The Grange

From Historical Hastings
The Grange School 1930s.png
General information
AddressGrange Road
Location
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This substantial, detached late 19th century building stood in around 15 acres of grounds with commanding views of the surrounding (at that time, undeveloped) countryside. The exact date of construction is unknown, but the building was present by the late 1870s[1].

Built as a private residence, by the early 1900s it had become a private school known as The Grange School (St Helen's). The school appears to have closed in the late 1940s and went through a number of periods of disuse. In 1947 the building was purchased by Deamon Electric Motors Ltd with plans to use the building and associated outbuildings for 'light industry',for which Deamon were taken to Court for non-payment of the rates on the buildings. These plans met with stiff opposition, and would appear to not have been approved[1].

The building was subsequently used by the Ministry of Works in 1949 to house displaced persons, and then sat empty for a few years until demolition in the late 1950s[1], with plans by "The Baldslow Development Co. Ltd." to build 29 bungalows on what had been the gardens of the house approved in 1965[2], the new development being known as "Willowbed Walk". What had been the lodge of the property still exists today (2024) as 87 St. Helen's Wood Road, with the footprint of the main building being under the rear of numbers 31-39 Grange Road.

Images

References & Notes

  1. a b c Facebook: Historical Hastings - Leigh Kennedy (retrieved 10 July 2024)
  2. Hastings Borough Council Planning application ref HS/65/00571