Alexandra Park War Memorial was commissioned by the Mayor of Hastings upon the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28th June 1919. The Mayor, Mr A Blackman, announced “The Peace was signed today. On this day of rejoicing let…
St Catherine’s Lighthouse is situated at the southern most point of the Isle of Wight. The lighthouse was built in 1838 as a response to the wreck of the Clarendon in 1836, in which 25 people perished. The story of…
Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight is the 681m pier from which you can catch the Wightlink Catamaran for the 20 minute journey to Portsmouth. The original pier was built during 1814 so that visitors to Ryde didn’t have…
The Cliff Railway on the East Hill, Hastings opened on 9th April 1903. According to this website, the town’s unemployed men helped to build it. With an incline of 1:1.28 it is the steepest cliff railway in Britain. Originally the…
Galley Hill is the highest point along the coast between Eastbourne and St Leonards. It provides great views out to sea, both east and west, and as such has been used for defensive purposes since at least Napoleonic times. It…
I like this view of Hastings Castle as it provides a sense of scale and the chance to imagine what I may have looked like when it was first built. I’ve written some more about its history in a…
I’ve posted about this church before, so won’t go over what I said there. On this visit some people were already in the church when I arrived, they had taken the key to the church from the nearby house. They…
Bayham Abbey, near Lamberhurst, Kent was founded by Robert Thornham in about 1200 and ‘suppressed’ by Henry VIII in 1538. The ruins were romantically landscaped by the prolific 18th century landscape gardener Humphry Repton whose other work include the Brighton Royal…
The Winkle Club is a charitable organisation set up in 1900 by Hastings fishermen to help under privileged families. In April 2012 the new statue, designed by local artist Leigh Dyer, was unveiled. The statue replaces the old one that…
Winchelsea is a small village in East Sussex with a fascinating history. A hint of it’s previous importance can be seen in the Church of St Thomas the Martyr, the only remaining one of three churches that the town once…
Venturing further under Hastings Pier, the noise of the sea and my feet crunching on the pebbles increased as it was reflected back off of the metal work, decking and concrete. The sound of the traffic above was drowned out,…
In it’s 1970’s heyday Hastings Pier had a steam boat still gave tourists trips from the end of the Pier, a theatre, concert hall, amusements and a zoo. According to the Hastings Chronicle, when the zoo was closed a charity…
