In resuming my historical narrative, I commence the important and exceptionally eventful year 1848, as I have heretofore commenced its predecessors, with the transactions of the St. Leonards Commissioners, whose first quarterly meeting, on the 25th of March, was held.as usual at the Victoria Hotel. At that meeting the following comparatively few members of the board were present:— Alfred Burton (chairman), Decimus Burton, Capt. Davies, C, H. Southall, Samuel Chester and James Mann; all of whom have long since joined the great multitude of departed spirits. A committee’s report was received and adopted, in which it was stated that the violence of the wind on the 26th of February had caused the sea to commit great havoc in the parade wall, notwithstanding that the moon was a week past its full. From opposite to Victoria House [so named in consequence of our present Queen having resided there] to a distance of 180 feet westward, the wall had been undermined, and immediate action had to be taken to stop up the gaps with fagots and to employ Messrs. Hughes and Hunter to underpin the superstructure to varying depths of three to four feet. The additional labour of opening the beach thrown up by succeeding tides had so protracted the work that it had only just been completed, the expense of which was £102 1s. 5d. The shingle now appeared in considerable abundance, but the committee were still apprehensive of further injury being done. They therefore applied to Mr. Major Vidler, who had had some experience of the action of the sea upon the foreshore, and his report was now presented. The committee had also examined the groynes with a view to their greater efficiency, and they recommended that the easternmost groyne be lowered nearest to the wall and raised toward the foot, in addition to being generally repaired, Also that the larger groyne be lengthened and raised from about the centre to the south end. They further recommended that the raddle (hop-pole) groyne be lowered 18 inches at the upper end and lengthened by an additional fifty feet; the whole of the work to be completed as quickly as possible.
A somewhat amusing incident occurred in connection with one of the high tides that caused destruction of the parade wall, and I think it must have been the one just referred to. A lady residing at the West Marina had in her service a black boy as page, and as his dormitory was on the ground floor, he was so startled by the inrush of water from the sea, that he ran out of the house in no other garment than his night-shirt, shouting ” murder.” Wading through the flood, some persons who had heard the alarm commenced a search for both the victim and perpetrator of the murder, but nowhere else could they be found bat in the imagination of the affrighted Ethiopian.
But, to return to the doings of the Commissioners, their clerk called attention to the endeavour of the Hastings authorities to include St. Leonards in the adoption of the Health of Towns Act, and pointed out the injurious effect such a scheme would have on the rights of bondholders as well as on the owners and occupiers of property within the area of the Commissioners’ Improvement Act. It was therefore resolved to draw up a statement and submit the same to Lord Morpeth. At the next meeting on the 24th of June, the clerk reported that the Public Health Act had passed the Commons, and that as then framed it could only apply to a city, borough, town or place in which a local Act was in force, and on petition of not fewer than one-tenth of the ratepayers, and by a provisional order of the General Board of Health confirmed by Act of Parliament. The Commissioners present at this last-named meeting were Messrs. Greenough (chairman) A. and D. Burton, R. Deudney, Adams, Chester, Mann and Southall. The other business transacted at the two meetings included the passing of resolutions to affix Bye-laws boards at the Archway and steps leading to East Ascent; to pay £150 interest to bondholders and the remainder that was due as soon as sufficient money had been collected, for which defaulting ratepayers were to be summoned; to have the footway from 1 to 12 East Ascent repaved, with York stone by Hughes and Hunter at a cost,of £48 13s. 6d., as soon as the promised subscriptions had been received, namely, £2 each from W. F. Burton, Miss Morley and Mr, A. Burton; £4 each from Messrs. Beck; Carey, Mann and Chester; £1 from Miss Johnson, and 30/- from Mr. Chamberlin; to appoint Mr. B. Tree as an additional coal meter; and to order Mr. Streeter to desist from keeping pigs on his premises at 20 East Ascent.
At their meeting on the 14th of September, the Commissioners received the committee's report to the effect that the groynes opposite to Victoria house (once the residence of her present Majesty) and at the east end of the Colonnade, as recommended by Mr Vidler, had not been constructed, in consequence of the want of funds, but that owing to the boisterous condition of the weather in the preceding August, the sea-wall had again been injured, and the process of underpinning as far as the Reading-room had been rendered necessary. Tenders for the two new groynes had, however, been advertised for in the Hastings News and the Sussex Express, with the following results:— Wm, Winter, for both groynes, £237 6s.; John Carey, £286; Richard Selden, jun., (with oak piles) £248; and James Hutchinson and Co., £248 19s, Mr. Winter’s tender was accepted, he having consented to use oak piles, for an additional £10, and to take a bond for £100 in part payment. Mr. Murton had also offered to lend £140 on bond. These two oak groynes were soon constructed, and at their December meeting, the Commissioners expressed their satisfaction at finding that a large quantity of beach had already accumulated between the Library and the church. The committee regretted, however, that continual repairs to the raddle (hop-pole and faggot) groyne had put the town to considerable expense, and they recommended its replacement with an oak groyne, which Mr. Winter would construct at the same price and on the same conditions as those previously contracted for. Supporting this recommendation was a letter from Mr. Major Vidler, dated Nov. 2 1848. in which the Pevensey -
