of stage coaches and private vehicles going first to Hastings and thence up the steep hill known as the Old London Road and around to the Harrow.
More accidents - Mr Green & his balloon - Fall of five houses - etc
By a list of residents at the South Colonnade we get a proof that the houses here were among the earliest series of erections; and this fact is further attested by a paragraph in the Sussex Advertiser of March 24th, 1828, which says that the wall to the eastward of the Conqueror's Table is rapidly going on, and that the wall is to be 10 feet deep, 217 feet long, and 4 feet wide. It also says that 13 houses are to be erected and are intended to be erected at this spot, to front the road parallel with the wall, which is to defend them from the sea. In the same paragraph, allusion is made to a serious accident which befel(sic) a labourer, who shattered his hands while blasting the rocks. A week later the same journal makes known that increased preparations for the new town are being made and that large quantities of scaffolding and other building materials have been landed by a sloop [sailed by Capt. Merricks]. It further says that groynes are in course of construction to keep the beach from being washed away, and to act as a defence to the new wall and houses. The local press-writer of that period expatiates on the benefits likely to accrue from the building of the town to the labourers of the neighbourhood; for he says - dating his remarks in the month of May - "There are now 500 workmen, and as many of these belong to different parishes, the parochial rates will be relieved, and the men will find employment at home instead of having to seek it in distant lands."
I have already recorded several sad occurrences in connection with the early building operations, and I have yet another to add to the list.
On Sunday, the 30th of September, of the same year, there was a violent gale, with torrents of rain, the latter washing away a quantity of the earth which had been thrown on the beach as a preparation for the parade; but the weather clearing up on the Monday, the Hastings Races, which were held in the Filsham Raceway, passed off without much inconvenience. These particular races are remembered chiefly in consequence of a balloon over the race-course in a north-easterly direction, and causing a great many persons to rush over the hill towards and, to which locality the balloon appeared to be descending. It was afterwards ascertained to be occupied by Mr. Green who had had the balloon inflated at the Lewes gasworks.
On the morning of Monday, December 1828, several workmen were injured by the falling of scaffolding and columns of masonry, and subscription lists were opened for their relief. Then, on Saturday, the 31st of January 1829 there fell to the ground the greater part of the five houses on the Marina, previously described. On the 8th of May, following, two men were injured by the giving way of scaffolding, one of them so seriously that he died in about twenty minutes after the occurrence. A third man was also greatly injured on the 6th, by a large stone falling on his head. On the 18th of April, just fifty years antecedently to the day on which this was first written, a man named Catt, while engaged in excavating the cliff, was crushed to death by a large mass of it falling on him. An inquest was afterwards held, and the unfortunate man's remains were buried at , to which parish he belonged.
Far be it for me, a mere mortal, to pronounce upon the judgments of Heaven; but, if what was told me be true, it is at least a case for serious reflection that the man thus suddenly called into eternity but just before reviled a brother man for having turned from a wicked to a religious course of life. The subject of his taunts lived to be a nonagenarian.
On July 3rd of the first year of the town's history, and at about 8 o'clock in the evening, the French coast was plainly visible to the unassisted vision from the heights of St Leonards, the atmospheric refraction being followed two hours later by a violent thunderstorm. I have only witnessed a similar phenomenon on one other occasion during the whole of fifty years.
I have now reviewed the building operations of the town, together with its incidents and accidents from the commencement in 1828 to the close of the year 1829. It has been shown that even in the first year, amidst much apparent chaos in excavating and preparing, the work had made marvellous progress, and that at the end of the second year a very considerable portion of a unique and handsome town had sprung into existence. This included the hotel and its east and west wings, nine houses on each side, the Baths and Library on the parade, the Assembly Room, the South Colonnade (numbered as 1 to 14 Marina), portions of East and West Ascent, the Mercatoria and the Lavatoria, the Undercliff, the Harold Hotel, North Lodge, Gloucester Lodge, Quadrangle Chapel, a portion of (familiarly known as The Hundreds) and the intended Market (this principal approaches to which were by arched entrances from the front of the West Marina. Between the houses of the last-named place and 57 Marina there was still a long line of frontage unoccupied by buildings of any description.
The next view exhibits the many buildings, heretofore described as having been erected within two years, extending from the East Gate (Archway) to the West Villa, afterwards the residence of the present Queen and her mother.
