Carousels - Work at the "Amsterdam"
It will be in harmony with the purpose hitherto observed of noticing as I proceed the current deaths of old inhabitants if I here introduce a short obituary of the late Mr. Henry Chandler. It is an additional coincidence - and one over which I can have no control - that in the month of April, 1837, Mr. Chandler commenced business in St. Leonards, and that after a commercial career of just forty-three years, in the same month of April, whilst I was writing of the April of 1837, I was called upon, as it were to notice Mr. Chandler's death. The deceased tradesman was twin-brother of Mr. Councillor Chandler, and when about 25 years of age entered into partnership with the late Mr. John Wellsted at 3 South Colonnade - or, as it was first called, 3 Marina. The business was that of plumbing painting and glazing; and the partnership was continued for over 22 years, when the death of Mr. Wellsted brought it to a close. Mr. Chandler then continued the business by himself from January, 1860, until within a few days of April, 1880, when after a brief illness from bronchial affection, at the age of 68, he was compelled to bid adieu to the many townspeople whom he had known so long, and to the material surroundings whose growth he had watched and helped to develop. He was never known to have had any serious illness previously to that which caused his death, except in the year 1853, when, in the midst of the cholera epidemic, he was attacked, but recovered, after two or three weeks' prostration. If I rightly remember what he once told me, senna was his only medicine, and bread and water the almost invariable food with which he broke his fast. Although experiencing so little illness himself he was not unfrequently amongst it in others; and many were the acts of kindness which his humane nature prompted him to perform for his suffering townsmen. Mr. Chandler was twice married, but was a widower at the time of his death. His son succeeded him in the business the same having been wholly removed from the Colonnade where it was carried on so long, to 13 East Ascent, where Mr. Chandler had resided for some time prior to his death. In early life, the deceased townsman worked on the farm at Blacklands, which was rented by his father, Mr. Richard Chandler, an old inhabitant of Hastings, who built the Pelham Arms Inn, of which he was the landlord until his death. After that event the house was conducted by his son, who, as already stated, was twin brother to the subject of this notice. The circumstance of the senior Chandler having rented Blacklands Farm reminds me that a previous occupier was a person of the name of Edwards, and that in the not over-accurate pronunciation of the period the said farm was spoken of as Old Ethards's. There used to be a large spreading-oak in one of the fields, near to what is now the site of the St. Andrew's Schools, and which I have cause to remember. In the summer of - I believe - 1824, there sat, and danced, and sand and drank around that "brave old oak" a sillabub (that is to say, a silly-bub) party of shipwrights and others who having completed and launched some new vessels from the yard of Thwaites and Winter near Pelham place, thus assembled to celebrate the event in a debauch of rum and milk. I was a boy of about 8 or 9 years, and but for having been sent thither via the "Long Fields" (now St. Mary's terrace) with a small can of milk, I should not have witnessed the "glorious fun." It was funny to hear a song whose refrain was "Tink-a-dillo, dillo, dillo; he that loves his rum-and-milk is a hearty good fellow"; it was funny to hear them shout "We won't go home till morning", when it was only five o'clock in the afternoon; it was funny to see stalwart men rolling down the steep hill like a set of nine-pins; and it was funny to find myself thrown into the air by a brawny shipwright and gravitating to the top of a blackberry hedge. Whether my elevator was too excited to keep me from soaring so high, or I was too giddy to remain in my exalted position when there, I will leave the reader to decide; and will only add that as impressions are lasting, so the slight hurt and the greater fright of that "jubilee" have been indelibly impressed upon my memory for about 72 years.
In many ways the year 1837 was a memorable one, and the events even of a local character appear to be of sufficient interest to justify the appropriation of not a few additional columns to a description of them. The Conservative dinner brought me to the end of March - a March which for its wintry character, and coming after the unparalleled snowstorm of the previous Christmas, is worthy of special remembrance. I have already stated that the spring of 1837 was the latest on record, and I may now add that on the night of Easter-Sunday (March 26th) the thermometer recorded 15 degrees of frost whilst snow fell to the depth of about nine inches. In many parts of the country it was much deeper and the mail-coaches were several hours behind their usual time. At Jersey a snow-depth of several feet was experienced, and it said that such a storm at the end of March had not been known since 1799. On the last day of that severe month the death took place, as before stated, of the founder of st. Leonards, and on the 10th of the month another of the town's benefactors was taken away. It was Mr. Edward Bland, son of Michael Bland, Esq., of 1 East ascent, and one of the earliest inhabitants. The gentleman who thus died was always a friend to the poor, and one who took a great interest in their education. He had a belief - which was not usually entertained in those days - that if there were more education there would be less crime, and consequently less suffering when crime was detected. Mr. Bland was one of the first members of the Literary and Scientific Institution.
On the second day of April the Rev. Sydney Henry Widdrington began his ministrations at St. Leonards Church, and took up his abode at 68 Marina. This gentleman was elected on the Board of Commissioners in the following October when, in consequence of the deaths of Messrs. James Burton, Edward Stevens and John Bowers, and the resignation of John Gill, a town meeting was held to fill up the vacancies. The other new members were Thomas Jekyll Rawson, Esq. (who owned 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 66 and 68 Marina, in addition to the Sussex hotel, the Conqueror hotel and other property), John Harwood, Esq., M.D. (who with is brother, Dr. William Harwood, occupied 1 and 2 West ascent), Mr. Bond (who owned 27 and 28 Marina), and Mr. Martin Hatfield (proprietor of 101 to 103 Marina and two houses on the West hill). The Rev. S. H. Widdrington remained a Commissioner for about two or three years.
On the 3rd of April another attempt was made to clear out the Amsterdam Dutch ship, submerged in 1749 about a mile westward of St. Leonards. Previous efforts had been made in 1810 and 1827, of which I gave some account in the previous section of this History and to which I will here add some further particulars from an old newspaper which had been lent to me. This ship was 997 tons burthen, 151 feet long, and 39 feet wide across the beam. She had a general cargo of cutlery, glass and china, about ten tons of copper, a quantity of silver, and two or three cases of specie. She also mounted 14 guns. This valuable ship with its cargo was run ashore at Bulverhithe on a Sunday morning in the year 1749 by a crew that had mutinied in consequence as it was said, of having plague on board. "An old man here" [Hastings 1837] says the newspaper paragraph, "now 97 years of age, remembers the circumstance, and his testimony is highly interesting in a geological point of view, as it shows that the vessel was run into muddy ground, covered, he says, with sedges and reeds; and this circumstance, in connection with the submarine forest extending along the coast, gives us good data from which we may judge of the encroachments of the sea within a stated period."
The old man here referred to was probably Mr. Edmonds, whom I knew as living in High street, in 1827, and to whom I alluded when describing the second attempt to clear the vessel in 1827. I then stated that the work had to be relinquished in consequence of the Lord Warden claiming the greater portion of such treasure as was recovered. But in this latter attempt an old sailor of the name of Bungay obtained permission from his old commander the Lord Warden, to proceed with the work; which however, had soon to be given up for want of the necessary capital and appliances. As the accounts in the local handbooks of this still submerged ship are both meagre and unsatisfactory I have here and heretofore stated the facts within my own knowledge and research as fully as possible.
I will now conclude this part of the "entertainment" with an extract from an article on "Foreshore Changes," which appeared in BRETT'S GAZETTE of April 12th 1879. After describing some remarkable changes which had then taken place along the coast, the article proceeds thus:- "In consequence of this action of the winds upon the tides, there were visible at Bulverhithe for an entire week, large fields of the submarine forest not usually seen, whilst the hull of the old Dutch ship Amsterdam, which has been submerged about 126 years, projected from its bed to such an extent as to be seen from the West Marina parade. On the 27th of March, when we first "got on board of her," we had to step over his timbers at midships about three feet high, whilst some of her ribs and planking, especially those at the bow, were at least five feet above the sands. At a subsequent visit we took her dimensions as nearly as the shortening of the tides and other circumstances would permit, and their measurements were from stem to stern (over all) 158 feet, and from side to side at the widest part about 36 feet. As, however the ribs inclined inwards, the width of the vessel was evidently greater lower down. Much of the external planking which probably has not been exposed since the year 1827 was visible on this occasion; and projecting obliquely out of the sands on the western side of the vessel was what appear to be the lower portion of the mainmast, in the position which it might have taken when falling overboard. During the present week the perigeal spring-tides with a southerly wind have nearly filled up the vessel again with sand, and also entirely changed the appearance of the foreshore by lowering the high ridges of shinge and spreading their contents more thickly and laterally towards the sea. The extremely low ebb tide on April 7th and 8th left a clear way of nearly 200 feet between the sea and the rudder-post of the sunken Amsterdam". For further and more interesting details of this submerged ship on the Bulverhythe sands, see the "Collier Correspondence" of 1749, specially contributed to BRETT'S GAZETTE, and first published in 1894.
During the week that operations were re-commenced on the submerged Dutch ship at Bulverhythe, the town of St. Leonards as well as that of Hastings swarmed with Dutch or Flemish "Buy-a-brooms," an incursion of sixty of these girls having been effected a few days before at Dover. The incident is worthy of a passing notice if only because the annual immigration of these curiously-attired and somewhat importunate females appears to have been long discontinued. It would indeed be a rara avis, or at least a novelty to hear again those quaintly musical tones "Buy-a-broom? - A large one for de lady, and a small one for de baby!"
In the same week the Hon. William and Mrs. Dundas arrived at St. Leonards, and took Quarry House as a permanent residence for which they were rated at £200, and in which they continued to reside until 1845 and 1852, respectively, when, dying, at the age of 84 and 92, also respectively, they were interred in the St. Leonards Burial-ground.
Princess Victoria's 18th Birthday Celebration - Queen Victoria Proclaimed
Another occurrence of that week was the severe illness of Mr. F. North, M.P., an event which was feelingly alluded to by Mr. Sutherlad-Graeme at the Conservative banquet. A good deal of painful and morbid excitement prevailed in the locality at the same time in consequence of the Edgeware road murder, for which James Greenacre and Sarah Gale were arrested on suspicion.
When preparing the first issue of this History in 1880, I was still writing of 1837 or of the reminiscences springing out of it when by a -
