Hitchin Cemetery April-May 2026

 

Hitchin Cemetery April-May 2026

The cemetery has some lovely spring-time flowers which are on the showy side, but also some understated ones too, here are two, one rather small and one rather hidden amongst the leaves... 

  

On the left is Early Dog-violet with the scientific name of Viola reichenbachiana, Sherlock Holmes' fans might recognise the reference to the Swiss waterfall in the name. These flowers are found under trees and are an early source of nectar for early-flying bees. It is one of several plants which have a symbiotic relationship to Ants: small appendages on their seeds are desirable food so they take the seeds to their nests so helping with seed dispersal (aka Myrmecochory). On the right are the flowers of one of the magnificent cemetery Copper Beeches, and again these are a good source of food for early insects such as bees and hoverflies, but often these flowers are difficult for us humans to see.

As well as the contrast between little and large flowers, a different sort of contrast noticed was between the professional and the amateur: the grass cutting gangs using high-powered strimmers to keep the grass down between graves, whereas cemetery Friend's group have the luxury of taking their time to add a bit of neatness to some borders, and use good old-fashioned hand tools.

 

 

The photo on the right shows John (who just celebrated becoming a nonagenarian!) neatening the edge of some grass by the chapel.

A little historical research has been going on (thanks to Teresa and Georgia) and we now know that in the older part of the cemetery, ie excluding the part on the "other" side of Cemetery Road, there are around 24,500 interments. We also have details of the very first interment, this was of Frederick Morgan, sadly only one year old, who was buried in an unmarked common grave on 29/03/1857, four days after burials at St Mary's had been stopped. The photo below left shows the location of Frederick's grave, a few tens of metres west of the chapel.  The photo on the right is the cemetery's oldest tombstone, which reads 

WILLIAM MORGAN, 49 Years Sexton of this Parifh, Died May 22nd 1857 aged 72

MARY his wife died Jan 24th 1864 aged 76 years

EMMA DAY niece of the above died January 12th 1874 aged 48 years

It seems likely that William and Frederick were related and 1857 must have been a sad time for the family.

 

As the spring-time temperatures rose, so did the insect activity, with shieldbugs in particular making an appearance. On the left are a pair of mating Hairy Shieldbugs and on the right, not seen before in the cemetery, Brassica Shieldbugs spotted on some Garlic Mustard. 

 

A couple of other insects which allowed for some close-up photos (because of the cold one morning) were a Bee Fly and a Nomad Bee. Both of these insects might by some be considered to have unsavoury lifestyles as they are parasitic on solitary bee species, however that is imposing a human judgement on these creatures. Their existence in the cemetery points to the fact that there must be a significant numbers of solitary bees around (a good thing!). Parasitism is very common in the insect world, helping to keep populations in balance. The Nomad Bee is actually pictured in its roosting position: they clamp their jaws on a leaf edge and that's how they spend the night.

In May the judging took place to see whether Hitchin Cemetery qualified for a Green Flag award which is the benchmark international standard for publicly accessible parks and green spaces in the United Kingdom and around the world. The judges first grilled the cemetery manager, other NH Council officials and Countryside Management personnel and after that the Friend's group helped by showing the judges around: we await the verdict with bated breath! Below is one of the patches of Meadow Saxifrage we were able to show the judges, which is gradually spreading in the cemetery: it is an indicator of "unimproved grassland" a bit of a rare commodity these days. Although past its best by the time the judges visited, the profusion of Cowslips was still evident, it has been another good year for them. 

Already this year the Friend's group led two of our free cemetery tours, one private for Hitchin Historical Society and one public one. The next tour is on Sunday 7th June at 2:00 and is already half booked (email hitchincemetery@gmail.com to obtain a place). We then look forward to leading two further tours in July which are part of Hitchin Festival (book through the festival website).