HASTINGS AND ST. LEONARDS NEWSPAPERS.
Before Hastings could claim to possess a Newspaper of its own it was dependent upon the " Sussex Advertiser," established at Lewes in 1745 ; the " Brighton Herald," 1806; " Brighton Gazette," 1821 ; "Brighton Guardian," 1827 ; and the " Kentish Gazette," 1769. It was in 1830 that the "Hastings Iris," a purely local newspaper, was published by John Townsend. The " Cinque Ports Chronicle" in 1838; the "Sussex Express," 1837; the " Southern Advertiser," 1840 ; then in 1848, the late Mr. William Ransom (then a young man of about twenty-five) began in real earnest the one especial work of his life, the editing of the well known " Hastings and St. Leonards News," following " The Iris," -above mentioned, which, however, had a short life barely a year.
So that the " News " was the first essentially local paper that lived. Its first issue was dated May 5th, 1848, the price 3 ½d., the quantity, four pages, four columns each. The newspaper stamp was then compulsory, which was 1½., making the actual price of the paper 2d. Then in 1854 appeared the "Hastings and St. Leonards Penny Press," by T. B. Brett. The same year "Hastings and St. Leonards Fashionable Record," by W. Walter, and " St. Leonards Advertiser," by C. H. Southall, from the Royal Library, St. Leonards (now Sutherland's), in 1853 or 1854. The "St. Leonards Advertiser " was continued by James Dorman, successor to C. H. Southall, and afterwards purchased by F. J. Parsons, and was merged in the popular " Hastings and St. Leonards Pictorial Advertiser and Visitors' List," published by F. J. Parsons, Ltd., Claremont, and was suspended when war broke out.
In 1855 the late Thomas Brandon Brett, local historian, started " The St. Leonards and Hastings Gazette," about which it was his boast that he personally collected the news, set up the type, edited, and printed the newspaper, and then went out and sold it. He led a most laborious life. In 1855, the " South Eastern Advertiser and Rye Chronicle," which circulated in Hastings, was published by Isaac Parsons, the father of Frederick James Parsons. The " Hastings, St. Leonards, and Battle Advertiser," printed at Battle, 1855. The " Hastings and St. Leonards Times," by Isaac Parsons, printed at Rye, 1857. The " Hastings and St. Leonards Herald," 1861, by Isaac Parsons, Rye. The " Hastings and St. Leonards Observer," by J. H. Knight, at 34, High Street, Hastings, 1859 or 1860. The copyright of this was purchased by F. J. Parsons in 1865, and is now the well-known Newspaper published by F. J. Parsons, Ltd., Claremont. " Osborne's Hastings Paper " some time in the sixties. " Hastings and St. Leonards World," 1878. " Hastings and St. Leonards Guardian," 1874. " Randle and Jenner's Visitors' List," 1878. "East Sussex News," by Farncombe and Bates, 1855. "Bexhill Chronicle," 1889. "Bexhill Observer," 1896. "Sussex Daily -
