Collection: North Hertfordshire Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The collections of North Hertfordshire Museum comprise items accessioned to the Museum since 2014 and, in the case of objects accessioned before this date, the collections of the former Letchworth and Hitchin Museums, the Herts Medical & Pharmaceutical collection (from the Herts Medical & Pharmaceutical Trust administered by the Hitchin Historical Society) and the Hertfordshire Yeomanry Collection.

  Letchworth Museum was built in 1914 to house the collections of the Letchworth and District Naturalist Society, who initially ran and owned the collections. The first honorary and general curator was William Percival Westell (1874-1943), who later became the first paid curator. He was Science master at Caldicott (preparatory) School, Hitchin; Curator (1914-1943) of Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery and a well-known author of works on natural history and archaeology. He wrote 84 books and gave 145 radio talks for the BBC, mostly on natural history. He was also known as “Uncle Tadpole” on BBC Radio children’s hour. In the 1930s he established one of the country’s first museums loan services.

  The Letchworth and District Naturalists ran into financial difficulties, and the building and collections were transferred to Letchworth Urban District Council – the building in 1926 and the collections in 1939.

  The early collections at Letchworth Museum were added to by a variety of collectors and donors.

  • Mary Hope Greg (1850-1949), wife of Thomas Greg, a well known ceramics collector
  • Col Marlborough Pryor
  • John Major Bull
  • William Percival Westell
  • Lady Cory
  • William Ratcliffe
  • Margaret Thomas

  In 1972, Letchworth Garden City Corporation bought a house in Norton Way South from Mabel Parker, which had been the offices of Parker and Unwin. The Corporation and the Council planned to work together to turn this building into a museum. This became the First Garden City Heritage Museum, housing and displaying objects and documents relating to the establishment and growth of Letchworth, the world’s first Garden City, and to the Garden City movement in general. By 1973, the Heritage Museum building was also used for occasional exhibitions.

  Hitchin Museum was founded in 1939 by the Hitchin & District Regional Survey Association, in a house built in 1825 for John Kershaw, who ran a Hitchin to London coach service. The building opened in 1939 as a public library, and in 1941 the top floor opened as a museum. From 1966 until closure in 2012 the museum occupied the whole of the old building. The museum’s collections covered local and social history, art, costume, pharmacy and militaria, including the collection of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry.

  The social history collection relates mainly to the lives of Hitchin people, although there is material from around the District. The art collections comprise works by local artists, especially the Quaker brewers Samuel Lucas the Elder (1805-1870), and his son Samuel (1840 – 1919) with a good collection of etchings by Frederick Griggs. The costume collection of around 4000 items is the largest in Hertfordshire, with a core collection from the 1840s trousseau of Elizabeth Mary Burrowes. The Hertfordshire Yeomanry collection covers the Regiment from its inception as a defence against Napoleonic invasion in 1805 right up until World War Two, and consists mainly of weapons and uniforms.

  The Pharmacy Collection comprises some 2,700 items. It is owned by the Hertfordshire Medical & Pharmaceutical Museum Trust, now under the care of the Hitchin Historical Society, and was established to care for the collection of Vi Lewis, of Messrs. Perks & Llewellyn, pharmacists and distillers who had grown and distilled lavender in the town from the 1790s. The furniture and fittings of their shop were installed upstairs at Hitchin Museum, from the 1990s until closure and the fixtures and fittings are now recreated in both North Hertfordshire Museum and Hitchin Lavender.

  Letchworth Urban District Council and Hitchin Urban District Council were absorbed into North Hertfordshire District Council following Local Government reorganisation in 1974. Both Letchworth and Hitchin Museums came under the management of NHDC. Over the years, there had been good relations between the two museums. Now that they formed a single Museum Service, they were able to strengthen their areas of expertise by combining their collections and staff. A new Natural History Department was formed by amalgamating the Natural History sections of both museums. The two museums’ collections were transferred between the museums to reflect the new vision for each area of the service. Hitchin Museum ‘specialised’ in local history and Letchworth Museum in archaeology.

  The Heritage Museum was extended in 1977 and had its unofficial opening, followed by an official one the following year to coincide with Letchworth’s 75th Anniversary. The Heritage Museum held the collections relating specifically to Letchworth Garden City, and came under the control of the Curator of Letchworth Museum, with the Local History Assistant in charge. In the early 1980s, Letchworth Garden City Corporation decided that they wanted to run the Heritage Museum themselves, and so the museum was transferred to their control in 1984. A long-term loan was agreed with North Hertfordshire District Council to allow the Heritage Museum to retain on loan the large collection of objects relating to the founding and development of the Garden City, which had been donated to and collected by the original Letchworth Museum. It was also agreed that the two museums would have very different collecting policies from now on, to ensure there was no duplication. North Herts Museum Service continues to loan these items to the Heritage Museum, and Letchworth Museum’s displays and collections reflected the wider district of North Hertfordshire.

  Since the closure of Letchworth and Hitchin Museums in September 2012, the Museum Service has been consolidated on a single site, North Hertfordshire Museum in Brand Street, Hitchin. The new museum opened on 4 July 2019.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Date range: The collection dates from Prehistory to the present day.

  North Hertfordshire Museums Service holds collections relating to the following subject areas: Archaeology (objects, paper and digital archive), Art, Coins, Costume, Documents, Military items, Natural Sciences, Pharmacy, Photography, Local History, Social History.

  Estimated size of collection:

  Collection subject areas	Hitchin	Letchworth	Total
  Archaeology (small finds)	0	5,000	5,000
  Archaeology (estimate, incl. objects, paper and digital archive)	0	250,000	250,000
  Art	2,000	600	2,600
  Decorative art (eg ceramics and glass)	200	600	800
  Coins	200	5,000	5,200
  Costume	4,000	550	4,550
  Documents	20,000	0	20,000
  Militaria	400	20	420
  Football Collection	650	0	650
  Natural Sciences (estimate including archive)		349 on display; remainder stored at Museum Resource Centre	100,000
  Newspaper Collection	300	200	500
  Pharmacy (loan in)	2,800	0	2,800
  Photography	650,000	100	650,100
  Social History	20,000	2,000	22,000
  Total		263,870	1,063,470
  Education Loans Collection			c.3000
  Loans to other institutions:
  Loan of Garden City material to Heritage Museum: Incl		Poss 35000
  Prints, plans and drawings		c4300	c4300
  Art		c50	c50
  Social History		c150	c150
  Storage The Fine and Decorative Art collections, Costume, Photography and Documents are stored on site at North Hertfordshire Museum. The Natural History, Archaeology and Social History collections are stored in an offsite store, the Burymead Resource Centre. Some social history and art collections are stored at the former Letchworth Museum.

  The Education Department has its own collection of objects suitable for sending to schools and for handling. The majority of these items are not accessioned.

  The following collection is on loan to North Hertfordshire Museum: Herts. Medical & Pharmaceutical collection, from the Herts. Medical & Pharmaceutical Trust.

  The following collection is on loan from North Hertfordshire Museum Service to the First Garden City Heritage Museum: Architectural drawings, photographs, ephemera, Art and social history objects relating to the First Garden City.

  Geographic area: the vast majority of items in the collections relate in some way to the North Hertfordshire District, in that they were produced, used or collected within the area; however there are a few exceptions. North Hertfordshire Museum does not generally hold Letchworth material dating to post 1903 aside from fine art and a small amount of display material to tell the story of North Hertfordshire to our visitors. As 20th century Letchworth material is held by the First Garden City Heritage Museum. The Natural Sciences collections are almost all British, relating to Hertfordshire and specifically North Herts.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC