Who remembers playing over the West Hill rocks in Hastings?

Alan Esdaile… photo, me and my sister.

Bernard Goffredo… Spent a lot of time there when little

Cris Kennard…. Yes but didn’t tell mum and dad.

Linda Lowcock… me too !!

Lucy Pappas… Yes, despite being told not to!

John Gale… Always over there,,, its a glorified toilet these days,,,,, I was shocked a few years back, went to have a look and it was full of all sorts of . And stunk. ,,,,, real shame as it was a real adventurous little place ,,,, with hint of danger,,, actually very dangerous

Dennis Torrance… I played there as a child no fear of danger look at it now it scares me called that area bats cave expect other s called it different

Lloyd Johnson… Use to play over there with Alan And Johnny Mitchell in the mid 50s and with Kenny Comfort,Melvyn & Lynn Grant…remember Melvyn managing to climb to the cave on the left…

Despo Hawkins… Yes , it was our back yard

Jeanette Jones… Yes

Michelle Coco Selmes… Yes I lived in the houses opposite and knew every rock!

Julie Morris… I worked in the West Hill cafe as a teenager and had to phone for an ambulance several times because of accidents on the rocks!

Phil Gill… Yup, every Saturday after ABC Minors.

Anton Ludwig… Yep, and the little caves in old town

Matt Thomas… Spent most of my teenage years over them, my name is scratched in one of the rocks somewhere

Monica Bane… Yes what was the game? One to three I see you?

Helena Kingshott… Meeee

Steve Fox… Oh yes! Used to live in Hill Street

Colin Bell… Looking at the photo now, i can only repeat my previous comment, how didn’t i die, jumping from one rock to another with my mates as a kid!

Mick O’Dowd… Same here

Jacqueline Marsh… Same here, my mum and dad would have gone spare if they knew what me, my sister and our cousins were up to on those rocks. I couldn’t do it now!!

Ralph Town… Yep,my mum was on valium after she saw me climb down there. Interestingly, the rocks seem to be developing large amounts of bracken,which,I assume means no one climbs them now.

Colin Bell… They’ve probably got more sense than we had Ralph, i wouldn’t trade places though! Being glued to a PS4 or whatever doesn’t appeal the same.

Ralph Town… I just think they’re a bunch of snowflakes.I never got hurt but a friend of mine sprained her ankle badly. The only part that really put fear in me was down the far end behind the Deluxe. It must have been 100 foot fall round the back of those amusements if I slipped but there was a huge cave, under the castle, that I would always use as a den. Few friends came with me due to a very thin ledge to get to it. Lovely view tho.

Yvonne Ellis… Yes!

David Edwards… Used to go from Priory Road school lunchtimes, remember someone took a tumble and we were banned after that.

Keith Veness… Remember it’s overgrown now

Paul Slidel… Yep, great fun! Lived in Portland Place when I was around 11-12 years old, so this was my playground!

Kev Carleonis… Yep

Steve Thorpe… Used to climb them during school outdoor pursuits lessons and the smaller ones on the Silverdale School playing field.

Dave Nattress… Definitely –  used to take my two daughters Katie and Emily there and walked around on top and carefully jumped from rock to rock.  They were fascinated.  Always a touch bothered about falls as they would have been about 10  and 8 but we were careful.  I remember them complete with teletubby backpacks.  The Red and Yellow ones.  Dipso and Smelly Winkie or whatever their names were.  Remember it well.

Patrick Turner… We used to climb up to the cave regularly. My friend Micky Hodges fell and broke a bone, can’t remember if it was arm or leg.

Cule Tulo… Yes! Lost a few friends over there !

Barry French… Moved from Essex to Hastings in 1967. On my first trip to the Old Town I climbed on the rocks, went on the bumper cars & had chips & ice cream (separately). I thought I’d arrived in heaven.

Monica Bane… And me Alan. Looking so dangerous now!

Jackie Hersee… I fell down them in the’50’s

Keith Veness… Loved playing there

David Edwards…Yep!

Dennis Torrance… Played on them rocks a lot. I expect there was several names for that cave, I called it bats cave . I remember a little higher up a really small dangerous ledge how me and mates did it many times, no fear

Dawn… Yep, played there many a time, my dad’s fault as he took me there first time – but never to tell my mum!  He he. Took the grandchildren over there a few years ago – they loved it but obviously it was a little more daunting for me now I’m older – oh to be young again

 

Do you remember Penny for The Guy?

Betty Austin… Oh yes good clean honest fun !! X

Dennis Torrance… Remember I was done up as a guy as a kid, sat in Queens Road and went boo to passers by thanks for the memories

Malcolm Sharp… Dennis was that you yer bugar lol

Linda Crane… Good fun

Tony May…  Would LOVE to see kids taking part in that now. These days they are either on their phones or getting up to no good!

Julie Findlay-jones… Does anyone still do this, it was such fun , the anticipation of wondering how the guys going to turn out and how many penny’s your going to get.

Jane Hartley… We were in the Observer with our guy one year!

Pat Fears… Probably not safe these days !!

Janine Anne Scott… Happy days

Jeff Belton… Remember when I was growing up, used to love making a GUY for bonfire night. Great fun !

Alan Esdaile… If you wanted fireworks, you had to go out and earn some money from your guy. Not a cheap football as a head, as people did in later years. Old clothes stuffed with newspapers, our pitch used to the Whitefriars Pub, Priory Road, as did well when people got of the bus.

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The Dark Man Film – shot in Hastings in 1950’s

shared from Robert Webb   https://www.facebook.com/robert.webb.927543

Robert Webb… Molly Lester (Natasha Parry) runs towards the theatre after seeing the Dark Man after he had murdered the Taxi Driver. Tony found the location. Claremont, Hastings.

Graham Sherrington… Yep I had to walk up those steps with an Evening Argus bike full of The Evening Argus.

Micky Erends… I loved this film, good opening shots of Hastings seafront ( hardly a car in site! ) , Camber Castle ..ending up at Dungeness.

Floral clock – White Rock Gardens Hastings 1959

Jim Peckham… Used to have one of those in Tunbridge Wells. But like so many things it got vandalised so never replaced

Alan Roberts… Remember the clock well, I used to plant and maintain it when I worked for Parks and Gardens. Unfortunately parents thought it was great to let their children sit on the hands shearing the drive pin. There was a cookoo that came out of the wall behind but that was before my time! Clock workings were under the shelter above.

Jacqueline Marsh… I remember seeing that as a little girl

Carol Acott… Jacqueline, so do l

Lynda Whatley… me too – it was fascinating to see it as a child

John Mcewen… Remember it well.

Betty Austin… I remember it it was lovely each year . And the hospital was opposite.

Mick O’Dowd… Loved this. A pity it isn’t still there but that’s thanks to the low-life over the years re: The Model Village etc. Nice to see it again.

who remembers The Guinness Clock – Hastings 1950’s

photo source: unknown

Thanks to Graham Coco Pops for finding this.

Mike Guy… I remember the one at Barry Island – tidy.

Sandie Carlyon… I do. Dad used to take us watch it. This was one of 7 that were in different sites around the UK. I would love to know what happened to it. It was on the seafront near the end of Robertson Street.

Colin Bell… So did mine Sandie, sadly all the clocks went back to Guinness and were eventually destroyed, apart from one which I believe they have in their museum in Dublin. Thanks for posting Alan, many memories.

Ian Cramp… Which year was this in Hastings?

Colin Bell… Around 56/57 I think Ian.

Ian Quinnell… I remember going to see this. I must have been 4 or 5, so it was late 50’s

Alan Esdaile… Remember it well. I must have been around 4 and as Sandie says, it was on the seafront near the end of Robertson Street. I think it was also on display near the pier.

Jacqueline Marsh… Oh yes great memories. There also use to be a photographer nearby with a monkey. I can remember having a photo taken. Great times

Colin Bell… Some footage of another Guinness Clock from around the same time period as the Hastings one was on display.

Richard Brimm… I do every year it was brought to the village fete at Bodiam Sussex

Monica Bane… Oh yes I too remember that wonderful clock as a small child!

Mick O’Dowd… What a treat this was. It came back for a couple of years or maybe more.

Wendy Weaver… I remember the one in Bournemouth Pavilion Gardens. The original was made for the Festival of Britain in Battersea Festival Park in 1951. There will be another Festival in 2051. See you there????

Colin Bell… I’d love to think so Wendy..but i’ll be there in spirit!

Paul Black… According to my cousin, the Guinness Clock was travelling display that was in Hastings for the summer of 1955.

Pete Brazier… this one! There were others! I haven’t seen a pic of the one I remember

Wendy Weaver… I think there were about 12 of them or so.

Hastings Memorial 1950’s from a different angle!

shared from Jeff Evans Hastings and St Leonards Pictures and Videos https://www.facebook.com/groups/340548556033905/user/1267645523

Jeff Evans… had to reduce the file size of another glass plate photograph: Hastings Town: early 1950’s

Lloyd Johnson… The Council should put back as it was!…

Alan Esdaile… Great photo. Trying to work out what building this was taken from. Thinking Lyons but probably further down?

Leigh Kennedy… first floor of what is now Lloyd’s Bank..

Colin Bell… Didn’t it look so much better then with a central focus point

Roger Simmonds… Wish it was still like it now!

John Wilde… Fantastic.

Toker Tokin… The feeling of the place then ,was a feeling of content, with the majority of people.

Peter Ellingworth… Pre 1957 for sure, t-bus still in Hastings Tramways and not M&D livery.

Barry French… The town centre lost its soul and identity the day the Memorial was demolished.

Steve Glover… I concur with all sentiments. It wasn’t a lot different in the early sixties, the town centre had all you would need in the way of shops, how things have sadly changed, not a shadow of its former self. I had heard the Albert Memorial still exists, dismantled and in storage somewhere in the borough???

Peter Fairless… Steve, In a former Councillor’s garden, allegedly,

Peter Fairless… I liked the mid ’70s layout with a lot of walls for moody teenagers to sit on!

‘Happy Harold’ Silverhill Junction in 1954.

Supplied by Leigh Kennedy

Roger Simmonds… Happy days!

Alan Esdaile… I remember the chemist shop.

Peter Ellingworth… In one of the books I have – when time allows I will look it out- there is a good colour photo of ‘H-H’ having just turned out of Beaufort Rd. from the depot and pulling into the stop by Apps’s former Silverhill shop in spring 1959, if I remember right. Is this one of David Padgham’s photos or possibly that of Robert Mack, the well known bus and train photographer from Leeds ? In another book R M had a very good photo of ‘H-H’ passing by West Marina in 1953. “Modern in 1928” is a bit of a misnomer, as the open top bodywork by Dodsons, the chassis by Guy, was unique to Hastings and considered rather dated even then ! I remember my late mother saying as a fifteen year old catching one of these to Bexhill where she used to work from the bottom of London Rd., and how there was a scrum for the covered lower deck in very wet weather.  The Chemist’s shop was Everards – did a part time after school job for a while. ‘H-H’ is a lucky survivor. It was kept in store at the old Bulverhythe depot after the others were scrapped, and then utilised as an overhead wiring maintenance and de-icing vehicle before being decked out with a myriad of coloured lights for the 1953 Coronation. In this guise it became so popular with the public, as those of us of a certain age remember, hence on was kept running as a summer evening novelty. It also kept one of its working functions as a wiring de-icer : I remember David Padgham telling me how it woke him up sometimes when it passed along in the night by where he lived in Sedlescombe Rd. North with vivid blue flashes ! I remember riding on ‘H-H’ with my cousin when it was still electric, and being fascinated by the goings on with the poles on the overhead wires.
Whether if this was running as such today with 500 plus volts DC in relative close proximity would acceptable to modern H & S requirements is a different matter….