Garage Doors Hitchin, Hertfordshire | Garage Door Repair Hitchin, Hertfordshire | Roller Shutter Garage Doors Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Don't let your Hitchin property look run down with a shabby old garage door. People often spend a small fortune on double glazing, beautiful new tiled roofs, and glorious new front doors, yet for some unexplained reason seem to ignore the old, dented and sometimes rusty garage door.

A new garage door will add to the kerb appeal of your property and add the final addition to the overall aesthetic of your Hitchin home.

A little about Hitchin

Hitchin is an exceedingly popular town in which to live and work and this view has been supported by a poll in The Times newspaper that voted Hitchin the 9th best town in the United Kingdom in which to live. Hitchin is the venue for the annual Rhythms of the World festival, which is now in its twentieth year, where well over one hundred acts performed in 2011, with acts from India, Cuba, Australia, Congo, China, Senegal, Singapore, and Germany taking part. Once the largest free festival of world music in Europe, an entry fee has been charged since 2008. It is part of the three-week Hitchin Festival which includes picnics, concerts, theatre, ghost walks, art exhibitions, comedy club, summer fetes and fireworks. There are also a number of organisations for young people in Hitchin, including air, army and sea cadets and various scouting groups.

Where is Hitchin?

Hitchin is a highly sought after market town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire. Hitchin dates from at least the seventh century. It lies in the valley of the River Hiz, which has a 'z' that is pronounced as a 'tch' at the north-eastern end of the Chiltern Hills. It is sixteen miles north-west of the county town of Hertford, and thirty-five miles north of London.

Hitchin grew around a marketplace and the adjoining parish church of St Mary on the western banks of the River Hiz. At the southern end of the town centre is Hitchin Priory, a former monastery dating back to 1317, which was partially rebuilt into a large country house with extensive parkland following the dissolution of the monasteries. The ancient parish of Hitchin covered a large rural area as well as the town itself, including several hamlets which subsequently became separate parishes, including Langley, Preston, St Ippolyts and Walsworth.

The Hitchin economy was historically based on serving as the market town for the surrounding agricultural area, which was primarily arable with some sheep farming. Lavender has long been grown in the fields around the town, and an early industry in Hitchin was lavender distilleries.

The Great Northern Railway built its main line from London King's Cross to York through the town; Hitchin railway station opened with the line in 1850. The Cambridge line opened shortly afterwards, diverging from the main line just north of Hitchin, which therefore became an important junction station. The A1 motorway passes Hitchin a short distance to the east. The historic character and accessibility of Hitchin make it extremely popular with commuters.

History of Hitchin

Hitchin is first noted as the principal place of the Hicce people, a tribe holding three hundred hides of land as mentioned in a seventh century document, the Tribal Hidage. Hicce, or Hicca, may mean the people of the horse. The tribal name is Old English and derives from the Middle Anglian people. The ancient Icknield Way runs just north of Hitchin, passing through the neighbouring village of Ickleford. It has been suggested that Hitchin was the location of 'Clofesho', the place chosen in 673 by Theodore of Tarsus the Archbishop of Canterbury during the Synod of Hertford, the first meeting of representatives of the fledgling Christian churches of Anglo-Saxon England, to hold annual synods of the churches as Theodore attempted to consolidate and centralise Christianity in England.

By 1086 Hitchin is described as a Royal Manor in the Domesday Book: the feudal services of avera and inward, usually found in the eastern counties, especially Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, were due from the sokemen, but the manor of Hitchin was unique in levying inward. Evidence has been found to suggest that Hitchin was once provided with an earthen bank and ditch fortification, this would have probably been during the early tenth century, but this did not last. The modern spelling of Hitchin first appears in 1618 in the "Hertfordshire Feet of Fines".

The name of the town also is associated with the small river that runs through it, which is most attractive as it runs in front of the east end of St. Mary's Church, the town's parish church. The Hicca Way is an eight-mile walking route along the River Hiz Valley, believed to have been used for trade between the Danes and English in the Anglo-Saxon age. It is also likely that Hitch Wood, which lies some six miles south of Hitchin also derives its name from the Hicce tribe, who gave their name to Hitchin.

An unusually large church for historic Hitchin

St Mary's Church is quite large for a town the size of Hitchin and was once a minster. The size of the church is evidence of how Hitchin prospered from the wool trade. It is the largest parish church in Hertfordshire. Most of the church dates from the 15th century, with its tower dating from around 1190. During the laying of a new floor in the church in 1911, foundations of a more ancient church building were found. In form, they appear to be a basilican church of a seventh-century type, with a later enlarged chancel and transepts, perhaps added in the 10th century. This makes the church older than the story that the church was founded by Offa, king of Mercia who ruled from 757 to 796.

In 1697, Hitchin was subject to what is thought to have been the most severe hailstorm in recorded British history. Hailstones over four inches in diameter were reported to have hammered the town and its people.

The Medieval period in Hitchin

In the High Medieval Period the town was surrounded by open arable fields, divided into narrow strips, which survived into the early 19th century. Hitchin flourished on the wool trade; the sheep being pastured on the high hills to the south. By the 17th century the town was a staging post for coaches coming from London. By the middle of the 19th century, the railway had arrived, and with it a new way of life for Hitchin. Hitchin established itself as a major centre for grain trading after the Corn Exchange was built in the marketplace in 1853. Hitchin was also a centre for manufacturing products from the lavender, which was cultivated in the surrounding area, with multiple lavender distilleries operating in the town.

During the medieval period, both a priory called Newbigging, now known as The Biggin and a friary, now known as Hitchin Priory, were established, both of which closed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. They were never reformed, although The Biggin was for many years used as alms-houses.

Historic education in Hitchin

The British Schools Museum in Hitchin is home to the world's only surviving complete Lancasterian Schoolroom, which was built in 1837 to instruct boys by the Lancasterian method of peer tutoring. This unique community project demonstrates the foundation of education for all.

ACE Garage Doors have had literally dozens of garage door enquiries from the Hitchen area and have many very satisfied customers in this area too. So, if you live in or around the Hitchin area and have been toying with the idea of a new garage door recently, why not contact us, we are sure to be able to supply and fit a superb new garage door.