Thursday 27 December 2012

Coventry Patmore


Coventry Patmore was a three-times-married poet who lived at Old Hastings House. He had St Mary Star of the Sea Church built in memory of his second wife. He paid local children a farthing a bucket for beach pebbles with which to build the church.His poetry was highly regarded, but the establishment and friends like Tennyson dropped him when he became a Catholic. Patmore loved women, and there is controversy as to whom his Angel in the House was dedicated. I think it was Alice Meynell. Patmore loved her, and was jealous of anyone else who loved her in any way, e.g. Francis Thompson -  of whom more in a later post.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Hastings: where TV was invented.

John Logie Baird


In 1922 John Logie Baird moved from Scotland to Hastings in order to get the health-giving benefits of living by the sea.  In 1923 in a workshop above number 6 Queens Arcade (where you can buy fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and meat) just of Queens Road in the town centre, John Logie Baird made the world's first image transmissions. His company began transmitting programmes in 1929. In 1932 the BBC took over.
John Logie Baird died in 1946 in Bexhill.
So Hastings isn't only a centre of classical culture, but also the place where TV was born.
Early experiments at Hastings - 1

Mayor unveils plaque with JLB, 1929

Sunday 23 December 2012

Author of Alice in Wonderland in Hastings

Lewis Carroll spent summers at 2 Wellington Square, Hastings with his aunts, the Misses Dodgson. While here, he would visit Dr Hunt in Ore in order to get treatment for his stammer.
hastings_2_wellington_square01

Friday 21 December 2012

Thursday 20 December 2012

The Seize and Dorey the Wise

Hastings has the best bands ever: the Seize http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GrZYAP3wPQ
and Dorey the Wise:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D4n7qvcTpE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67XyT9if_nM

Wednesday 19 December 2012

What BusinessEdge (December/January 2012/13) says about Hastings, the 'sunniest town in mainland Britain'.

'There are the community festivals, from Jack-in-the-Green to Mayday ... in between come carnivals, Coastal Currents arts festival, the award-winning Seafood and Wine Festival, and the world-famous record-breaking Pirate Day - in fact there is something of interest every week.'

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti married the model for his paintings, Elizabeth Siddall, in St Clement's Church in 1860, and they lived in the High Street. They were regularly visited by other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who were aiming at a natural style of painting and loved the clear colours of Hastings landscapes. Here is William Holman Hunt's painting of Fairlight (1852-1858):
Fairlight Downs, Sunlight on the Sea

And here is Millais' Ophelia. The model was Lizzie Siddall:


Below is Rossetti's drawing of Lizzie Siddall painting:

And here is his marriage portrait of her:

Rossetti's sister, Christina Rossetti, who also lived in the High Street, wrote this poem about Dante's relationship with Lizzie:

One face looks out from all his canvases,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
A saint, an angel -- every canvas means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

Lizzie's life ended tragically. She died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, some time after having given birth to a stillborn baby.

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Real life drugs haul discovered in Hastings caves


Real life drugs haul in the caves

A huge haul of cannabis was recently found in other caves in Hastings and St Leonards. Did The Smugglers' Caves predict this? Or did the dastardly criminals read the novel and get their ideas from it? 
http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local-news/huge_haul_of_cannabis_found_in_hastings_caves_1_2937895
The cannabis factory in the caves

Monday 17 December 2012

Midnight Landing at the caves in Hastings UK

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Yes, Hastings UK is a centre of the literary world. The list of writers who lived and worked here is endless.
2011 was the centenary of the death of Robert Tressell, the original manuscript of whose The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists can be downloaded or read here:
http://www.unionhistory.info/ragged/browse.php?Page=1705&Book=The+Ragged+Trousered+Philanthropists

Trevor, a main protagonist in recently-published The Smugglers' Caves (ISBN 13: 9783060329519) speaks about the night the Rolling Stones rocked the caves


Rolling Stones rocked caves


However, it was not as you might expect in the pier’s ballroom or the now closed Crypt. Oh no, perhaps the biggest band to ever play in 1066 Country made their bow on stage at a debutante’s ball in the depths of the town’s network of caves.
Wildman guitarist Keith Richards has recently released an autobiography in which the iconic axeman reveals the band visited Hastings back in July 1963 for a gig in what is now Smugglers’ Adventure.
This would have been less than a year after the band’s first concert and just weeks after they were signed by their now infamous long-time manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
News of the subterranean performance came as a complete shock to the caves’ current custodian Trevor White, who is manager of The Smugglers’ Adventure.
He told the Observer: “We knew the caves had been used for a variety of musical performances over the centuries ranging from dances in the 18th century to regular jazz evenings in the fifties and sixties
“However, none of us realised that the great Rolling Stones had played here and now we’re desperately trying to find out more about it and see if we can trace anyone who may have been here to watch them play.
“The details are a little sketchy, and Keith may not have the best of memories for everything that happened to him in the sixties, but there’s definitely enough information in the book to prove that it did take place.”
In fact, any memories Richards does have of the event are far from glowing. In his book the guitarist - famed for his hedonistic rock and roll lifestyle, says the gig had taken place the night before a performance at the Wisbech Corn Exchange in Cambridgeshire.
He wrote: “By the greatest contrast known to rock-and-roll audiences, the previous night we’d played a debutante’s ball at Hastings caves, for somebody called Lady Lampson, all via Andrew Oldham, an awfully super-duper, upper crusty affair doing a lowlife bash in Hastings caves, which are quite big.”
And, according to his book, Lifethe concert didn’t end well after someone asked the former Stones’ keyboardist, Ian Stewart, to play Moon River and a fight broke out.
“It’s extraordinary to think that one of the biggest bands in the world played here in Hastings and none of us were aware of it,” said Mr White - who was delighted with the revelation despite the less than glowing reference Richards gave the town.
“I’ve been working in the caves for more than 10 years now and I’m always discovering fascinating new information about them.”

Sunday 16 December 2012

Turner loved painting Hastings scenes




The above painting of Hastings Fish Market has been bought by the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Hastings from the Sea:
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hastings from the Sea ('Hastings, Deep Sea Fishing')’ 1818

Smugglers' tunnel discovered

Smugglers’ tunnel discovered by workmen
The cave unearthed by workmen
The cave unearthed by workmen
A team from Southern Water made the unusual discovery while digging trenches to lay new sewers in Collier Road and nearby Priory Road.
Work was immediately stopped and experts from Archaeology South-East were called in and confirmed the find was likely to be a smugglers’ tunnel built in the early 18th Century and used to smuggle goods such as tea, tobacco, alcohol, silk and sugar - usually to avoid paying duty.
And, as well as the tunnel, diggers also uncovered a cannon ball and a piece of pottery from the Middle Iron Age.
The work was being carried out for Southern Water by contractor 4Delivery, and the firm’s spokesman Paul Elsdon said: “The ground literally collapsed while we were digging on grass.
“At first we thought it was a natural void but we had a look down, and noticed a big hole that went off in both directions. It was a very interesting project to work on.”
And Southern Water’s senior project engineer, Gary Sayers, was equally excited. He said: “We always engage archaeologists when carrying out schemes like this to ensure any local heritage and historic interest is recorded and preserved.
“We were delighted to be able to work with Archaeology South-East on this investigation.”
Chris Killeen, from Archaeology South-East, said: “The tunnel has been interpreted as a previously unrecorded smugglers’ tunnel, which are reasonably common in Hastings, with several being found or mentioned in local folklore throughout the town.
“There is a large section of these tunnels open to the public at St Clement’s Caves, which are situated around 300 metres to the south of the site.”
A copy of the archaeological report is available for public consultation at the East Sussex County Council offices in Lewes.
The original work has now been completed without impacting on the find.

Today's writer: George Gordon Byron

Lord Byron had an affair with his half-sister, Augusta, when he lived in the Old Town in Hastings. He got so emotional about it or his life in general that he hurled an inkwell full of ink out of the house. Tourists still look for a splodge of ink on the ground at the end of Tackleway/top of Old Humphrey Avenue where the since-demolished house was. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Byron_1824.jpg/250px-Byron_1824.jpg


Tomorrow: the artist JMW Turner and Hastings