Monthly Archives: June 2025

George William Spice, cab driver

In the 1 February 1947 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer we have the following interesting autobiographical account. Veteran Driver’s memories WHEN BOROUGH HAD ONE MOTOR BUS. Days of the horse cabs and the town’s only motor bus, which plied between Hastings Station and the Fishmarket, are recalled by Mr George William Spice, […]

The dramatic rescue of the crew of the J.C. Pfluger in 1891 at St Leonards

There is a dramatic account of the (successful) attempts to rescue the crew, and the captain’s family, from the Pfluger when it ran aground at West Marina, St Leonards on Sea, on the 11 November 1891. Sometimes accounts refer to the ship as the H.C. Pfluger, sometimes the (correct) J.C. Pfluger. This is from the Sussex […]

St Leonards on Sea and the 1873 Return of Owners of Land for Sussex

The Radical and Quaker MP John Bright (1811-89) used the 1861 census to charge that there were only 30,000 land-owners, and alleged that “fewer than one hundred and fifty men” owned “half the land in England,” and that it was a “practical monopoly on land “. Edward Henry Stanley (1826-93), the 15th Earl of Derby, […]