Blog Archive / Month: July 2023

The Censi family of 14 Eversfield Place

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 Read on…

St Leonards in the newspapers, 1829-30

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 Read on…

Notes on the history of Coonoor, 2 Woodland Vale Road

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 Read on…

A Warrior Square postcard

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 Read on…