We are recording Hitchin's second oldest building, The Biggin, founded in 1361 as the Gilbertine Priory of Newbiggin by Edward de Kendale. It has survived the Dissolution, conversion to a private house, conversion to a school, conversion to almhouses and, finally, to flatlets occupied by teachers and students. The aim is to understand what survives from different phases of its use.
On site: Brent Smith, David Hillelson, Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Brian Dickinson, Frankie Saxton, Anna Mangini, Martin Alexander, Tony Driscoll, Margaret Tisdale, Pauline Humphries, Alan Clark, Nigel Harper-Scott, Laurie Elvin, John Morley
David Hillelson briefing the volunteers
People have been placed in three teams, each responsible for recording an individal flatlet. Frankie Saxton is drawing the decorative carved wood (part of a screen or window?) that has been humg on the wall by the south door. There are lots of graffiti in Flat 5; that carved by Sam Beldam in 1746 has been known for a long time, but there are smaller and earlier sets of initials with letter forms (specifically I and W) that look very seventeenth-century. Given that the panelling into which they are carved is prbably late sixteenth century, this is not altogether surprising. There's also a graffito with a date that appears to be 1691 on the northernmost column in the colonnade in the courtyard. There's clearly an awful lot to discover in the building!
Who was Sam Beldam and why was he defacing sixteenth-century panelling in 1746?
The living room of Flat 11 has a great deal of oak panelling, some of it evidently ancient and in situ, some of it more recent (perhaps as recently as 1958-60). It looks as if this was part of a higher status chamber or suite of chambers in the post-Dissolution building.
Measuring in one of the flatlets
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