Archives for Features - Page 3
Up in Arms
“Claudine and Tracey” Image Credit: Anna Maria Nabirye and Annie Saunders, Greenhalf Studios, Home Live Arts, St Leonards, 2023. Removing boundaries to create meaningful dialogue on topics of race, gender…
The Net Shops – Part Two
Local historian, author and honorary curator of the Fisherman’s Museum, STEVE PEAK, explores the history of the net shops. See the last edition for Part ; All the unique and…
Why are You so Emotional – the Suppressed Anger of the Young
‘If your anger decreases with time, you did injustice; if it increases, you suffered injustice.’ Nassim Taleb ADAM RUSSELL is a recovering accountant, musician and writer who has always lived…
The Net Shops
– Part One
Local historian, author and honorary curator of the Fisherman’s Museum, Steve Peak explores the history of the net ; The Hastings net shops are unique: tall, thin wooden sheds, up…
Jin Jiyan Azadi – International Women’s Day
KAY GREEN is a local writer, trades union activist and a feminist. In recent years, because of the anniversary of the Suffragettes’ first victory in 2018 (when some women won…
Who is being ‘driven out’?
Former member Kay Green shares some of what’s going on in the local Labour Party. Get in touch if you have an article you would like to write - Former…
Poison Pen
Hastings once had another community newspaper, Poison Pen. DAVE YOUNG investigates its anarchic ; The alternative press has a venerable history in the UK. From the radical pamphlets of Victorian…
We’ve got the space, so let’s use it
KEN DAVIS from Transition Town Hastings sets out the group’s innovative approach to solving the housing crisis in ; We need more homes, but homes of the right quality in…
Hastings Says “Enough is Enough!”
Simon Hester, Chair of Hastings & District Trades Union Council sums up what’s happening in Hastings and nationally. Hastings marches, 19 November 2022. Photo: Paulo Figurelli When multi-millionaire Nadhim Zahawi,…
Annie Ant Makes Friends for Demelza
Features Editor Ben Bruges recommends a children’s story for Christmas. Demelza Phillips worked in a hospice in Birmingham. Tragically she died of a brain tumour at 24. Her parents visited…
One loop at a time
Francesca Barrett (11) started knitting two years ago and wants to share her love of knitting to show that anyone can do ; Knitting helps me relax and calm down…
The HIP/Magnum Multimedia Storytelling Programme
Features Editor Ben Bruges asks HIP readers to help us run a free multimedia journalism training programme for 18- to 30-year-olds, from backgrounds that are under-represented in journalism. Hastings’ young…
Introducing the Hastings Cottage Improvement Society
Following recent articles in HIP, Geoff Longmire, a director of the Hastings Cottage Improvement Society, owner of rental properties in and around Hastings Old Town, hopes he can persuade you…
An extraordinary life
Hastings legend Peter D’Arcy Champney has reached his centenary. Dave Young shares a life lived to the fullest. Peter arrived in Hastings almost accidentally, looking for somewhere to settle after…
The Hastings Variation
To mark the upcoming Hastings International Chess Congress, John Bostock explores the fascinating connections between Hastings and chess. You may have seen the excellent Netflix series, The Queens Gambit, in…
Second-hand love
How Millie Cerys changed her views about charity shop clothes. Recently, I was in a rush to leave the house and was hastily trying to pick an outfit for the…
Edith – The Handfasted Queen of England
By David EP Dennis Here is a woman whose lifelong husband is going to have sex with a widow whose husband he had killed, just so that his future son…
The Queen and I
Des Wilson, a Hastings resident and HIP contributor describes his encounters with the late Queen. When I was a child my first encounters with Elizabeth the Second, first as Princess…
Cat Behaviourist and Groomer
Anita Kelsey is a nationally known cat behaviourist who has moved to Hastings. Ben Bruges thought it would be interesting to find out more. Anita explains that she runs a…
Wonderful Wunderhaus!
By David EP Dennis We all know times are difficult. Climate change, global warming, food price rises and extortionate energy costs. We also know that people have to live somewhere…
Happy Birthday Hastings Pier
Steve Peak presents the history of Hastings pier on its 150th birthday Hastings Pier celebrates its 150th birthday on 5 August. It started a new phase in the history of…
Cabs to the Coast
Julie Keeler, one of the tireless committee members of the Friends of Albany Taxi Charity (Hastings) shares this year’s very special taxi trip from London. The Albany Taxi Charity’s annual…
Hard HIPPING Journalism
With more than 40 articles across 20 issues, Ben Cornwell reflects on his decision to take on a work placement at HIP, away from his journalism course at the University…
Eco-tensions in Combe Valley
By David EP Dennis A series of unfortunate events is taking place inside the Combe Valley Countryside Park boundary. Because Combe Valley was a countryside park with multiple landowners, rather…
Saving Lives at Sea The Hastings Lifeboat – and its Women
By David EP Dennis The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) crew is one of the most respected groups of professionals in Hastings. Along with the police, fire service and NHS…
Finding a first home in a seller’s market
Ben Cornwell contemplates homeownership in 21st Century ; Homeownership has been firmly rooted in the British psyche for decades. France, a nation largely of renters, has even coined the phrase…
How the Rock Fair Ended
As part of his history of America Ground Steve Peak wrote about the three main fairs, and how the killjoys ended the biggest and best – the Rock Fair. Three…
A Word From Our Founders
Current Features Editor Ben Bruges asked long-term HIP writer Gareth Stevens to explore the developmentof HIP from founding to 200th edition. Below Ben explores his own reasons for getting involved with…
Living Off-Grid, Almost
In Features this edition new writer SONNY LEVITT recounts his experiences of living off grid, nearly. Features is always looking for new writers and new voices email todiscuss your ideas.…
Vendelis: The History of Old Winchelsea
David EP Dennis Was there ever such a place as Old Winchelsea? Myth or a fisherman’s tale? The truth is that in the early part of the 13th century, Old…
Age and ageism
Ruby Cox explores attitudes towards age and has a suggestion for coming together on the issue. Ben Bruges responds with three photo-texts. Greetings from the Yarnfield Conference Centre near Stoke…
Springtime for Boris
The Downing Street Spider had leaked yet another anonymous diary entryto HIP. “With one bound he was free” … perhaps that has too much of the Dick Tracy and not…
Designating the non-designated: protecting Hastings built heritage
Alex Moojen has lived in Hastings for 13 years and currently works in Housing Support. He recently completed a MSc in Architectural Conservation at the University of Kent. Driving up…
Where to begin
By Millie Cerys Once you start paying attention to little things, you see them continuously. They become ever more present until they are all you can see. It’s like life…
UBI: the real levelling up
Councillor and deputy mayor Ruby Cox makes the case for Universal Basic Income and invites you to a debate. You may recently have seen news items about Universal Basic Income…
Rock-a-Nore: once the Eco-Nore of the East
Local historian Steve Peak explores some of the ways Rock-a-Nore has been ; Instead of pumping all our sewage into the sea, why can’t Hastings have a recycling plant to…
Fairlight and the Smugglers
By Haydon Luke Adapted from a talk given to the Friends of Hastings Country Park Nature ; No account of anywhere along the Sussex coast would be complete without reference…
The Treasures of Galley Hill
By David EP Dennis Many people in Hastings and Bexhill will know of the orange sandstone cliffs of Galley Hill, St Leonards-on-Sea, rising on either side of Glyne Gap –…
Standing Together with Refugees
FELICITY LAURENCE, Hastings Community of Sanctuary, reflects on the recent tragedies. On Thursday 25 November, 250 people gathered in sorrow on the Stade. In candlelit silence, we remembered those people…
It’s back and it’s live: the Hastings Musical Festival
Francesca Barrett (10) explores an annual ; The Hastings Musical Festival is a music, drama and dance competition that helps young people develop a passion for any of the three…