Hitchin: The former Orchard and Anvil public house
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Hitchin: The former Orchard and Anvil public house by Nigel Cox as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
![](https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/93/31/1933172_5c969e26.jpg)
Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 13 Jun 2010
21 months on from OLU's Image and the building still survives. This 1840s building was formerly The Woolpack and the yard behind was the location of a small forge, hence the modern re-branding. The 1884 Ordnance Survey map shows a substantial area of orchards on the opposite side of Nightingale Road facing the pub, between the present-day Grove Road and Florence Street, and this probably accounts for the other half of the name. A planning application has been made to demolish the pub and replace it with a block of flats. However the Hitchin Historical Society have made an eloquent and well-thought out plea http://www.hitchinhistoricals.org.uk/news/feb_2009.php to keep the building because of its historic value and prominent location. The information that the pub was formerly called the Woolpack warranted a search into old Census records yet curiously a brief search showed no mention of a pub with either name. Perhaps it was called something else before the Woolpack.
Image Location
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![](https://b.tile.openstreetmap.org/17/65435/43322.png)
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![Marker](https://streetguide.co.uk/includes/images/marker-icon-2x.png)