Hitchin Priory is Grade I listed, and one of the oldest buildings in the town. Originally a Carmelite monastery in 1317, it prospered until its dissolution by Henry VIII in 1538. Ralph Radcliffe, son of a Lancashire landowner, turned it into a school, and it remained in the Radcliffe (later Delmé-Radcliffe) family for eleven generations until it was sold in 1963 to the County Council. It is now a Chartridge hotel & conference centre. Among its principal features are an Adam wing from the 1770s and remnants of the original flint monastery.
Back to the Blue Plaque list …