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Old Hastings Preservation Society Registered Charity Number 221623 |
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Members will have received their AGM papers by now and have noticed that our speaker on that evening is John Wilton talking on Donald McGill and a very lively subject it promises to be. Donald McGill 1875 – 1962 developed the comic postcard. George Orwell admired his work as “genuine folk art” and he featured in the Brighton Festival of 1967. He had a long and interesting life. With the advent of what we now call political correctness and increased censorship such postcards came under close scrutiny by seaside towns and Hastings was no exception. In 1953 the Chief Constable said he was not prepared to examine the cards and felt that shopkeepers should decide what was within the law to sell. Council’s began to prosecute usually under the 1857 obscene publications act, Hastings to be different, used the 1885 Improvement Act. I am sure John Wilton will give us a fascinating talk about this Victorian gentleman who became known as the “King of the Saucy Postcard”.
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RAFFLE TICKETS Yes, yes…I can hear you groan! But we really do need a lift for the History House and if we are ever to be able to install one, we must raise money towards it! We may be able to apply for a grant, but match-funding is often a requirement of the award so we need to show that we have made an effort towards the cost and we have various schemes afoot to do this – the raffle being one. The quote we have for installation is approximately £17,000. The generosity of Cynthia Wright in donating 100 copies of her book, ‘Hurrah for Hastings’, has made an excellent start to our ‘Lift Fund’ and we are extremely grateful to her. Carol |
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| We are grateful to Captain Carl Bagwell MBE Harbourmaster Port of Rye and Christopher Langdon, Senior Partner at Young, Coles & Langdon for their excellent talks in February and March, finishing our 2009/10 lecture series. Christopher also generously gave us some copies of his book “Square Toes and Formal: sketches of some of the people and places who have been associated with Young, Coles and Langdon over 175 years” to sell. | |||
next BOOK sale on Sat. and Sun. 5-6th June from 11 -4. |
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| We congratulate Dennis Collins on his well deserved Mayoral Award presented in April and are delighted that he came down to the History House on 5th May for the first time since his illness | Thanks to those who have offered talks during Old Town and Hastings Week – Christine Hayward and Heather Grief – who has a new book out in August | ||
| 12th May 7.30 at History House a HAARG talk by Sam Moorhead of the British Museum, who will be demonstrating how evidence of history is changing as the Portable Antiquities Scheme records the finding of Iron Age and Roman coins. Non members welcome for a donation, refreshments provided | |||
22nd May for a week at St Clements Church –exhibitions and events celebrating the anniversary of the wedding of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal in 1860. If you can help to church sit please contact Keith Leech on 716576. We have reprinted “Pre-Raphaelites and Hastings Old Town Walk £1. |
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| 29th May – Family History Day at the History House with the Hastings and Rother Family History Society, you will be amazed at the resources both printed and on disk that they have available | |||
The OHPS guided Old Town walks started this month and continue into September. Meeting every Tuesday at 2.30 at the top Station of the West Hill lift, they wind down into the old town usually visiting the two medieval churches on the way. Donations are appreciated. There will be extra walks in Old Town Carnival Week and over the Heritage Open Day weekend. If you know of a group who would like to book a walk or a talk please contact Raymond Barrett 420555 or Anne Scott 427718. There is also a programme of Stade Walks available from the History House, Fishermen’s Museum and Hastings Museum .Guided walks in St Mary-in-the-Castle are run monthly |
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We are delighted to welcome a Hastings Botany Group exhibition from 1st to 23rd of July on ”People, Places and Plants in Local Natural History”. If you have local history work you would like to show we will happily consider it. We have lent exhibitions to Ore Library and the WRVS. Current displays at the History House - “The Stade” and “Remembering 23rd May 1943”. Work continues on Lost Roads. |
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You will see from the Events Diary that one of our winter lectures on Oct 9th is Vanessa King talking on “Embroidering the Truth-1066 and the Bayeux Tapestry”. Vanessa lectures at Birkbeck College and has a wide range of courses and study days from “Love and Desire in the Ancient World”, though “The Smashing Saxons 600-1066“and “a Monstrous Regiment of Women” to the Terribly Terrific Tudors”. If you would be interested in a day or longer course please call in and see her full listing and we will try and organise it. Whatever you do don’t miss Vanessa on 9th October. |
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Old Town Carnival Week We are organising walks and talks and other events for the programme. Some are already listed in the diary on the back page. |
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Heritage Open Days September 9th - 12th Hastings History House will have a full programme of events. |
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I hope you managed to visit the recent Jack-in-the-Green exhibition at the History House, we had 627 visitors over the weekend and the display was amazing as you can see from the pictures. |
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One of our visitors during the week was from www.thecompanyofthegreenman.co.uk – an excellent website with great pictures, this years Hastings event will be on in due course |
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We are very grateful to Peter Fuller for donating some bound Newspaper volumes to our archive, including a Hastings and St Leonards News from 1881. The following comes from the edition of 6th May that year. |
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Original Hastings Biscuit Shop |
Some of the adverts from the 1881 H &St L News. |
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The subject of schools featured in an email enquiry, later followed up by a visit from two descendents of Rev H. W. Macklin, a writer, clergyman and antiquarian with a particular interest in monumental brasses; in 1886 he founded the Monumental Brass Society. Susan Macklin writes: “He began to write his diary in 1882, as a schoolboy, and continued it for 12 years, covering his last three years at school, his four years at Cambridge and his first four years as a curate in the West Country. |
William Coleman |
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He was born in London, but spent much of his childhood and youth at his grandmother's home at 131 Marina, in St Leonards. He made his first brass-rubbings in two Hastings churches, St Clements and All Saints, and describes many country walks in the area around the town, seeking out churches with interesting brasses to rub. He remembers with obvious affection his early preparatory school days at a school in Hastings, known as the Manor House, where the headmaster was a Mr Murray. In 1880 at the age of 14 he went to Cranbrook school in Kent. The young Herbert Macklin was an enthusiastic, energetic, sociable and observant young man. His activities in and around Hastings included, in addition to long country rambles, rowing, sea bathing and a spectator's delight in occasions such as the Hastings Regatta. Above all, perhaps, he delighted in theatrical entertainments of all kinds, and in Hastings he attended performances in the Warrior Square concert hall, in the Archery Gardens and in the theatre on the pier: he regularly and enthusiastically attended the Christmas pantomime on the pier, and gives accounts of each year's performance (in the mid-1880s) in his diary.” |
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Hastings History House, 21 Courthouse Street, 
