This post is a summary of a talk which I have just given at the exhibition ‘A journey through time: the development of West St Leonards’, organised by the WSL Community Team. To encourage those who listened to the talk to read this post I have added some extra material.
Peter Jenkins was at the time of his death the largest employer and ratepayer in Hastings, yet he is now virtually forgotten. Much of his work was in Bulverhythe, but his activities included from Bexhill to Ore.
He was born in nearby Guestling in about 1839, the eldest son. His parents were George, a bricklayer’s labourer, born Guestling, and Hannah, born Sedlescombe. In the 1851 census the family of seven were in Guestling.
He married very young, in 1858, at Notting Hill. He was a mason, son of a mason, and his bride was Mary Ann Page, daughter of a labourer. In the 1861 census in Paddington he was a stone mason, aged 22. Mary was 25, born Kensington. They had two daughters.
According to an obituary his health broke down and he had to leave London. Judging from the birth places of his children this was probably in the mid 1860s.
In the 1871 census the family were at Cumberland House, Caves Road. He was a stone mason, although an obituary says he started a building business in 1869. The household consisted of his wife, four daughters, two sons, and three lodgers, two of whom were well sinkers.
According to his obituary, his first big contract was building the sea wall from St Leonards Church to the Fountain (now the Marina Fountain). This was in 1878, with a value of £15000. In about 1887 he continued it westward to Grosvenor Gardens. Previously, when violent storms coincided with exceptionally high tides, the basements of houses in the west part of Marina had flooded to knee heights.
In the 1881 census the family were at 21 Caves Road. This time he was a builder. The eight children included three dressmakers and a mason. There was also a nephew who was a mason’s apprentice. There were no servants — Peter Jenkins never seems to have employed servants.
An early newspaper mention was in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 8 April 1882. Three men named George Ninn, Henry Beck and James Tappenden were charged with stealing bricks from a building site on West Hill Road, the property of Peter Jenkins. James Bates, labourer, of Lavatoria, was employed by Jenkins as a night watchman for the site. At 9 pm the previous evening Bates hid himself in a front room, later joined by PC Jeffery. Towards midnight, they saw people coming towards the building and later saw the three men outside. He watched them and saw Ninn take twelve bricks from a ‘lump.’ He carried them along the road towards Bo Beep. Then he saw Beck and Tappenden take two bricks each from a lump of new bricks, and also go towards Bo Beep. Bates followed them to Cliff Cottage, where they were lodging. They were charged with theft, but Beck and Tappenden denied theft, while Ninn said nothing. The bricks were worth ninepence.
There is much more which I am omitting. Jenkins gave evidence, saying he was building several houses on the road (probably nos. 49, 51, 53, at the foot of Boscobel Road, where planning permission was given on the 4 November 1881 as DH/C/6/1/2744). He had suspected theft. Only Ninn pleaded guilty, but just the same each man received a sentence of one month’s hard labour at Lewes. Three months for ninepence, and Ninn had taken six times as many bricks as the other two.
The Hastings Observer, 12 October 1883, reported that reservoir and filter beds had been built at Filsham by Peter Jenkins. The reservoir was 80 x 80ft in size, and 14ft deep. 7000 tons of earth had to be removed, and 4500 tons of material was used. It was a covered reservoir, with 135 brickwork arches. It was said he had done similar work elsewhere in the borough.
Also in 1883, Jenkins worked on modifying 1-3 Warrior Square to be the East Sussex Club. DH/C/6/1/3014 was the planning application. The architect was Henry Ward and Jenkins’ successful tender for the work was £3615, equivalent to £395,000 today.
On the 2 September 1887 an attempt to apply for permission to build Grosvenor Gardens was rejected, but was followed on the 7 October by DH/C/6/1/3486 for 1-14 Grosvenor Gardens. It appears to have taken him some time to build the terrace. Jenkins placed small adverts at intervals about progress in its building as publicity. For example, the Hastings Observer, 7 June 1890:
HOUSES TO LET. – Mr Peter Jenkins wishes to inform any lady or gentleman seeking a house for the current quarter, that he has just completed two more in the magnificent terrace (Grosvenor Gardens), facing the new Public Gardens at West Marina, St Leonards. – Further particulars by applying on the premises.
The 7 March 1891 edition had an advert stating that he had just completed Grosvenor Gardens, and only two (of the fourteen) were only two now ready to let. He also had large warehouses, offices and stables to let.
The 1888 Pike’s Directory has this attractive little advert. Clearly he had expanded beyond building and contracting, with its mention of household removals and warehousing. He continued these activities during his career.
The Hastings and St Leonards Advertiser, 15 March 1888, has a rare mention of Jenkins working for a congregation. A new front and a tower were to be added to the Methodist church at 63 Norman Road, and the memorial stone had been laid. Philip Tree, a Congregationalist born on the same street, was the architect. The church later burnt down and the replacement is now flats.
On the 7 June 1889, planning application DH/C/6/1/3834 for 58-82 (evens) West Hill Road. At this period newspapers usually gave extra information on such applications. Peter Jenkins of Cave Road, builder, and WJ Rodda, apparently also a builder, were the owners, while the architect was HG Rodda. The catalogue entry states that only 60-78 were built, but the omitted houses appear to have been later built in the same style. These are the striking houses on the north side of West Hill Road looking over a lawn towards the sea.
The Hastings Observer, 13 July 1889, gave a long and graphic description of a fire in the tiring workshop in the basement at the rear of Auckland Buildings, Bopeep, the property of Peter Jenkins, builder, of Cave’s Road. It was extinguished by the fire brigade by water from a nearby hydrant. A furnace had overheated and ignited some timber, and £60 of damage was done. As often happened when describing fires on commercial premises, the insurer was mentioned, the Royal Fire Office.
The Hastings Observer, 7 February and 7 March 1891, gives much detail on plans for the Assembly Rooms, where Jenkins had taken out a 99-year lease. The basement had only been used for rubbish and bricks by the Burtons, who were clearly the freeholders. Henry Ward had drawn up architectural plans. The basement was to have a swimming pool, 50 x 30ft in size (it is still there). There were to be single baths, some for women, each with a dressing room attached, and seven baths for gentlemen. On the ground floor side rooms were to be used as a billiard room, reading room, and a gymnasium (the last to be an anteroom for balls). Shops were to be built on each side of the entrance, with offices above them. These are still there, but presumably modified as they would be rather unsuitable as shops. The planning application for the baths and shops, as DH/C/6/1/5059, had been approved on the 1 January 1891. However, the use of the baths seems to have ended by 1904.
Licenses for music, singing and dancing had to be applied for, and a full alcohol license was granted.
The 1891 census for 58 West Hill Road (almost certainly built by Jenkins):
Peter Jenkins, head, 52, builder & contractor, born Sussex Guestling
Mary Jenkins, wife, 56, born London Hammersmith
Ellen Jenkins, dau, 30, born London Paddington
George Jenkins, son, 28, contractor’s assistant, born Sussex Hastings
Annie Jenkins, dau, 22, born Sussex Hastings
Alfred Jenkins, son, 20, contractor’s assistant, born Sussex Hastings
Edith Jenkins, dau, 18, scholar, born Sussex Hastings
Edward Jenkins, son, 15, scholar, born Sussex Hastings
Plus two young Jenkins nieces born Hartlepool
The Sussex Express, 2 June 1891, referred to Jenkins building of new kennels at Bexhill for the Bexhill Harriers pack at Cooden Moat. The architect was Graham Awdry of London. The kennels were described in detail, being of red brick with stone facings. Presumably the dogs enjoyed these fancy touches !
Also in 1891, Jenkins built the Eversfield Hospital for Consumption at 113 West Hill Road. Frank Humphreys was the architect, who normally built semi-detached houses. The planning application is DH/C/6/1/5064, approved on the 3 April 1891. There is much on this hospital in the newspapers, e.g. the Hastings Observer, 14 November 1891. It still exists but in a ruinous state.
From October 1892 there was a flurry of planning applications for semi-detached houses in the Bulverhythe area, mainly on Bulverhythe Road, and mostly if not entirely by Thomas Elworthy, a Hastings architect. My understanding is that the land was purchased from the Brisco Estate. They are very similar in outside appearance, and the small differences may perhaps only reflect small, later changes. These houses include:
299-305 odds, Bexhill Road
20-26 evens, Bulverhythe Road
84-94 evens, Bulverhythe Road
97-107 odds, Bulverhythe Road
117-127 odds, Bulverhythe Road
All were built by Jenkins as confirmed in the newspapers. As an example of the wealth of material — and the confusing chaos — planning applications for Bulverhythe Road until 1960, sorted by date, can be found at the National Archives’ Discovery catalogue. The actual applications are at The Keep at Falmer. However, its mentions of builders, owners, or architects are rare, which is why I usually try to find additional information by looking at newspapers on say the British Newspaper Archive (which gives free limited data) a day after the cited date (which is of planning approval), which normally give owner and architect information. Caution must always be used: sometimes errors creep in, and it is not always easy to interpret either source.
Additionally, a useful source of information is the Ordnance Survey maps at the National Library of Scotland website. For example, much of Bulverhythe is shown in the detailed 1897-98 map at https://maps.nls.uk/view/103674742.
The Hastings and St Leonards News, 9 December 1892, had this item:
BULVERHYTHE ROAD. The Roads Committee recommended that an application by Mr P. Jenkins to rename Bulverhythe Road, Grosvenor Road be not acceded to. – The recommendation was adopted.
On the 14 January 1893 a big fire devastated Jenkins’ Grosvenor Works.
A much longer, dramatic account is in the Southern Weekly News, 21 January 1893. It includes the detail that the H-shaped building was approached by an archway and was at the rear of the buildings that faced the West Marina station. It was a Saturday, and the workmen had been paid for the week and had already left work. Gas fitters had been working on the premises that morning.
The workmen lost their tools, valued at between £75 to £100, and hence were out of work. An appeal was made by the Mayor for subscriptions to replace the tools.
The local gas company was sued for negligence in a case that went to the Queen’s Bench. There was a detailed account of the proceedings of Jenkins v The Hastings and St Leonards Gas Company in the Hastings Observer, 9 December 1893. Numerous employees gave evidence. The jury found for the plaintiff but the amount paid out was not determined in the account.
Despite these losses, Jenkins appears to have blithely carried on with his work.
The Hastings and St Leonards News, 3 March 1893, stated that the Eversfield Estate owns the open space opposite West Marina Gardens. Frank Humphreys, again, as the Surveyor for the estate…
has designed some attractive residences for the ground immediately under the cliff, at the end of the Marina block of houses… if the designs were carried out a very great addition would be made to the pleasant appearance of the locality.
This must be Grosvenor Gardens. Planning applications were only approved from December 1895, and then not for all the houses, so I am uncertain about the exact history of how they were built. These are very striking and unusual semi-detached houses, sometimes different from their neighbours. Plans for 20 houses on land belonging to Jenkins and designed by Frank Humphreys, catalogued as 3-22 Gosvenor [sic] Crescent, were approved as DH/C/6/1/5813.
Meanwhile in the Hastings Observer, 4 May 1895, there was an advert for semi-detached houses, with 3 bedrooms, near station, for 10s per week. The contact was ‘Peter Jenkins, Grosvenor Works, opp West Marina station’. This was probably for his Bulverhythe Road houses, and it is interesting that he was renting rather than selling them. Builders short of cash would always want to sell.
Between 1893 and 1895 Jenkins was the builder for at least three large buildings in Bexhill. He successfully tendered to build Lloyds Bank on Devonshire Road for £3075, the architect being Arthur Wells. He also built, for a tender of £6650, what is now Grade II listed Nazareth House, on Hastings Road. The architect was Leonard Stokes. Jenkins’ work was a brick ground floor with a rough cast above, but the same architect extended it twice with much more brick. It was originally run by Catholic nuns as a kind of workhouse. He also built the hotel named Marine Mansions, later named Roberts Marine Mansions. It was demolished in 1954 after war damage and was replaced by Dalmore Court.
In 1896-97 Jenkins put in planning applications for much of St Saviour’s Road, on land that has belonged to the Brisco’s family Filsham Estate, and where that road had been built with sewers in 1891. As an example of what planning applications of the period looked like, below is the application for the semi-detached houses 4-14 St Saviour’s Road, DH/C/11/73. The houses are mirrors of each other.
In the Hastings Observer, 5 October 1895, a request was made by Jenkins for a new road to be authorized between Bulverhythe Road and the railway. This was Cliftonville Road. Many planning applications were initially not allowed, drainage problems probably causing problems. Much of the eastern half, opposite the rail depot, was never built on.
In the Hastings Observer, 4 January 1896, plans were approved for new roads by Elworthy and Son, surveyors, on the Filsham Estate [the Misses Brisco], for Mr Peter Jenkins, newly named Coombe Road between Bexhill and Bulverhythe roads, and a connecting road between those two, both new roads 26ft. wide. This does not seem to have been built.
Peter Jenkins’ brother Robert died on the 20 February 1896 at 14 Caves Road, aged 44. He was a master mariner and was called Captain Jenkins. Peter was the executor to his estate of £652. In the 1861 census Robert had been living with his parents in Providence Row, Ore, father a stone sawyer, where they had moved from Guestling while Peter was a married man in London. Robert became an ‘Only Mate’ in the Merchant Service in 1877. This meant that he was indeed the only mate on a merchant ship, the second in command, ready to take over if the ship’s master was unable to carry on.
In the Hastings Observer, 28 March 1896, the Humphreys collaboration continued with Jenkins building a bandstand to Frank Humphrey’s design. This was for a series of concerts by the Scarlet Anglo-Hungarian Band in the lower Warrior Square Garden, together with twenty marquees. Admission would be 6d, and there would be ‘festoons of fairy lights’ at night.
On the 2 October 1896 planning application DH/C/6/1/5926 was approved, catalogued as The Bulverhythe Hotel, 311, Bexhill Road. The Hastings and St Leonards News, 28 August 1896, is particularly interesting in connection with the hotel as it reported on the annual Brewster Sessions on alcohol licenses. These can be extraordinarily detailed. There were two applications from the Bopeep area.
First there was an application by William Edward Hills, a beer merchant with premises on Grand Parade, for an alehouse license at 3 Bexhill Road. The Rector of St Leonards, opposing on grounds of religion and morality, said that between the Marina Inn (on Sussex Road, basically 110 Marina) and the Bull there were 244 houses and 1,315 persons. The Bopeep and the Railway Mission on West Hill Road, a Christian holiday home for railway workers, also opposed the application, and it was refused.
Next, Jenkins applied for a provisional license for premises he proposed to build, which was the Bulverhythe Hotel. There was a petition by 210 persons asking that it be allowed, as ‘people had to go nearly a mile and a half to get some beer.’ His lawyer represented Jenkins as a philanthrophic builder, who ‘had practically developed the whole of this estate, and had spent on roads, drainage and the erection of houses a sum of £60,000’ [nearly £7 million today]. Jenkins said he had built four fifths of the neighbourhood, and 100 houses in 18 months, which were let as soon as finished. The Bull opposed it, but the license was granted. The building was pulled down relatively recently and the site is now occupied by Greggs and Costa in the Bulverhythe Retail Park.
In January 1898 Jenkins pulled down the Marine Hotel and two houses immediately to its west on Marine Parade in order to build a music hall. I was at first puzzled as no such road now exists, but then identified it. It is now numbered 2-6 Pelham Place. It was owned by Messrs. J. Brill and Company, and the architect was Ernest Runtz. 1.25 million bricks were used as many other materials including Doulton terracotta. It could house an audience of 1500 people. It went through various changes of name and use, and is now the Deluxe amusement arcade.
Peter Jenkins died on the 27 June 1899 aged only 60. There were long, florid obituaries in all the local newspapers. He was described as a famous contractor, the leading builder and contractor in Hastings, and a generous employer. He was apparently genial, a ‘typical Englishman”, a good businessman. He had said that he had 500 men working for him and his weekly wages bill was £700. He did not need to work but did so as over two thousand people relied on those wages. One of his hands said ‘His men will never have such another master as he was.’
He was buried at Hastings Borough Cemetery. The hearse and 16 carriages left his house, 24 Grosvenor Crescent, at 2 pm, travelling via London Road and Sedlescombe Road, and arrived at 3.30. 200 people, many wearing mourning, were waiting at the gates, with a mounted policeman and two on foot on hand. There was a brief Anglican service at the chapel by the Rev. Hodges of Blacklands. Six men from one of his companies carried the coffin to its 12ft-deep grave, a bricked vault, next to his brother’s grave. The grave could hardly be seen for all the floral wreaths, and many more were on the coffin.
At or close to his death he had been building the Hotel Metropole, Bexhill (immediately to the west of the De la Warr, and demolished after 1954; drill halls at Rock a Nore and Middle Street (which was next to the Clarence); a new sanatorium; reservoirs at Maze Hill, Shornden, Halton, and two at Ore. Some time before his death he said he had £150,000 worth of work in hand. Bulverhythe was nicknamed Jenkins’ Town as he had built 200 houses there. On being asked why he was successful he said his secret was plodding, perseverance, and enterprise.
There are mentions of his brickyards at Sidley and Guestling, but I have not found other mentions of the nine that he had. He was using many millions of bricks annually, and was intending to use 3.5 million in the new workhouse at Cackle Street, Ore, for which he had won the contract. He also contemplated building a church at Bopeep.
A portrait of him by J. Macer Wright was put on display a month after his death at Plummer Roddis, later Debenham’s, Robertson Street. He had had six sittings for this portrait, which was paid for by his employees. I do not know where this portrait is now. Joshua Macer Wright (1850-1931) was a journalist, Liberal politician and alderman for the borough, and, ironically, a company director for the local gas company. Obviously a man of many parts.
An obituary said that Jenkins ‘cared no more for wealth than he did for beachstones.’ Despite this, and his being the largest ratepayer in the town with 200 houses, his estate was valued at death at £160893, about £17,500,000 today. The Daily Chronicle, 2 September 1899, stated that from his estate the widow was to get an annuity of £300 and the ‘children, six, share alike’. Eldest son George Thomas carried on the business.
As late as the 3 January 1903 the Hastings Observer gave details of the auction of ten houses, the estate of the late Peter Jenkins. These consisted of the valuable modern freehold residences 17, 19, 20 and 22 Grosvenor Crescent, each with three reception rooms and seven bedrooms, all let to excellent tenants at £90 p.a. each. They could not be used as boarding or lodging houses. Also 2 and 20 St Saviour’s Road, with more details, at £40 and £38 p.a. respectively. Also the freeholds of 5, 7, 11 and 12 Grosvenor Gardens, each with seven bedrooms, other rents being £80 to £100 p.a.
As far as I am aware the Friends of Hastings Cemetery website is the only place where Peter Jenkins is remembered. It includes a photo of his monument.