the burtons' st leonards blog
Gensing Manor, 19 Dane Road
Hastings Council gave permission on the 3 February 2025 to planning application HS/FA/23/00871 for Gensing Manor, 19 Dane Road, for ‘Alterations and extension to existing building to create 20 apartments, [...]
read moreConfectioners in Victorian St Leonards
This is the story of three confectioner families in St Leonards, all linked by living at one time or another at 43 Marina. Evidence is at first fragmentary, and we [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1839-40
23 March 1839, Morning Advertiser [Lent Assizes. Lewes]. Charles Lee the younger, labourer, aged 22, Charles Lee, the elder, chimney sweep, and John Henbury, were charged with the manslaughter of [...]
read moreThe former banks of St Leonards on Sea
It is well known to locals that St Leonards on Sea, with a population of about 40,000, has not a single bank left. It had, in the 1950s, about a [...]
read moreThe Convalescent Home for Poor Children, St Leonards on Sea
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, [...]
read moreRichard Beagley, temperance advocate at St Leonards on Sea
Last Sunday I gave a talk to the Society on Philip Henry Tree (1848-1922), an architect who was born on Norman Road. Tree was responsible for numerous houses, and some [...]
read moreMaud Bullock, Red Cross Commandant at 5 The Lawn
I came across a mention of Maud Bullock in a 1914 newspaper and decided to research her life. There are a number of mentions of her in the newspapers, and [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1838-39
11 January 1838, Brighton Gazette HASTINGS. Our Quarter Sessions commenced on Wednesday, the 3rd, before Mr Recorder Austin… John Jarvis, a flyman, for embezzling money belonging to his master, Mr [...]
read moreFrom St Leonards on Sea to Michigan
By chance I came across the following item in the 10 December 1910 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, and I wanted to know more about the happy [...]
read more‘Our shops at Christmastide’: St Leonards on Sea, Christmas 1875
This post consists of a lengthy extract from the 25 December 1875 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer. A long article titled ‘Our shops at Christmastide’ consisted of [...]
read moreThe Rev. Paul Warschawski, missionary to the Jews
The Rev. Paul Warschawski was long associated with St Leonards. This post is an attempt to nail down details his life and that of his children, but there are some [...]
read moreChristopher Maxwell-Stewart, late Chair of the Burtons’ St Leonards Society
At the funeral of Christopher Maxwell-Stewart on the 28 November, at St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, the eulogy was read out by his son Hamish, but was [...]
read moreThe early days of The Lawn, St Leonards on Sea
The Lawn, St Leonards on Sea, consists of five pairs of semi-detached houses, numbered 1 to 10 as viewed from the road from left to right. The houses are Grade [...]
read moreWilliam Mantell Eldridge, St Leonards brewer and public house owner
In the 9 May 1848 issue of the Sussex Advertiser there was a report on magistrates hearing an application for a liquor license. This was by Louisa Barnett, single woman, [...]
read moreThe pity of war: casualties from World War II
On this Remembrance Sunday, I am giving in this post some entries from the Hastings and St Leonards Observer’s “On active service” section during World War II. The initial dates [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1837-38
I find the first newspaper extract full of pathos. 19 Apr 1837, True Sun INSOLVENT DEBTOR’S COURT, APRIL 18. A DISAPPOINTED IMMIGRANT. James Ballard applied on his petition to be [...]
read moreSt Leonards on Sea v Hastings: an 1857 viewpoint
I am not sure how much of this long, satirical article is accurate. The simple illustrations are in my opinion rather bizarre. It was printed in the Illustrated Times, 24 [...]
read moreThe early days of Maze Hill Terrace, 1862-81
Maze Hill Terrace, an attractive row of four houses, is numbered 1 to 4 from left to right. The two end houses are slightly grander in style and have their [...]
read moreNaturalisations in St Leonards on Sea, 1870-1916
The priced Ancestry database has UK naturalisation certificates and declarations, 1870-1916, from the National Archives’ class HO334. It can only be searched by name. I have searched for “St Leonards [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1836-37
The deaths of both James Burton, founder of the town, and of his wife are recorded in this post. 7 June 1836, Morning Herald Livery and posting stables at St [...]
read moreThe bombing of Cumberland Gardens, 1943
I have posted before about a bombing raid on The Lawn, taken from bomb reports kept at the Hastings Museum. This post is about a raid on the 19 February [...]
read moreThe early history of Glanymor, 3 Highlands Gardens
Many members of this society enjoyed a garden party at Glanymor, 3 Highlands Gardens today. This post is about the early history of that house. The name, by the way, [...]
read moreSt Leonards’ Royal Concert Hall, later the Elite Cinema
St Leonards used to have the Warrior Square Concert Hall, later the Royal Concert Hall. Its location was on a block that is now entirely occupied by an apartment building, [...]
read moreVeterinary surgeon turned bathing machine proprietor: James Mannington Richardson
By chance I came across a photo of a man using old railway carriages at St Leonards as bathing machines. This was in the Sunday Mirror, 30 May 1920, with [...]
read moreJames Smith and Stanhope Place, St Leonards
What is well established is who built Stanhope Place in St Leonards on Sea. What, I suspect, is not known is why the road has that name, and who actually [...]
read moreThe houses in Undercliff destroyed in World War II
Undercliff is a road in St Leonards which at present is numbered 1 to 14, going from east to west. It used to be numbered 1 to 18, but four [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1835-36
4 June 1835, Brighton Gazette HASTINGS. It is reported here that part of the Roman Catholic Establishment will consist of Sisters of Charity. WARRIOR’S GATE, BETWEEN HASTINGS AND ST LEONARDS. [...]
read moreTravelling from afar to beg in St Leonards on Sea, 1880
By chance I came across, in the Hastings and St Leonards Times, 22 May 1880, two interesting reports of begging in St Leonards by men who had come a considerable [...]
read moreWest Hill Road in the 1870s
There is a set of detailed maps of much of St Leonards and Hastings, surveyed 1873 and published 1875, on the (free) National Library of Scotland website. This post discusses [...]
read moreUnion Street and employment in the 1921 census
The 1921 census is the most recent available in the UK for researching individual households. Normally censuses are released at 100-year intervals. As the 1931 census was destroyed by bombing, [...]
read more