History

Arrival of Sikhs in Hertfordshire

The first Sikhs arrived in the area in 1950s. A few settled in Potton in Bedfordshire. They then moved branched out to Biggleswade , Stotfold, Letchworth and eventually to Hitchin.

The first significant numbers of Sikh families started arriving in the early 1960s. We began celebrating holy days in the Sikh calendar in 1964. At first we used to conduct our festivals and other religious celebrations in the hired halls, like The Bancroft Recreation Hall, the Town Hall Hitchin and even the Friends Meeting House and the Church Gate Hall near St Mary's Church. Eventually from 1967 onwards we started to regularly hire the Gainsford Memorial Hall Radcliffe Road in Hitchin.

Our First Building

In early 1974 we started talking to the Church authorities of St Albans Diocese (The owners of The Holy Saviour Church and The Gainsford Memorial Hall ) about purchasing their hall from them. At about the same time a constitution was written for the Singh Sabha organisation and the Gurdwara in 1974.

In July 1975 the sale of our current Gurdwara Hall was agreed between the Church authorities on the one hand and the Sikh community on the other. The main negotiator and the organiser of the Sikh Community at that time was Mr Harchet Singh Bains. This hall became our Gurdwara and has been our main place of worship ever since. It was immediately registered as a place of worship and for the registration of marriages for the Sikh community.

The agreed sale price was £25,000, however the Church authorities, being a religious body itself, very kindly agreed to reduce it by £2,500 as a donation from them for this religious project, the whole deal was completed on 28th of May 1976.

Our first extension!

In 1992 the house next door to the Gurdwara was purchased and incorporated in the main building as a Langar Hall (common kitchen and dining hall).

Since then this Gurdwara has been the main place of worship for the Sikh community of this area, including Stevenage, Baldock, Letchworth, Royston and Welwyn Garden City.

Move to a larger Building

The Radcliffe Road Gurdwara building was adequate for our needs to begin with but over the years with the growth in the Sikh population in the area it had become too small for all the activities which we aimed to run - coupled by the fact that we had a shortage of car parking facilities. We looked for many years for a suitable site that could cater our current and future needs and found the building in Wilbury Way. Money had been raised by personal house visits and generous donations over the years and we were able to purchase the Wilbury Way site. Unfortunately the building was not immediately usable so extensive renovation and conversion was planned and executed.

On the 1st of July 2006, we moved to the new building in Wilbury Way.

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Our Gurdwara

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