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Captain Merricks - Rose Fuller - The Blacksmiths' Arms - etc

An accident of a rather serious nature occurred to Mr. Henry Towner during the erection of 2 West Ascent. He was badly injured by some timber falling on him, and though he recovered sufficiently to follow his recuperation, his gait was unsteady for the rest of his life.

A somewhat ludicrous accident occurred during the same year to the horse and cart belonging to "Psyche" Fowler, a man not more noted as a purveyor of sand than for his dis-regard of cleanliness. The wall at East Ascent was not yet constructed, and Fowler's horse and cart, starting from Mercatoria went clean over the cliff on to the road at the back of the Marina, the cart being broken into fragments, and the horse escaping, as by a miracle, with only a few bruises. Although the cliff was less perpendicular than as now seen, it had not been cut down to its present height, and was, consequently more elevated, and nearly as represented in the view of the Conquerors Stone. Its summit was known by the farm-labourers and others as the"Goats Point".

A Captain Merricks (of whom more will be said further on), while master of a Hastings sloop brought the first cargo of timber for the town, and a man, named Rose Fuller, of Brightling, a lime-burner, and a noted old smuggler, to boot, used to boast that he brought the first load of lime from Bexhill to be used in the building of St Leonards. He professed to be as well skilled in stowing away tubs of contraband as in stacking chalk or lime; and he made it no secret in his declining years that he had more than once helped to fill the kiln at Warrus (Warriors) Gate with kegs of smuggled brandy. This Rose Fuller died at Hunter's Farm, Brightling in his ninety-sixth year.

I have stated that Mr. Milstead began to build the "Horse and Groom" in 1829, and I may add to this that the requirements of the workmen were such that they were supplied with beer at this house before even the windows were glazed. Mr. Milsted was himself a painter and glazier, but the demand for that kind of work, was so urgent that although his partner, Mr. Chas. Neve, was sometimes at work with his men at four o'clock in the morning, the Horse and Groom had for a short time to put up with canvas windows. But this was not quite the only place where workmen could obtain refreshment. What was called "small beer" was at this time allowed to be sold without a publican's license, and as much as 18 gallons per day of this drinkable and quenchable "twopenny" it had been said, was dispensed by Mrs. Towner. It was an evil day for the cause of sobriety when a license was required for the sale of this modest beverage, it being gradually driven out of the market by this impost, and beer-drinkers thus led to the imbibition of more potent decoctions.But neither the small beer nor the strong beer was the sole beverage of the people at St. Leonards during the first and second year of the town's existence. There were two milkmen, naned(sic) Brett and Murdoch, the former of whom afterwards died at a very advanced age, and the latter also "well stricken in years". Mr. Murdoch remembered that he sold nearly as much as 300 quarts of warm milk, daily, among the thousand workmen at that time employed.The reader may wonder where and how such a number of men were fed and lodged, and it would not be an easy task to satisfy him on that point. A great many, however, including Messrs. Homan, found lodgings in "America" - that is to say, in White Rock street and the Ropewalk, the original sites of the present Robertson Street and Carlisle Parade. Some twenty of them, I well know, secured lodgings at the Blacksmiths Arms, which was kept by William Woolgar, and stood on the ground where is now the Holy Trinity Church.

On the outside of this house was an artistically painted sign from the brush of Mr. G. Honiss, who after this sustained the wear of life for more than half a century. On the said sign-board was the motto "By hammer and hand all arts do stand". In that same public house and over the bar was written "My beer is good, my charge is just, I'm poor, and can't afford to trust". As this was 68 years before the time at which I am now writing, I may be pardoned for alluding to it as one of my early rhyming efforts. It was found to be necessary to enforce the principle indicated by this couplet when such a crowd of strangers immigrated to Hastings in consequence of the work obtainable at St. Leonards. Even the founder himself was for a time a sort of fugitive; firstly taking up his quarters at the Marine Hotel, then in Wellington Square, at a later period at the Gensing Farm-house, and finally taking up his abode at North Villa, from which he ultimately removed to the Allegria.My historical and anecdotal notes of St. Leonards thus far are contemporaneous with the end of the second year of the town's existence, namely 1829; and that I may follow, as closely as possible, the events in chronological order, I will next briefly touch on a few more matters pertaining to that period which have an incidental relation to my general topic. Whether the energetic founder of St. Leonards had communicated to him in any way the intention of the Government to take possession of the in the parish of Holy Trinity, from which the sea had receded and the Hastings people had occupied by building thereon, is not in my province to say, but it is a noteworthy coincidence that in the same year that Mr. Burton commenced a new town at St. Leonards, the people who inhabited a suburb of the old town of Hastings had notice to quit. The Broad Arrow was placed upon their habitations to signify the Government claim and a lease was granted for seven years only, at the expiration of which time the whole of the buildings were to be cleared off or confiscated.That during the leasehold tenancy the parish of Holy Trinity afforded lodgings and other accommodation to many of the workmen at St Leonards has been sufficiently shown, and that it was a fortunate circumstance for the 'Americans' in their subsequent exodus that there was a new town for many of them to go to, and at so short a distance, will be apparent as I proceed. The population of St. Leonards and St. Mary Magdalen - the two parishes, portions of which are occupied by the town which took its name from the former - was in 1828 less than 100, whilst that of Holy Trinity was upwards of 1,000. In that same parish, in addition to an extensive Rope-walk - the site of which is now covered by Carlisle Parade, Robertson Terrace, and the Queens Hotel - there were between 200 and 300 dwellings, warehouses, workshops, huts (with inverted hulls of fishing boats for roofs), pig-pounds, and a coastguard station, which was conspicuous by its clean white-washed exterior. A few years later the conditions of population were entirely reversed, the Holy Trinity Parish having only nine inhabitants, whilst the town of St Leonards had more than nine-hundred.

I have already shown that the erection of the town proceeded with extraordinary rapidity, and that in one case at least, either from injudicious haste, faulty materials or want of care, five houses on the Marina gave way, and "great was the fall thereof." I might have added to this the fall of a house at Mercatoria, although I am told this last "tumble-down" was partly due to weather influences. And here let me say in passing that the meteorological conditions were very frequently the reverse to favourable to building operations during the first few years.

In 1828 there was a violent gale which swept up the Channel and drove all the shipping before it, the wreckage at Plymouth alone including 13 large vessels. In 1829 there were two gales of similar severity - one on the 7th of January and another one on the 5th of October. The latter continued for three days, changing its course from SW to NW, accompanied by snow and sleet, which on the 9th was ankle deep. This continued with intermissions and varying depths until Christmas, when a severe frost set in, which lasted six weeks. During this memorable frost all the ponds in the neighbourhood were thickly coated with ice, and hundreds of persons were to be seen daily skating on the previously flooded Priory Brooks, extending northwards from the beach to where are now the Gas Works, and westward from the present site of the York Hotel to near the site of the Central Wesleyan Church.

In 1830 there was a great fall of snow on the 11th of January and a prolongation of the severe frost in the month following. It may be imagined, then, how much the building operations were impeded, or under what trying circumstances they were carried on. But, despite the interference of the weather and other difficulties, the work proceeded, and the town rose almost as though at the bidding of a magician. In the space of less than two years, a piece of rocky, sandy, shingly, muddy, boggy, and - to a considerable extent - unproductive land, had been converted into a handsome town, with palatial residences, and which in extent was even then of fair dimensions.

The excellent view which follows shows the position and appearance of the "Castellated Villa" (afterwards Gloucester Lodge, the "Thatched Cottages" and the North Lodge, together with the enclosed land which was to form a portion of the Subscription (now the public) Gardens.