"Everyone loves a detective story. The clues for this story were deposited anonymously outside the front door of Hitchin Museum on two Fridays in September 1999. These papers, which were the commercial and domestic ephemera of a firm of 19th century Hitchin fishmongers, were found impaled on office spikes inside two cardboard boxes. Thomas Hodgson and Ernest Hankin were popular tradesmen who had a shop in Bucklersbury and later in Sun Street. This book traces their lives as revealed by their invoices and as the period newspapers saw them. Never before has a local history concerned itself so much with the lives of ordinary folk in Hitchin."

This is not only an unusual book - because of the details it provides of the life and work of a small businessman - but there are other many references to other people in the town - supported with a good index.

See also Fried Fish Sellers

Page created March 2007