9 February 1849, Hastings & St Leonards News: FIRE. – At noon, on Wednesday, a fire broke out in the workshop of Mr J. Smith, cabinet-maker, Norman Road West, which was happily extinguished by the exertions of the neighbours, assisted by P.C. Jones, without the aid of the fire-engine, which arrived just as the danger […]
In 1903 Mrs Meiklejon opened a school for blind children at 48 Kenilworth Road. She was born Mary Jane Noonan in Ireland in about 1858, and was elder sister to Robert Noonan (1870-1911), who as Robert Tressell lived in the area from late 1901 on his return from South Africa, and wrote the famous The […]
Henry Edward Lewis was an entertainer who continuously toured the British Isles from 1850 until his death in 1857, lecturing and practising before paying audiences ‘mesmerism’ or ‘magnetism’ (both terms used for what we would call hypnotism) on local subjects. He also lectured on the subject of phrenology, the then popular art of deriving information […]
The talk will begin at 3pm sharp on Sunday 29th March, 2026, at Crown House, Marina, Hastings, Saint Leonards-on-sea TN38. Members free, non-members £5 entry. Doors open 2pm. No reservations. ‘The history of West Hill Road in St Leonards’, an illustrated talk by Ian Crick. James Burton’s eldest daughter Eliza lived on what is now West Hill […]
[Guest post by Helena Wojtczak, a local historian and researcher dedicated to uncovering the hidden histories of women, http://www.hastingspress.co.uk] In a terraced house in St Leonards, a letter was once found that changed art history. But the women who lived in that house were busy changing much more than that. The MacMunn sisters were a […]
26 May 1848, Hastings & St Leonards News: NATIONAL SCHOOLS. – The spacious and handsome National Schools, lately erected at St Leonards, were opened yesterday, on which occasion the school-children were regaled with tea and buns, in the Assembly Rooms. A large number of the clergy and gentry were present, and assisted in the proceedings […]
Recently I noticed houses in Union and Alfred Street with niches in their walls, as if for statues of saints, and wondered about them. They are at nos. 8 and 17 Alfred Street and 5 Union Street. By chance I came across an article in a 1936 newspaper which made clear why they are there. […]
This is an unusual type of post. It will obviously be of interest to those on Marina, but may also provide ideas for those researching buildings on other streets. I give below a list of every house number on Marina, St Leonards on Sea. I searched the National Archives’ Discovery catalogue (which includes numerous local […]
17 June 1847, Brighton Gazette: Mr C.J. Strode gave £10, in addition to bats, balls, and wickets, to the St Leonards club last week, to assist them in carrying out the match at Hawkhurst on Monday last. 24 June 1847, Brighton Gazette: ST LEONARDS. The time has arrived again for the only amusement that visitors […]
From the 1880s onwards, planning applications were typically, though not consistently, reported in the local papers a day or two after either being allowed or rejected. Here we have some St Leonards applications from the Hastings and St Leonards Times, 6 December 1890, as an example: …bakers’ oven at No. 30 Western-road, St Leonards, for […]