Hastings magistrates gaoled a man for a week for begging. He was in a “miserably ragged condition”, with one foot bound up, and his head “all in an uproar”.
Public Health Act
From the Hastings News of 15/08/1851
The Public Health Act came into force in Hastings, but not St Leonards.
Gant Maps
From the Hastings News of 12/12/1851
The first-ever large scale plans of the town were deposited at the Town Hall by council officer/surveyor Mr William J Gant; scale 1 inch to 44 ft. They were surveyed in order to implement the Public Health Act, and showed ...
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The Hastings Homeopathic Dispensary opened at 8 Hill Street.
The Council approved the report of John Braithwaite CE on the drainage scheme, costing £16,627.
First Drains
From the Hastings News of 19/09/1856
The first stone of Hastings drainage was laid near the East Hill by the Mayor.
Excavations for drains in George Street revealed the remains of former fortification. A drawing was being made by town surveyor Mr Laing. A copper groat of Henry VIII was found nearby.
Hops Flooded
From the Hastings News of 12/07/1861
Wastel Brisco complained of damage done to his hop crop during the floods owing to faulty drainage.
A gas explosion occurred in Coburg Place, Old Town, following a gas leak into a sewer near Swan Lane. The effect was said to be similar to a steam engine firing.
Ore Pong
From the Hastings News of 23/05/1862
Due to offensive odours in Ore, Mr Banks, of Bleak House, had prepared plans for a drainage scheme. On 30 June, a public meeting was held in Ore on the drainage question.
The drainage works of Hastings were completed.
The Local Board of Health proposed to close the Halton Burial Ground.
At a Council meeting: Building plans for Brook Street, Cornwallis Street, St Andrews Square, Gensing Station Road and Clive Vale Estate were discussed. Burning bricks near the St Leonards Station was to be discontinued owing to the population increase. A ...
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The Council discussed a new drainage scheme costing £10,000.
A meeting was held at the Princes Hotel on the Great Brook Estate with gentlemen of the borough to report on the deodorization of sewage.
Council meeting: Building plans for 3 pairs of semi-detached villas in Pevensey road, a public house near St Mary Magdalen turnpike gate, Friends Meeting House in South Terrace and a new road for the British Land Co continuing Harold Road ...
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Bourne Wash-Houses
From the Hastings News of 16/06/1865
New public wash-houses and baths on the corner of Winding Street and Bourne Street were opened for the poor by the Countess of Waldegrave on 8 June. They were to play an important role in the health and working lives ...
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The Council decided on an outfall at Glynde Haven for a new drainage scheme for the town.
Infirmary AGM
From the Hastings News of 09/03/1866
The annual meeting of the governors of the Infirmary, at White Rock, on 6 March stated the need for enlarging the building, or alternatively looking for a new site.
Homes and Health
From the Hastings News of 13/07/1866
Council meeting, 6 July: Proposed new buildings including stabling at the rear of Cross Street, and 14 houses in Quarry Terrace. The Nuisance Removal Committee presented a list of boat-shops which were used as dwellings, but which had no closets, ...
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Big Drain Works
From the Hastings News of 14/09/1866
A special meeting of the Local Board and the Town Council on 11 September accepted Mr John Howell’s tender of £25,640 for the big drainage and sewage outlet to be constructed at Rock-a-Nore. Howell was one of the town's leading ...
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Alterations to the new Bourne Street public laundry and baths had been made. Now there were bathrooms open from 10am - 9pm every day with hot and cold water. The charges were 6d first class, 4d second, 3d third. The ...
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About 40-50 men commenced the drainage scheme a little east of the Sussex Hotel [corner Sussex Road and Marina]. The contractor was Mr Webster.
Infirmary
From the Hastings News of 18/01/1867
There was talk of enlarging the Infirmary at White Rock. On 30 April plans were submitted for the proposed extension. The News on 27 September reported that work had begun on building the new wing, and that a subscription list ...
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The new drainage works were now quite completed. The Rev Hatchard had written to the Times with facts about the works.
Drain Roadworks
From the Hastings News of 10/04/1868
Drainage works through Pelham Place and Breeds Place, meant that "only one line of vehicles can pass at a time. Supt Glenister had brought into requisition the plan used on the railway. The police officers on duty at each end ...
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There was a dinner for John Howell, the contractor, when the new drainage was completed, but there were unfavourable comments in London papers on the health of the town. Nearly £30,000 had been spent. On 17 July the News had ...
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Dirty Fountain
From the Hastings News of 14/08/1868
There were complaints that the Waldegrave drinking fountain was dirty, but the Board of Health could do nothing because it was not their property and it stood on the ground of Holy Trinity Church.
Highway Robber
From the Hastings News of 13/11/1868
A report in the Daily Telegraph said that former Hastings surgeon's assistant Horace Wright, aka John Williams, aka Captain Jinks, was under arrest at Henley-on-Thames for highway robbery. His mare was stolen from Mr Williard of the Swan Stables in ...
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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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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.
The commissioners were considering amalgamation with the Local Board of Health. They had previously successfully resisted Hastings taking over St Leonards for the LBH in 1852, but now Hastings residents were paying 1/11 in the pound, while in St Leonards ...
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Longevity
From the Hastings News of 16/02/1872
Six local men on Marine Parade near the sundial had total ages of 481. Thomas ('Duncan') White 84, Matthew Phillips 83, John Breeds 80, Henry Phillips 79, John Haste 75, fishermen, and John Oliver 80, old pleasure boat man. All in ...
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Women’s Hospital
From the Hastings News of 16/08/1872
A trust fund of £6,000 set up to establish a convalescent asylum to help females recover, offered to turn it over to assist the Infirmary.
Spa Advert
From the Hastings News of 03/01/1873
The News carried an advert for St Andrew's Spa, by H King: "An elegant Spa Room has been erected from the designs of H Carpenter Esq, with a fountain in the centre, into which the water flows direct from the ...
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Street Life
From the Hastings News of 03/01/1873
There complaints of the dirty state of roads near the Memorial, suggesting able-bodied paupers should sweep the crossings. "Visitors have also complained of the coarse remarks and bad language used by the loungers at the corners of the streets in ...
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Hastings Town Council decided to apply the Public Health Act 1872 to St Leonards. They were to meet the St Leonards Commissioners to discuss this important matter.
New Watering Cart
From the Hastings News of 17/07/1874
A new watering cart for washing the streets had been acquired for Hastings, called the 'EH Bayleys Patent Hydrostatic Watering Cart'. The cart was of iron and on four wheels. When in use, water was discharged from three clusters of ...
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Ore Sewer
From the Hastings News of 11/06/1875
The Rural Sanitary Authority had decided to join the Ore sewer to the Hastings system of drainage.
Council Purchases
From the Hastings News of 10/12/1875
The council had hired a steam roller for a month for the improvement of the roads and would buy for £500 if approved. The Council had also bought granite for a much n eeded improvement of the roads. The Urban Sanitary ...
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A public meeting was held at the Wellington Square Lecture Hall on 10 December to form a St John's Ambulance Association and to organise treatment of injured persons.
Disease in Town
From the Hastings News of 14/01/1881
There was a widespread foot and mouth disease, so the borough became a restricted area for the movement of cattle. The restrictions were removed at the end of March.
Very large quantities of shingle were being removed from the beach at Rock-a-Nore, and this was endangering the sewage tanks, Cllr Bradnam, chairman of the Council's Stonebeach Committee told the Council on 4 August. He said no less than 2,200 ...
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Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor of medicine in modern times and a resident of Hastings, chaired a meeting of the National Society for Women's Suffrage on Wednesday 29 August. The meeting took place in the Assembly Rooms above ...
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The Hastings Hydropathic Establishment opened in the mansion and grounds of Hastings Lodge, in Old London Road, on 10 September. This had been the home of the late Frederick North MP. The News of 23 November 1883 said the Lodge ...
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The Council turned down the offer from the Misses Brisco of the Beau Site house in White Rock Gardens near the Infirmary. They suggest it be a convalescent home for the poor. The Observer of 13 February 1886 reported that ...
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Dr Elizabeth Blackwell of Rock House was to be one of the consulting physicians at the newly opened Hospital for Women in Euston Road, London. Also Dr Mary Pailthorpe of Hastings, now in Benares, and Dr Lilian H Jenkins of ...
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The Council on 6 February adopted a motion on the St Leonards drainage scheme. The meeting also approved recommendations on the sea wall at St Leonards. Plus the Glynde water scheme was under consideration.
Healthy Hastings
From the Hastings News of 11/08/1893
The Medical Officer of Health gave a favourable report for Hastings to the Council meeting on 4 August, saying he believed the town stood in the front rank of health resorts. He also felt that the prevalence of scarlet fever ...
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Drainage Spending
From the Hastings News of 11/08/1893
There was a public inquiry on 4 August on behalf of the Local Government Board into works loans and over-expenditure on drainage.
Mr William Rogers, a market gardener in Clive Vale, sued the Hastings Urban Sanitary Authority for damages concerning the drains under his land being out of repair. He had bought his land in 1875 from British Land.
Dr William Greenhill, of the Croft, died aged 81 on 19 September. He came to Hastings in 1851, taking over from Dr Mackness in Carlisle Parade. He was the founder and for many years the manager spirit of the Hastings ...
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There was a public inquiry on 23 January into the Hastings Council application to borrow £900 for the purchase of a site to build a hospital for infectious diseases. There was already a sanatorium in Cackle Street [Frederick Road], on ...
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The vaccination committee of the workhouse's Board of Guardians recommended the opening of public vaccination stations at Ore and Silverhill.
New Loos
From the Hastings News of 30/08/1895
A new public convenience at the fishmarket had been opened.
Home for Children
From the Hastings News of 27/03/1896
The opening of the St Giles Christian Mission Convalescent Home for Children at 113 High Street took place.
The Hastings Provident Dispensary was wound up at its annual meeting in the town hall on 30 March. It did not have enough doctors, and there were too many other dispensaries.
New Sanatorium
From the Hastings News of 01/05/1896
A public inquiry was held on 28 April about the £10,700 spending needed for the new sanatorium.
Crippled Girls
From the Hastings News of 05/06/1896
The opening of the Seaside Branch of the Cripples' Home for Girls, at 138 Marina, took place on Wednesday 3 June.
Railway Home Opens
From the Hastings News of 07/05/1897
The new Railway Mission Convalescent Home for railwaymen, at 111 West Hill Road, St Leonards (above Grosvenor Gardens), was opened by Lady Chichester. This was a magnificent new building, far better than its predecessor next to the church in Portland ...
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Typhoid Parade
From the Hastings News of 05/11/1897
There was a Sunday parade on 31 October by friendly societies and trades unions of Hastings to aid the Maidstone Relief Fund following the serious typhoid outbreak.
The new sanatorium was approaching completion in Cackle Street [Frederick Road]. There was a large attendance on Saturday 30 October on the laying of a memorial stone. The building and land had cost about £12,000, and other accessories about another ...
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The Rev P Hughes, a retired Nonconformist minister, and his wife died of pneumonia on the same day, Wednesday 2 March, at Alfred Road, Clive Vale.
A deputation from the Ratepayers Committee, formed to oppose the subsidising of Hastings harbour, was received by the Council's General Purposes Committee on 7 March. The use of the unfinished harbour works as a coaling station was to be abandoned, ...
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Another Dead Baby
From the Hastings News of 17/06/1898
The body of a newly born child was found in a field adjoining Ashburnham Road on 10 June.
Dead Baby
From the Hastings News of 29/07/1898
A newly born male child was discovered dead under the sink at the Edinburgh Hotel, Warrior Square, on 16 July.
Another Child Dead
From the Hastings News of 09/09/1898
Yet another new-born male child was found dead, this time in an enclosure at Bohemia on 1 September. It was wrapped in newspaper.
Anthrax Outbreak
From the Hastings News of 14/10/1898
There was an outbreak of anthrax on the recently-purchased Hastings Corporation farm, Church House, Brede, part of the water service.
Poor Church Fund
From the Hastings News of 04/11/1898
The Fishermen's Church Sick and Poor Fund stood at only £1 15s 9d, at the beginning of the winter, when it was most needed.
Drowned in Sewage
From the Hastings News of 10/11/1899
Teh accidental drowning took place of George Archer Williams, the son of George Williams, the Corporation's engineer at Filsham Pumping Station, at Rock-a-Nore Sewage Works.
As the old century ended and the new one began, a doctor in Ore refused to help a local resident who was dying. William Kidney, a poor working man of Red Lake Cottages, had been ill for some time. On ...
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Refuse Problem
From the Hastings Observer of 20/01/1900
The town’s refuse: A Council meeting on 19 January discussed building a ‘refuse destructor’ at Silverhill or north of Buckshole Reservoir. But the idea was turned down on the recommendation of the Sanitary Committee, because: there were objections from nearby ...
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A public inquiry was held at the Town Hall into the application of the Corporation to borrow £7,050 for work of wood paving, sewage, seafront improvements and alterations to the Brassey Institute. These were unopposed.
Fever Death
From the Hastings News of 27/03/1900
An inquest was held into the death of Naomi Hartnup who died at Oak Terrace, Ore, of puerperal fever.
Fish hawker Samuel Porter, of 27 Union Street, St Leonards, died of blood poisoning after being pricked by a fish bone.
Swine Fever
From the Hastings News of 16/11/1900
Swine fever had broken out in the Hastings district.
Rusty Nail Kills
From the Hastings News of 04/01/1901
John Newton Edwards, of 6 Silverlands Road, died from the scratch of a rusty nail on 31 December. He was a grocer’s assistant in the employ of Mr Chase.
Town Centre Loo
From the Hastings News of 11/01/1901
A start had been made on the much talked-about and long-awaited public lavatory in Harold Place. Boarding had been put up round the site and the foundations were being laid.
The new lavatories in Harold Place had opened on 12 December.
Death of George Tapp, aged 15, second son of Mr Tapp, the well-known blacksmith in the Old Town, of consumption.
The Bopeep sewage outfall was to be extended 217 feet south-westerly to low water mark at spring tides, the Council decided on 16 January. This was despite the high cost - £1,851 – and the limited life it would have, ...
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Hospital Deficit
From the Hastings Mail of 14/02/1903
Hastings and St Leonards and East Sussex Hospital were in deficit to £1,000 because of the great increase in patients. They appealed to the townspeople on 10 February.
West Hill Baths?
From the Hastings Mail of 11/04/1903
A conference of West Hill residents was held on 8 April to consider the necessity of extending the Public Baths and Washhouses Act to the district.
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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Miss Sophia Shearly, of 60 Vale Road, Silverhill, died on 18 August while experimenting with new life-saving apparatus in a Paris hospital.
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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Fatal seizure of Frederick John Sutton, a Hastings fisherman living at 25 Tackleway.
The annual meeting of the Hastings and East Sussex Hospital was held at the hospital, White Rock, on Tuesday 14th. A large expenditure and reduced subscriptions meant it was now over £1,000 in the red: £5,299 against £4,227. The 65th ...
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The Dentist Rapist
From the Hastings Mail of 18/02/1905
Dr Louis Rhein, the ex-Hastings dentist, was sentenced to two years hard labour on 12 February for attempted rape and indecent assault under anaesthetic, involving several of his patients.
The Clive Vale Children’s Hospital and Creche opening ceremony was performed by Mrs Harvey du Cros. The ceremony took place in the All Souls Parish Room, Athelstan Road. There was room for 20 creche children. They were taking healthy children ...
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The Council’s Medical Officer of Health report for the quarter to June 20 said there had been 298 births, of which 28 (9.4%) were illegitimate.
A homeopathic congress took place in the Town Hall, with a mayoral reception.
Old Town Slums
From the Hastings Mail of 09/12/1905
The Town Council was presented with severe criticism of the conditions of sanitation in the Bourne portion of the Old Town by Councillor March. Houses in the Old Town were unfit for habitation and the Mail believed the only solution ...
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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 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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Waterless Houses
From the Hastings Mail of 12/05/1906
The Sanitary Committee had a communication from the Democratic League drawing attention to the 15 houses at St Leonards which were without convenience of water. Dr Scarlyn Wilson reported that there were four conveniences for the 15 houses and the ...
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A new ambulance van was almost complete for the Hastings division of the St John Ambulance Brigade. It was being built by Messrs Davis and Son, coach builders at Battle. It was a horse van, which was a “distinct improvement” ...
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Local medical man Andrew Dunn Turner, of 71 Marina, was accused of unlawfully publishing to Edward Austin a defamatory letter concerning the character of Edith Austin. On July 17 he was sent for trial for publishing false, scandalous, malicious and ...
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The Hastings Democratic League had an open air meeting at the Fishmarket on Sunday evening, 17 June. There was a large concourse of people listening to Mr Pay. Unemployment was his theme : as long as they let the capitalists ...
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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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