Author Archives: HIP - Page 7
The Bridge: a Personal Reminiscence
ED BOXALL, local artist, writer, storyteller, and musician, recalls the days when he used to take his two sons to The Bridge Paul McLaughlinThe Bridge Community Centre Today The Bridge…
Pocket Park Reopens
Local volunteers have successfully reopened the Better Braybrooke Pocket Park on Hughenden Road more than two years after it closed. The restoration project, led by Josh Matthews the Chair of…
More SEND Kids for Mainstream Schools
East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is gearing up for more children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) to attend mainstream schools. MP Helena Dollimore says that, following the government’s…
RNLI Coastal Training Exercise
Volunteer crew from RNLI Hastings have taken part in a large-scale water safety training exercise alongside local emergency services, organised by HM Coastguard. RNLI The event, hosted at the Hastings…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: On the Trail of Jack-In-The-Green
Hellebore : ‘The Green Issue’Available from Bookbuster, £ BY TIM BARTON In 1977 Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull penned his classic song Jack-In-The-Green. His ‘Jack’ ‘quietly sits under every tree’,…
One Hundred Demons
Those of you who saw Kim L Pace’s whimsical, but very unsettling pottery at Hastings Museum last year will be pleased to know that there is now a chance to…
Collage d’Or
DAVE MILTON Rock Paper Scissors, a solo exhibition by Daniela Maria Gargiulo at Hastings Arts Forum, comprises sixty pictures made in the three years since the artist’s daughter left home.…
Poetry Corner
NEVER AGAIN OLI SPLEEN Overwhelmed by a world That will not hear the cries That twists the truth That lies That gaslights and denies Enables genocide In self-defence disguise Labelling…
Barbed Bard
DAVE MILTON AND SMOKEY BROWN Even in a town that boasts its fair share of post-punk prodigies, sightings of DIY luminary Bing Selfish are as rare and as welcome as…
The Phoenix of Gaza
A remarkable film, the winner of numerous awards at film festivals, including the London Independent Film Awards and the Edinburgh Film Awards, will soon be screened in Hastings. 'The Phoenix…
RUGBY: H & B Win Sussex Shield
MAX MOWBRAY H&B RFC ended a long silverware drought last weekend with a dramatic victory over Ditchling in the Sussex Shield final, securing their first cup trophy since 2017. A…
Walking Miles to Save Puppies
SOLE IRIART I am a 50-year-old carer from St Leonards. My working life is dedicated to supporting and caring for others. But outside of my profession, I find myself standing…
Become Part of the HIP Community!
If you read our special 300th supplement, you’ll know just how much work goes into producing the paper, and that it is (almost) all done by volunteers. But there’s no…
Local Schools Celebrate National Recognition
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN AND HUGH SULLIVAN Three local schools are celebrating after being nominated for prestigious national teaching awards recognising the exceptional quality of their teaching and support staff as well…
Bonkers Banter
Glass specialist Andy McConnell from BBC TV’s Antiques Roadshow will be supporting local charity The Sara Lee Trust this May with an evening of lively stories, laughter and audience chat.…
Pride in Place Goes Public
Following the approval by the Government of the Hastings Neighbourhood Board 10-year Regeneration Plan in March 2026, a public event to discuss how and where the money will be invested…
Pier to Pier Challenge for Unpaid Carers
A unique Pier to Pier fundraising challenge took place along the Sussex coast last weekend to shine a light on the lived realities of unpaid carers – led by someone…
Mayday! Mayday!
Every day, RNLI crews across the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands respond to Mayday calls – the most urgent calls for help on our coasts. But this May, they…
Free Help withRising Water Bills
With water bills rising yet again from 1 April, local community benefit society Energise Sussex Coast (ESC) is urging anyone in East Sussex who is struggling with their water bills…
Celebrating Past Features
Here we are at 300 issues! HIP asks DAVID DENNIS to celebrate the many feature articles written over the last 299 issues The paper’s name declares its independence, and it…
Jazz: Luft and Duni Reach for the Moon
VICTORIA KINGHAM Guitarist Rob Luft has been a regular visitor to Jazz Hastings, having appeared here with his own band and with other musicians celebrated for their originality: Byron Wallen,…
Stories of the Mature Woman
Stories of the Mature Woman is a group exhibition exploring the richness, resilience and evolving identities of women later in life. Curated by Carolyn Macleod and presented in partnership with…
111 Places in Hastings & Rye That You Shouldn’t Miss
Journalist and author NORMAN MILLER shares his experience of writing a book about 111 placesto visit in our patch Norman and the finished article So how do you go about…
Father, Forgive Us
VICTORIA KINGHAM It’s always a joy to remember that the first person recorded as having written music down systematically, was a woman. Hildegard of Bingen was a highly-regarded, highly devout…
Small, but Perfectly Formed
VICTORIA KINGHAM Graced as we are with so many small exhibition spaces in addition to the established Hastings Contemporary and De La Warr Pavilion, it’s easy to miss some of…
Six Characters in Search of a Meaning
VICTORIA KINGHAM On 13 April, there was a rehearsed reading of Lindsay Jayne’s play A spectacular Interview in Studio 27, the White Rock Theatre’s fringe venue. This was quite a feat…
Girls Still on Top
ELIZABETH ALLEN Top Girls is an extraordinary play by an extraordinary playwright. Caryl Churchill has been called Britain’s “most brilliant living playwright” and this play “hilarious, ground-breaking, gritty”. Characteristic of…
Feeding Hastings A Look at the Food Champions Series
JOEL CHESHIRE Looking back at previous issues, the Food Champions of Hastings & St Leonards series offers a useful indication of how HIP approaches topics of food, community and inequality. What…
The Sign Of Four, with Boots and Coconuts
VERA BELL Studio 27 in the White Rock seems rapidly to be gaining ground as a Hastings fringe venue for experimental theatre. Two days after the absurdist A Spectacular Interview…
More Palestine Protest Arrests
Seven local residents – several of them aged in their 70s or 80s – were arrested on Hastings seafront under the Terrorism Act on the afternoon of Saturday 11 April.…
The Last Call
Battlelines drawn for local elections Paul McLaughlin Voters across Hastings and St Leonards will go to the polls on 7 May for what are likely to be the final local…
Candidate list
EAST SUSSEX COUNTY COUNCIL Ashdown & Conquest Louise Chantal Labour and Cooperative Aidan Fisher Reform UK Stewart Rayment Liberal Democrat Roger Streeten Conservative Paula Warne Green Baird & Ore Liam…
Why I’m Standing:
Individual candidates make their pitch HASTINGS INDEPENDENT John CannanWishing Tree (HBC) I’m born and bred in ; My passion is ;I was lucky enough to be born in a council house.…
Young people on the brink as funding stalls
Hastings charity Eggtooth has supported over 900 young people experiencing mental health challenges in the last two years. Now it says it can’t take on any new clients because the…
A Secret Garden
DON LINKE One of the delights of living in St Leonards and Hastings is discovering secret spaces often hidden away in plain sight, undiscovered gems that we can stumble across even after…
FOOTBALL: Survivors!
United Retain Isthmian League Status 10 April: Broadbridge Heath 2, Hastings Utd 4 17 April: Hastings Utd 1, Herne Bay 1 HUGH SULLIVAN On a sunny spring afternoon, before their…
Food Champions of Hastings & St Leonards
Wil Hospon Head Chef and Owner of Coquina What do you do and what’s your mission? Beca Fawn I am the head chef and owner of coquina at Hastings Contemporary.…
Football fundraiser for St Michael’s
Hastings residents receiving end-of-life care will benefit from more than £2,300 thanks to a fundraising football match organised by kind-hearted Tesco colleagues. The closely contested game featured teams representing the…
Violet, 88, is thriving not just surviving
An 88-year-old Bexhill resident who three years ago was given only months to live is now attending weekly yoga sessions at her care home, actively participating in class and spending…
RUGBY: League Third Place Confirmed
10 April: Hastings & Bexhill 38, Gravesend II 0 17 April: Tunbridge Wells II 36, Hastings & Bexhill 35 H & B have just one game left in the Kent…