Monthly Archives: April 2024

William Gardner: an American inventor in St Leonards

I recently discovered that Pike’s Directory for Hastings and St Leonards has a lengthy section recording deaths in the annual editions for 1884 to 1889. 1890 is missing from the Hastings Library set, while the section is absent in 1891. Servants and labourers are included as well as the toffs and merchants, and my impression […]

Chapmans’ Dairy Talk 4pm Sunday 28 April Royal Victoria Hotel

This talk will be given by our Chair, Stephen van Dulken, but mainly based on research by Christopher Maxwell-Stewart. The dairy was a family business which migrated from Hastings to the corner of Gensing Road and North Street and involved reconstructing two houses from the America Ground. The talk will include some very rarely seen […]

Walk: The Former Pubs of St Leonards, Sunday May 5 – Now Fully subscribed

On Sunday May 5 our Chairman Stephen Van Dulken will lead a historic  walk around the sites of St Leonards public houses that have now sadly disappeared. The walk will start at 3pm, it is expected to take around 1 hour, and will conclude at a pub that is actually still in operation. This walk […]

The temperance movement in Victorian St Leonards

Many local branches of national societies urging temperance or total abstinence flourished in St Leonards on Sea in Victorian times. This article gives an idea of the scale of the local movement, and is based on the detailed coverage given each week in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, which often quoted from speeches, or […]