You might wonder what the history of the American Ground has got to do with modern Hastings and St Leonards. That’s what writer John Knowles set out to find after agreeing to collaborate with local publican and musician Bob Tipler on America Ground The Musical. What he found were startling parallels between then and now: untreated sewage from the Bourne river going straight into the sea; DFLs coming to newly built St Leonards for the health benefits of the sea; a new breed of swimmers identifiable by their uniform attire; a thriving musical culture; the mysterious disappearance of money earmarked for development; and of course, lots of poverty with poor housing or lack of it.

Bob had already noticed some parallels and wanted to create a musical steeped in the history of the town to highlight his concerns about its future. Like many people living here, he is concerned about how recent changes to Hastings will affect his children’s generation in terms of how to live and work here. 

The only initial point of dispute was that Bob wanted comedy and John wanted serious political debate. What apparently has emerged is a perfect mix of the two: “A romp through the true history of The America Ground, Hastings, with a satirical look at what’s happening now. A musical journey through riots, drinking, mayhem and sea shanties!” 

On the more serious side, “it takes an unflinching look at smuggling, dodgy economics, broken promises and misuse of our waters”. It weaves this all around a love triangle to add a touch of romance, while highlighting the problems of fair rents, housing and the changing demographic of the town. 

The musical will be showing from 27 to 29 June at the Observer Building, and it’s hoped that it will generate lively debate about the future of the town, propelled by ear-wormingly catchy songs. 

This is no ‘penny pinching’ affair like the popular annual Penny Pinchers Christmas Carol, written and performed by John and Kate Tym (see Getting in the Scrooge Groove Issue 215). Instead, it is a fully funded Fetch Theatre production. As John says of the performers themselves: “a truly amazing professional cast supported by an ensemble of local musicians”. And that’s not forgetting all the others involved: costume designers, sound, lighting – and Dominique Gerrard with John Knowles as co-directors. 

Anyone in doubt about what’s in store would definitely have been convinced by the live ‘taster performance’ at the Observer building several weeks ago.

And for those unaware, America Ground got its name after residents and squatters of the Priory Meadow foreshore decided to hoist the flag of America and become an unofficial state in order to avoid rents and taxes and fight evictions. Needless to say it didn’t work, and the land was eventually developed by a former slave owner, Brisco, and an opium dealer, Robertson. 

To make this production possible, the first six months were spent making sure that money would be available to pay proper equity rates for all the professionals taking part, all of whom are from Hastings or the surrounding area. There will also be an effort to reach those living in less affluent parts of the town, so important to any debate about its future.

Funding was eventually raised from Historic England and support from Hastings Commons Community Land Trust, Arts Council England, Magdalen & Lasher Charity, Gofundme supporters, The Albion Public House, Rock Rose Beauty and Foto Seeker.

Tickets available from ticketpass.org/event/EXJRTH/america-ground-the -musical with the booking fee going towards the production’s chosen charity The RNLI. 

On 20 March, from 3pm onwards, Hastings Commons are staging an afternoon and evening of celebration to commemorate the highlights of the four-year Trinity Triangle Heritage Action Zone (TTHAZ) project which ends in March 2024. 

The TTHSHAZ project was a four-year regeneration programme, supported by Historic England, to breathe new life into a historic part of Hastings town centre: the Trinity Triangle and America Ground. The HAZ scheme has seen a drive to bring empty and run-down historic buildings back to life, alongside sharing stories of this neighbourhood. 

From the beginning, the programme sought to tackle the twin issues of dereliction and gentrification in the America Ground area through key capital building restorations such as the Observer Building and 12 Claremont, while encouraging diverse and idiosyncratic expressions of local pride through cultural projects. The event on 20 March is an opportunity to learn more about the varied community activities that have taken place over the last four years and contribute to thinking about the next steps to continue heritage-focused community-led regeneration in Hastings & St Leonards. 

Programme of Events

If you drop in to the Observer Building (3.00-5.30pm), you’ll be able to see showcases of previous projects and take a tour of the whole building. You can try your hand at the Trinity Triangle VR game, enjoy Emma Harding’s Living Memories artwork, and check out the new Observer Building history room which tracks the history of this fascinating building in its centenary year.

In the evening, you can join Hastings Commons from 6pm (for a 6.30pm start) in the Observer Building event space for the launch of the new book Back from the Brink – The Observer Building: its rise, fall and rescue with a panel discussion featuring the editorial and writing team. Emma Harding will talk about her recent mixed media Living Memories project followed by a series of snappy presentations of projects supported by the Heritage Action Zone. The evening will finish with excerpts from the forthcoming America Ground – The Legend musical play (Fetch Theatre), with its startling resonance in the current local housing crisis. 

The event is free for all to attend but does require a ticket for entry for both the drop-in afternoon sessions and the evening showcase. Tickets should be booked in advance viaEventbrite (eventbrite.co.uk/e/trinity-triangle-heritage-showcase-tickets -848267560107) or by telephone on 01424 230222.
The Observer Building is fully wheelchair accessible, but please note tours are only recommended for those with good mobility as lift access currently only reaches the 1st floor. Refreshments will be available to purchase from the café on the day. 

Three ancient fairs were held every year in Hastings until they were brought to an end by the local establishment in the 1860s and ‘70s because of the ‘trouble’ they had been causing. These fairs combined funfairs, trading markets and social meeting places, where people could have an enjoyable time eating, drinking, playing games and watching theatre shows. 

The first annual fair on the calendar was the ‘Whit-Tuesday Fair’ at the end of May, probably originating from pagan celebrations at the start of summer. The ‘Winter Fair’ or ‘Town Fair’ took place every November 23 and 24. Both were held on the beach in front of the Old Town, but the third annual fair, the ‘Rock Fair’, may have been even older.

The retail fishmarket, built 1870

The Rock Fair was held on 26 and 27 July every year, and by the 19th century (and possibly before then) was the biggest of the three fairs. The reason for the date may have been because by then the fishermen’s annual mackerel-catching season had ended, giving them extra income for the Fair. 

Until 1822 the Rock Fair had always been held on the part of the ‘America Ground’ where today Claremont, Trinity Street and Robertson Street form a triangle, described on the 1827 government map as “Land formerly called Rock Fair Green”. The Green abutted the promontory of White Rock, the probable Saxon location of the town of Hastings, probably the origin of the name. In 1823, as the America Ground expanded, the Fair was relocated to Priory Farm open ground on the other side of Cambridge Road. 

Gambling and drunkenness

Rock Fair was a popular mixture of fun, games and social get-togethers but by the early 1820s the Fair was becoming seen as problematic. A Hastings man recalled: “It resembled an ordinary fair, but a vast amount of gambling took place with halfpence, and fishermen often staked, and lost, their boats, nets and other appliances.”

By the mid-1830s the fair was seen as encouraging gambling and drunkenness, but initially its real crime, as far as Hastings Council was concerned, was that local traders (heavily represented on the Council) suffered a serious loss of business while the Fair was taking place.

In 1846, as the Fair became increasingly rowdy, the Council tried to quash it altogether by issuing an official-looking notice saying that the Fair “will cease to be held” because it was “objectionable and of no public benefit”. Many local landowners agreed not to allow it on their property. But the Rock Fair continued unabated, and the large crowds of merrymakers were increasingly distasteful to the new generation of middle-class Victorian abstainers and shopkeepers. 

The situation came to a head in the late 1840s when the Hastings area railway was being built, and 3,000 hard-working and hard-drinking navvies moved into the town. The Fair had remained in the Priory Farm area for many years, but was forced to move out when the railway station was sited there. In 1850 the Fair moved to the top of White Rock, between today’s White Rock Gardens and Cambridge Road.

Described as a “grievous moral pest” by a letter-writer in the Hastings News of 27 July 1849, who added “Efforts have been made, both private and magisterial, to abolish it, and yet it lives.” The correspondent complained about the “wholesale debaucheries, the disgraceful riots of every year’s fair”. Another letter writer urged the authorities to clear the Fair before the Saturday when thousands of navvies would be paid their fortnightly wages. The following year, 1850, the News reported that the Fair’s “especial patrons consisted of the most riotous and dissolute characters in the neighbourhood, the navvies forming a large proportion.”

The navvies moved on from 1852, and the Fair entered its last phase in 1858, when building work at White Rock and hostility from the owner of the ground, Wastel Brisco, forced it to move to farmland where Manor Road is today, then part of Mount Pleasant Farm. 

Closed down

In July 1860 the local magistrates failed to close down “this abomination” and the 1861 Rock Fair was reported as being a large event. From then on it declined, and the last one of any size seems to have been held in 1864, when the borough magistrates posted a notice saying that the police would take action against all people selling excisable liquor there. That seems to have worked – there are no reports of the Fair in later years.

In July 1865 the Hastings News published an obituary of the Fair, saying that in the last few years there had been “a large increase of immorality in connection with it; and we wonder how anybody who knows how much drunkenness and debauchery have lately characterised this fair, can plead for its continuance on any ground whatever.”

Rock Fair, July 1811

Having quashed in 1864 the “loathsome excrescence” known as the Rock Fair, Hastings Council turned its attention to the town’s two other annual celebrations, the Whit-Tuesday Fair and the November Town Fair. These had both been events primarily for the fishermen, mainly as market-places, but this function was largely taken over by the increasing number of shops in the early Victorian years. 

Hastings Council brought to an end the two surviving fairs by building a new retail fishmarket on their usual High Street site. In addition, in 1871 a petition was launched against the November Fair, and the editor of the Hastings Observer described it as “an abominable nuisance to all respectable people in and about the neighbourhood, and a cause of dishonesty, drunkenness, and kindred vices and crimes in others.” The last Whit-Tuesday Fair took place in late May 1871. 

Hastings Council voted in January 1872 to legally abolish the fairs, which had been established under Royal Charter many centuries earlier, so the Council had to obtain the Secretary of State’s consent to ban them, forthcoming in March 1872. 

Ironically, in August 1872, just five months after leading members of the Hastings establishment had finally managed to do away with the last of the town’s ancient festive fairs, the powers-that-be themselves launched a new and even more popular form of mass entertainment, merriment and imbibing: Hastings Pier. So this year is the 150th anniversary of both the murder of the town’s fairs and of the birth of the borough’s first pier.

• Steve Peak’s book The America Ground, Hastings www.thehistorypress.co.uk, was reviewed in HIP: hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/features/the-america-ground

• The Rock Fair was explored in an art project, covered by HIP at the end of last year:  www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/arts/un-fairly-killed

The Trinity Triangle High Street Heritage Action Zone is a four-
year regeneration programme supported by Historic England to breathe new life into a historic part of Hastings town centre: the Trinity Triangle and America Ground.

The Trinity Triangle area of Hastings is an area rich in history and built heritage – home to the story of the America Ground rebels, Victorian and Edwardian buildings, the iconic Observer Building and the beautifully renovated library. It is a diverse community, home to many small, independent businesses, with a growing number of creative people living and working there. 

Over four years, local organisations including community groups, businesses and local government will be working in partnership to deliver a wide variety of projects. These projects will celebrate people’s ideas, help them to shape the places they live and work and promote stories about this special, historic neighbourhood. The Heritage Stewards will be an integral part of this process.

This role was only recently advertised and, following an enthusiastic response, those interested in recording and celebrating the built heritage in the Trinity Triangle area have now completed online training.

Heritage Stewards will eventually carry out several different kinds of roles, all involved with history, heritage, stories of the neighbourhood, and will share their enthusiasm for the area with locals and visitors. There will be more training sessions and more opportunities to volunteer in the future. 

The first training focused on equipping volunteers to carry out a survey of the neighbourhood. Heritage stewards will survey the buildings, to help get a full picture of the condition of the area and to track any (further) decline. This survey will show where the funding will be best spent to preserve, protect and highlight the historical buildings and features of the neighbourhood.

TTHAZ is committed to Covid-safe volunteering and has policies and measures in place to ensure the safety of volunteers and members of the public. Volunteers will take photos and make notes from the public highway; they will carry a letter to show to residents and owners. 

The involvement of Heritage Stewards demonstrates the importance of community involvement. TTHAZ is one of only two community-led Heritage Action Zones in the country: unlike other HAZs, led by local authorities, the lead partner is a community benefit society – Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust. As such, the Hastings HAZ focuses on community ownership of key buildings in the area and aims to create a legacy of community involvement and decision making. 

TTHAZ works in partnership with many organisations and community groups and strives to be led by the community. Where other development may lead to gentrification and displacement of the existing residents and businesses, TTHAZ works towards building in affordability. 

The Trinity Triangle/America Ground neighbourhood is not only rich in history and built heritage – it has an independent spirit and energy fostered by the enthusiastic, creative community. It is hoped that the programme of funding, and parts of that programme such as Heritage Steward volunteering, will help the community to take long-term ownership of their neighbourhood. Heritage Action Zone (heartofhastings.org.uk) 

• Further roles will be advertised in the future. 

In the meantime, here is a link to the current role description tinyurl.com/y2437z4z

• For more information get in touch by emailing
HAZinfo@heartofhastings.org.uk 

PICTURE: Dave Young

Final confirmation of the £2m funding offer was received from Historic England in March 2020. Delivery should have started in April. It has been obviously slowed by the Covid-19 outbreak, but the programme’s Partners Board, which includes Hastings Borough Council (HBC), convened on 2nd April to approve allocation of £405,000 to White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures for part of the works at the Observer Building, matched with an equal sum from European CHART (Connecting Hastings And Rother Together) funding. This element of the works is expected to begin on site in November/December 2020.

PICTURE: Dave Young

In the meantime HBC has secured Historic England funding for conservation expertise (a part-time officer) to assist with the Heritage Action programme, and HoH are currently promoting three separate grant programmes which local businesses or community organisations can bid for:

• Built Fabric Grants to restore and repair existing buildings. Bidders will need to be able to provide some match funding and propose eligible works; 

• Funding for Social Spaces to improve public or social space in the area, such as a replacement for the memorial clock tower, a better seafront garden or improvements on the alley behind Claremont;

• Neighbourhood Stories: to work on a creative project sharing ideas and stories about the Trinity Triangle and America Ground. 

PICTURE: Dave Young

In addition HoH are gathering local opinions about making part or all of the area a pedestrian precinct. The aim is “to benefit as many people as possible who work in, live in and use the Trinity Triangle”. 

• Views can be expressed online at www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YPHXNYJ, but hurry: it is hoped to gather full responses by the end of this month. 

• For further details of the grant programmes, see the HoH website
www.heartofhastings.org.uk

“Independents’ Day is a not-for-profit campaign that exists “to support and promote independent retail businesses across the UK all year round, with an annual focus on 4th July”.

In Hastings, the festivities are centred on White Rock and The Trinity Triangle, at the aptly named America Ground: given this name after being colonised by radicals in the early 19th Century because it did not fall under the Crown’s jurisdiction. Independents’ Day, Hastings celebrates our unique and extensive range of independent traders and is a joint venture, involving Heart of Hastings and various local organisations. 

Gotham Alley, Heart of Hastings Village Fete 2019

Over the past ten years it has been important in attracting footfall and encouraging both locals and visitors to support and show appreciation for the artists, creatives and traders who work here. Organisers hope the festival will continue to grow and become an important day in the Hastings event calendar.

There are usually a range of “pop-up events and in-store exclusives with live music and DJ sets, street food and barbecues”. This year things will be slightly different; although most shops and bars will have opened or be opening on 4th July, there has been limited planning time and a lot of uncertainty about what is possible. The organisers have tried to ensure that the event showcases the ‘independent’ spirit of Hastings, while keeping visitors safe. 

According to Caoimhe O’Gorman, of Heart of Hastings: “This festival will be a blended mixture of online and physical events.” A film crew from Isolation Station Hastings will be there to record the fun and local independent film makers have already made a film of independent traders talking about how they are facing lockdown and their preparations for future reopening. 

There will be plenty of shops and businesses promoting their goods or open for food and coffee. Most of the action will take place outdoors, including a big, open-air hairdressing event. According to Caoimhe, freelance hairdressers will use the event to try out (prebooked) ‘socially distanced’ haircuts. She points out that Independents’ Day encourages people to come to open spaces in the America Ground and Gotham Alley because these are much safer than indoor spaces.” 

Those unable to attend the live event can tune in to the live stream on Isolation Station with presenters Lily Kim and G’Mac and ‘surprise’ guests at the festival. There will also be online interactive games and quizzes about the history of the area.

For Heart of Hastings, Independents’ Day represents a launch event. It has four years’ funding to transform buildings in the community and is keen to get local businesses and consumers to imagine a better future. So come down to America Ground on 4th July: ask questions and share your ideas about your favourite shops, street art and furniture; talk about what you’ve missed and what brings you into town. 

As Caoimhe says: “It’s important to come together to think about shaping the future.”

The works were produced for Our Past, Our Future – a project by local arts and heritage company, MSL. 

PICTURE: Jon Pratty

Fourteen local artists, writers and historians took part in workshops at Rock House and Hastings Museum, where they worked with museum researcher Sarah French, social media history expert Roy Penfold, archive specialist Julie Gidlow, digital animator Lee Shearman and creative writer and storyteller, Rosanna Lowe. 

Participants researched the history of America Ground, also known as Trinity Triangle, and used their discoveries to create poems, digital animations, monologues and songs about the area. 

“It’s demystified the whole thing of digital animation and heritage mapping online,” said Mary Hooper, who produced a sound collage entitled Looking for America Ground.

PICTURE: Jon Pratty

“Those layers of ideas and history incorporated with visual imagery is very valid today. That’s how we’re all looking and seeing,” said Amanda Jobson, who produced a digital animation piece about the Alley Caves behind the Observer Building.

“It’s taken me on a journey to actually be the writer I want to be,” said participant Paula Bergin, whose piece Death at the Museum, was inspired by Hastings True Crime Museum on the edge of America Ground.

Those layers of ideas and history incorporated with visual imagery is very valid today

“People have created some really fantastic pieces of writing. We’ve had lots of fun together and seen the place that we live in a new light,” said Rosanna Lowe, who supported the team with writing their pieces.

The films will soon be uploaded onto MSL’s Smart Heritage Arts & Heritage Town Map (smart-heritage.co.uk), but in the meantime all the films are on MSL’s Youtube channel.

PICTURE: Jon Pratty

Our Past, Our Future is part of MSL’s online creative programme, Dot Dash, which runs from April to September 2020 and explores the heritage of Hastings’ America Ground. Coming soon: A Derelict Chorale, a suite of songs by America Ground Artist-in-Residence, Chris Thorpe-Tracey; Rock On Rock Fair, a work-in-progress by writer Rosanna Lowe and researcher Julie Gidlow; and online Salons – masterclasses and discussions about key issues in Hastings today led by creative artists and historians.

Margaret Sheehy, Director of MSL Projects says: “Dot Dash, a largely digitally-hosted project, uses the arts to explore and chronicle the history of Hastings’ America Ground taking audiences on a journey from the comfort of their locked-down homes.”

• See the videos on MSL’s youtube channel:
www.youtube.com/channel/UC3TEsxvcy0cEkuYrEFwBUG

Our Past, Our Future 25 new artworks, poems, videos, monologues and songs produced by local artists and amateur historians in response to characters, stories and events from Hastings’ America Ground. Our Past, Our Future was intended to be a collaborative, hands-on experience and we hoped our participants would take part in as many sessions as possible. It was funded by digital agency ‘The Space’ to create 15-25 simple digital pieces to add to our interactive history map, which can be found at www.smart-heritage.co.uk

Chris Thorpe-Tracey
PICTURE: Jon Pratty

A Derelict Chorale 12 original songs drawn from the early 19th century history of the America Ground, composed by Artist-in-Residence, Chris Thorpe-Tracey. Chris says “My challenge is to capture the weave and texture of the America Ground’s rise and fall. I want to create a set of musical works telling the stories of people here.” Watch videos and listen to audio podcasts of Chris in conversation, talking about his songs and the process of researching and collecting stories from the America Ground and turning them into musical pieces. Demo recordings of the songs that comprise A Derelict Chorale will be available to hear, remix, re-arrange and deconstruct. Four local artists, musicians and writers will be invited and commissioned to create responses to Chris’ work, to be showcased later in the year. Watch out for a pop-up performance of the new works in July.

Rock On Rock Fair Rosanna Lowe, writer and collector of stories, and archivist and writer, Julie Gidlow, are starting work on what they describe as a “Motley Musical of Raggle Taggle Folkery with Curious Characters, Rollicking Rides and heart-breaking, soul-shaking songs”. They’ll be inviting others to engage with the process of creating the work in a series of virtual workshops that we’ll be announcing soon. So, watch this space. Rosanna asks: “How do we celebrate, despite dark times, after or even through death and sickness? How do music song, dance and laughter heal?” 

Creative Salons 10 online masterclasses and conversations about creative, community and digital opportunities in Hastings today hosted by local artists and creatives including: writer, critic, composer and Artist-in-residence in the America Ground, Chris Thorpe-Tracey; games and music specialist, Kevin Grist; archivist and writer, Julie Gidlow; digital artist, Judith Ricketts; Hastings historian, session musician and software developer, Roy Penfold; visual artist and sculptor, Mary Hooper; writer, performer and director, Rosanna Lowe; writer, journalist and digital producer, Jon Pratty; and playwright and producer, Margaret Sheehy.

All new works will be hosted on the Smart Heritage Online Town Arts Map (smart-heritage.co.uk), some of the works will also be broadcast on Isolation Station (facebook.com/isolation.station.hastings). Dot Dash is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

• Dot Dash starts on Wednesday 1st April with a podcast/Zoom session from the America Ground’s Artist-in-Residence, Chris Thorpe-Tracey in conversation with Jon Pratty.  Watch MSL online for the full programme as it develops. Twitter @MSLHastings and Instagram @msldigital.

There will be the usual elements of drumming and fireworks along the route, burning of a giant effigy on the fire, and the grand finale of a fireworks display on the beach. Present weather forecasts suggest that elements of wind and rain may also play a part.

For reasons not entirely apparent, the day will start at 11.30am with an artillery and infantry display by the Southern Skirmish Association, an American Civil War re-enactment society, at the harbour arm and in the Old Town. More traditionally there will be a guy-making competition held at the Stade for kids under 16.

The identity of the effigy has not yet been revealed. Though there may seem a proliferation of public candidates worthy of being charred this year, the Bonfire Society are unlikely to opt for any individual antagonist: in 2002 it was Saddam Hussein, but in 1997 parking attendants, in 2008 a certain art gallery, and in 2015 seagulls. “We do not have an opinion when we burn the effigy and blow it up with fireworks”, the Society insists. “The idea is to make people think about and discuss that topic”. Guy Fawkes perhaps hoped to inspire a similarly broad-minded reaction when he prepared to blow up Parliament in 1605.

The Society has issued various safety instructions to the public: don’t light or throw any fireworks or bangers, don’t wear flammable clothes, keep pets away. The event might appear a nightmare for a health and safety consultant, but the record of previous years is generally reassuring.

• The procession is due to begin at the America Ground end of Robertson Street at 7.15pm, pass through the town centre, then eastwards along the seafront, round the Old Town circuit of All Saints Street and the High Street, and back to the bonfire opposite Pelham Place. The bonfire and fireworks are timed for 9pm. 

PICTURES: Ben Bruges

The plan is to “re-purpose derelict buildings as productive community spaces, restore iconic heritage features of the high street and provide a cultural and educational programme for local people and visitors”. But it is also central to HoH’s style of regeneration work that it is local people and community organisations that will drive it forward. Trust chair Rodney Buse declared: “Our approach is community-led and inclusive. All stakeholders, including Hastings Borough Council [HBC], are working in a partnership of equals. We all need to be part of revitalising this unique area and celebrate its fascinating history and independent spirit.” 

James Leathers, Executive Director of Heart of Hastings commented: “We made the case for this special neighbourhood, the America Ground. People see a restored library and it inspires them to champion their heritage. When you look at Rock House, you see the success community efforts achieve. HBC got behind us and Historic England has recognised the momentum of our partnership with this award.” 

Prime mover and trustee Jess Steele has given a breakdown (described as “indicative rather than final”) of the intended spending programme:

• £400,000 towards the Observer Building renovation;

• £300,000 towards 12 Claremont renovation;

• £300,000 of small grants for other owners of historic buildings

• £130,000 for a “social spaces” programme to support local buildings such as churches, pubs etc;

• £150,000 for a cultural programme: Historic England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Arts Council are working on some kind of framework for this but have said it will be delivered locally by local organisations;

• £30,000 per annum for a Heritage Action Zone officer from Historic England to be based with HoH;

• £30,000k pa for a conservation officer focused on Trinity Triangle to be employed by HBC;

• £95,000 for training programmes in partnership with East Sussex College, ranging from specialist construction training to training volunteers in conservation;

• £90,000 for a Digital Exchange project using the existing plumb Wifi to measure impact, promote local activities and host digital arts and heritage installations.

The remaining balance will cover a series of investigations and development work: ideas include a ‘maintenance club’ for owners of historic buildings, traffic calming options, and innovative community investment in the form of a neighbourhood bond.

Council leader Peter Chowney says he is pleased that HBC were able to assist with the bid: “I look forward to the council working with Heart of Hastings and partners to develop the detailed proposals for restoring these important historic buildings in the Trinity Triangle area. This has indeed been a good example of partnership working, and a successful one.” 

ALL PICTURES: Jonny Thompson

Photo by Benedict Stenning

The exhibition includes: a photo gallery of the OB’s secret graffiti by Cathy Teesdale; a bespoke textile piece naming every donor to the OB Crowdfunder by Janey Moffatt; portraits of the ‘unsung heroes’ central to the building’s rebirth from photographer John Cole; Hastings on sea – a day in the life of the very special America Ground from Jonny Thompson; made in OB – artwork, designed and created by local artists inside the eerie empty building; a photographic exploration of stories from original F J Parsons workers by Benedict Stenning

Andre Davis, Repairer, photo by John Cole

John Cole, one of the exhibiting artists commented: “This building has been so much at the heart of Hastings for nearly a hundred years – but having fallen into dereliction, for many, it’s become a symbol of a faded past. These events are the first chance for the public to be part of its journey to a restored and renewed glory.“ 

Marikiscrycrycry, taken by Uemura Tadayuki 

He’s Dead – a new work from prolific non-binary choreographer and dancer Marikiscrycrycry, uses different dance and choreographic techniques, as well as live action and song to ask the question, ‘Was Tupac depressed?’ We will never know for sure because of his untimely death. So what are we left with?

Adam Frost, taken by Celine Antal

Sink Plunger is a multi-disciplinary performance exploring the intersections of contemporary queerness and mental health. Adam, who is from Hastings, uses drag, visual art, cabaret, film, music and fashion in their work.

• 20th September – Hastings, Home Live Art 7pm-8.30pm £5/3.
The Printworks, The America Ground, 14 Claremont, Hastings, TN34 1HA. 
Find more information at www.homeliveart.com

Hastings Library re-opens in the Brassey Institute, Claremont

After works which have taken over two years to complete and cost over £9.5 million  –  more than £720,000 over budget  –  Hastings Central Library will re-open its doors to the public on Friday 2 March in the Brassey Institute on America Ground.

East Sussex County Council say that the premises have been completely refurbished as a “state-of-the-art” service with new furniture, more computers, free Wi-Fi and improved toilet facilities.

The children’s library, which has been based for years in nearby Robertson Passage, and temporarily housed functions of the main library during the period of works, will also move to the Brassey Institute.

The elaborately decorated building was originally designed in the style of Venetian Gothic by Walter Liberty Vernon for Thomas Brassey, then MP for Hastings.  Construction started in 1878.  A free public library was opened there in 1881 by Lord Brassey, as he had then become, and ownership of the whole building donated to Hastings Council six years later. It was awarded Grade II listing a century later in 1987.

The building had not been adequately maintained in recent years and was in severe need of overhaul.  Being listed, all of the repairs had to be undertaken using original materials and techniques. Then when existing paint and coatings were removed from the front of the building the underlying stonework was found to have degraded much more seriously than previously believed, a threat to the stability of the facade. Replacement of stone and repairs to both stone and mortar were required “to restore the structural integrity to the front of the building”, according to a Council spokesman last December explaining the huge overspend. “These are works that we had no choice but to carry out to make the building safe”

Critics have contrasted the overall cost of the refurbishment which the Council has been willing to shell out on this prestige project with its current proposals to close seven libraries across the county this year, including Ore, on grounds of cost saving. East Sussex CC voted earlier this month to reduce their annual budget by £17 million, and libraries are in the front line for cuts in order to make this possible. However the Council maintains that spending on the Brassey Institute building comes out of a capital fund whereas the closure of branch libraries saves “current” spending.

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