Grapes of Rother
We suspect that many of our readers like a glass of wine - this is how it starts! CHRISTINE O’GARA shares her experience of grape-picking. Bailey’s Job Agency on Hastings seafront was looking for grape pickers for the short season…
Robert Tressell: The Original Hastings Independent
STEVE PEAK The creation of a new political party in Hastings – the Hastings Independent Group – because of the failure of the Labour Party to help ordinary people would come as no surprise to Robert Tressell, author of The…
Why are Teachers Leaving the Profession?
With almost a third of teachers leaving the profession within five years of starting, former teacher CALLUM THOMSON explores why. Recent data released by the Department for Education shows that in 2021/22, 39,930 teachers, of the teaching workforce, left the…
The History of the Hastings Fishermen’s Museum
STEVE PEAK The Hastings Fishermen’s Museum was built in 1853/4 as a church, which closed in 1939 and was converted into the Fishermen’s Museum in ; Until the early 1830s there was no ground where the Museum stands today, because…
Should Hastings follow the Basque Country’s lead?
After attending a talk on bottom-up regeneration, regular contributor and former Community Editor, ROD WEBB, visits a grassroots community project. ROD WEBB writes about the recent inspirational talk on social change by Gorka Espiau who was invited by Hastings Borough…
Christina Rossetti’s Hastings
RYAN ORMONDE, a poet who divides his time between Hastings and London, explores Christina Rossetti’s Hastings. A drawing of Christina Rossetti by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti In his classic novel Lanark, Alasdair Gray has a character say of Glasgow:…
All Rise
As well as being a regular HIP contributor, DAVID EP DENNIS has been appointed as Project Manager for Bexhill-on-Sea Town Council’s Wild Domesday Project. One of his main areas of research is water: sewage discharges, sea level rises due to…
Valentino’s Vivarium
HIP Features Editor BEN BRUGES visits a Hastings vivarium that also houses people. Ben BrugesValentino with Amity - they often watch TV together Valentino Cerioli, five, can’t remember when he first became interested in snakes and reptiles. His mum Sarah…
3 Million Pounds of Unclaimed Benefit for Hastings Residents
HIP social media co-editor, SALLY BURR, noticed that pensioners are missing out on money that’s due to them. Read on to help yourself or someone you know. Alexas Photos, Unsplash Residents in Hastings who qualify for Pension Credit and do…
A Bit of Science and a Bit of Honesty
Annie Spratt, Unsplash MERLIN BETTS discusses climate change in response to Jonathan Andrews’ article (HIP 234) Whether facts are convenient or not, they’re supposed to Some people think ‘true’ is a step too far here. Fine. But fact should at…