These are notes on a convalescent home for children which for many years was the most westerly of the several convalescent homes on West Hill Road, St Leonards on Sea, specifically at 125 West Hill Road. The now grassy site, together with that of another care home, is the subject of a planning application to Hastings Council as HS/FA/24/00710. The site has a good view over the nearby coast.
The 20 May 1882 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer gives some background. It had been established in 1869 by Miss Ellen Giesler, then in her early thirties, at Stanhope Place. There were initially twelve children. he Hastings Observer, 5 February 1870, listed the freeholds of nos. 1-11 Stanhope to be sold at auction, with no. 7 occupied by Miss Giesler, paying £40 per annum. In the 1871 census no. 7 was a ‘Con. Hospl.’, with Martha Hulbort [?] as Matron, 11 children, a general servant, and a bookkeeper. I could not find Ellen in that census; in the 1861 census she had been at 8 Woburn Square, London, where she, age 24, and sister Alice, 22, were fundholders, born London, with two servants. Alice married in 1864 the Rev. Samuel Hadden Parkes, who lived for a while at 2 The Mount and 17 Eversfield Place before moving to Kent.
In 1871, the 1882 account continues, the home moved to Western Road. Until 1878 Miss Giesler had entire responsibility for the home, when a committee took over, with her as President. She had married, 8 January 1874, at St Leonards parish church, the Rev. Francis Edward Newton, that church’s curate. She was of 3 Western Road, he of 2 Stanhope Place. The Keep’s ACC7755/86 is the draft of the conveyance of 1, 2, 3 and 4 Western Road to trustees before the marriage. This is presumably a conveyance from her (the catalogue entry mentions both marriage partners), as ACC7755/85 consists of abstracts of freehold or leasehold owners (the entry is ambigious) of those addresses, 1855-73, for ‘Moreing-Giesler.’
As of St Matthew’s church, Silverhill, her husband died in 1891, and at probate a few months later his widow was of Hillerslie, Albany Road. The Friends of Hastings Cemetery website has his obituary and a photo of the monument to him, his widow, and their son Francis Giesler Newton, an architect and Egyptologist who died in Egypt in 1924, plus much more on the family and of the Home.
The 1880 AGM of the Convalescent Home for Poor Children as reported in the Hastings Observer, 22 January 1881, had only 11 present. It was presided over by Admiral Orlebar in the absence of Mrs F.E. Newton. 241 children had been in the home during 1880, of whom 182 were from London and its suburbs. This contrasts with 1882, when there were 513 children. £304 was being received annually in subscriptions. Admiral John Orlebar was, in the 1891 census, of 91 Pevensey Road, and died later that year.
In the 1881 census at 42 Western Road the Lady Superintendent was Emily Cupiss, age 42, with 24 female and 5 male patients. ‘Conval. Home’ is scrawled against the entry.
It was decided to build a new home on West Hill Road. The planning application was permitted on the 1 October 1880 as The Keep’s DH/C/6/1/2541. The Sanitary Record, 15 July 1882, in a report on the opening, stated:
The institution was first founded in 1869 by Mrs Newton, a benevolent lady resident at St Leonards, who provided accommodation for twelve children, but the applications were so numerous that, two years later, a removal was made to Western Road, where there was room for thirty. The new Home, which has been erected and furnished at a cost of £7500, of which £1000 is still unsubscribed, will accommodate sixty children, and, if necessary, by utilising the infirmary, room can be found for ten more. The buildings are so divided as to find equal space for either sex. A covered playground is provided for rainy weather, and the sanitary arrangements of the building are most complete.
The architects were Francis Fowler and Richard Hill, who often worked together, and who also were Surveyors to the Eversfield Estate.
There is a very detailed description in the Sanitary Engineer and Construction Record, 8 January 1887, with an image of its front and floor plans. The front of the building faced the road, to the north. There is a slope facing to the west, and the kitchen and a covered playground was in an understory. On the ground floor there was an eastern wing for girls, and a western wing for boys. Large windows faced south, where there were low cliffs overlooking the English Channel. On the first floor were housed staff and various offices, and servants were on the second floor. Red bricks were used.
The Medical Times and Gazette, 1 July 1882, says that the Eversfield Estate had granted a 500 year lease at a peppercorn rent of £1 per annum.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were invited to open the home. They agreed, whereupon Hastings Council asked them if they could at the same time officially open Alexandra Park in Hastings, named for the Princess of Wales. This was on the 26 June 1882. The Prince of Wales donated 50 guineas.
Various medical and charity sources give us an idea of how the home operated. A patient could be admitted either by a subscriber’s letter or by payment of 30 shillings a month (plus payment for washing). Subscribing a guinea annually entitled the subscriber to one letter of recommendation, valid for a stay of four weeks, except in July to September, when it was three weeks. The average patient stayed for four weeks. There were 75 beds, in dormitories, and patients could be aged 4 to 14 (boys) and 4 to 16 (girls). Admission was denied to those requiring active treatment, those with fits, those who were physically disabled, and those with contagious diseases. By 1895 income was £2112 and expenditure was £1657, and 874 patients had stayed in the home that year.
The Hastings Observer has numerous reports such as AGM proceedings. There could also be surprise inspections, such as that reported on in the 16 April 1910 issue. We are told, among other things:
The house stands on its own grounds with [a] playground for boys, with a revolving shelter for more delicate children. There is a pony cart for the use of invalid children and a special spinal carriage.
The inspectors said that the children ‘looked bright and happy’, and while there were two playrooms, children were encouraged to spend time in the open air. They lived in wards rather than in separate rooms. To avoid illness, there was a separate Isolation Ward and, in the grounds, an Isolation Cottage.
Ellen Newton was still involved as late as 1930, when, still as the President, aged 93, she apologised for missing the AGM (Hastings Observer, 1 February 1930). The cost per child per week was said to be £1 0s 11d. The food cost per week was 7s 1/4 d.
Ellen died at Mountfield, 5 Upper Maze Hill, in 1935. There is an obituary on the ‘Children’s Benefactress’ in the Hastings Observer, 21 September 1935. The small photo there would not reproduce well, unfortunately. She was 99. As often happens, information varies from early reports. Apparently the move to Western Road was in 1874 rather than the earlier stated 1871. The funeral was at St Matthew’s, her husband’s former parish.
In 1953 the home was renamed Malmesbury House, as the Sussex branch of the National Children’s Home. It was demolished due to subsidence problems in, I think, the 1990s, as was its neighbour further up the hill.