the burtons' st leonards blog
Travelling 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 moreSt Leonards and violence at a Women’s Tax Resistance League march, 1913
On Thursday the UK has a general election. We cannot take the right to vote for granted, as it was only in 1928 that women gained full equality with men. [...]
read moreThe British Schools, St Leonards on Sea
The title of this posting is that of an illustration in the Illustrated London News, 30 January 1869, page 113. It accompanies an article titled ‘St Leonard’s British and Infant [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1834-35
2 June 1834, Sussex Advertiser On Thursday morning, the Bishop [of Chichester] consecrated St Leonard’s Church, before several of the clergy, and a respectable assemblage of individuals, according to the [...]
read moreA fire at Marina, St Leonards in 1863
The following account is from the Brighton Gazette, 19 February 1863. On Sunday morning a fire occurred in this town, and although, fortunately, unattended with no loss of life or [...]
read moreThe Lawn, St Leonards in World War II
Volunteers at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery are transcribing details of typed reports about damage suffered in raids in World War II onto a spreadsheet. The reports consist of [...]
read moreBaston Lodge, Upper Maze Hill
Yesterday the Society held a very pleasant garden party at Baston Lodge, Upper Maze Hill, in gloriously sunny weather. On behalf of all the attending members many thanks to our [...]
read moreThe pubs of St Leonards: closures in 1905
I recently took members of the Society on a walk round some pubs of St Leonards, both those still existing and some which have been closed. I enjoyed it and [...]
read moreThreat to an exceptional disused church: St Anne’s, Hollington
St Anne’s church in Chambers Road, Hollington, is in Pevsner, the architectural guide. It is also under serious threat of demolition. In 2022, planning application HS/FA/22/00028 was submitted, to redevelop the site [...]
read moreThe Chapman dairymen of 22-23 North Street
This is a brief followup to the talk I gave last Sunday at the Royal Victoria Hotel, which was largely based on the research of Christopher Maxwell-Stewart. The catalogue of [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1833-34
22 May 1833, Brighton Guardian HAROLD HOTEL. H. EDLIN begs to return his most grateful thanks to the nobility and numerous families who have honored him with their patronage since [...]
read moreWilliam Gardner: an American inventor in St Leonards
I recently discovered that Pike’s Directory for Hastings and St Leonards has a lengthy section recording deaths in the annual editions for 1884 to 1889. 1890 is missing from the [...]
read moreJohn Kenwood, builder and upholsterer
I recently came across John Kenwood when I found an advertisement for numerous houses being sold from his estate. The newspapers give much detail on his activities, though it is [...]
read moreThe temperance movement in Victorian St Leonards
Many local branches of national societies urging temperance or total abstinence flourished in St Leonards on Sea in Victorian times. This article gives an idea of the scale of the [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1832-33
25 April 1832, Brighton Guardian The ball at the Assembly Rooms on Tuesday, under the auspices of the Stewards, Captain Jelf Sharp and A. Burton, Esq., was numerously attended.The elegant [...]
read moreCharles John Batstone and his many occupations
In transcribing the 1861 census for St Leonards I noticed that the very last household is an “omitted” entry, though we are not told from where the details had been [...]
read moreThe landlord and the soldiers
This post’s title is the headline of a case before the Hastings Bench, as reported in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 7 September 1878. I was astonished that billeting [...]
read moreQuebec House School, Pevensey Road
I came across a newspaper account of an extension to Quebec House School, Upper Maze Hill, in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 12 July 1873. The principal, Mr T. [...]
read moreA husband on sufferance in his wife’s house
This post’s title is the dramatic first sentence, in capital letters, of a report from the magistrates’ court at Hastings, in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 22 October 1870. [...]
read moreSt Leonards in the newspapers, 1831-32
The 1 September 1831 edition of the [London] Evening Standard has a very detailed, and interesting, advertisement for auction properties in St Leonards. It includes mention of The Conqueror Hotel, [...]
read more‘The growth of Hastings’: a walk on the outskirts of St Leonards in 1889
The 20 July 1889 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer has a long, anonymous article titled ‘The growth of Hastings, new buildings, a casual survey’. It is in [...]
read moreCrystal Square, St Leonards on Sea: an unsanitary place
Crystal Square in St Leonards survives only as a name of a car park close to the Kings Road. It used to be a courtyard surrounded by tiny houses, with [...]
read moreA walk for Hastings & East Sussex Natural History Society through Burtons’ St Leonards & beyond
“Walking is how the body measures itself against the earth”, a quote from Rebecca Solnit’s ‘Wanderlust: a history of walking’. Usually in a catchment area of 30 miles, the Society [...]
read moreLin’s Personal Exploration of Hastings’ Musical History
These are extracts from a dissertation. In these recession-hit times, a traveller to Hastings, walking from the railway station past boarded-up shop fronts towards the fire-damaged pier and on to [...]
read moreHighbury House School and the Duffs
Although many schools put adverts in local newspapers, they nearly always give details of their teachers, and the subjects covered, rather than how much they charged. By chance I came [...]
read more
St Leonards in the newspapers, 1830-31
A selection of newspaper articles relating to St Leonards between 1830 & 1831.
read moreThomas Laws the flyman: a tragic end
The burial registers of St Leonards church for 1836 lists two burials on the same day: Thomas Laws. [Of] St Mary Magdalen. [Buried] Septr. 17th. [Age] 29 years. Mary Jane [...]
read moreNo votes for women: an 1889 plea
In 1889 the journal Nineteenth century published a petition asking that women not be allowed the vote. All of the signatories were women. They appear in an appendix to the [...]
read more