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 June 1889 issue as a “first installment” on pages 355-384. Aristocratic ladies headed the list. The text is available on Google Books. Headed A women’s […]
Category Archives: Blog
I have often admired Elmside, the house at the corner of Charles Road and Brittany Road. Here are some notes on the history of this 1920s house. As we shall see, its first owner met with a horrific death. The Keep, the archives for East Sussex at Falmer, has three planning application documents. The first […]
In my post on St Leonards in the newspapers, 1828-29 I missed many items because I did not search for “new town” in connection with Hastings. Many of these, given below, are of great interest, with details of the construction work and, sadly, accidents to the many workmen involved. It is interesting that by March […]
A big advantage of searching for people with unusual names is that they are easy to trace in databases. Here is one example, a family who fell upon hard times. Note that sometimes first names vary from record to record. I first came across the name of Censi in the catalogue entries at the National […]
I recently bought some oldish postcards of St Leonards on Sea at Teddy Tinker’s, 134 London Road. If you don’t know it, this shop is full of vintage clothes and collectables. These include numerous postcards of Hastings and (rather fewer) of St Leonards. My haul included this one of Warrior Square. I apologise for the […]
5 November 1829, Brighton Gazette: ST LEONARD’S NEW TOWN, NEAR HASTINGS OCT. 28. – The sports and pastimes at the opening of the Grand Hotel, in the entirely New Town of St Leonard’s, commenced this morning. Preparatory to the more substantial and elegant pastimes, a pack of hounds, the property of a private gentleman at […]
I have often walked past this attractive house, at the bottom end of Woodland Vale Road, and decided to have a look at its history. Here are some notes about it, which show how different sources can be combined to understand more about a house’s past. The name of Coonoor is that of a hill […]
This is the first of an occasional series, in chronological order, of some mentions of St Leonards in newspapers, as found on the priced British Newspaper Archive. 12 April 1828, Public Ledger and Public Advertiser: Sale on the 25 June 1828 of the freehold estate called Bohemia in the vicinity of Hastings, in five lots. […]
I recently gave a talk on 6 Maze Hill to the Society. In carrying out the research, I searched for “6 Maze Hill” in the newspaper archive on the priced Find My Past database. This gave me lots of hits, but it missed a very relevant hit because it would only be found by searching […]
The Hastings and St Leonards Observer contains a vast amount of information on visitors to St Leonards, usually cited as “Arrivals” or “Fashionable intelligence.” The newspaper, with many others, can be searched online for a specific address, either on the British Newspaper Archive or, using the same data, on the Find My Past database, both […]