Hastings Council clamped down on the expanding beach trades by creating tough new bye-laws regulating the use of the beach by pleasure boats, their capstans and bathing machines, and introducing charges for them. Ladies bathing machines were the only facilities ...
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Workhouse
From the Hastings News of 26/10/1849
The Board of Guardians of the Hastings Union had decided to exclude the press from its meetings.
Gas Monopoly
From the Hastings News of 07/12/1849
The News published a letter complaining about the gas monopoly in the town, resulting in consumers paying nearly twice as much as in other towns for “an article miserably bad in quality”. The News had two letters on the issue ...
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Crime
From the Hastings News of 08/03/1850
Counterfeit 2/6d coins were reported circulating in the town.
Surveyor Sacked
From the Hastings News of 28/01/1856
Mr Gant, Hastings Council’s town surveyor, was dismissed. John Laing was appointed in his place in March.
Surveyor Missing
From the Hastings News of 02/05/1856
Mr Gant, the ex-town surveyor, was missing when police tried to serve a warrant on him to give up possession of certain plans in his possession. A week later, the News reported that Mr Gant had given back the plans ...
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The Hastings Old Bank in George Street closed because it had gone bankrupt. It was the town's oldest bank, formed by local entrepreneurs in 1791.
Bank Moves
From the Hastings News of 04/12/1857
The London and City Bank’s Hastings branch was to move to Pelham Place from George Street, where the Hastings Old Bank was.
A report was published on the Hastings Old Bank bankruptcy of four years ago.
A Council meeting on 1 January discussed building a new Town Hall, costing no more than £4,000, and also a clock for the Albert Memorial. The council again discussed the new town hall on 5 February. The News on 19 ...
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MPs Win Libel Case
From the Hastings News of 23/04/1869
The two Hastings MPs, Frederick North and Thomas Brassey, both Liberals, were found not guilty of corrupt practices to win their seats in the November 1868 general election. Some members of the Tory Party had petitioned the Crown after the ...
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Thomas Dearing, 54, manager of the Hastings and St Leonards Trade Protection Society, stole £110 and absconded. A liberal reward was offered.
The Liberal Association and the York Hotel case: Messrs Reed and Veness purchased the York and then resold the building to secure a profit at the ratepayers expense.
A Council meeting threw out a proposal to examine the cost of using electricity to power street lighting rather than gas. Electric lights had first come into large-scale use in 1879 and by 1881 were in use in most cities. ...
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The Council meeting on 1 April heard that the £15,000 which had been borrowed to build the new town hall was not enough, and that an application had to be made to the Treasury for another £5,000 to pay for ...
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The new Municipal Buildings (town hall) in Queens Road were officially opened at 1pm on Wednesday 7 September. "Municipal and magisterial affairs will now be carried on with more comfort in a centrally situated position," said the News of 9 ...
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Electric Light
From the Hastings News of 13/01/1882
The Council set up a committee to look into using electric light in the town. A year before, the councillors on 7 January 1881 had thrown out such a suggestion, but with electricity clearly becoming a serious rival to gas, ...
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Attempts to improve the behaviour of the working class by closing pubs on Sundays sparked a riot. The Hastings and St Leonards Temperance Union had started the closure debate at two big meetings of 1,300 people in the Warrior Square ...
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The 13 year old Iron Church in St Andrews Square was described as a "disgrace and scandal" by councillors and local residents at a meeting on 2 May in the Princes Hotel, South Terrace. The meeting had been called because ...
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Bigger Cemetery
From the Hastings News of 11/08/1882
The Council agreed on 4 August to buy ten acres of land on the north side of the cemetery from Mrs Lord. Despite objections from some councillors, they would pay £3,000 for the land, which was then let for just ...
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"The Municipal Election Petitions - Opening of the Inquiry at the Town Hall - During the past two months, one of the chief topics of conversation in local circles has been the subject of the three petitions presented against three ...
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The temperance hotel in Queens Road was formally wound up at a special shareholders meeting on Thursday 9 August. The Albert Hotel had been built by the Coffee Palace and Hotel Company, which was set up in 1879 by many ...
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The Tory councillor and former local newspaper owner James Dorman had been made bankrupt. [He had massive debts of £3,862. He became well-known in 1859 when he started publishing Osborne's Advertiser, a weekly St Leonards paper listing local visitors and ...
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Hastings Council was condemned for selling a piece of ground to an alderman for a third of its true value. A Council meeting on 3 August heard that the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury were "declining to grant the ...
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The foundation stone of the new Beaulieu House was laid. In 1874 Stephen Hankey had bought the old Beaulieu House (a late 18th century farmhouse) and its 88 acres from Mr Habershon, the architect of St Helens Church and St ...
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Hastings solicitor William Henry Hewitt, 30, was jailed for six years by the Kent and Sussex Assizes on 9 November for obtaining £650 by fraud from a retired tradesman. The case concerned a mortgage on building land in 1881, involving ...
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Cllr John Howell, the town's leading builder and president of the local Liberal Party, was acquitted of perjury at Hastings Police Court. A private investigator, Mr Kendal, from London had alleged that Howell committed perjury when Howell had hired ...
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Workhouse Scandal
From the Hastings News of 02/03/1888
Resignation of the building committee of the Board of Guardians over the scandal concerning the proposed new workhouse.
Builder Bankrupt
From the Hastings News of 17/05/1889
The well-known local builder, Fred Cruttenden, of St Leonards, was declared bankrupt.
Corrupt Oddfellow
From the Hastings Times of 20/07/1889
The secretary of the Hastings lodge of the friendly society the Manchester Odd Fellows, Mr Edward B Gallop, a stonemason of Queens Road, on 17 July was sentenced to 12 months hard labour for embezzlement, falsification and forgery. He had ...
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New Tory HQ
From the Hastings News of 17/05/1890
A special dinner was held on 14 May at the Castle Hotel to celebrate the opening of the new Hastings area Conservative Club at 12 Carlisle Parade, a prominent building. [This was the to be the Tory Party headquarters in ...
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A cross-party meeting of ratepayers created the Hastings Ratepayers Union on 17 September because of their anger at the way the Council and the town were being "fearfully mismanaged". Harry J Morgan had called the meeting, in the Provincial Hotel. ...
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Archway Opposition
From the Hastings News of 13/04/1894
The Council meeting on 6 April decided by a majority of just one to buy and demolish the St Leonards Archway, on the seafront just west of London Road, at a cost of £1,500. The Council had received a petition ...
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A Council meeting on 1 June heard that its Park and Gardens Committee had contacted the Eversfield Estate and Rev WC Sayer-Milward Estate to inquire if they would sell the freehold of the land that Hastings Council was leasing from ...
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The Council meeting on 6 July was informed that the St Leonards Archway had been purchased by the Council on 25 June. This was despite receiving a petition with 287 signatures opposing it. Cllr RE Smith described the arch as ...
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The historic St Leonards Archway was secretly demolished overnight on Wednesday 23 January by the Borough Engineer and twenty labourers. This had been strongly opposed by many people, so it was done without prior publicity, and at high speed. The ...
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Light Company Deal
From the Hastings News of 14/05/1897
The Council on 7 May agreed to purchase all the plant, stock in trade and premises of the Electric Light Company for £58,000 when the contract ran out in June 1897. This was the amount wanted by the company, although ...
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The widespread unease at the purchase by Hastings Council of the Electric Light Company's assets started becoming public. The well-known and respected Mr CF Botley, an electrical engineer, said the purchase price was excessive and the Council was paying too ...
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Ben Tree Bent
From the Hastings News of 02/07/1897
Benjamin Tree, the Council's rate collector in St Mary Magdalen parish, was sentenced to 12 months hard labour at Lewes Assizes on 29 June. He pleaded guilty to stealing £600 of the rates he had collected, plus embezzlement, forgery and ...
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Anon Circulars
From the Hastings News of 05/11/1897
Anonymous circulars attacking the purchase of the Electric Light Company by Hastings Council were widely distributed.
Corrupt Teacher
From the Hastings News of 17/12/1897
Dr Gregory, of Manor House College, appeared at Hastings Bankruptcy Court. He also faced criminal charges of obtaining money by false pretences.
Council Lit Up
From the Hastings News of 03/06/1898
The Front Line electric lighting came under Council control on Wednesday 1 June. Miles of new cable may be needed - "poor ratepayer", commented the News. In its 12 August edition, it reported that the Council's Public Lighting Committee had ...
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Harbour Finances
From the Hastings News of 24/06/1898
On the financial aspect of the harbour question, Mr J Chas Burrell gave details to the News. The total amount raised by the Harbour Commissioners was £118,000; of that £76,000 had been paid to the contractors for work done and ...
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The Harbour poll by postcard was a victory for the harbourites, by a majority of 1,077 (for: 3,422, against: 2,345). Seven out of ten wards supported the proposal. The News said the harbourites had spent a lot of money ...
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The famous Earl de la Warr was acquitted of alleged contempt of court at the High Court Bankruptcy Division on Wednesday 17 August. This followed an order for committal to prison of the Earl and Messrs Broadley, Bradshaw and Rucker ...
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The Council was given official approval by the Local Government Board for the purchase of the Hastings Electric Light Company. In October, the Board had held an inquiry into the takeover, and there had been opposition to the Council's proposed ...
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In one of the largest known scandals in the history of the town, the Hastings Gas Company shareholders decided they wanted to increase their profits by moving their gasworks out of Hastings, thereby not having to pay £4,000 in coal ...
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A liquidator was appointed for the Electric Light Company at its winding-up meeting on 28 January. The chairman, Mr FA Langham, said he was confident that the shareholders would receive a bonus in addition to their share capital.
The Financial Times made a ferocious attack upon the financial aspects of Hastings harbour. "Hastings, if we are not mistaken, has furnished some remarkable specimens of this kind [being in the hands of complete amateurs] in the past, and now ...
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Gas Go-Ahead
From the Hastings Mail of 09/09/1899
Royal assent was given on 13 July to the Gas Company's bill seeking power to build new gasworks at Glyne Gap, shareholders were told at their half-yearly meeting on 8 September. Chairman Cllr Dr Gray said everyone should be very ...
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Coal Ring?
From the Hastings News of 12/01/1900
There was a shortage of coal in Hastings - almost a coal famine. The Boer War was blamed, but the News understood there was plenty of coal at the tips, and wondered “Was there a coal ring?”.
Cllr Frederick Cruttenden, builder and contractor, of 20 Warrior Gardens, appeared for public examination in the Bankruptcy Court. He had been declared bankrupt several times since 1882. He seemed to take many chances in the building trade, most of which ...
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Two local solicitors went bankrupt in the same week in April 1901. Frederick Atkinson, living at Milward House, 133 Milward Road, and lately carrying on a business at 39 Havelock Road and in Sackville Chambers in Bexhill, had gross liabilities ...
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The Council on 8 July discussed the Harbour question in detail. Its history was outlined by the News. The Commissioners had failed to raise the money needed to complete it, despite their most extraordinary exertions with financiers and the Public ...
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The Hastings Board of Guardians was still in possession of a white elephant in the shape of the Elphinstone Road site of 18 acres of land purchased for a new workhouse and never built on. The cost to the ratepayer ...
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The annual meeting of the Charity Organisation Society heard that the number of applications for assistance more than doubled in 1901 compared with 1900 – up from 612 to 1,291. Aid was given in 808 cases, nearly twice 1900. Spending ...
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In the Divorce Court on 18 July, the Countess de la Warr was granted a decree nisi for the desertion and misconduct of her husband, the Earl, with an actress named Miss Turner. In court were the Countess's father Lord ...
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The Financial Times on 25 April again castigated the Harbour, “that hopeless enterprise”. The Commissioners throughout “never seemed to know what they were doing or what they wanted. Already they have had four Acts, and the present Bill, if it ...
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Death of on 17 May James Woodhams, head of Messers Woodhams, Son and Parks, prominent estate agents, of Havelock Road. He was treasurer of the local Conservative Party for many years, plus chairman or director of the Eversfield Hotel Co, ...
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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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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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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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At the Council meeting July 1 Cllr Parker (Con) was elected alderman. The Liberals proposed Major Stanley Thomas Weston, who lost his alderman seat on 9 November 1903. Weston had been a councillor/alderman for a quarter of a century before ...
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Council Scandals
From the Hastings Mail of 09/07/1904
A Local Government Board of Inquiry was held in the Town Hall on July 7 to hear evidence in the application to borrow large sums. These included: (1) £17,170 for wood paving the three roads and water mains for them. ...
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The Affairs of Messrs J & A Bray: John and Arthur Bray appeared in the Bankruptcy Court on July 12 before registrar Mr EA Knight. The senior partner was John, an alderman and councillor for over 20 years. He had ...
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Dodgy Voters
From the Hastings Mail of 17/09/1904
There were meetings in the Town Hall this week to revise the list of voters for the 1 November municipal elections. The Liberals objected to bankrupt Arthur Bray because (1) his wife was the tenant of 9 Linton Crescent, not ...
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A Council meeting on October 7 set up a committee to inquire into the salaries of Council officials, which many people thought were too high. Liberal councillor WE Smith said: “Through their Council’s extravagance and maladministration the rates were greatly ...
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Council salaries: In its editorial column, the Mail said figures comparing Hastings with 13 various other towns showed “that Hastings is paying away in salaries to heads of departments more than many larger towns. There may be reasons why Hastings ...
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At the 16th ordinary general meeting of the Hastings and St Leonards Theatre Company, at the Gaiety on October 27, there was “considerable complaint” that Hastings Council was “subsidising outside entertainment at the expense of fair competition”. Cllr Dr Gray ...
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A long letter from Charles William Tagg of 17 Ashburnham Road is published as a story, headed “Reducing Officials’ Salaries - Officials being made the scapegoats for mismanagement by councillors”. He spoke of the “gross mismanagement of past and present ...
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The new Municipal Reform Association had a meeting in Central Hall on December 5. There was a large attendance. It had been set up because of the high rates. One complaint was that there were too many police (116 plus ...
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The steamboat Cynthia was to start shortly. She had been purchased from the sheriff at Herne Bay for £2,300 by the Hastings, St Leonards and Eastbourne Steamboat Company. “The boat was previously owned by Mr Jones, the Holborn town clerk, ...
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The bi-monthly meeting of the Hastings and St Leonards Ratepayers’ Association was held at 1 Eversfield Place on the 6th. Major Vipan presided. He called on the Council to make the Borough Abstract of Accounts simpler. Expert Prof J Holt ...
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Poor Man’s Hotel
From the Hastings Mail of 22/04/1905
The AGM of the Hastings Mendicity Society was held at the Town Hall on 18 April. This was the 50th birthday. Mayor Cllr Charles Eaton was president. The MS was first suggested in letters in the Hastings News by the ...
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The special committee’s report on the salaries of town officials was presented to the Town Council. Economies were suggested by reductions and abolition of offices. The Council meeting on 7 April had agreed not to give any council officer or ...
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The Council on 19 May and on 12th had again debated the salaries of borough officials. There was a close vote on proposed reductions, but they were approved. The 19th May meeting was packed with the public, who clearly opposed ...
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The Mail had a letter from Cricket Lover about a letter a colleague had received from William Carless about the Cricket Ground, saying that in 1904 £383 12s was spent on “match expenses, including players, umpires, scorers, gentlemen’s travelling, hotel ...
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The Municipal Reform Association held a meeting of 500 people on the West Hill in support of the proposed cuts in Council officers. They were protesting about undue expenditure by the Council and officials, which had “crippled the ratepayers … ...
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In the Chancery Division of the High Court on August 2 Mr Freeman-Thomas MP had a complicated case. It concerned the Ratton Estate, Willingdon, of which he was a life tenant, and other property. “The estate was being developed for ...
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The Hastings, St Leonards and Eastbourne Steamboat Co had an ordinary general meeting on St Leonards Pier on October 28. The Cynthia had been successful, so a 5% dividend could be paid. Chairman Sir Ralph Littler denied claims that the ...
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The Council meeting on 17th referred to its Finance Committee a letter from the Ratepayers Association which had an expert opinion on the Council accounts for 1904, saying it was “almost impossible to understand details of receipts and spending”. Local ...
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The Grand Hotel was in an unfortunate financial position. At it’s annual meeting, the Grand Hotel Company was told depression was bringing about a crisis. A fresh start was to be made on reduced shares. About a month later, in ...
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A stormy vestry meeting took place in the parish of All Saints over the Magdalen Charity and the alleged political use of that charity fund. Charges were made against the Rev PJ Blakeway, with the overseers and several working men, ...
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There was stormy criticism of the Magdalen and Lasher Cahrity at the annual vestry meeting in the parish of All Saints, held at All Saints Infants School on 22 March. Several working men, mainly fishermen, led by Mr Mann, condemned ...
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Hospital Scandal
From the Hastings Mail of 31/03/1906
Hastings Hospital scandal: An inquiry was held into the death on 24 March of William Beale, of 5 Gloucester Cottages, Croft Road, whose removal from the East Sussex Hospital when in a critical condition was criticized by the Hastings Guardians. ...
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The Democratic Notes in the Mail said: “The Grammar School has always been a puzzle to me. I have never known the son of a labouring man or a mechanic to be educated there, although I have known the sons ...
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The Hastings Democratic League meeting took place on Wednesday 25 April at the Public Hall in Robertson Street. The Mail said it was a telling speech by John Ward MP (the Navvy MP). This mass meeting of the Hastings and ...
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Hastings Corporation was threatened with an action at law by the St Leonards Pier Company in reference to defences of that structure. Extracts from Sir Ralph Littler’s letter as chairman of the St Leonards Pier Company: “Last Autumn your men ...
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The Democratic Notes in the Mail said: The Rector of Ore, the Rev WC Bullock, has recently been one of the principals in a public transaction which illustrates the greed of the Anglican clergy. Some 25 years ago the Ore ...
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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 ...
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The Democratic Notes in the Mail said: Chair attendants worked from June 4-18, with some attendants working practically 100 hours for the miserable sum of 15s. It is hoped that Councillor Felton Smith, who is a member of the Democratic ...
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The National Democratic League meetings held on Sunday 8th at 11 am on the West Hill near the Lift, and at 6.45 at the Fishmarket were addressed by Councillor JE Dobson, of Camberwell, the general secretary of the National Democratic ...
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The Democratic Notes in the Mail said: The branch is growing in strength. New members are being obtained at every meeting and there is a suggestion that a cycling corps shall be formed. The Democratic League will be holding ...
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There were successful weekend meetings of the Democratic League at the Fishmarket. On Saturday evening, 21st, Mr Thompson presided, with an address by Mr RW Buss of Hornsey, sent down under the auspices of the National Democratic League. On Sunday ...
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The local Democratic League again listened to an address from Mr GH Roberts, when he and a number of juvenile members of the Tunbridge Wells Socialist Sunday School were on a visit to Hastings. Mr Roberts dwelt mainly upon the ...
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Mr GH Roberts, Labour MP for Norwich, gave an address on 27 August in support of Mr Jones in Hollington ward. It was presided over by Mr G Page, chairman of the Trades and Labour Council, supported by J Thompson ...
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Low-Waged Printers
From the Hastings Mail of 20/10/1906
The Council meeting of 19 October considered a letter from Walter Campling, of 20 Vicarage Road, secretary of the Hastings Branch of the Typographical Association (TA), dated 12 October. The branch requested the Council only to accept tenders for printing ...
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On 5 November, dissatisfied shareholders of the long-established motoring business Messrs Skinner and Co decided they had to wind up the company. This followed the suicide of its manager Henry Holcombe Brown on Saturday 29 September. He was found dead ...
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Coal Tax Scandal
From the Hastings Mail of 12/01/1907
The working class people of Hastings were subsidising the well-off, via the centuries-old coal tax, declared the national paper, Lloyds News on 6 January. The tax dated from when Queen Elizabeth allowed the governing body of Hastings to collect a ...
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The Mail said the Hastings coal ring was flourishing, with coal merchant managers lining their own pockets. It compared prices for Hastings, Bexhill and Brighton.
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