Postscript...

 Ironically Windmill Hill has a wonderful display of Wild Clary on the steep banks where it borders the town centre. Well, it would be a wonderful display except it gets cut down most years before it flowers! Back in 2020 I walked across the hill and was taken aback to see a stunning haze of blue/purple. [see entry dated 14th. May of that year] The first lockdown meant that mowing operations were suspended and the Clary flourished.

 The banks are surely a survival from the days when the countryside extended right into the centre of Hitchin over Windmill Hill. I have written to the council to suggest their plans for the new meadows should include the proper management of the meadow that is already there.