The local newspapers occasionally printed letters or reminiscences about the early days of St Leonards. Here is an example I have just come across, as printed in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 20 November 1880. It was a follow-up to an earlier letter about Hasting’s old town. It is very long, so I am […]
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In Victorian times ratepayers had to pay for maintaining the inmates in the local union workhouse. They had every incentive to save money by avoiding this, so magistrates, invariably ratepayers themselves, would “remove” those in need of assistance, and not entitled to live in the parish, to their home parish, whether they were already in […]
The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 7 December 1895, mentions the granting of planning permission for a detached villa, Plot no. 28, Boscobel Road, Mr F. Cruttenden, owner, per Mr P.H. Tree, architect. The permission was from the previous day and is numbered DH/C/6/1/5806 at The Keep, Falmer. Philip Henry Tree (1848-1922), born on nearby […]
The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 25 October 1879, gave a long account of a case before two magistrates sitting on the Hastings Bench. The following is only a summary, with some quotations. It was later stated that the accused was 13 years old. Charlotte Sargent, a ‘respectably dressed young girl’, was charged with stealing […]
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, together with associated access, landscaping and car parking.’ An extension in a similar style will be built onto the back. The Argus has an article […]
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 can only speculate about motivations. The address is presently that of a four-floored carpet store, presumably with housing above the ground level, next door to […]
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 John Bean, at St Leonards, Hastings, in November last. An old grudge had existed between the parties, who had fought some time before the fatal […]
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 dozen. The only places where you can have an account are, I believe, the post office and the nearby branch of the Nationwide Building Society, […]
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 churches and shops, mainly between Bexhill and Rye. I mentioned his close relationship with Richard Beagley, with whom he shared an office for many years, […]
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 […]