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Dec
Death of Rev John White Tottenham at his residence, 14 West Hill, St Leonards.
New Relief Fund
From the Hastings Mail of 02/01/1904
The new Mayor’s Relief Fund was set up on 1 January to alleviate the distress in the borough. The committee running it met for the first time on 5 January at the Town Hall. It was effectively a Council sub-committee, ...
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New Year Distress
From the Hastings Mail of 02/01/1904
A dinner for the poor was organised by Mr FR Griffiths, manager of the Hippodrome, Pelham Place, at the Drill Hall in Middle Street on Tuesday 29 December. Over 600 of the poorest people were present, some of whom had ...
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Passive resistance: Second distraint sale of their goods in Hastings in payment of the education portion of the rate.
Workhouse Kids
From the Hastings Observer of 02/01/1904
“The Hastings Board of Guardians maintain two cottages – one in Ashburnham Road and the other in Vicarage Road – for the accommodation of those children who are merely ‘ins and outs’, or otherwise disqualified from being boarded out in ...
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Soup Kitchen Appeal
From the Hastings Observer of 02/01/1904
The Fishermen’s Church Soup Kitchen Fund appealed for money. In a letter, the secretary Rev HJ Sanders, of 29 Tackleway, and treasurer Edward Crapnel, of 52 High Street, said the kitchen had been open since early November, six days a ...
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New Motor Bus
From the Hastings Observer of 02/01/1904
There was a trial run of the new motor bus on 31 December to test its hill-climbing powers. On the 31st it went up Old London Road with a big load, at 6mph, returning down Mount Pleasant Road to the ...
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In a letter to the Observer, Mr Charles Brown said: "The necessitous poor are oft-times unknown because they don't go to some place of worship, neglecting their homes meanwhile. And because a home is kept clean and cosy though the ...
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The millionaire Irish businessman Mr Harvey Du Cros was chosen as the prospective Conservative candidate for Hastings in the next election. The decision was made at a meeting of the Central Governing Body on Monday evening 4th at Mr LF ...
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The Mail said that Hastings Council's workmen were being “shabbily treated”, with the loss of three days holiday. The 16 January Mail reported that the borough accounts for the year ending 25 March 1903 showed the town clerk was paid ...
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Over 1,500 poor children feasted in the upstairs Public Hall, Robertson Street, on Friday 8 January. They came from all the poor districts of Hastings at the annual invitation of Mr and Mrs Delavanti and their Operatic Society. “It was ...
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Mr FR Griffiths, the late manager of the Hippodrome (formerly the Empire Theatre), was leaving the town. His “philanthropic work … has been exceptional – frequently entertained the inmates of the Workhouse to teas and entertainments at the theatre”. He ...
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Ore Penny Dinner Fund: Usually the dinners, at Sandown School, lapsed during the holiday, but things were so bad this year that they resumed straight after Christmas. This had been a record week. They usually fed 200, but this week ...
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“Perhaps the poorest district in the borough, Ore is associated in the minds of the visitor and the resident with pleasant drives on sunny days through wooded country lanes, with now and again glimpses of the distant sea.” But “poverty ...
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Hospital Blunder
From the Hastings Mail of 09/01/1904
White Rock hospital: The Mail talked of “the egregious blunder made in erecting such a building in the very centre of a parade especially constructed to attract pleasure seekers. … The discreditable wire-pulling and jealousies and rivalries, which resulted in ...
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Bendix Julius Sandheim, boarding house keeper of Wellington Square, and William Dobby, a builder of Wellington Gardens, appeared in the Bankruptcy Court.
A Council meetingagreed a Licensing Committee report, which said that the liquidator of the South Coast Fruit and Potato Co Ltd had sold the lease of the Council’s George Street Market to a new company, the Southern Produce Co Ltd. ...
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Dickens Aids Poor
From the Hastings Mail of 16/01/1904
The Dickens Fellowship gave an entertainment on 12 January at the Market Hall, George Street, in aid of the Poor Children's Breakfast Fund. The Fellowship had been set up following a meeting held on 20 October 1903.
A meeting of the Citizen’s Education Reform League took place on 14 January in the Robertson Street Congregational Church. The vicar denounced the Education Act.
The borough accounts for the year ending March 25 1903 showed the town clerk was paid £850, the borough surveyor £800, the medical officer of health £400 and the chief constable £400. Just over £144 was spent on the coronation ...
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The Mail described the St Peters Labour Yard, in Cornfield Terrace, Bohemia, and the unemployed. Unemployed men of St Peters parish sawed and then chopped up sleepers for firewood. At the moment 29 were doing it. The yard was part ...
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The West Hill Soup Kitchen had opened two weeks ago. In 1903 it served 10,071 quarts of soup, at one penny a quart. The charity, in the parish of Emmanuel, was started in 1882. “With a population of nearly 6,000, ...
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A parade was organised on Wednesday 20 January by the Friendly Societies to aid the unemployed and relieve the acute distress prevailing in the town. There was a torchlight procession, marshalled in Wellington Square, with bands and banners, and many ...
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Harbour: Critical
From the Hastings Mail of 23/01/1904
The Harbour scheme was in a critical situation. It was understood that the new contractors were anxious to withdraw from the contract for the completion of the harbour and that a syndicate was willing to take over and was prepared ...
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Poverty in Ore
From the Hastings Mail of 23/01/1904
Relief work at Ore was observed by the Mail. A visit to the Grove Road Mission Hall on 19 January saw “the enormous amount of poverty prevalent in this part of town, the spectacle of a long procession of a ...
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Harry Burford, who occupied a curiosity shop in Castle Street, Hastings, shot himself dead in Sea Road, Bexhill.
New Lifeboat Crew
From the Hastings Mail of 30/01/1904
The lifeboats had new launching arrangements. The Hastings Lifeboat Committee meeting at the Town Hall on 28 January was told about the new crew.
The 12th annual meeting of the Hastings and St Leonards Association for Organising Charitable Relief was held at the Town Hall on 23 January. It had assisted 1,485 in 1903. “The past year has been exceptionally trying for all classes, ...
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Boat Engine Wrong
From the Hastings Mail of 30/01/1904
In the county court, Mr Gallop successfully sued Mr Martin for £50 5s for a capstan engine on the fishing boat WEG that did not work properly. Cllr Blackman, ‘the proprietor of Upfield and Sons’ in the High Street, said ...
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Death of Mr William Thurston, of 55 Elphinstone Road, ex-supervisor of Inland Revenue for the Hastings District.
Storm Damage
From the Hastings Mail of 06/02/1904
The sea wall was damaged by stormy seas. There were exaggerated reports in the London papers - denied damage between the St Leonards Pier and the South Colonnade; 150 feet of coping and 70 feet of paving on the lower ...
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Thomas Taylor, builder, of Hughenden Road, appeared in the Bankruptcy Court.
Lord Brassey gave a speech on the “unemployable” problem on 10 February, at a visit to the town by some of Dr Barnado’s boys to gain support for their homes.
The Ore Relief Fund had written to the mayor saying it needed £43 to carry on their work for nine weeks longer. Their own subscription list had almost entirely disappeared since the Mayor’s Fund was opened. The Upper St Marys ...
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Ice House, Rock-a-Nore Road: The 6th AGM of the Hastings and St Leonards Ice and Cold Storage Co Ltd was held at the Castle Hotel, with the mayor, Ald Tree, presiding. The profit of £728 in 1903 was double 1902’s ...
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Important alterations had been made to parts of the Royal Concert Hall, Warrior Gardens [see 8 August 1903]. The smaller rooms were greatly improved, but the large hall was uneconomic. It was undecided what to do, and the new owners ...
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Bygone Poverty
From the Hastings Mail of 13/02/1904
The Mail interviewed William Ransom, “for half a century prominent in local politics”. He was a keen Free Trader, because of the dearness of food in the days of protection, when in the Old Town “poverty reigned to a terrible ...
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Elizabeth Jane Stephens, sister of the proprietor of the Warrior Gate Hotel [on the north-west corner of London Road and Norman Road], was suffocated by gas in her bedroom while asleep. It leaked from a pipe which had been badly ...
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The Mayor’s Relief Fund had been set up for “the relief of the necessitous poor”. He made his eighth appeal, and expressed “grievous disappointment” at the lack of subscription so far - only 176 persons out of a population of ...
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A letter from ‘A Worker’ said the local Housing Council was defunct. If revived, it should not again be “associated with the trade unions, which do not appear to be widely supported by the Hastings working men”.
A 1,600 signature memorial (petition) was given to a recent meeting of the Hastings Licensing Magistrates, protesting against letting young women become barmaids. The leading signers were clergymen. “The evils of exposing young, innocent girls to the sights and conversations ...
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The Mail commented: “The electric light works undertaking purchased by the Corporation in 1898 has had a very successful year, and there is every reason to believe that in a short time it will become profitable”. A reporter had visited ...
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Crime in 1903
From the Hastings Mail of 20/02/1904
The Watch Committee received the Chief Constable’s report for 1903. There had been 189 crimes (182 in 1902) and 115 arrests (109). £599 16s of property had been stolen, of which £486 11s was recovered. There had been 619 indictable ...
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Disaster off Hastings: Collision seven miles due south of Hastings between the Japanese mail steamer Bingo Maru and the Welsh schooner Edward Windus, of Port Madoc, which sank with 5 of her 6 crew drowned. There was no stern light ...
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There was a serious gas explosion at 73 Milward Road, owned by Mr Blake, an engine driver. His wife smelt gas in a room and lit a match to find the source!
A concert for charity was held in the Market Hall, George Street, on 23 February to help provide Old Town children with boots and shoes. It was directed by Mr Delevanti.
A Kodak exhibition was held at the Concert Hall, “to bring before the public the simplicity and cheapness to which photography has been brought during the last few years”.
Hotel Profits Down
From the Hastings Mail of 27/02/1904
At the 21st AGM of the St Leonards Grand Hotel Co, Major ST Weston said the business in the Grand compared with other local hotels “had been satisfactory. The profits [£1,831 11s] were a deal less than last year” [presumably ...
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Mayor’s Relief Fund: In it’s leading editorial, the Mail said: “There is still in the borough an extraordinary degree of poverty arising from scarcity of work. … There is, unhappily, no immediate prospect of increased commercial prosperity.” For several coming ...
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Resisters Fined
From the Hastings Mail of 05/03/1904
In the magistrates’ court on 4 March, 29 passive resisters were fined for non-payment of the education portion of the poor rate.
Heavy Snow
From the Hastings Mail of 05/03/1904
There was heavy snowfall this week – “winter still holds us in icy grip”.
Homeless Poor
From the Hastings Mail of 05/03/1904
The Mail reported on the “Homeless poor: how they fare in Hastings.” Very few were found sleeping out at night, especially in winter. There were many common lodging houses in the Old Town where the poor could obtain a night’s ...
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An EGM of the Hastings Gas Company was held on March 3 in it’s offices. Cllr Dr Gray presided, with directors Major Weston, Ald Stubbs, CE Beeching, WJ Glenister, A Parks and GW Veness. Many other people present, including Ald ...
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Steamboats Unsold
From the Hastings Mail of 05/03/1904
The local steamboats Britannia and Alexandra were offered for sale in London on March 1, but did not reach the reserves of £5,950 and £975 the mortgagees placed on them.
More Bust Builders
From the Hastings Mail of 12/03/1904
Frederick Thorpe, of Albany House, 150 Old London Road, a Hastings and Bexhill builder; and William Dobbie, builder, of Castledown Avenue, West Hill, appeared in the Bankruptcy Court. Thorpe ran a tobacconist at the same address.
Sarah Ann Fletcher, licensed victualler at The Palmerston, Queens Road, was found drowned at St Leonards. Suicide verdict.
Mail news said: The Royal Victoria Hotel re-opened on 8 March “after undergoing almost complete reconstruction”. It was originally opened in 1835 by the Duchess of Kent and her daughter Princess Victoria. It was built in 1828 by James Burton, ...
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Tory AGM
From the Hastings Mail of 12/03/1904
The AGM of the Hastings and St Leonards United Conservative Association was held in the Hippodrome, Pelham Place, on the evening of March 9. “The building was packed from top to bottom.” Mr AP McEwen presided. The secretary was Cllr ...
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Museum Crisis
From the Hastings Mail of 12/03/1904
The Museum general committee met at the Brassey Institute on 5 March. The secretary WV Crake said that since the removal of the Museum to the present premises there had been a “heavy increase” in the cost of upkeep. The ...
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Rechabites AGM
From the Hastings Mail of 12/03/1904
The annual meeting of the Sussex District Council (No 25) of the IOR (Independent Order of Rechabites) was held at Gensing Hall recently. The number of members had gone up 68 to 767; 145 sick benefits had been claimed. The ...
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Workers’ Self-Help
From the Hastings Mail of 19/03/1904
Mr W Richer, a master at the Hastings Grammar School, on 14 March explained his proposals for a setting up a Workers’ Self-Help Society in a room at Post Office Passage, High Street.
Liberal Notables
From the Hastings Mail of 19/03/1904
Local Men of Note: “Probably no two local men have worked more earnestly for liberalism in Hastings than Mr William Ransom and Mr Joshua Huggett JP.” Huggett set up in business in 1858 as an ironmonger in Castle Street, then ...
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West Hill Lift OK
From the Hastings Mail of 19/03/1904
The West Hill Lift Company’s 11th AGM was held on 18 March. The number of passengers was down in 1903, but they still made a profit of £295 from £900 takings. The directors were Cllr Pelham, Cllr Boutwood, Cllr Shoesmith ...
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A new steamboat company had been formed, and had bought the Alexandra. A few townsmen were involved, plus Mr Heckles, one of the managers of the SE Railway. The Mail of 30 April said that the Hastings and St Leonards ...
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Liberals Die
From the Hastings Mail of 26/03/1904
Two local Liberals had died: David Weinhausen, a prominent member of St Leonards, and Mr JE Jones, involved in the West Hill Liberal Club.
Fanny Levy, a girl servant, was charged with the manslaughter of her child, found dead in a Hastings railway carriage. She worked as a domestic servant in the employ of Mary Baker, lodging house keeper at 29 Kenilworth Road. In ...
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The Mail said that Mr Reed was a generous-hearted man, of many public services and a supporter of the RSPCA. He was “one of the pioneers of the St Leonards Pier. He was a prominent Freemason and was always held ...
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Magistrate George Osborn was summoned as a rate defaulter at the Police Court on 24 March.
RN Volunteers
From the Hastings Mail of 02/04/1904
A meeting was held on 28 March to consider the advisability of forming a Hastings Company of the new Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, at the Town Hall. An influential committee was formed. Men were to join for 3 years and ...
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Roads Need Paving
From the Hastings Mail of 02/04/1904
Queens Road and St Helens Road were in desperate need of paving, being in a deplorable condition. The estimated cost was £17,170 for wood paving the carriage ways of Queens Road and portions of St Helens Road and Bohemia Road, ...
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Workhouse Chapel
From the Hastings Mail of 02/04/1904
The Workhouse Chapel was a temporary, galvanised iron structure. As nearly every inmate was Church of England, about 150 of them attended the Sunday morning service.
Relief Fund Closes
From the Hastings Mail of 02/04/1904
The final meeting of the Mayor’s Relief Fund took place on 29 March. The 295 contributors gave £632, and the remaining balance of just over £5 had been given to the Charity Organisation Society. In a letter to the Mail, ...
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Council Decisions
From the Hastings Mail of 09/04/1904
At a Council meeting: (1) The cost of buying the Brisco estate fronting on Bohemia and St Margarets Roads was said to be £20,111, and the annual charges for interest etc £873. It was described as a “white elephant”. It ...
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Councillor John Parker (Liberal, All Saints Ward), builder, and Charles Ball, engineer, of St Leonards, appeared in the Bankruptcy Court on 12 April. Parker had lost £1,200 on his work at the Royal Victoria Hotel. There were seven weeks he ...
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An inquest was held into the death of a new-born boy on April 16. The single mother was Elizabeth Diton, living at 31 Hardwicke Road. Her landlady was Elizabeth Griffin. The baby was born with no doctor or nurse, and ...
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A meeting was held on April 16 in the Princess Room of the Royal Concert Hall, Warrior Gardens, to establish a branch of the Central Society for Women’s Suffrage. The Liberals and Tories unite and a society was formed.
Resistance Meeting
From the Hastings Mail of 23/04/1904
A well-attended Passive Resistance meeting was held in the Royal Concert Hall, Warrior Gardens, on 21 April. There were fighting speeches against the injustices of the Government’s 1902 Education Act.
The AGM of the Board of Guardians took place at the Workhouse on 21 April. Ald Tuppenney was re-elected chairman, Mr LH Elford vice-chairman. There were 295 inmates that week (272 same week 1903) and 142 vagrants were relieved. The ...
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The AGM of the Mendicity Home at the town hall on April 19 heard that only £56 5s was donated in 1903. “That small sum seemed to denote very little interest in the society’s useful work.” There were 1,156 admissions, ...
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The Free Trade Campaign had a meeting in the Public Hall, Robertson Street.
NSPCC Bazaar
From the Hastings Mail of 30/04/1904
A grand NSPCC two-day bazaar and fancy fair were held at the Royal Concert Hall, Warrior Gardens on 26/7 April. It was opened by Lady Brassey.
Ex-Captain Eric GM Short, committed by Hastings magistrates to the Old Bailey, on 26 April was sentenced to five years penal servitude for obtaining money by false pretences.
Town Band Sacked
From the Hastings Mail of 07/05/1904
The present Town Band was not to be re-engaged for the summer months, the Council decided on 6 May. Councillors thought they were not very good, although the public seemed to disagree. A public meeting in protest was called. On ...
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The 6 May Council meeting agreed that: (1) It did not want to put speed limits on Hastings roads under the terms of the new Motor Car Act 1903, following a nasty accident near Bachelors Bump a few weeks before. ...
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Fishing boats in the gale: A number of Hastings mackerel boats were badly damaged. The Britannia and the Dove lost a great many of their nets. Eight boats made a run for Portsmouth, while two others found refuge in Newhaven ...
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A cat belonging to William Tapsell of 29 Brewery Cottages, High Street, gave birth this week to a kitten with two bodies but only one head. It was put down.
Motor Bus Success
From the Hastings Mail of 07/05/1904
The AGM of the Omnibus Company was held at the Queens Hotel on 5 May. The directors were Ald Bradnam, Ald LO Glenister and Clarence Freeland (Ald J Bray had resigned). The secretary was ST Weston. The annual report said ...
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All Saints Rectory was bought by the Rev WC Sayer-Milward from the Rev GA Foyster. The fears that the site might be built upon were now gone.
Death of ex-Sergeant Major Frank Dore at his residence, 14 Mercatoria, St Leonards. It was a loss to the fire brigade.
Arrival of the steamboat Alexandra on Friday 13 May, after a trip from London in the fog. Passengers witnessed a vessel being run down off Walmer.
George Gaze Dies
From the Hastings Mail of 14/05/1904
The funeral of George Gaze took place on 11 May, in his 73rd year. He had been a director of the Royal Victoria Hotel since it was built. At one time he owned the Castle Hotel. He sold the Castle ...
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There was an outbreak of fire on 20 May at the office of Messrs Glazier and Sons, auctioneers and house agents, at 1a Havelock Road. There was considerable damage.
The first Hastings case under the Motor Car Act 1903 was heard at Hastings Magistrates Court on Thursday 19 May. A visitor, Mr Ralph F Dickerson, was charged with ‘driving to the danger of the public’. “PC Wallis saw the ...
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A letter in the Mail complained of the way women watched men bathe at their naked bathing area at Rock-a-Nore. “The bathing attendants should be instructed to see that the privacy of the men’s free station is not intruded upon ...
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The Hastings and St Leonards Sports and Recreation Club was formed to lay out a portion of the ground on the Brisco Estate rented from the Corporation. This small estate was bought by the Corporation for £20,000 to keep the ...
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The AGM of the Hastings Pier Company was held in the Pier Pavilion. The directors were John Reeves, ST Weston JP, Dr GG Gray JP and WE Brown, with secretary LT Weston. There was much criticism from shareholders. Reeves said ...
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Albert Warwicker, a St Leonards newsvendor, committed suicide by drowning on 24 May. He was aged about 30, and “tired of life and weary of the world”.
A total of 18,457 dinners were given to the poor children attending Ore Village schools in the winter season 1903/4, (5,000 more than previous year), the AGM of the Ore Penny Dinner Fund was told at the Ore Village School ...
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Details of the proposed Winter Garden pier opposite Warrior Square were published. It would project 460 feet into the sea, and have a pavilion on it.
The mansion the Grove, Hollington, caught fire. It belonged to Mr AP MacEwen, president of the Hastings and St Leonards Conservative Association. The damage was estimated at £100.
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