Wordangell's Blog

I have just miraculously found the post I was originally drafting yesterday so although it is similar to yesterday’s post, I am reposting with a few more photos and a lot less chat. I must learn to type my blog entries in word or something first. I really couldn’t find it anywhere yesterday.  I am still having trouble attaching my name to my blog so I am definitely a work in progress when it comes to computers and blogging. Hope you enjoy this entry too.

I have been away from my home town now for over twenty years. Although I have absolutely no yearning to go back to live there, I love to visit and explore all the places I grew up in or hung out as I was growing up. Hastings is a big town absolutely steeped in history, some of the places I lived in were also of historical interest, though not so important as say, the Castle or the caves. When I was born in Warrior Square things were very different, there were still bomb sites where buildings used to be and fields of sheep where huge buildings are now deteriorating through time. Wow! that does age me! As I grew up, one of the houses I lived in was originally a Coastguard Cottage, there was a row of adjoining houses. I would call it a terrace but each of the houses were connected to the other via a passageway so that if the call for a coastguard came someone would run the length of the houses through this top floor passage to wake the guards up. Old pictures show the cottages on their own with fields and cliff walks around them. The house overlooked the Old Town from the top of a cliff in the shadow of the castle. . A chain link fence was all that separated us children from a long drop down to the seafront below. Just opposite the first house was a square building, we used to think it was a garage but a bit of research told us it was a building that housed a lift and its mechanism. It was this lift that Queen Victoria used to bring her horse and carriage up from the seafront apparently. We knew nothing of such things as children.

The seafront was where I spent most of my time as a child, to us it was just an extended playground. The ocean has always been a source of inspiration to me which reflects in my art work. The picture below was taken from one of the front bedroom windows and gave us a view to the promenade below.

To the left and beneath Hastings Castle lies the Old Town. I adore the Old Town, not just for its history but for the atmosphere. It has changed so much since we lived there but its memory lingers forever in my mind. The fishing fleet is much smaller now but you can still buy fresh fish from the Fishmarket and get a pint of shrimps. The pictures are of some of the scenes behind the tourist areas and amusements and around Hastings.

This house was the one I remember growing up in until I was around nine years old. We lived in the ground floor flat. It was near here that there was a field of sheep just above Warrior Square Station. The houses next door weren’t there, instead there was a bombed site, left over from the air raids during the war… I know,  know, I am aging myself now.  Below left is the view along the prom toward Eastbourne and below right is the view of Hastings Pier, before it was burned down, from just along the road where the Coastguard Cottages are.

Hastings is a big town and as we moved around the buildings grew around us, below is the view from my bedroom window. No wonder I loved the country life! but the sea was always there to escape to.

I love the good memories I have of Hastings and enjoy revisiting. I have also enjoyed writing this type of blog and so I think I might share some other places I have visited during my life  in my next blog entry and hope you find them interesting.