Page:Item 9 1861.pdf/196

From Historical Hastings
This page has been proofread


purchase of the priory-brooks land and again disposing of it in ​building​ plots, he would, perhaps, while enriching himself, be conferring a benefit on such of the community as were urgently in want of comparatively small houses. That the plots, on the whole, realized a larger amount of money than was expected, was due to the eagerness of competitors to avail themselves of the convenient conditions of purchase. But Mr. Clement’s idea of providing the means for the erection of smal(sic) houses, while securing to himself a fair interest on capital, was more fully developed in the erection of a long range of cottage property at Silverhill, the neuclus(sic) of what is now quite a town. Apropos of this latter speculation, a paragraph appears in “The Life-sketch of Mr. Clement”, chapters 33 to 37, Vol. 1, of Historico-Biography of Local Worthies, as follows:- “So far as I can make it, out, Mr. Clement contributed not less than £600 to the erection of the Silverhill Presbyterian Church, in addition to an annual subscription towards the support of the ministry and schools. In the mean time, by ​building​ operations and other means, Mr. Clement had been instrumental in attracting to the Silverhill district a community that might have formed the denizens of no inconsiderable town. Acting on the hint thrown out in two or three articles which appeared in Brett’s St. Leonards Gazette during 1861, on the great need of small tenements – from which articles also was originated the “Cottage Building Society” – Mr. Clement, with his usual keen perception, had plans prepared for a number of small houses on a portion of the Silverhill estate, and called on the present writer with a copy of the same, explaining in what manner he was prepared to sell the cottage plots, with garden ground, to mechanics and others of moderate incomes, and also upon what terms and to what extent he would lend money to assist them to build. Suffice it to say that the scheme, once started, soon grew in dimensions, and so continued until the allotted space was covered by more than a hundred houses. Then followed another, and still another series of ​building​ speculations by other people, until at the present time [1883], there are almost unbroken lines of houses, shops, and villas between Silverhill, Bohemia and Hastings, on the one hand, and betwen(sic) the two first named places and St. Leonards on the other. But before this was accomplished, Mr. Clement disposed of a certain portion of his estate which lay on the line of ​road​ to Battle, and then another village sprang up at Hollington (equal to some small towns) under the name of Silverdale. It may be explained that Silverdale and the contiguous properties were built on that part of the Silverhill estate lying on the west side of the Battle ​road​, and on the outbounds of St. Mary-in-the-Castle, between St. Leonards and Hollington. This new district – the result of Mr. Clement’s enterprise – when formed, was mainly inhabited by persons who could not find what they wanted either in St. Leonards or Hastings.”