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All Saints Church: The contract with Messrs Avis and Roe, Silverhill, for £3,950 to restore the church was signed. There was scaffolding round the tower. £1,500 was still needed.
St Andrews Church: An appeal for funds to build the church was launched. Miss MJ Sayer was giving the site and £1,000, on the Brook Fields Estate [Queens Road].
The Mail Cart
From the Hastings News of 07/01/1870
The night mail service closed at 9 pm recently. "The change arises out of the foolish conveyance of the night mail in a one-horse cart 35 miles across country to Staplehurst" to catch the train. Frost and snow added two ...
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Mr Keen, ironmonger in Robertson Street, had shutters and a plate glass window smashed during the night. Two men, 19 and 22, were given two and three weeks imprisonment for breaking the windows and stealing bell-pulls at night.
No Crime!
From the Hastings News of 14/01/1870
As there were no crime cases before the Bench on 13 January, the mayor was presented with the usual sign of a clear sheet: a pair of white kid gloves.
James Elliot BA had decided to build a villa and school at Upper Maze Hill. The tender of £2,424 by Messrs Hughes had been accepted.
The News commented on bicycles: “Complaints have reached us of the danger which passengers incur in our streets after dark from the velocipedes, which begin to abound here. These locomotives make so little noise and present so small a body ...
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At 8am the Head Post Offices at Hastings and St Leonards commenced transmitting telegraphic messages, in common with some 800 other offices. There was a uniform shilling rate for 20 words.
Roads Extended
From the Hastings News of 11/02/1870
Council meeting approved plans for an extension of Harold Road to Christ Church in Ore, and an extension of Pynlimmon Road from the West Hill mills to Whitefriars.
The attention of Ore Workhouse Guardians was drawn to “the indecent haste with which the hearse conveyed the poor paupers to the cemetery for burial through the streets" quoting ‘Rattle His Bones Over the Stones / He's Only a Pauper ...
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Child Crime
From the Hastings News of 25/02/1870
Thomas Ash, aged 12, was convicted of theft of stamps etc, his first offence. He was given 12 strokes.
Old Roar Fernery
From the Hastings News of 11/03/1870
Henry Putland, tenant of Old Roar Gardens which he had fenced and where he had developed a fernery, was assaulted by a trespasser picking the ferns. The trespasser was fined 40 shillings. The owner was George Clement.
All Saints Church restoration: Tiles and lathing had been removed from the roof, and the rafters were bare. Alderton and Shrewsbury were given the All Saints Church heating contract, reported the News on 19 August.
Pier Piles
From the Hastings News of 25/03/1870
The first cargo of iron works for the pier had arrived at Whitstable harbour. For more than a week the heavy screw piles had been hauled to the Parade at White Rock and stacked ready for use.
Report on the Albert House Institution in Cross Street, St Leonards (London Road to Western Road): It was a kitchen in which good food was cooked for the sick and infirm poor; a training school to fit young girls for ...
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Council Meeting
From the Hastings News of 08/04/1870
Council meeting discussed prohibiting the removal of shingle from the shore, endangering the safety of the Parade wall. Plus: A temporary building would be allowed in the Central Recreation Ground to be used as a circus for 3 months.
Hastings 1820s
From the Hastings News of 08/04/1870
Lecture by John Banks on Hastings 50 years ago, to the Hastings Mechanic Institution.
In the Coastguard, Commander Edmund St John Garforth was to succeed Commander Panter Downes in command of the Hastings Coastguard District.
North’s Seat: A seat for 12 people, made by GE Jones of York Gardens, was erected by Miss North in memory of her father Frederick North MP who died 29 October 1869. It was on the site of the Fairlight ...
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Beach Movement
From the Hastings News of 29/04/1870
The News carried a feature on the movement of beach, by JS Bowerbank FRS.
Fishing: Nearly all luggers were back from the mackerel voyage to the West Country, with poor results. The best earnings for the whole crew for four months had only been £160. The St Ives boats had done well.
Council meeting decided that no shingle was to be removed from the beach or stade without the authority of, and paying to, the town clerk, George Meadows.
On Queen Victoria’s 51st birthday, bells were rung at St Clements Church, flags were flown and there was a royal salute by town guns at noon on Marine Parade. Coastguard Roper from Government House on Marine Parade was hurt when ...
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At Martello Tower No 36 near Pett Level on 31 May there was another experiment with guncotton. The tower and walls 12 ft thick were safely demolished by 200 lbs of guncotton, divided into three charges and fired simultaneously by ...
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The annual Whitsun Town Fair may be snuffed out by the erection of the new Fishmarket. There were only two or three small stalls on the ground at the fair on Tuesday 7 June.
Yacht Disaster
From the Hastings News of 10/06/1870
“Terrible gloom” was cast over the town by the drowning of eight people when the pleasure yacht Royal Albert capsized half a mile off the Fishmarket on Whit Monday, 6 June. The ketch set sail from the beach about 4pm, ...
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Iron Church Row
From the Hastings News of 10/06/1870
Parishioners disputed with Dr EJ May about a nuisance caused by tolling the bell of St Andrews Iron Church.
Gas Blast
From the Hastings News of 24/06/1870
Someone looking for a gas leak with a candle at 12 Clarence Terrace, Silverhill, set off an explosion which burned their arms and face, blew out windows and lifted the roof.
Old Roar House was advertised for sale.
New Sewage Works
From the Hastings News of 24/06/1870
The Hastings Manure Co’s new sewage works at Rock-a-Nore was attracting visitors from all over England, said the News. Hastings could "boast of having been the first watering place in the kingdom that had entirely deodorised the sewage and prevented ...
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All Saints Church meeting suggested the Council should purchase certain small houses by the churchyard to widen the road now “not wide enough for two donkey-carts to pass”. In August the Council agreed to contribute £150 towards widening All Saints ...
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Sea Wall Damaged
From the Hastings News of 08/07/1870
The tide undermined 70 ft of sea wall at the back of the South Colonnade. Mr Gant, Council surveyor, had to revet with faggots etc.
Pier Progress
From the Hastings News of 15/07/1870
About a hundred of the new screw piles of the pier now being built had now been driven in.
Sailing Mayor
From the Hastings News of 15/07/1870
William Scrivens, mayor, accompanied clerks of Beeching’s Bank on their annual aquatic outing in the pleasure yacht Albertine to help offset local prejudice against boating after the June 6 disaster.
Hastings Lodge in Old London Road, the home of the late Frederick North MP, was bought by Stubbs for £4,100, and land around it by the British Land Co for £5,000. This land will be part of the new Clive ...
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St Pauls School
From the Hastings News of 05/08/1870
The tender of G Bridgland of St Leonards of £1,666 for building St Pauls School in Bohemia Road [on corner of what was to be St Pauls Road] was accepted. The architects were Jeffery and Skiller.
Sturgeon Caught
From the Hastings News of 05/08/1870
Two large sturgeon fish were caught off Hastings, one 5½ feet long, 52 lbs.
Sewage Deaths
From the Hastings News of 12/08/1870
Three men were suffocated in the large underground sewage tank at Rock-a-Nore. One of them was the company chemist. The tank was cleared every tide.
Near-Drowning
From the Hastings News of 19/08/1870
A fence was left open near the well opposite the old Priory Farm house; and a child of three fell into deep water. He was held up by his hair by another child until rescued. This was the second case ...
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A carter sheltering from a thunder storm under a tree in Ore Lane had a horse killed and his boot sole struck off.
House Burns Down
From the Hastings News of 26/08/1870
Old Shepherds Cottage, thatched, on 40 acres in Ore Lane was burned down in a fire caused by a boy playing with lucifer matches.
The new St Helens Church, Ore, was consecrated by the Bishop.
Thomas Dangerfield from Wiltshire collapsed and died of heart disease while preaching in the pulpit at Ebenezer Chapel, Tackleway.
His Imperial Highness, son of the recently fallen Napoleon III, arrived at the Marina Hotel, St Leonards. He was welcomed by the mayor. A special train brought 23 horses and two carriages on the 12th. The Empress Eugene arrived on ...
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A prostitute, one of a gang from London, endeavoured to “captivate the Superintendent of Police. The estimate which she put upon the Superintendent was dreadfully out, and she became a captive while trying her blandishments.”
All Saints Church re-opened after nearly 14 months work. The old fashioned bow pews had been replaced by open seats, the font moved westward nearer tower and the floor relaid at a lower level with heating pipes. There was new ...
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The new Fishmarket at the bottom of the High Street officially opened. Stalls were to let at ls to 2s 6d weekly.
Bishop Harding preached at All Saints Church, with the mayor and Town Council there in civic state. There was a sermon in the evening by Rev GA Foyster.
Maps
From the Hastings News of 11/11/1870
John Banks presented the Council with the last of his maps covering the whole borough.
The annual Town Fair was held, but it was very restricted, since the ground was occupied by the new Fishmarket and boats hauled onto the roadway out of reach of the gale. The home herring fishery had been good so ...
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Big Development
From the Hastings News of 02/12/1870
St Andrews Church was consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester on 30 November. It cost £3,600, and £1,000 still had to be raised. Its surrounding area had changed since the Misses Sayer sold the land south and east of the ...
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New School
From the Hastings News of 02/12/1870
A News advert said Wellington Grammar School, 4 Wellington Square, was to be started by Frederick W Foster, late Master of Saunder's Charity School. £8 a term over-eights, £6 under; reduction for brothers. He had been Master for 22 years.
Market Tap, 14 George Street, was destroyed by fire at night, despite two out of three sections of the Volunteer Fire Brigade, about 40 firemen, 25 police and several Coastguards. It was “One of the few old erections remaining in ...
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From today, all passenger trains of LB & SC Railway will call at the SE Railway’s St Leonards Warrior Square Station, so it was now possible to book from there to any LB & SCR station.
Death of the famous railway engineer Thomas Brassey, of 56 Lowndes Square, London, aged 65. He was father of Thomas Brassey, the senior Hastings MP. The son of a Cheshire yeoman, he married Miss Harrison of Birkenhead. At first he ...
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Claremont Hall, 12 Claremont, opposite Holy Trinity Church, was opened by the Plymouth Brothers who had for years met in the Market Hall, George Street.
High Unemployment
From the Hastings News of 16/12/1870
The News said the number of unemployed this winter was as great as it had been for some years. The mayor was to raise a fund, and they would be employed in various public works. There was a need to ...
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The Recreation Ground was offered to subscribers for £6,000. There was a public meeting to buy the Priory Meadows and retain it for public use, on condition it could still be used as a Volunteers’ drill ground.
A rare bird, a buzzard, had been shot after being seen in Warrior Square on Christmas Day. It was later mounted by John Bissenden of the Archway.
At the Workhouse, Mr Pearce, the Master, had a ‘family’ of 254 on Christmas Day, the largest for 30 years. There were 280 lbs of good meat, 340 lbs of capital plum pudding and 24 packs of potatoes. A sample ...
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