st leonards on sea

ITT Consumers Products shut down Ponswood Industrial Estate, St Leonards 1979

by


supplied by Haydn Betchley

Steve Glover… My dad Dennis Glover worked there from when it started in 1962 until it closed, he had the option to relocate to a new site but decided to take early retirement. If I remember right, in the early 70’s he together with some of his charge hands help set up assembly lines at new locations like Rhyl. It seems ITT would think nothing of relocating if business rates and labour rates were lower else where. At its peak in Hastings, and including the night shift it employed about a 1,000 staff, big blow to the town when it closed.

Chris Greet… It actually moved to an empty STC factory in Basildon in Essex. They moved because of the poor transport route up the A21. The road was mainly single carriageway in the 70s and not ideal for articulated Lorrie’s.  Sadly. ITTs business manufacturing televisions didn’t last very long after the move. The Japanese completion was too strong and the Basildon site closed for television manufacture in the late 80s.

Ken Hatch… Probably around the start of the rot setting in to Hastings manufacturers and major employers. Many followed suit over the next 10-15 years, I guess business rates were an issue as even Computing Devices (a relatively young company then) opened an extension in Eastbourne rather than Hastings at some point.

Jude Montague… thank you for the articles

 

 

 

ITT Consumer Products (UK) Ltd, Theaklen Drive, St Leonards – Job Ad 1974 & 1978

by

 

Matt Thomas… My mum worked here

Alan Esdaile… notice the wages

Pauline Richards… And the part time hours ‘for women’

Cliff Wootton… I worked there from 1974 to 1978. Started on the factory floor and worked my way up to draughtsman, illustrator and tech pubs specialist. Happy days

Paul Morfey… Both me and my wife ( janette) worked at ITT in Hastings in the 70ts. That is where we met. We just celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary!

Pete Prescott… I worked there as a temp in 78. I was in the buying dept with Keith Garnsey.

Dave Nattress… Wages – and if I read it right, unequal rates for males/females doing the same job? Certainly though a major player ITT. I had several friends who worked there in different roles or who took different rolls to work, (ham, cheese and pickle and salmon and cucumber being well popular). Of the illustrations on the advert I’m sure many of us had their products. I actually had the radio, cassette player/recorder, (2 of them, used for band rehearsals), and my parents had , the music centre at one time albeit not the best HiFi. Another local name and employer long gone.

Peter Millington… My father Bob Millington worked there managing the Stores Dept. between about 1966 to about 1978. He also organised all the dances at the White Rock and the Queens Hotel, a busy chap!

Paul Bryant… My mother worked there for a short time,remember the Christmas party they used to throw for employees children

Ralph Town… See how repressed women were back then. Different wage rates for men and women. Terrible.

Jan Warren… I worked for British Radio Corporation, Beeching Road, Bexhill in 1971/72 they were soon taken over by ITT!! – I enjoyed working for BRC, lots of my schoolfriends were there, it was fun, nice atmosphere, happy days!!

Richard Johnstone… I worked there from 73 to 78 in production planning. We had 3 categories of production workers – high skilled males, low skilled males and females!  Doing different jobs – women on the component assembly lines, men (skilled) on testing and fault correction and men (low skilled) on jobs known as ‘hauling and mauling’. No overlap between the sexes

Peter Ulyatt… I worked there from 1963ish to 1979 when my wife, 3 kids and I emigrated to Australia. When I started it was known as KB (Kolster Brands). I started checking radios as they came off the assembly line. If they worked, I calibrated them ready for dispatch. If they didn’t work they got put on one side for a technician to fix it. A couple of years later I became one of those technicians. When ITT took it over, can’t remember when, I started working on TVs as a technician and worked up to being a Test Diagnostician. Then came the start of colour TV. A screen about 12 ” across In a massive cabinet full of valves. You needed an asbestos suit to work on them. Good days and a good company to work for.

Pete Prescott… I worked in the purchasing department for a month (temping) in early 78 with Keith Garnsey. amazing guy.

Terry Corder… My first job was there in 1968!

Harry Randall… Did you make it?

Read more

Les Hobeaux Skiffle group Warrior Square St Leonards 1957

by

Supplied by Helena Wojtczak

Helena Wojtczak… Les Hobeaux Skiffle group seen here performing on the sea front at Warrior Square. May 1957. I’m pretty sure this is where Goat Ledge is and performing in the luggage van on the train going to Hastings May 1957. In those days you could also drop the blinds and get some kip!

Great Hastings photos on this video…

David Russell… I remember the day like yesterday (I was the washboard player). I also remember busking in Shepherds Market where the ‘girls’ would pay us to gather a crowd that they could then solicit. One evening I told this to my landlady who exclaimed that I was ‘living off the immoral earnings’ whereupon I handed her my rent and told her ‘so are you’. I gave up early as I was studying Architecture and decided that there was more promise in that than playing skiffle. Those were the days.

Kevin White… David, that’s a great story, and the photos are brilliant, thanks for sharing!

John Wilde… Wow this is a fantastic piece of local history. Hastings and St Lennies own Skiffle group. Does Dave have any more photos or posters, history, names of members? These images are terrific.

Terry Pack… Great stuff. My friends Pete White and Pete Burden began playing music around 1960 in Bexhill and Hastings. I saw a photo of them at the De La Warr around then. The bass player had a tea chest bass.

 

The Bathing Pool Holiday Camp closed 22nd October 1986

by

Shared from Hastings and Area, Past and Present facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/HAPP1066/

Hastings Area Past and Present say…It’s 22nd October 1986 and on this day the Bathing Pool Holiday Camp closed. Leaseholder Cllr. Dennis Carrington sold the last two years of his lease back to the council because they said they wanted to build a marina there. But they did not. The pool had struggled since its opening to be financially viable, without success. The site now lay forlorn, quiet and derelict for nearly 7 years with no occupation of any kind. Intruders had eventually forced their way into the site on many occasions, destroying the complete complex beyond any economical repair. Lead, copper, brass and bronze, more or less anything of salvage value was removed and presumably sold on. If this could have been caught on camera it would have given the first impressions that a bomb had dropped on the site. The greater majority of the 2,500 seats had been ripped from their mountings and thrown into the pool area, doors were ripped off, lights and conduits pulled from walls and ceilings, the list is absolutely endless. There was now only one solution for the complex, sadly – to pull it down! It had been left far too long to plough large amounts of money back into an upgrade that probably wouldn’t have worked anyway, in trying to bring the pool complex into the 2Ist century, and to fulfil the requirements of the day would never have happened. The site was now a top priority for the Council, as the complex was now an absolute disgrace in so much as it was a danger to the public, the area was scattered with broken glass and debris that laid all around. Its ultimate demise was decided upon very quickly – it was to be demolished in the May of 1993. Sources: http://hastingschronicle.net/key-events/1980-onwards/ and Hastings – Looking Back To The Future, A Tribute to Sidney Little by Richard Pollard from where I have also scanned the photographs with permission from the author.

Carol Paffett… Enjoyed swimming and sun bathing there

Eric Harmer… It also had squash courts I first started playing

Lucy Pappas… Me too, Eric. It was the only way the High School could get some of us to do any exercise! x

Eric Harmer… It’s a great game Lucy. I don’t know why people don’t play it any more. A lot of us played it back in the day. X

Paul Crimin… My Dad brought my brother and I down from London to spend a week at that holiday camp when I was a youngster. It was a nightmare!

Mick Carlisle Savage… Take it he forgot to take you home

Chris Meachen…  Loved swimming and diving there..

Mick O’Dowd… Spent many an hour in there swimming. I learn’t to swim in the shallow bit.

Mel Hayes… Loved it there. Used to visit Grandparents there on their holidays !

Betty Austin… Me to back in the late fifties with Crowhurst youth club and friends x

Alan Pepper… I too miss this place . Many a good time spent there swimming in the late 60’s early 70’s with friends from school . Never did manage to brave the top diving board ! Wouldn’t mind but the area is a waste of space now and feel a bit sad whenever we walk by it !!

Jan Warren… Yeah, sad ending for this lovely place, my ex-hubby worked there in the early 70s, also ran the disco, happy days!

Stuart Tanner… I worked there, great times, Saturday was best when you carried the luggage up to the chalets and hopefully got a big tip, also started playing squash there!

Alan Esdaile… Remember the diving board!

Pauline Richards… we all used to go there in the 60s!

Stewart Grimes… Remember it well my Dad’s band had a residency for several years, I played bass in his band quite often there! Also played there in a band called the Victors.

Janet Cruttenden… Spent many times down bathing pool and worked there… In my younger days

Gary Benton… During the 70s the leaseholders were Alderman Sid Withers and his wife Fabion. My parents ran the camp shop for a number of years whilst George Miller ran the snack bar (both seen in the picture). Dennis took over the cafe from George and then went on to secure the lease early 80s. I spent my youth growing up there most days after school, every weekend and during school holidays. I did every job imaginable there, from helping in the kitchen, carrying luggage, cleaning toilets, sweeping the terraces, flushing the beer lines in all the bars and at the age of fourteen until sixteen I painted every inch of the place some areas more than once. I was the young apprentice of the full time painter Albert White. Every winter we would drain the pool, clean and repair, then paint with Snowcem which we applied with brooms. As you can hear, I have wonderful memories, I could write a book about the place. Very sad that it should end up as it did. I’m a bit confused about the 2,500 seats mentioned in this post, as there were no such seats unless they were installed after my departure?

Ian Pitt… used to work in the kitchen in my youth

Charlie Sygrave… Great place

 

Original Hastings College Of Arts & Technology St Leonards-on-Sea – Derelict In The UK

by

shared photos © Derelict in the UK

For many more photos go to https://www.facebook.com/DerelictintheUKOfficial/

Derelict in the UK… (2020) Situated on the Archery Ground in St Leonards this large site was the main college site for Hastings & St Leonards with dedicated DT/Masonry/Decorating buildings and a beautiful row of Edwardian villas converted into their Art and Photography department. The site closed in 2010 due its new replacement opening in the much more central Station Plaza location. It was demolished in 2015 and the new houses in its place are nearly complete. The Edwardian block is luckily being converted into luxury flats and hasn’t been demolished.

Mike Gardner… I did my O’levels then three years graphic art & illustration at the college 1974-78, good times.

Chris Meachen… Had some absolutely brilliant times there, & made some lifelong friends..

Ian Johnson… That’s where I did my electrical

Pete Houghton… They were great day’s I was on the top floor doing Catering

Mike Waghorne… 68 to 72 electrical industry courses.

Tim Moose Bruce… 76 to 80. C&G mechanical engineering. Great Times.

Ken Hatch… about ‘75-‘78, 1 year full time at the EITB centre in Archery rd at the back of this building then day release from Derritron for HNC Electro-mechanical engineering. Good times

Tim Moose Bruce… Ken, Trying to remember the lecturers in the engineering department. We had Mike ” Ted” Tiltman for mechanical. And Mr Perret and Mr Creasey. Others I remember were Mr Mead and Mr Harris for welding and fabrication. And Mr Sprenger for electrical.

Ken Hatch… yep, we had Sprenger, Mead, Harris, Perret, Anderson. Mead lived down the road from us in Fairlight and used to “ tell me off” at the start of class for playing my guitar too loud again or riding my bike too fast past his house ( it was only a Honda 175 but with Megger exhausts ). Sprenger was a great laugh

Tim Moose Bruce… Reading this reminds me of all the companies that sent their trainees to this college. A lot now gone or moved away from Hastings. Fracmo, Derritron, Stills, ITT, Buss foods, where I was, Chloride and many more.

Ken Hatch… Derritron, Stills, Lumatic, CDs, Drallim (?)…….???

Tim Moose Bruce… Forgot about Drallim. Also the Eastbourne companies. IMI Coldflow, the pump company taken over by Alpha Laval which has recently gone. Armour Pharmaceuticals, Birdseye.

Willie Wicking… I was at Chloride

Margaret Trowell…. Did so many courses from aged 18 over the years at this college and I’m still studying at the new college in my 70s… you’re never too old to learn something new

Peter Ellingworth… Not just Hastings and Eastbourne where all these companies have gone- pretty well around the UK it’s the same tale…

Ken Hatch… no wonder our economy is struggling just think of all the income tax we were all paying let alone all the products being manufactured and exported

 

 

Collins & Hayes Ponswood, photos late 70’s from Pete Prescott

by

all photos supplied by Pete Prescott

Merv Kennard… Hi Pete I remember the photo of you and Bob, but can’t remember what led up to it. Bob is still around but have not seen him for ages.

Pete Prescott… the photo was too make Sue laugh. It was tape for the Esther Ranstzen show.

Merv Kennard… I remember Pete larking about in the stores, the other guy in the picture is the son of Tom Mitchell who co ran that famous boutique in the High Street.

Judy Atkinson… I worked as a temp there briefly in 1977

Dennis Torrance… I worked Collins&Hayes from August 68 till April 1975 had a good football team 1972 onwards .

Pete Prescott… There was a lady called Sue in cushion stuffing who was featured in the Esther Rantzen show with her unusual laugh ( think of a donkey with breathing problem). A cassette tape was primed and I was given the job of making her laugh. It worked. She was featured on the show one Sunday night. I’m guilty of hiding in those tubes and jumping out on people. I nearly gave Jim a heart attack. Naughty boy !

Jackie Hersee gig list from 1965 and 1966 at Witch Doctor

by

Jackie Hersee gig list 1965 and 1966 at the Witch Doctor

11th June 1965 Dave Berry and The Cruisers (he didn’t turn up, only the group)

9th July 1965 The Plain & Fancy

14th Feb 1966  The Birds

19th Feb 1966 The Anteeks

26h Feb  1966 Tony Rivers & The Castaways

5th March 1966 The Mirage

11th March 1966 Ray Anton & The Peppermint Men

12th March 1966  Dean Ford & The Gaylords plus The Way

18th March 1966  A Band Of Angels, The Defiants, The Victors

25th March 1966  Trendsetters Ltd

2nd April 1966 The Herd

9th April  1966 The Mark Four

14th May 1966 The Mark Four

21st May 1966      The Cops ‘N Robbers

27th May 1966          X Four

28th May 1966   The Lonely Ones and The Washington DC’s

29th May 1966   The In Crowd and The Lonely Ones

4th June 1966         The Herd and The Clockwork Oranges

and The Pier Hastings

19th March 1966     Dave Berry

Mike Curtis… A Band of Angels, featuring Mike D’abo. And The Birds – Ronnie Wood was a member at one stage.

Andre Martin… What a venue, what great acts. Oh how it’s missed by a generation

Carrie Downing Waite Sawatzky… Loved The Witch Doctor

Colin Fox… 10th April 1965 The White Buck Burley
23rd & 24th 1965 Silver Blades Ice Rink London
24th & 25th September 1965 Silver Blades Ice Rink London
29th & 30th October 1965 Silver Blades Ice Rink London
12th & 26th January 1965 Silver Blades Ice Rink London
6th May 1966 Witch Doctor St Leonards
9th July 1966 Witch Doctor St Leonards.

 

The Witch Doctor St Leonards on Sea 1964 to 1967 by Nick Bloomfield.

by

Nick Bloomfield… Steve Marriott, David Bowie, The Moody Blues, Status Quo etc I’ve been fascinated by the story of a small live music club called the Witch Doctor which was started in St Leonards in 1964 and where many future pop stars and bands played. This video is not a detailed account but rather a personal view and a fond look at what became the place to go in Hastings for a few years in the 1960’s.. I have queried some of the claims made by others which is always dangerous but I worked hard on the research so hopefully most of this account is accurate… Hastings Pier was its big brother and had most of the big bands of the time but the Witch Doctor had a kind of magic. During my research I discovered that a Manchester based Business Man and major club owner was trying to expand his interests south. His name was Dougie Flood and some claim he had close connections with the ‘Quality Street Gang’ in Manchester. He bought clubs in both Catford and Hastings as ‘Witch Doctor’ clubs. Later the Catford club was rebranded as ‘Mr Smiths’ like the one in Manchester. Everyone knows about Hastings Pier and all the bands who played there From Hendrix to the Stones. The Who, Sex Pistols etc Pink Floyd played their last ever gig with Syd Barrett there. Much less well known though is The Witchdoctor which was a club formed in 1964 and based in Marine Court, St Leonards, the iconic 1930’s building that looks like a ship. It took much longer than I thought it would so if you don’t like it I don’t care as I’m knackered…

Gerry Fortsch… I was a bit to young to be allowed in to The Witch Doctor but as I was tallish and had long hair and sideburns I never had a problem.

Alan Esdaile… Well done Nick, must have taken you forever.

Andy Qunta… Very interesting! Thanks, Nick! I never went to the Witch Doctor as it closed before we moved to the Hastings area, but I remember my brother Tony & I played at the Cobweb in late ‘69/early ‘70 with our band Static Emotion, (also featuring Dave Austin, the late great Chris Sambrook).

Mick Knights… Was at the opening night and saw all the bands with the exception of Simon Dupree. Some famous names that were booked but cancelled on the night, one was Little Richard, I can remember Tony Powell sitting at the top of the stairs refunding the ltickets. I thought the owner was an organist and if I remember had a record out called Image which was played a lot but wasn’t really what people wanted to hear. I did see someone fire a shotgun at the main doors, was that to do with the Krays? Could go on but it’s time to take the dogs out.

Nick Bloomfield… I envy you seeing them all! There seems to have been a very flexible management structure in The Smiths organisation! I think the man you’re thinking of is Alan Haven and I’ve found the record you mentioned. ‘Images’ ‘from 1965.

Mick Knights… Nick, Yeah, a bit too sophisticated for the likes of us back then! You’ve certainly got the old grey cells working, I’ve posted about the Who gig before, of course nobody imagined they would become the force they did, back then they were just the best chart band around, I think I’m right in saying that Tony Powell booked them after taking a poll to find out which band people wanted to see. Always smile when I see the footage especially the sweaty bobbing head of Colin Gilcrest (Mr. G) sadly no longer with us. The girl dancing by herself I’m pretty sure is Silverhill Lill who was always there, as you can tell all the regulars had nicknames mine was ‘L I’ because I had the letters emblazoned across the front of my Lambretta. Really must stop rambling on, but between the Witch Doctor closing and the Cobweb opening the ballroom below was used for live bands on a Saturday night but sadly none come to mind!!

Chris Meachen… I went in once when it was the Cobweb, but the only feature I can remember was a tree trunk in the middle of the room, presumably as a funky kind of seating..

Stephen Moran… This is great Nick! I’m currently working on a PhD about the popular music histories of Hastings, and the Witchdoctor and the Cobweb made important contributions in addition to the Pier Ballroom of course, its great to see the Witchdoctor story captured so well.

Lynn Graham… I was in there at every available opportunity

Arthur Brown… I saw Steve Marriott at The Crypt

Tony MacDonnell… What a great film. Before our time in this area but so interesting. I played in a band in North Devon in the sixtes and we supported some of these acts in our local venue . Georgie Fame mentioned the Witch Doctor when he played a concert at the White Rock a few years ago. Once again – brilliant film and an important piece of local history.

Allan Testot-newick… I remember so well playing venue in 1966 with the King Bees we had a Brill night

George Underwood… Allan, ah yes, I remember now

Ian Williams… Allan, Local band ‘Spyke’ also played there

Mick O’Dowd… Used to be a member (still got membership card) even though I was underage. Saw some great bands there and always remember that the bouncers always seemed to wear Brut aftershave!

Stuart Moir… Played there many times supporting name bands of the era .

Jim Pluck…Played there in 1965 with Blues Syndicate think we supported a band called the Nite People ( Zoot Money) what a fab club and won the jackpot on the six penny fruit machine! Goood times.