Blue Plaques Trail
Hastings Old Town
1. Winkle Island
Winkle club and club members including the Queen Mother and Sir Winston Churchill
An enthusiastic group from Hastings’ fishing community started the Winkle club in 1900. The founders’ main aim was to help others less fortunate than themselves and to throw an annual party for the children. Although the club started small, it has now grown to an internationally known organisation with members all across the globe. During the club’s history there have been a number of famous members, including Richard Dimbleby, Winston Churchill and Prince Phillip. The celebration that followed Churchill’s joining of the club in 1955 is said to have been one of the best occasions in the Old Town.
In 1951, a youthful Princess Elizabeth visited Hastings and met with the Winklers. As a woman she could not become a member of the Winkle Club, she was however given a replica Winkle to compensate.
Each member of the Winkle Club carries a winkle shell which they must produce if challenged to 'Winkle Up'. Failure to do so results in a fine which goes towards the annual children's party.
Winkle Island can be found at the foot of All Saints' Street and is the venue for many of the club's outdoor events. A giant winkle, which stands on the pavement, is used as a collecting box.
2. Edward Capel
East Cliff House – foot of All Saints Street
Edward Capel had East Cliff House built in 1761. After his death the house became common lodgings.
Edward Capel was an important figure in Shakespearean England. He was the censor of plays and literary critic. He was particularly concerned with maintaining Shakespeare’s work as it was originally written in the face of significant plagiarism at the time. In his effort to preserve the work of the playwright, Capel meticulously copied out Shakespeare’s work. It was reputed that he managed to copy Shakespeare’s compete works ten times during his life. In the process he became a recluse, his life was dedicated to this obsession. Particularly in the later years of his life, he rarely left his home in All Saints Street and received few visitors.
However, the Shakespearean actor, David Garrick did visit Capel and brought with a cutting from the mulberry tree at Stratford-upon-Avon. This cutting was planted and the mulberry tree that grew can still be found in Hastings today. Please see plaque number 4.
3. Scrivens Family
Scrivens Building – Crown Lane
The Scrivens family were a family of local bankers and philanthropists. They were particularly well-known characters in Hastings. They commissioned the building of a block of houses in Crown Lane. This block of houses provided accommodation for poor folk. This is an example of the work that the Scrivens family did for the poor and the needy in Hastings. They were a well-respected family, and for this reason the housing they built is commemorated with a blue plaque.
4. Shakespeare Mulberry Tree (See number 2)
Tamarisk Steps, between Rock-a-Nore Road and Crown Lane
This grew from the cutting brought from Shakespeare’s own Mulberry tree in Stratford. The Shakespearean actor David Garrick gave it to Edward Capel.
5. Duke of Sussex, Lady Augusta Murray, Colonel d’Este
East Hill House, 13 Tackleway
6. George Macdonald
27 Tackleway
Poet and novelist George Macdonald first came to Hastings in 1857 for health reasons. It was at his address at 27 Tackleway that he wrote his first prose work – ‘Phantases’. This work was said to have inspired later writers such as C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien.
George Macdonald remained in Hastings until 1859 when he and his family moved to London. He and his family were later to return to Hastings, please see Blue Plaque number 15.
In total Macdonald wrote over 60 books, most of which are still in print today. He took pride in participating in local life and often gave lectures at the Public Hall and acting as a founder member of the Hastings and St Leonards Philosophical Society which began in 1858.
7. Cloudesley Shovell
Shovell’s, 125/126 All Saints Street
Shovell’s is one end of a Wealden hall house dating from the mid 15th century. The building has the steepest roof in the Old Town, plus a fire mark high on the wall. The house is named Shovell’s after the noted admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who in about 1700 took the opportunity whilst sailing past Hastings to visit he house reputedly lived in by his mother, whose blessing he duly received. The Sussex Archaeological Society now owns Shovell’s.
Link: Sussex Archaeological Society.
8. Colonel Morley & Parliamentary Troops
Wall in front of All Saints Church
In 1643, during the English Civil War (1642 – 1649) Colonel Morley entered Hastings with a troop of the parliamentary horse. Morley and his troops picketed all exits from the town and demanded the surrender of the town’s arms. The troops occupied All Saints Church until the weapons were surrendered. Eventually most of the town’s arms were given up to Morley’s troops and they left to confiscate more weapons elsewhere.
9. Richard Lyfe
The Old Rectory, 2 Harold Road
It is really unknown why a blue plaque was attributed to Richard Lyfe. He was a local alderman. The alderman was a similar role to that of a local councillor.
10. Matilda Betham Edwards
Villa Julia, 3 High Wickham
Born in 1836, Miss Betham-Edwards hyphenated her name to include her mother's maiden name. In her sixty-two years as an active writer, she wrote dozens of novels, children's books, and books about France. After her father's death in 1864, she moved to London and became a prominent member of the London literary world; her friends included George Eliot, Coventry Patmore, and Sarah Grand.
Betham-Edwards visited France for the first time in 1875. Over the next forty years, She published multiple works on the political sympathies, economic conditions, and regional characteristics of nearly every part of France.
Before her death she was granted the honour of a civil list pension by the British government. But the crowning achievement of Betham-Edwards's life came in 1891, when France awarded her the title of Officier de l'Instruction Publique de France.
Matilda came to live in Hastings for a short period, and it was during her time in the town that she formed a friendship with Coventry Patmore, and other notable people in the town at that time.
11. Old Humphrey
6 High Wickham
Old Humphrey was the pseudonym of George Mogridge. He was a 19th century writer famous for his moral tales. He wrote mainly for newspapers and this is how he gained his main income. However during his lifetime a religious tract society collated his works and published them as collections. He had over ten pen names Old Humphrey being just of them.
12. Mark Rutherford
7 High Wickham
‘Mark Rutherford‘ was the pseudonym of William Hale White. Rutherford is generally classed as a minor Victorian novelist, and noted for his depiction of provincial rebellious life, and of the ’loss of faith’ of the Victorian period. There is much more to Hale White than this. Despite working for over thirty years as a civil servant, he wrote over a thousand newspaper articles, translated works by Spinoza, and wrote various works of literary criticism.
He has never had a particularly wide following, but writers such as Andre Gide, D.H. Lawrence, and Arnold Bennett have all praised his work.
Some of White’s work included ‘The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford: Dissenting Minister’, ‘Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance’ and ‘The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane’.
William Hale White died in 1913.
13. Clare Sheridan
Belmont House, Belmont Road
14. Marianne North
Hastings Lodge, Old London Road
Marianne North was born in 1830 at Hastings Lodge, Old London Road – now the site of Marianne Park, a recent housing development. Her family was one of the richest, best connected and most prestigious in the town. Her father was a wealthy magistrate and was Mayor of Hastings and its MP.
Marianne chose not to marry, although this was not due to a lack of suitors. It was a personal choice; she was said to have labelled marriage as a ‘terrible experiment’.
In 1871, she forsook Hastings society, let Hastings Lodge and left the town fro America. America was just the first destination in a long period of travel, she also visited Jamaica, Japan, Borneo, Java and Brazil where she painted exotic flora.
In 1877 her sketches were exhibited in London. Marianne’s work is of great botanical importance because she depicted nature as she saw it, using oil paints as a modern day botanist would use a camera. She endeavoured to capture every detail ad vivid colour; she painted backgrounds and landscapes, placing the flora in their natural context.
Marianne was more than just a painter. Her journal ‘Recollections of Happy Life’ is a popular read. Not only for the descriptions of plants, flowers, insects and birds but also as a historical document of 19th century travel and living conditions across the world.
Marianne North stood out amongst her peers. Although not labelled a feminist, it could be said she lived her life by feminist principles. She made deliberate choices: to refuse marriage, to spend her inheritance on her career, and to ignore what society expected of her as a well-brought up lady. She chose freedom not only from a husband, but also from the restrictions of Victorian society.
Marianne North died in 1890.
15. George Macdonald (and 6)
Halloway House, Halloway Place off Old London Road
See number 6
16. Titus Oates
Torfield Cottage, 8 Old London Road
Titus Oates was born in 1649. His father was an Anabaptist preacher who had been a New Model Army chaplain during the Civil War. Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, he became an Anglican minister but was dismissed after being charged with "drunken blasphemy". He then became a chaplain on a ship but was dismissed for committing a homosexual act.
In 1678 Titus Oates announced that he had discovered a Catholic plot to kill Charles II. Oates claimed that Charles was to be replaced by his Roman Catholic brother, James. He went on to argue that after James came to the throne Protestants would be massacred in their thousands.
This announcement made Catholics more unpopular than ever, and eighty of them were arrested and accused of taking part in the plot. Several were executed, including Oliver Plunkett, the Archbishop of Armagh, before it was revealed that Titus Oates had been lying.
In 1683 Oates was imprisoned and fined £100,000 for calling James, Duke of York a traitor. In May 1685 Oates was found guilty of perjury he was pilloried, whipped and imprisoned for life.
Oates was released from prison in December 1688, as a result of the Glorious Revolution. Titus Oates died in 1705
17. Coventry Patmore
Old Hastings House, High Street
Coventry Patmore was born in 1823 on the 23rd July. His father Peter George Patmore was a literary journalist.
Patmore’s first collection of poetry was published in 1844. The works were published as a result of his father’s urging. Coventry Patmore married Emily Augusta Andrews in 1847 and with her had four children; three sons and a daughter. He was later to marry again, to Mary after his first wife died.
Patmore came to Hastings in 1875 from London, and moved in to the grand mansion house, now known as Old Hastings House. During his time in the town, he taught at a school in St Leonards. His second wife Mary Patmore died whilst in Hastings sand so Coventry was to marry again in 1881.This time his wife was to be Harriet Robson, a governess to his children.
The writer remained in Hastings until 1891, when he moved Lymington, Hampshire until his death on 26th November 1896.
18. General James Murray
Old Hastings House, High Street
James Murray was a honourable soldier who fought in many battles. He was born in Scotland in 1712 and was to die at Beauport House, near Battle in 1794, and for a short time lived at the mansion house now known as Old Hastings House.
He was the fourth son of Alexander, Lord Elibank, entered the army at an early age, and became a lieutenant colonel in1751. He served with Wolfe in the expedition against Rochefort, and was made a colonel in January1758, and led the 2D brigade in the expedition against Louisburg. Murray went on to be the colonial administrator and first governor of Quebec in after it fell to the British. As governor he was sympathetic to the French-Canadians favouring them over the English merchants who came to settle following the conquest.
Murray’s only son was James Patrick Murray (1782-1834), a major general and Member of Parliament.
He died on the 18th June 1794.
19. Stables Theatre
The Stables Theatre stands at the top of The Bourne, the curving road that runs between Hastings’ East and West Hills to the seafront. And it is to the Bourne that our historic building owes its existence.
Before it was a thoroughfare, the Bourne was a stream – and it is still there, running in a culvert below the road. It still forms the boundary between the 2 parishes, St Clement’s and All Saints. At one time there was a sluice gate near All Saints church which held the Bourne back to form a pond; from this it could be released to flush out the lower part of the steam when it became polluted, and it also made a convenient place for horses to be watered.
During the first half of the 18th century, there lived near this spot, in a grand house called The Mansion (now Old Hastings House) John Collier, for 39 years Town Clerk of Hastings and 5 times Mayor. A wealthy and successful man, and one who contributed much to the well-being of his townsmen, it was he who ordered the building of suitably grand stables for himself, close to The Mansion and conveniently close to the horse pond.
This is the theatre building that can be seen today.
20. Duke of Wellington (and 30)
Major General Sir Anthony Wellesley was posted to Hastings in February 1806 to take control of a brigade of infantry after returning from the Mahratta War in India. His troop was billeted locally; some at what is now the Stables Theatre. The Duke had accommodation at 54 High Street, which became his headquarters. Later in 1806 he was to reside at Hastings House with his new wife Catherine Lady Pakenham. This house was beautiful Palladian mansion, situated at the north end of Tackleway, with gardens cascading down to where All Saints Street runs. Old Humphrey Avenue now occupies the sight of the house and the grounds.
Major General Sir Anthony Wellesley’s stay in Hastings was only limited to 1806, however he retained strong connections with the town particularly when he was installed as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1829.
21. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (and 37)
5 High Street
The famous poet and painter is known to have visited Hastings several times. The clear air made Hastings an attractive location for painting, Rosetti expressed his appreciation of the town in a letter to his mother in 1954, ‘Yesterday I saw the sun rise over the sea – the most wonderful of earthly sights’.
Whilst in the town, he took lodgings at 5 High Street along with his model Elizabeth Siddal. He was later to marry Elizabeth in 1860 at St. Clements church on the High Street. There are memorials to him in this church. Prior to his marriage the poet and painter took residence at The Cutter, East Parade.
Dante Gabriel Rosetti was a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, established in 1848 along with Millais, Holman Hunt and Woolner. Their style was controversial at first but soon became accepted.
22. Philip Cole
Philip Cole Close, High Street
Philip Cole was the Principle of the School of Art that used to be located above the public library in Claremont. Philip Cole Close is located in High Street.
23. Hastings Old Bank
90 High Street
The first bank was established as a necessity in 1791 as the area had grown significantly in this period. Messrs established the bank at 90 High Street and the plaque at the site shows passers by its location. The old clock from the bank is still in working order and is now hung in Lloyds TSB bank in Wellington Place.
24. Old Town Hall
Local History Museum, High Street
The town hall was originally built in 1823. Initially its ground floor was an open market place. When the Hastings Police Force was formed in 1836 it had its first headquarters here. The building remained the town hall until the present one in Queen’s Road opened in 1881, an event which ended the Old Town’s historic role as the heart of Hastings. The Old Town Hall became a museum in 1949. The Old Town Hall Museum provides an introduction to the history of the Old Town of Hastings. The Museum reopened in 1999 following a major refurbishment project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The building is now fully accessible, and contains a wealth of historic exhibits, interactive models and reconstructions.
www.hmag.org.uk/oldTownHall
25. Edward’s Rest
23 Croft Road
Edward’s rest was a property owned by the Freemasons. The building, in Croft Road was used as a holiday home or convalescents home by the organisation.
26. Sophia Jex Blake
18 Croft Road
Sophia Jex Blake was born in Hastings at 3 Croft Place and christened at St Clements's Church. Having studied under Elizabeth Blackwell in the USA Sophia Jex Blake was one of the first women to qualify in medicine in this country at Edinburgh University. In 1874 she founded the London School of Medicine for Women, now the Royal Free Hospital.
27. Catherine Cookson
West Hill House, Exmouth Place
The world famous author Catherine Cookson is still immensely popular and her work still attracts great interest from book lovers. In total she wrote over 90 books, many of which became best sellers. The author has a strong and lasting link to Hastings, where she lived for 46 years.
In 1930, then known as Catherine McMullen, she came to Hastings and took up work as laundry manageress. Between the years 1931 and 1933 she lived in part of West Hill House in Exmouth Place.
In 1932 she purchased The Hurst at 114 Hoadswood Road and ran it as a boarding house for deprived people suffering from tuberculosis, epilepsy and other disorders. Catherine and her family remained at this address until 1954 when they moved to Loreto, a large house in St.Helen’s Park Road, where they stayed until 1976, choosing to move to the northeast of England where Catherine originated.
Dame Catherine Cookson dies shortly before her 92nd birthday in 1998.
28. Elizabeth Blackwell
Rock House, Exmouth Place
Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor, was born at Bristol on 3rd February 1821. She and her family immigrated to the United States in 1832. It was in the America at Syracuse University, New York that Elizabeth was awarded her medical diploma in 1849. She was the first woman in the world to qualify as a doctor.
During her career she worked at La Maternite in Paris where she contracted Opthalmia that would prevent her from progressing to surgery. Despite this pursued a varied medical career. Returning to England in 1850, no doctor would admit a woman to his practice, nor would anyone let practice rooms to a female doctor, so Elizabeth practiced from her own home. Although it was not easy at first, in 1859 Elizabeth became the first woman to be admitted to the British General medical Register.
Alongside her medical work, she also wrote a number of important works and she was recognised as a social reformer despite her modest personal demeanour.
It wasn’t until she was in her retirement that Elizabeth came to Hastings, she moved here in 1880 sue to declining health and took residence at Rock House, Exmouth Place where she lived for thirty years. She regularly attended services at the Unitarian Church in South Terrace. Among the books she wrote at Rock House were: 'The Human Element of Sex’, ‘Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women’ and ‘Essays in Medical Sociology’.'
Elizabeth Blackwell died on 31st May 1910.
29. Swan Inn
High Street, Swan Terrace
This plaque marks the sight where the Swan Hotel once stood. This was the most important hotel, coaching inn, and social in Hastings until the early 19th century. The original Swan, which covered nearly an acre of round, may have dated from the early 16th century. In 1889, however, it was pulled down and replaced by a much smaller building. This new Swan was totally destroyed by a bomb one Sunday lunchtime in May 1943, in one of the worst disasters of wartime Hastings. Sixteen people were killed in total, and the gardens that are now at the site are a memorial to those who were killed.
30. Duke of Wellington
54 High Street
See number 20
31. General Sir John Moore
57 High Street
General Sir John Moore was a renowned soldier. Moore was billeted in Hastings before going to war in Corunna, Spain where he fell. He was the subject of a famous poem; 'The Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna'. The poem written by Charles Wolfe depicts the burial of Moore. It begins ‘'Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, as his corse to the rampart we hurried, Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot, O’er the grave where out hero we buried’.' The poem is dramatic and effective and remains popular today. Before going to war, Moore took lodgings at 57 High Street and this is where the plaque commemorating his life is found.
32. Seagate
At foot of High Street (below Oak Passage)
Seagate which stood where numbers 58a and 58b High Street are today was the most important gate in the Town Wall, and may have had a drawbridge.
33. Town Wall
Hastings Wall, East Street
The town wall was built in the 13th century along the mouth of The Bourne, the stream than ran through the town. With the two hills- the West Hill and the East Hill this formed a wall around the town to protect from intruders. Plaques can now be found at two sites where the wall stood to commemorate the structure.
34. Town Wall (See number 33)
Winding Street, The Bourne
35. Oldest House
31 The Bourne
The oldest house dates back to 1450. It stands at 31 The Bourne and was previously used as a courthouse.
36. Joseph Swaine
The Bourne (Neptune Café)
Joseph Swaine was a fisherman who became involved in one of the most celebrated examples of violence in Hastings. An excise man in 1821, who was demanding to search his fishing boat, shot Swaine. There was a struggle, during which the excise officer's gun went off (accidentally, he claimed). The incident was the flash point for seething discontent among the fishermen, in a dispute that was focused on the searching of their boats. The increasing vigilance of the government's anti-smuggling campaign had forced the free traders to rope together tubs into rafts, which were anchored offshore and (allegedly) recovered by the local fishermen. Fishing boats were so numerous that a thorough and methodical search of each one was impossible, so the customs men resorted to poking a metal spike through the piles of net to feel for barrels concealed beneath. According to the fishing folk, the prodding damaged the nets, and Swaine was shot while trying to prevent such damage to his tackle.
Swaine became a local martyr, with the Hastings mob baying for blood. The excise man, George England, was convicted of murder, despite desperate and heart-rending pleas from the dock as the sentence was read. The sentence was never carried out, for England was reprieved soon afterwards, much to the fury of the residents of Hastings. After the shooting there had been considerable civil disturbance locally, and dragoons were sent in to restore order. The reprieve caused a renewal of rioting, and if England had returned to his former posting, the mob would almost certainly have taken the law into their own hands and carried out what they saw as a just sentence. Instead, England was discharged from his job and transferred out of harm's way. Much of what would’ve been Joseph’s landscape is still apparent in Hastings Old Town, and the fishermen’s net huts retain their original condition.
37. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (and 21)
The Cutter, East Parade
See number 21
38. George Street Market
George Street
39. Samuel Prout
57 George Street
English watercolour painter Samuel Prout was born in Plymouth in 1783. He spent most of his younger years with a companion drawing rustic cottages, landscapes and romantic watermills of Devon. He stayed in the South West until1803, when he moved to London, where he practiced his art until 1812.
It was not until 1818 that Prout discovered his niche, the careful recording of architectural detail.
In the 1830's Hastings was host to Samuel Prout. Also at this time William Henry Hunt amongst other artists were resident in the town. Prout and the other artists often met with other renowned figures at West Hill House - which was then the home of the wealthy collector John Hornby Maw, very close to Prout’s residence at 57 George Street.
The artist died in February 1852.
53. Grey Owl
Hastings Country Park
See number 44
54. Iron-age Hill Fort
East Hill
55. First Hastings Theatre
Corner of Saxon Road and Old London Road
The first theatre in Hastings was built outside of the main town, in Ore Village. It stood alongside the Hare and Hounds pub, although not at the site of the current Hare and Hounds. It is thought that the decision to build the theatre outside of the main town area came from a fear of fire and disease at the time – given events in London in his period. The Hare and Hounds theatre was in fact destroyed by fire in 1868. The new public house was built a little to the south west of the original. The commemorative tablet was placed there in 1914.
Further Information: