then and there, by rule of the same Court, to cause yourselves to be made defendants in my stead, otherwise I shall suffer judgement therein to be entered against me by default, and you will be turned out of possession. - Dated this nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
— Yours; &c., Richard Roe
All the names above cited were residents or had property on the , the exact sites of which were familiar to the writer. The annexed view shows the said waste beach, separated from Hastings by the Priory River, which was spanned by a wooden Bridge until 1820, when it was washed down by the sea, and a more substantial one of brick, stone and iron erected in its place.
The Priory
This view, sketched from near the White Rock, exhibits in the foreground only the bare posts and beams of the rope walk, together with the Government Watch-house, a few small workshops and the larger building known as Bowmer's mast and block shop. But at the time when the Woods and Forests Commissioners seized the ground in 1828, the entire area was built upon. In 1824, however on the 24th of November, the sea destroyed much of the property then existing, some of which was afterwards only temporarily rebuild.
On the 19th of March, the smugglers were again unfortunate through the seizure of a fishing boat on the beach which was discovered to have 16 secreted casks of spirits, and on the 3rd of April the contrabanders were further discouraged in the seizure of the boat Rose with 115 tubs of brandy by Mr Bevill and his crew - the Soloman Bevill who as before stated[a], was married in January to Miss Knight. I have often wondered if the pleasure-boat that Mr Bevill afterwards owned named the Rose was the same Rose that had contravened the laws of her country and was handed over to her captor for a consideration instead of being placed in the Condemned Hole as was the fishing boat. (The same Sol. Bevill and crew made a still greater seizure at sea on the 7th of May when a fishing boat with 55 packages of contraband, and three men and two boys, fell into their hands. This boat, I believe, shared the fate of many others that were sawn assunder(sic) and placed in the Condemned Hole. Does any reader ask where was the Condemned Hole? It was a railed in depository on a space of waste beach where is now that portion of the parade between the rear of Beach Terrace and the Pelham Arcade. In the annexed view may be seen Pelham Crescent, Pelham Arcade and Pelham Place on the north side, and the Condemned Hole, with an impounded boat on the south side. The so-called "Hole" is between the boat-builder's blacksmith shop on the east, and Mr Carmac's stables on the west. Outside of the stables is that gentleman and groom with one of the horses. This sketch was taken in 1829, the year now under review, and associated both with the place and the year are other transactions noted further on.
An event of great attraction was that of March 31st, when several hundred visitors and residents witnessed the launch from Ransom and Ridley's Shipyard of Lord Chesterfield's new cutter, as did the owner himself, who had come for that purpose in his carriage and horse. On the 6th of April, Co-operative Stores were opened in Winding Street, which, notwithstanding that the members numbered 160, failed, as have others at a later date.
The number of fishing boats employed at Hastings in 1829 was forty-three, a fewer number by four than in 1812. But the present mackerel season was more early and more prosperous than the oldest fisherman could remember. On the 13th of April there were caught in one night no fewer than 140,000 which realised a sum of over £1,000. Forty thousand of them were taken to London in two sloops.
Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "Notes", but no corresponding <references group="Notes"/> tag was found
