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….