The History of Howard Park and Garden

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Howard Park is bounded on the north by Works Road, the South by Pixmore Way and the east by the Pix Brook and Rushby Mead and west by Norton Way South.  The area now known as Rushby Mead was originally marshy ground  and was known as Pix Moor. However,  A.W. Brunt, a keen amateur naturalist and one of the Founders of the Naturalist Society and Letchworth Museum, who came to Letchworth in 1905 wrote :

 " The whole of the area from what is now Pixmore Way to Works Road, between Norton Way and  Rushby Mead (except  the plot at the corner of Pixmore Way and Norton Way) was  scrubby and marshy."

He tells us about the diversity of wild flowers in the area and records that there were 169 species in Howard Park in the first decade of the 20th Century and notes that the Park was an ideal spot for fungus-hunters. 

Norton Way was the first made up road in the town, originally called Norton Road

Initially the Park only covered the land  to the north of Hillshott.   The area to the south was not developed until 1907 with an office for Parker and Unwin, at 296 Norton Way South, which is now the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Museum. (See section on History of Heritage Museum)