Letters Issue 221
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Future of St Leonards Church
Dear HIP
Between a bomb, some rock and a hard place (in HIP 220) was a good article with great photos, although I would like to challenge one sentence that is misleading: “If worst comes to worst, the Trust’s job will be to ensure the safe demolition of the church…”.
The Charitable Incorporated Organisation we are planning to set up would only demolish this wonderful church if a) we owned it (the diocese still does), and b) all other avenues to save it were exhausted. Our aim is to repurpose the building and surrounds for the benefit of the local community. Whether this is via the Science Museum donation maritime exhibits (Science-by-Sea) or as a mixed-use community asset (rock-climbing, nursery, cafe, etc.) remains to be determined. All of this is overshadowed by the cliff needing to be stabilised and the four site owners (ESCC, the diocese, HBC and an investment bank) all agreeing to its future.
Bryan Fisher
The uninvited guest
Dear HIP
I am responding to your appeal (in the retrospective about the former anarchist news sheet Poison Pen) for information about the former newspaper called Hastings News.
I remember it quite well. It was, like HIP, free of charge and dependent entirely on advertising. As a result of this it seemed to contain more advertising than news.
The journalism – such as there was – was nowhere near the standard we get in HIP, but it was also different from HIP in another major respect, namely that it did not have to be searched for in various locations in the town but was delivered to people’s doors. The Hastings Observer, obviously somewhat miffed at the appearance of this upstart competitor, added a sub-title to its by-line, “The invited guest in your home”, making the point that people who bought the Observer chose to do so, whereas everyone received a copy of the News whether they wanted to or not.
I believe that the Observer group bought up the News and then, not surprisingly, closed it down.
Peter Bolwell
The News in 1983
Dear HIP
We remember the Hastings News well, and believe that it ran for many years. In 1983 it published an article about our experience of being caught up in a cyclone in Tahiti while we were on a journey around the world. We kept a copy of that week’s edition, and attach the front page along with our report.
Stephen & Frances Royston
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