Myriads of Ladybirds - One Man Choir - Old View of White Rock
Another violent snow-storm occurred on Thursday, the eleventh of March, and for a time it threatened to be as formidable as the one last described. It was, however, of shorter duration and of less intensity. There was but one other abnormal atmospheric condition of the year that calls for notice, and that was the severe gale which occurred on the night of Saturday, Oct. 23rd. As a concomitant of this storm, Hastings was visited with — not the highest, but certainly — one of the highest tides within living memory, At two hours before midnight the basement of the Albion hotel was flooded, as were also most of the houses at East parade, Marine parade, and Beach cottages. The waves rolled over the parades in immense volumes, and flooded West street and George street, greatly to the detriment of property, as they have done many times since, under similar influences. What those influences were it may be useful here to state, inasmuch as their manifestation seemed to offer & proof that the theory was a sound one which ten years’ observation had enabled me to formulate. On that day at 8 in the morning the moon attained to her perigeal position (nearest to the earth), being at the same time in conjunction with the planet Uranus, and quartile with Jupiter. At night of the same day she was in opposition to the sun, and consequently “full.” These were the combined lunar forces operating at the time on the aerial and oceanic waves, resulting, as has been shown, in a raging wind and a rampant sea. It was a fortunate circumstance that just at the nett time of high water the wind shifted and the flood was checked. But for this change the damage would probably have been more serious.
One of the rarities of the year was the presence of myriads of lady-birds. For an entire week in the month of August these beautiful “fly-goldens” were in such numbers as to cause no little excitement. The fields, the paths, and even the streets were so thickly covered with them that it was impossible to walk without crushing many hundreds of them beneath the feet. They came with a northeast wind, and they took their departure with a change of wind. In connection with the extraordinary snowstorm which commenced on Sunday the 7th of February and blocked up the roads for an entire week, it may be permitted to relate an adventure that has still some interest for a few old persons whose memory will serve them to attest its truth, whilst as concerns the writer, the circumstance itself will afford another instance of his practical application of the aphorism ”Where there’s a will there's a way.”
Being in the practice of music, partly, as a profession, I had yielded to the solicitation to assist in the formation of a choir for Hollington Church; and for this purpose meetings were held at 17 (now 69) Norman road, where a weekly rehearsal of psalmody was engaged in. Matters went on regularly and smoothly, and the new choir became an attraction sufficient to cause an increase in the attendance at the Sunday services. A spirit of emulation was abroad, and in a short time the Hollington choir were occasionally assisted by members of the Crowhurst choir. It should be stated that the church had no organ nor any other instrument of its own that could be used in the musical portion of the service. It therefore fell to my lot not only to exercise my vocal powers, but also to manipulate one or other of three instruments which I generally carried with me into the so-called singing-gallery. On the Sunday which preceded the great snowstorm the weather was extremely wet and boisterous; and the St. Leonards men, myself excepted, were thereby deterred from meeting the one or two Hollington members of the choir who had managed to be present. This resulted in the service being carried out without singing. I afterwards twitted my comrades for their lack of courage, and an all-round promise was then made that every man would be at his post on the following Sunday, even though the condition of the weather should be that of rain; ”snow or blow.” As if to try how far the party could be faithful to their pledge, the weather was of much greater severity than that which kept most of them at home on the preceding Sunday. The wind was keen and the fall of snow was so incessant that on the hill and plains the hoary visitant was several inches deep, whilst in the vales and hollows the depth was as many feet. Very few of the villagers — perhaps not more than thirty—braved the meteorological inclemency in their desire to get to church that morning, but among that few was the present writer, who, after the promise that had been made; was not a little surprised to find himself solus in the choir-pew. Nothing daunted, however, by the unenviable position in which he was thus placed, St. Leonardensis chalked on the slate (as was customary) the hymns intended to be sung; and with voice at double forte, assisted by all the harmony that the six strings of a Spanish guitar could be made to produce, the musical service was commenced and carried through to completion The clergyman (the Rev. H. Rush) as though tacitly admiring the confidence exhibited by him who alone constituted the choir, joined in the singing most lustily as he stood in the pulpit, and his efforts were also aided by the comparatively few persons who formed the congregation. The novelty of the venture. coupled with the rarity of the weather which gave rise to it, caused the day to be remembered and talked about for a long time after; and I doubt not that it is still in the recollection of at least two of the defaulters who have not yet taken their departure from the land of the living. One of these is John Palmer, who before he joined the Hollington choir was connected with the first (the parish) church of St, Leonards; and the other is the now feeble Moses Ades, whose lower diapason. was but little inferior in depth and strength to that of the once-celebrated Tom Wimble. The last-named, I may say in passing, was for a considerable time a musical associate of the Giles family, who mainly constituted the choir at Ore church, and whose excellent vocal combination, together with the preaching of Dr. Fearon, contributed so largely to the Popularity of that otherwise unattractive edifice; Mr. Wimble ended his days at St. Leonards.
At the present time of writing (May, 1885), the premises owned by Mr. Gray, and known as 34 and 35 White-rock place, are being taken down to make room for a larger and handsomer building, the contract price of which is £15,950. As a portion of the premises now being razed was the first erection in that precise locality, and as it was included in my description of the front line between the Archway at St. Leonards and York Buildings at Hastings, when treating of the year 1836, it occurs to me that it would not be inappropriate now to exhibit the growth of house property in that district during the ten years that intervened the date just stated and the year to which this history has reached. Beginning with Mr. Gray's property and proceeding westward, the description will be necessarily inversely to the numerical arrangement, the numbering of the several ranges of buildings being from west to east.
The White-rock brewery was first the property of Mr. Henry Tindall, and was erected in 1831 or 2. This proprietor was more than once called to account for cutting down and excavating the high rock in the rear of his premises, and it may be assumed that he squared the matter with the landowner by making some pecuniary compensation, The brewery was alarmingly undermined, together with the Seaside House (built by Mr. Thorne) and the coach-building premises (built by Mr. Rock) during the severe gales and rough sea of October, 1834,when an immense chasm was made in the road, similar to those witnessed more recently in other parts of the sea front. On that occasion her present Majesty on her arrival at Hastings, was obliged to travel a circuitous route to St. Leonards over the hill (as heretofore described in detail), and for some time the direct route from one town to the other could only be made on foot, and even by that means a small toll had to be paid to those who at the breach had erected a temporary bridge with planks, About 1838 the brewery was in the possession of Messrs. Charles Deudney and Harry Hurst, the latter partner living in the house immediately contiguous. In 1846 the premises passed into the hands of Peter Pagden, a gentleman of considerable ability, genial manners and generous disposition. He had a great fondness for music, a fact that was made patent to myself through a number of brief engagements offered to, and accepted by, the band with which I was then connected. Between the brewery and what is now the White-rock post-office (35 to 29) there was a plot of unoccupied ground for some years; but in 1842 the house now known as 32 was built for Mr, John Coussens, and let out in apartments by Thomas Cordwell. Twelve months later 31 and 30 were erected by Messrs. Beal and Coe, two highly respected stonemasons, who had previously occupied business premises not far from Trinity Church that now is, and had a stone depository, with saw-sheds on the site of the “Black Pond,” which, pond on being drained, many years before, disclosed to view some huge timbers, together with sturdy flood-gates and other remains of a sluice. Mr. Coe also built what is now 50 Queen’s road, but which was previously 14 St. Andrew's road, and originally 11 Spring terrace; its first name being suggested by an excellent spring of water on the opposite side, which is still in existence, with the appliance of a pump. My obituary list gives the date of Mr. Coe’s death as January 27th, 1859, and that of his widow as March 30th, 1873. Their ages were 69 and 85 respectively. A niece, who lived with them, was a Miss Smith, afterwards Mrs. Miller, whose son (Mr. J. C. Miller) is the proprietor of the Queen’s-road refreshment rooms and the Queen’s-avenue restaurant. Mrs. Miller having been for some years the proprietress of 30 White-rock place, which was built by her uncle in 1842, brings me back from my digressive, albeit associative reminiscence. The next three houses (29, 28 and 27) were the property of Mr, Edmund Strickland, who had a steam flour-mill and coal yard from about 1838 till 1844, after which the latter was successively let to Harry Hurst and Peter Pagden. So far as my memory serves me there was no definite appellation to Nos. 34, 31, 30, 29 and 28 until the year 1840, when Mr. Hurst took possession of the brewery-house simultaneously with the marriage of the Queen to Prince Albert, and the name of Albert place was at once given to those five houses, The next six houses were designated White-rock place; No. 1 commencing with what is now 26, and No. 6 — being what is now 21, The first four were the property of Mr. William Austin, the fifth belonged to Mr. John Austin, and the sixth was owned by Mrs. Sophia Howell. In 1847 and two or three preceding years, Mrs. Howell’s son (Mr. John Howell) had a carpenter's shop behind his mother’s house and when I tell my readers that the young carpenter of that date has since been one of the greatest builders, one of the most active politicians, and a Mayor of the town, and that he is now one of the largest property holders of Hastings and St. Leonards, they will readily imagine that the history of his private enterprise and public career would be one of considerable interest.
I have said that the White-rock brewery was in the possession of Messrs. Deudney and Hurst about the year 1838, and that Mr. Hurst occupied the house next to it in 1840; but I was forgetting at the moment that the said partnership commenced in the latter year, and that for two or three years previous to 1888, the brewery firm was known as that of Deudney and Fagg. And now that the site is being cleared and a number of human bones have been found below the surface, I will interpose a few remarks in support of the conjecture that the bones in question may have fallen, ages ago from their high estate on Cuckoo Hill where was St. Michael's Church, attached to which, in all probability, was its burial ground. That these relics of a past age have been discovered just within the parish of St. Mary Magdalen (originally St. Margaret's) and on the very confines of what remains of St. Michael’s, is no barrier to the plausibility of the conjecture. The dividing line of the two parishes might have been a few feet or a few yards more to the west at an earlier period, and the portion of the brewery site where the skulls and other bones have been found might have been within the boundry(sic) of St.Michaels but even without that hypothesis, my readers have only to be reminded of the old condition of the locality to imagine the likelihood of any object falling from the top of the cliff to the area below in a direction either east or west of a direct descent. I well remember the immense mass of fallen earth, sand and pieces of rock which formed the somewhat rounded foreslope at the spot, under consideration even within as late a period as that between 1820 and '30; and I have myself climbed up that mass of debris to the “sand-holes,” some of which were within twenty or thirty feet of the top. This accumulation was being continually added to, both by the occasional disintegration of the cliff and by the refuse from the excavations by poor people who got a living by selling white sand from door to door as boys do at the present time by selling “pipe-clay,” similarly obtained. Even that large accumulation would have been greater but for the necessity of the parish authorities, together with the possessors of the lime-kilns and the rope-walk, having sometimes to remove a portion of the base to make the narrow approach to the steep White-rock road at all passable.
The mass of rock and sand at the bend of the road in the accompanying view is that part the spot where the brewery was afterwards built, and where in 1885 the human bones were found on the demolition of the brewery and the making of further excavations for the erection of what is now the Palace Hotel. It will be seen that the engraving represents that part of the town before the road was levelled and the White-rock houses were built.
