old documents stored in them which were soon removed by Col Le Hardy, the County Council Archivist. The centre cases were custom-built by a firm of museum fitters, Edmonds I believe. These had drawers under and did lock. This room was devoted to ‘bygones’ i.e. household, agricultural and trade articles, with the larger items hung on the walls where they could be touched and indeed handled by the public.
The other room, on the other side of the landing at the head of the stairs, was devoted to natural history. A large case built against the farther wall had a large array of stuffed birds in it, but I think these only came later. The wall-case opposite contained butterflies and moths and also stuffed animals. I well remember a splendid badger, perhaps one of the first exhibits.
In the library downstairs the fittings also had a homemade look. Most public libraries of those days gave the books the dignity of oak shelving, but Hitchin’s were made of soft white wood which had been varnished to a pink hue. One unit was so cumbersome that it was too large to move and had to be shortened. A little two-sided counter between the entrance and exit doors had been designed as if the staff would spend their time sitting in it for most of the day. It even had a flap across its exit: that soon had to go.
The reference library at the end of the lending library had been fitted out with all due considerations of economy, and the shelves had been brought in from the Brand Street premises and thus were over seventy years old. Their wood was rough with use and had darkened with age. It also had an odour about it which gave the ‘Ref’ a characteristic atmosphere.
Across the entrance lobby there was what may have been the original dining room. This was provided with slopes for newspapers and tables and chairs for reading magazines. From this room a glass door led into an annexe, probably the former billiards room. Used only for occasional meetings, it was never brought into full use till after the War when the Reading Room was transferred into it.
Having secured the building, a modest supply of books, and the expectation of a sufficiency of exhibits, the Council had to apply themselves to the question of staff. Guided by the County Librarian, Mr T W Muskett, advertisements were placed in the Times Literary Supplement and other appropriate places for a Qualified Librarian.
After a competitive interview in February 1938 I was appointed at the tender age of 21½ on an equally tender salary scale of £210 to £285 per annum. This sounds indeed modest, and indeed it was, but when I had paid 35/- (£1.75) per week to my landlady in Chiltern Road, the good Mrs Brown, I had, as a young man with no ties, enough to conduct a pleasant and varied life.
It was at the interview that I first met Mr Hine. I had heard of him from Mr Muskett, but he was quite unmistakable among the District Councillors. My recollection is that the meeting was chaired by Mr Bowman, Chairman of the Council and the head of the well-known firm of flour millers, under the guidance of Mr A Percy Ruscoe, the Clerk of the Council, who whenever he spoke, prefaced his remarks with a loud ‘Err-agh’.
Another essential member of staff – still no doubt remembered by older residents – was George Currell, the caretaker. Grey-haired and of a serious mien, he was not seldom thought to be the Librarian.
The Chairman of the Library and Museum Committee was Mr William Payne, the dentist, who lived in a lovely house in Brand Street, long since gone I suppose. He was a devoted member of the Society of Friends, then a strong influence in Hitchin. At the Opening Ceremony, which took place out of doors at the front of the building, he rather irrelevantly declared how important religion is in life. Reginald Hine tactfully followed this by relating it to the deeper spiritual aspects of learning exemplified by a library and museum.
In the founding of the Museum the District Council were fortunate in having at their disposal the experts in various fields who have been mentioned above i.e. Dr Foster, Mr Bloom and of course Mr Hine. There was a further adviser who willingly gave friendly and valuable help in the early days, quite informally and un-officially. This was Mr W Percival Westell, the Curator of Letchworth Museum. Although at our first meeting he told me that he did not approve in a multiplicity of museums, though not of libraries, he helped enormously with installing the basic routine of a museum, such as the identification and description of exhibits, their numbering and registration. Even then a rather old fashioned figure, he wrote and published a variety of simple natural history books, one of which was called ‘Let’s go for a walk’ and another as ‘Alphabetical Itinerary’ which listed all the places he had ever visited. In the early days of radio he had achieved some reputation as ‘Mr Bumble’ on children’s programmes.
The North Hertfordshire District Council’s website says that the Hitchin Library was opened in 1939 and the Museum in 1941. To my recollection this is not accurate, as the library was certainly opened in 1938, and the public were admitted at least to the front room of the museum before 1940. However, scarcely had the two services got really established and were beginning to find their place in the hearts and lives of Hitchin people, than the War came along. Hitchin being a reception area for evacuees, the library played its part in offering the Reference Room and little-used former billiards room for the accommodation of classes from North London schools.The museum as it appeared in the late 1960s, after the library had moved into new premises next door
On almost exactly the second anniversary of my taking up the appointment on 1st April 1938 I was swept into the Army, only to re-appear six years later; then, after the catastrophe of Mr Hine’s death, I went on to fresh woods and pastures new.
In 1974 the Library was fully amalgamated with Hertfordshire County Library as a result of the Local Government re-organisation of that year. The present capacious and attractive premises were built on the adjacent site, and the former ‘Charnwood’ given over to the Museum, which together with Letchworth Museum, has been substantially developed by the local authority, the North Hertfordshire District Council.
Robert F Ashby was the Library and Curator of Hitchin Library and Museum from 1938 to 1940 and 1946 to 1950. He went on in due course to become County Librarian of Surrey.
You can read Robert Ashby’s typescript here.
Note: Percy Westell in fact played a character known as Uncle Tadpole on BBC Children’s Hour, who talked about natural history; the final chapter of his autobiography, Yester-days, is the Alphabetical Itinerary to which Robert Ashby refers.
The story of this burial, excavated in Baldock in 1989, is one of a real person who was a child when the Roman invasion of Britain happened and who died around AD 70. It shows how we can engage with the humanity of the distant past and why excavating burials is not just ‘grave robbing’ but an important way of learning about people.
The woman’s family lived in the Roman town of Baldock, where she had been born; we don’t know what it was called just as we don’t know the woman’s name. It was a prosperous market town, where farmers from nearby villages could bring their produce to sell and buy manufactured goods. Some were made locally, in the town itself, but others were traded across the whole of the Roman Empire. The townspeople were comfortably off and had a good standard of living. The town had an unusually large number of cemeteries, though not all of them were in use at the same time. Some graves contained people’s skeletons while others held the ashes that are left after a cremation, sometimes in a container or sometimes in a pile at the bottom of the grave pit. Some of the cemeteries were formal affairs, with fences or hedges, paths and memorial buildings. Others were just collections of graves in a corner of land or next to a roadside.
During the building of the Clothall Common estate in Baldock from 1980 onward, several of these cemeteries were discovered and excavated by archaeologists from Letchworth Museum, including the writer. The oldest date from about 50 BC and some continued to be used after AD 500. One of these cemeteries was excavated before Stane Street was built in 1989. It was a triangular cemetery that lay between two roads. It contained almost 100 graves, dating from about 10 BC to AD 100.
All but one of the burials consisted of skeletons. Most of them were laid on their backs in the grave, their heads at the north-eastern end. A few were in more unusual positions, laid on their sides with their knees bent or carefully arranged in very large graves. One grave contained the skeleton of a woman who had been laid to rest on her right side with her left arm bent at the elbow and her hand in front of her. Her head lay at the south end. Early on in excavating her grave, the tiny bones of a newborn baby became visible behind her right shoulder.
This made those of us working on site that day think that both she and her baby might have died during childbirth, which happened to a lot of women before modern medicine was available. Then, in cleaning between her hips, the bones of a second baby were found. It was stuck inside the mother’s birth canal the wrong way round; this is known as a ‘breach birth’ and was obviously the reason she had died. At this point, we began to think that she was the mother of twins. It was only when the archaeologists excavating the grave cleaned around her left hip bone that the bones of a third baby were found, still inside the woman’s body so no-one would have known that she was expecting triplets.
Later examination of the bones showed that she died when she was 40 years old, give or take a year or two. This was old for a Romano-British woman to be having children, as most became mothers when they were in their late teens. She was in good health and strong, although she had recently suffered an ankle sprain, and it was a problem with childbirth that caused her early death. All three babies were about a month premature, so she may have gone into labour unexpectedly. She certainly had no help from a doctor or midwife during the birth, as they had tools that would have helped her and probably saved her life. A few years later, a man in his 50s or 60s was buried across the top, his head resting above her outstretched left hand. Was he her husband and the father of the babies?
We know that there were doctors and midwives in Roman Britain who could have saved the mother, though probably not the babies. Unfortunately, good doctors in the Roman world were expensive and in days before there was anything like a National Health Service, only the very wealthy could afford decent medical treatment. Although the woman’s family was comfortably off, it wasn’t rich enough to afford a doctor. It’s more puzzling that she seems not to have been helped by a midwife and we can try to think of reasons why she wasn’t. Was she perhaps stuck out in a farmhouse a long way from town, with her family doing business in the market, so that when they returned, it was too late to get help? The babies weren’t expected for another month, after all. Or perhaps the midwives were busy with other people’s babies. We will never know the answer to these questions.
In 2010-2011, Shine TV made a documentary about this burial, broadcast as part of BBC 2’s History Cold Case series. You can watch it on YouTube.
Her sad death is the first recorded case of triplets from anywhere in the world and we only know about them because all four died at the same time. Her reconstructed face is the first time we have been able to see what an ancient inhabitant of Baldock looked like. This is one of those cases where archaeology brings us into the stories of everyday life and death in the past.
For my year 10 work experience, I decided to do my experience at North Herts Museum, in order to increase my understanding of the workplace, and the many responsibilities of a museum curator. Throughout my time here, I have done multiple things from indexing a new collection, to helping in the education department with young children, this has taught me a lot about the world of work and about myself and I am very grateful for the time I’ve spent here. Some of my favourite moments I’ve had while here include the satisfaction from making sure something is in the right place, and the research tasks that have allowed me to develop my skills in finding relevant information. Now I can say that I understand new things about the world of work, and I had an amazing time learning it, with thanks to the North Herts Museum staff.
