Hitchin Rewind: Odell's historic building on Bridge Street - now home to Lyndhurst Financial Management

By Layth Yousif

13th Nov 2022 | Local News

REWIND: Hitchin Nub News Rewind feature section is back

Hello and welcome to our occasional Rewind section where we highlight a person or place in our town every week in our Friday newsletter and then over the weekend on our website.

For this week we are showcasing the history of a historic Hitchin building that is now the home of our main sponsor, Lyndhurst Financial Management.

So, read on for the latest Hitchin Nub News Rewind feature - with huge thanks to all the team at brilliant North Herts Museum for the information below, which first appeared alongside the evocative black and white picture on their Instagram feed.

Hitchin Nub News Rewind: Odell's historic building on Bridge Street - now home to Lyndhurst Financial Management

The uniquely curved building situated at 28 Bridge Street, Hitchin, is presently home to Lyndhurst Financial Management Limited but in the 1800s it served as a carriage repository for the Odell family's business.

Up until the early part of the 20th century, blacksmiths were a critical part of any town or village and no less than 13 of them were listed in the Hitchin area in an 1839 directory. Early on, there had been little difference between the blacksmith and the farrier (shoeing-smith), and the professions tended to overlap until the latter half of the 19th century, after which men tended to specialise in a certain field.

The importance of this trade was due to horses still being the primary means of transportation and heavy agricultural work and, as a result of this labour, they needed frequent reshoeing. Poor quality road surfaces also didn't help the condition of their hooves. It's recorded that in time of necessity, bullock's horns were used to fill ruts in Hitchin Market Place and even a fully harnessed dead horse was laid in a particularly deep rut in Brand Street. As you can imagine horseshoes wore out quickly on these jumbled surfaces and blacksmiths were kept busy.

In 1855, Robert Odell was working at what is now 32 Bridge Street as a farrier but later, in 1878, called himself a shoeing and general smith. Odell would have been capable of using iron for any purpose and inside his shop he most likely would have been making or repairing any item in the vast range of farm equipment, including ploughs. As he also identified as a farrier, it is likely he had a substantial amount of equine veterinary knowledge as, historically, they were known to give animal health advice in the days before veterinarians really became established.

In the late 1800s, the Odell's had successfully diversified the business and another Robert in the family started operating as a carriage builder, further down Bridge Street (pictured).

Those who could afford it would have owned their own carriages – William Ransom travelled in his brougham and the less wealthy might have had a dogcart. The Odell's at 28 Bridge Street would have initially been producing straightforward wooden structures adequate for a horse trotting at high speed however after motorcars became commercially available in 1888, they would have had to adapt their trade. Carriages would now need to withstand up to twice the speed and pushed along from underneath rather than drawn from the front.

The Odell's persevered with their carriage-making business in this building up until 1898, when they were bought out by coachbuilders, Ralph E. Sanders & Son.

With thanks to the brilliant North Herts Museum - for more on the superb museum on Hitchin's Brand Street visit their website here