10 Oct 1830, Weekly Times: FROM THE ALBUM OF ST LEONARD’S HOTEL, HASTINGS TO J——– B——-, ESQ. I slept – and a vision arose to my sight, All was darkness around – the black mantle of night Envelop’d each object that stood on the plain Where the conqueror triumph’d when Harold was slain. As I Read on…

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 Laws. St Mary Magdalen. Septr. 17th. 3 months. No causes of death are given. Mary Jane was in fact Thomas’ daughter, and he had died Read on…

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 Read on…

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 Read on…

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 Read on…

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…