Democratic League Campaigning From the Hastings Mail of 09/06/1906

Open air meetings of the National Democratic League took place. These were to be frequently held on Saturday evenings and Sundays. Mr Harry Courtney, a staunch democrat from Brighton, spoke at both meetings, at the yacht stade by the Queens ... (more...)

Workhouse Land for Allotments? 11/02/1907

A letter from Mr Kerr, the secretary of the Hastings branch of the SDF, was sent on 11th to the Distress Committee setting forth a scheme for the letting of the Pilot Field in allotments, which might keep 50 people ... (more...)

New Allotments Law: Much Interest From the Hastings Mail of 11/01/1908

The Small Holdings and Allotments Act came into force on 1 January 1908 and there was already considerable interest in Hollington and Silverhill. A committee of gentlemen ahd been formed, with Mr CE Kiefer-Bennett of Eversley, Eversley Road, Silverhill, the ... (more...)

New Allotments Law Explained From the Hastings Mail of 18/01/1908

The benefits of the new Small Holdings and Allotment Act 1907 were explained to a large audience of working class people in the Silverhill Schools on Friday 17 January, and it was agreed a borough-wide association should be set up ... (more...)

Distress: Subsistence Gardening From the Hastings Mail of 29/02/1908

A Distress Committee meeting on 24 February was told there were 1,020 registered, but only 841 men and 3 women were eligible. 549 men were engaged at present in three gangs. Mr Campling said that the average of the population ... (more...)

Two More Allotments Meetings From the Hastings Mail of 29/02/1908

Two more meetings were held to explain the new allotments law to interested working people, following the first at Silverhill on 17 January. At the meeting in Hollington Girls School on Tuesday 25th, Mr Horace Norton of the Eighty Club ... (more...)

Allotments Society Formed From the Hastings Mail of 12/12/1908

The Mail said: "From the quiescence of the Hastings Town Council under the applications they have received for small holdings, one might well think that the popular interest in the subject was dead, but we are glad to know ... (more...)

Ecclesbourne Glen Hermit From the Hastings Mail of 17/04/1909

The Mail described how a disappointed man had been living in solitude for some 12 or 14 years in a rock cavern on an allotment on the west side of Ecclesbourne Glen. He was a tall man with long grey ... (more...)

Allotments: Council Reluctant From the Hastings Mail of 05/06/1909

At a Council meeting on 4 June a letter from the Board of Agriculture said the Council should pursue the possible purchase of Little Ridge Farm, which the Council had previously turned down. The Board said that "although the farm ... (more...)

Allotments: Parliament Involved From the Hastings Mail of 31/07/1909

In the House of Commons, Mr Morrell drew attention to the situation which had arisen between the Hastings Town Council and the Board of Agriculture with regard to the unsatisfied local demand for small holdings, and asked if the Board ... (more...)