Welcome to the
If you want to find out more about the story of the town that gave its name to one of the world’s most famous battles, then this is the starting point. And here you could also help rewrite history - just like William the Conqueror (but by firing emails rather than arrows!).
If you are looking for something specific - a family name, the date of a disaster, the origins of part of the town - you can use the search box on the right to find out more. Alternatively, you can go to the three main sections: Key Events, Archives and Features, where you will also see much other material.
The Key Events section is a straightforward chronological list of all the main events in the history of the town and its neighbourhood.
The Archives section contains news stories (day-by-day, year-by-year) taken from the local press and from other reliable archive sources. The aim is to create a giant newspaper, reporting in more detail all the Key Events, and recording many other stories of general interest. Using the Archives, you can see what happened anywhere in the town in a particular month or year, look up a special topic or carry out research into one of the town’s areas. At present the Archives cover just the years 1848-1910, but the aim is to extend this in both directions.
The third section is Features. These are background stories, articles and books on a wide variety of subjects, all relevant to the history of the town.
The Hastings Chronicle is a database, a source of original information, much of which has not been available to the public before. It is being constantly updated and improved, by both the editor and the readers. If you know of some important events that have been left out, then the Contribute section will explain how you can add them - and change the course of history! As Oscar Wilde said: “The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it”. This section also describes how the Chronicle website was created and asks for your financial help in keeping it going. The site (which you are using free of charge) is the result of much unpaid labour by one person, and if you find it helpful it would be good if you could make a donation towards its running costs.
1066: William builds a castle at Hastings.
