Archives for Features - Page 4
Listen to What the Man Said
By Nick Pelling Hastings and St Leonards is home to many ordinary people who are not ordinary at all. If you listen. One such is Reggie Hendrickse. Reggie has been…
The Vile Curate of Hastings Grammar School
By David EP Dennis William Parker Grammar School’s curate of pure evil is Titus Oates, a thoroughly degenerate man and so it is not surprising that on websites detailing the…
The Last Journeys of King Harold Godwinson
By David EP Dennis Strangely, we are about to celebrate our most significant military defeat – the Battle of Hastings on 14th October 1066. But what really happened to Harold?…
What’s up with the Summer Reading Challenge?
Francesca Barrett is a new young writer (10 years old) and this is her first article for HIP. She has a passion for reading and writing, and wants to encourage…
The Positive Test that Nobody Wants
One of our contributors, 27 year old photographer, SAMARA MARTIN, tells us of her plight with Covid-19, despite being double vaccinated, and how she is still suffering a month later. …
The America Ground
By Steve Peak In the early 19th century, the America Ground, 8½ acres of Hastings’ town centre, was an open piece of beach, beyond the borough boundary and with no…
Gripping Yarns by the Sea
Two recent eBooks by David Dennis: Mysteries of Sussex and Notes and Queries. Review by Nick Pelling There is a view that British History is a sort of pleasant pageant…
I Mourn for Angelina
Alex Ntung arrived in Hastings as a refugee two decades ago. His journey from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo was only made possible by the sacrifices of his sister…
Tackling Period Poverty
At last, local councils, schools, colleges and supermarkets are waking up to the fact that there are many women here in the UK who are unable to afford basic sanitary…
The Woman at Belmont House
By David E P Dennis There is a house in Belmont Road that was the residence of someone, saucy, tricky, amazing, brave, and maybe a spy. Belmont Road itself is not…
The Realities of Being an Immigration Lawyer
Plans for new legislation on asylum policy (see previous HIP, Hastings Community of Sanctuary joins new national coalition to build a fairer asylum system) involve profound changes to immigration law.…
Hastings Community of Sanctuary joins new national coalition to build a fairer asylum system
Felicity Laurence and Pal Luthra from the HCOS Campaigns Team explore an alternative to the government’s new plans for refugees 14th-20th June was Refugee Week. Never has it been so…
The Wreck of the Amsterdam?
Charlotte Cowan, a student at East Sussex College Hastings and about to start a degree in archaeology at York University, visits a neglected treasure. News came through recently that a…
Expert Archaeologist Chosen for Sussex
By David E P Dennis Meet Jane Clark – she is the person who decides if the amazing heritage artefact you have discovered will be entered into the Portable Antiquities…
When the Travellers Came to Town
On National Roma Day 8th April Travellers visiting Hastings were evicted for the third time in less than a week. Cllr Maya Evans, HBC lead member for Travellers, investigates. Tanya…
Love on the way
St Leonards photographer meets partner hiking Spain’s Camino de Santiago – Part 2 In Part 1 (HIP issue 174, 16th April), we heard about the allure of the Camino for…
Love on the way
St Leonards photographer meets partner hiking Spain’s Camino de Santiago Last month In February [Issue 169 and Issue 170), HIP covered Hastings pensioner Rosamund Parker’s extraordinary 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail hike…
The SEND Circle Game
Written anonymously by one of the many undiagnosed adult battlers-on with Special Education Needs & Disability (SEND) that are resident in Hastings. You may want to read this listening…
Census 2021
By Harry Farmer Every ten years, the Office for National Statistics conducts a census of the population in England and Wales, and the next one will take place on 21st…
Technology During Lockdown
by Betty Booth-Walters(9 years old) How many times have your parents moaned to you about having too much screen time? Is there any proof that the screen is bad for…
The Three Great Battles of Hastings
By David E P Dennis Mighty Hastings! Its shorelands and beautiful countryside have such a wonderful history – here is a paradise for researchers and lovers of great stories –…
Lockdown for a Nine Year Old
By Betty Booth-Walters Lockdown started nearly a year ago, who knew we would still be in it today? Betty Booth-Walters As a nine-year-old school girl I was over the moon…
A Pensioner’s Appalachian Adventure continued
By Hastings resident Rosamond Palmer The ultimate trekking experience is often considered to be the Camino de Santiago. This 500-mile pilgrimage takes the average person 35 days to complete; hikers…
A Pensioner’s Appalachian Adventure
By Hastings resident Rosamond Palmer How it Started 2020 has turned into the year of cancelled holidays, not seeing loved ones, improved gardens and no adventures. How lucky I was…
A Covid-19 casualty
Dominic Compagnone lives in Bexhill and runs a video production company based in Battle. This is his Covid-19 story. I am totally sick of the disregard for the lockdown rules…
What’s it like to be a newcomer in Hastings?
This year has seen another influx of home movers to Hastings, many of them arriving in the summer, in between lockdowns. One of them, travel writer Martin Dickie, arrived in…
Sea Dreams
By David E P Dennis When I was much younger, I wouldn’t return to Hastings Grammar School on time after lunch. When I did finally arrive around , the class…
Lifting the Ban
The view from Hastings Community of Sanctuary Campaigns Team: Felicity Laurence, Lead for HCoS Campaigns Team, and Jay Kramer, Campaign Lead, Lift the Ban People seeking asylum have been part…
Tories on Hastings Borough Council vote against Equality
Jay Kramer, Vice Chair of Hastings & Rye Constituency Labour Party and former Deputy Leader of Hastings Borough Council with responsibility for Equality, tells us about a recent HBC meeting…
Divining the future
By David E P Dennis In these uncertain times we seem buffeted by events. Covid regulations vary almost from day-to-day. World politics, terrorism, Brexit, chaos in travel and the aircraft…
Hastings Live Music… an introspective
Is it as vibrant and as creative as we think it is? Gareth Stevens and Mike Willis assemble a small group of musicians and promoters to discuss this and other…
Lockdown Blues? Go Easy on the Booze…
By Helen Drake, Co-editor, Features Several weeks ago, whilst relaxing on the beach enjoying the beautiful sunshine in what, at the time, seemed like a never-ending summer, I overheard a…
The Last Gypsy blacksmith The end of an era?
The symbol for the Sussex Weald is an anvil. Many of our woods survive because they were used to create charcoal for blacksmithing, an ancient craft that lives on in…
Desperate homes for desperate people
By David E P Dennis People need homes. The Prime Minister says we must “build, build, build” and Conservative Housing Minister Jenrick proposes massive changes to planning law, creating an…
Delving into hastingsdotconnected
Part two of an exploration of Hastings online communities that have one foot securely planted in actual geography, unscientifically chosen by Ben Bruges (HIP Features Editor) and members of the…
The Genius Who Lit Up Hastings
By David E P Dennis It took the Briton Francis Crick and American James Watson 880 words to define DNA for their joint Nobel prize and yet, in just 80…
Delving into hastingsdotconnected
Part one of an exploration of Hastings online communities that have one foot securely planted in actual geography, unscientifically chosen by Ben Bruges (HIP Features Editor) and members of the…
Fishing For A New Future
Gareth Stevens investigates the state of the Hastings & Rye fishing fleet Once you set aside the obvious historical battle that is at the heart of our town’s outward identity,…
Progress Report:
Country Park’s Visitor Centre The Visitor Centre is emerging from its forced hibernation. Work ended on the day after lockdown, and now Mary Rawlinson (Project Manager, chair of the UK…
JMW Turner Paints Hastings
Millions of people love Turner’s romantic and remarkably atmospheric paintings. He needed money to live, so who were his sponsors? What is his connection to Hastings? How did he develop…