Posts

Hitchin Cemetery Jan-Mar 2026

Image
  Hitchin Cemetery Jan-Mar 2026 Friends of Hitchin Cemetery 10th Anniversary In March the Friends Group celebrated 10 years of their existence with a special gathering. It was attended by the Cemetery Manager, a local councillor, the Town Centre Manager, and representatives of the Countryside Management Service, the NHC Greenspace Team, Hitchin Historical Society, the Herts at War project, Hitchin Forum and John O'Conner plus of course the members of the Friends Group, sporting their brand new fleeces kindly provided by the council. A few speeches were made, a short tour of the Victorian part of the cemetery took place, where the Friends group concentrates their efforts, and refreshments taken. Many thanks to all involved for attending and making the event happen. The Friends of Hitchin Cemetery group (FOHC) had its origins in a group of volunteers working for the Countryside Management Service (CMS). They were given the opportunity to attend a topiary course at the cemetery which ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hitchin Cemetery October-December 2025

Image
  Hitchin Cemetery  October - December 2025 The cemetery's primary purpose is obviously as a quiet place of remembrance and contemplation but in addition to this the cemetery is notable for its wildlife and in particular its "Unimproved Grassland". The UK has lost most of its old meadows because of high-intensity farming methods, and patches of high quality unimproved grassland which are left, such as the cemetery, hold significant levels of biodiversity. The photos below show just some of the fungi which were fruiting during the last months of the year, all of them indicative of healthy undisturbed grassland.                              Suede Bolete                                                             ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hitchin Cemetery Aug-Sep 2025

Image
  Hitchin Cemetery August-September 2025 As usual August saw the cemetery visited by numerous butterflies, some of which were getting towards the end of the their flight period. Here are a Common Blue and the last Gatekeeper of the year.   Other insects making an appearance included a Hornet Mimic Hoverfly and a Red-legged Shieldbug   A rather non-descript flower popped up, but an interesting one: Musk Stork's-bill. Joseph Little, the first head of Hitchin Boy's School is buried in the cemetery and was a keen plant collector and collected a specimen of this plant from Great Wymondley in 1928. He described it as a "Wool alien" meaning that he thought it had been introduced to the area as part of the fertilizer made from the waste product of the wool industry. Joseph's original pressed specimen (below right) is now held by the South London Botanical Institute and can be viewed on-line.   As usual the regular Friday volunteers continue to meet to work on the older ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hitchin Cemetery June-July 2025

Image
 Hitchin Cemetery June-July 2025 The Friends  of Hitchin Cemetery  group have been busy with their very popular free tours; the final two were in July as part of The Hitchin Festival. There have been various other visitations and trips of differing sorts, more of which later.  The Friday working party, amongst various tasks, have trimmed the grass to highlight graves near the Standhill Road entrance, including those of the Reverends Gainsford (senior and junior). This work fits in with the tone for the older part of the cemetery where meadow regions are surrounded by short mown grass giving a mixture of formal and informal areas. The two Gainsfords were both vicars of Holy Saviour church and the church has recently paid for some plants to enhance the larger of the two graves, working to a design by local author Nic Wilson: her recent series of articles in Gardening World magazine has been on the theme of 'Make a metre matter' and we have been lucky to have her s...
Post a Comment
Read more