North Hertfordshire Museum

North Hertfordshire Museum, Hitchin, England, adjacent to the refurbished Town Hall on Brand Street, displays collections relating to local history and heritage. The museum has architectural design by Buttress and museum layout by Mather & Co. Arranged over two floors, it comprises an entrance, shop and café, three galleries of permanent displays focusing mostly on the history of North Hertfordshire district, a temporary exhibitions gallery with a changing and varied programme, and a smaller display space in the upstairs Terrace Gallery.

The galleries

The museum has three galleries containing permanent exhibitions – Discovering North Herts, Living in North Herts and The Terrace Gallery – and two temporary exhibition spaces. The permanent displays focus on the history of the district, from 90 million years ago, through the arrival of the first people and the gradual transformation of the landscape to the present day. There are displays about different characters who have lived in the area, how people lived in the past and the animals found in local gardens. Two temporary exhibition spaces have a varied programme of displays.

Discovering North Herts

This gallery follows the story of the district in chronological order. It highlights how and why North Hertfordshire has transformed over time, from 90 million years ago when it was underwater, to the urban planning that has shaped the district today.

Living in North Herts

This gallery is arranged thematically, to draw out similarities and differences between how people lived at different times in the past. The principal themes include Living off the Land, Fun and Games, Making and Selling, and Cradle to Crave.

This gallery is also arranged thematically. It includes the Football Collection, the first established in England by Vic Wayling, secretary of Hitchin Town F.C., opening in 1956 and transferred to Hitchin Museum and Art Gallery in the 1980s. There is also a case Collecting the World, in which objects from every continent are displayed.

History

Review of the previous museums

In 2004–5, North Hertfordshire District Council undertook a Fundamental Service Review of its Museum Service.[1] Although it found that visitors greatly valued all aspects of the service (Hitchin Museum & Art Gallery, Letchworth Museum & Art Gallery, the Education Service with its School Loans scheme, the Archaeology and the Natural History Services), the two museums were both described as unfit for purpose and the Museums Resource Centre at Burymead Road in Hitchin as outdated and inefficient.

The review had five main recommendations, one of which was to close the two existing museums at Letchworth Garden City and at Hitchin, and instead run a museum and gallery on a single town-centre site. A Feasibility Study was commissioned to investigate the possibility of converting Hitchin Town Hall to museum use, which is scheduled to open in 2019.[2] Letchworth Museum and Art Gallery Museum closed to the public on 1 September 2012.

Proposals

The proposal to run a new town centre site focused on the former Hitchin Town Hall, the adjacent gymnasium and the Workmen's Hall, which formed a single complex. After initial suggestions of converting the Town Hall, a decision was made to house the museum in the gymnasium and a new build linking it with the Town Hall. A new entrance on the site of shops dating from the 1840s would provide further displays, a shop and café.

Although work began on the site in 2012, unforeseen events delayed the opening until summer 2019, by which time some of the galleries had been open to the public for more than a year.

See also

References
  1. North Hertfordshire District Council: Art, Museums and Heritage Forum Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2 November 2011
  2. Hitchin Town Hall: Museum Proposals Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2 November 2011

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