Chapter XIII: St. Leonards 1835
Sea Wall Troubles - Money not to be had
It will be in the recollection of my readers that the sea-wall was a constant source of difficulty to those whose province it was to find the ways and means; and, from what follows, it will be seen that for a long time the power was still needed to grapple successfully with that difficulty. At their first and second meetings of 1835 the Commissioners again discussed the question of repairing damages to the then existing parade, and of constructing a new wall to the westward thereof. Tenders for the work were advertised for, but as the invitation was not responded to, it was resolved that the Board’s committee should consider the best and cheapest means of doing the work themselves. That the office was by no means a coveted one may be gathered from the fact that at the third quarterly meeting there were not sufficient members present to form a quorum, and the meeting had to be adjourned. It was even necessary to have a second adjournment, there being only four persons present - all members of the Burton family; of whom it may be said, they ever evinced a deep concern for the welfare of the town, and often came to the rescue in times of danger or difficulty. There was a beating-up for the second adjourned meeting; yet, strange as it may seem, there was a muster of only half-a-dozen members, namely, Mr. Jas. Burton (chairman),Messrs. D. and A. Burton, Mr. F. Wood, Mr. C. H. Southall, and Mr. Jas. Rock. Some money was then advanced by Mr. Burton to pay interest on borrowed money for repairs of the sea-wall, and an order was given for the wall to be further repaired and to be “returned” at the west end. Like some of the previous makeshifts, these “stop-gaps” were but a temporary security until a more effectual scheme could be undertaken. On the 28th of December, however, when, in addition to the four Messrs. Burton, there were present Messrs. W. and M. Brisco, Major Jeffries, Mr. Wood and Mr. Southall, a plan produced by Mr. Leave the surveyor, for more thoroughly repairing and strengthening the walls and parades was adopted. It was also resolved that Mr. bares should be employed to construct a groyne as an additional protection, according to the plan of those at Pevensey, the cost of £4 per rod, and the work to be done under the superintendence of Mr. Charles Deudney. Even these expedients failed to keep unruly Neptune within the narrower limits prescribed by mere mortal. But more of this anon!
In the mean time let me glance at another sea of troubles by which the Commissioners were beset. Money was the commodity in perpetual demand, and money was as constantly the hardest thing to get hold of. No offers for the £800 loan again advertised for in January were received, and equally unsuccessful were similar efforts during the next three months. The bankers; claim of £250 was still unsatisfied, and several tradesmen’s bills remained unpaid. Interest on bonds to a considerable amount was due, and further outlays had already been voted for protection against the sea. The clerk again reported his ineffectual exertions, by advertisement and otherwise to obtain the £800 loan, and was requested to renew his efforts. Thus the affairs went on until the June meeting, when it was resolved that a further attempt should be made to borrow money, and that £900 be asked for instead of £800. The apparent supposition that it was easier to borrow the larger sum than the smaller looks like asking a child to spell kitten because it cannot spell cat. September came round, and still the £900 was unoffered. In the meantime another tenpenny rate had been levied, and defaulters had been threatened with summonses; but it was impossible to make the income balance the expenditure. Even the clerk had a claim of £67 10s. Against the Board for 2 ¼ years’ salary; but he good-naturedly accepted a bond for this, together with other moneys which he had paid out of his own pocket. As soon, however, as one difficulty vanished another appeared in its pace. At the December meeting it was found that the interest due on bonds amounted to £255. A portion of such interest was met by Mr. Burton, and the remainder was ordered to be paid as soon as funds would allow. More taxes were imposed, and this time the rate was increased to a shilling in the £. But what about the Sinking-fund? Quarter after Quarter did the Clerk remind the Board of the clause in the Act of Parliament which required the formation of such a fund. As well might he “ask that the stones be made bread”. He had piped but the £900 would not dance and the sinking fund was already too low to be raised.
But it is time now to turn from the money matters to other matters. The shopkeepers complained that they were taxed beyond their means, and that whilst the bulk of the people spent their money in Hastings, the remainder were so beset by hawkers and hucksters as to make it difficult, and in some cases impossible, for tradespeople to live. A memorial was consequently presented to the Commissions against the alleged evil. Sympathy was expressed with the tradesmen, but there appeared to be no means of abating the drawback complained of. Mr. James Troup also complained of the bill posters sticking notices on the east side of the East gate, afterwards known as the Archway; and, to gratify the whim of a man who was not always easy to please, the Board resolved that notice be put up “Stick no bills.” It would, doubtless, have rendered life more bearable to the proprietor of the Warrior Square Estate if all men had been so obliging as were the St. Leonards Commissioners. But the latter body were not always so pliable, as instanced at their next meeting, when they ordered a notice of indictment for nuisance to be served on the Commissioners of Filsham Level unless the latter authority repaired the bridge in their jurisdiction.
I turn now from the urban to the parochial authorities, so as to chronicle a few transactions of the latter during the year 1835. The overseers of St. Leonards were Edward Farncomb and Benjamin Hoan, and the place where the vestry meetings were held was the “New England Bank”, a wayside inn, beside the bank at Boeep which was afterwards cut down for the terminus of the South Coast Railway.
As the new Poor-Law Act was then coming into operation, it was ordered at a vestry meeting that notice be given to the several paupers that no moneys would be allowed for the payment of rent as theretofore after the 25th of March, and that all persons to whom the parish was in such manner indebted were to send in their accounts. Also that the parish authorities endeavour to procure employment for the men hitherto receiving relief, and if unsuccessful the parish to employ them to collect and break stones for the road at 16d. per ton. Also that the relief to a certain married couple be reduced, with the alternative of living in the poor-house and working for the parish.
At the next vestry, of which Mr. Chas. Overy was chairman, Messrs. Chas. Deudney, Chas. Southall, Henry Edlin and Jas. Mann were nominated for overseers; whilst Messrs. John Phillips and Fredk. Ticehurst were respectively appointed vestry-clerk and surgeon. So sweeping is the inroad of Time upon the life of man that of the seven persons here named, there is not one who has not passed to that bourn whence no traveller returns.
It was at the vestry meeting referred to that a proposition was received and accepted for the parish to pay one-third of the expense of keeping in repair that part of the road leading to the Harrow which lay in the St. Leonards parish, the remaining two-thirds to be paid by Mr. Burton and the Trustees of Mr. Charles Eversfield. The road in question was, as might be expected, the “Harrow road” described in the earlier part of this History as that which Mr. Burton formed to connect St. Leonards with the old road from Hastings to London, and for the use of which a toll was taken at the north end until the 22nd of July, 1837, when the said toll was abolished. What the maintenance of that wo miles of road cost the parties concerned or what the amount of a third of even the parish portion of it was I know not; but that the latter was considerable may be inferred from the fact that during 1835 - an exceptionally inexpensive year - there was paid a sum of over £20 for the cartage of beach alone, and a further sum of £14 14s. 6d. for keeping in repair the parish roads outside the Commissioners’ jurisdiction.
It was partly due to the shortened distance between St. Leonards and London by Mr. Burton’s “Harrow road”, that the “Dispatch” coach (started in 1830) was enabled to accomplish the journey in 7 ½ hours, nearly two hours less time than the Hastings coaches required to perform the same distance. But even this was to be surpassed in 1935 by the splendid new coach, which in compliment to the illustrious visitors who had been staying three months at St. Leonards, was named the “Royal Victoria.” It -
