{"id":217,"date":"2015-01-11T16:50:41","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T16:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.control-g.co.uk\/sciencetourist\/?p=217"},"modified":"2024-05-26T17:45:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-26T16:45:56","slug":"hastings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.control-g.co.uk\/sciencetourist\/2015\/01\/11\/hastings\/","title":{"rendered":"Hastings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Detail<\/a>

Detail from the Bayeux Tapestry (c.1070) commemorating the last successful invasion of England, by Guillaume le B\u00e2tard (AKA William the Conqueror) in 1066. Halley’s Comet is shown and was claimed as an good omen (by both sides!).<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Hastings is a small town on the South Coast of England where in 1066, as every British schoolboy knows, the English King Harold lost the eponymous battle and was killed, thereby allowing a successful Norman invasion. \u00a0\u00a0Actually, of course, the battle took place some miles away, at what is now the town of Battle, but the name has stuck.<\/p>\n

Hastings makes a good base for exploring southern Sussex. \u00a0\u00a0It’s more manageable and intimate than its bigger and much brasher neighbour, Brighton, and more determinedly eccentric than nearby Eastbourne.\u00a0 Rye is more ‘chocolate boxy’ picturesque but lacks facilities and transport links. \u00a0It would be hard to find a more authentic (but still pleasant) British experience than Hastings.
\n<\/p>\n

\"Hastings<\/a>

Hastings Old Town seen from East Hill<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Evidence of human habitation in Hastings dates back to Neolithic times, and the town has been settled ever since, but it lacked a harbour, which restricted its importance. In the late 18th and 19th centuries Hastings became a fashionable resort, patronised by the great and the good, and was considered to have a particularly healthy climate for invalids, but the town’s popularity as a resort waned in the second half of the 20th century, although it remains a popular day-trip destination for working-class Londoners.<\/p>\n

\"Hastings<\/a>

Hastings in a nutshell – net shops, fishing boats, cliffs and funicular and miniature railway (oh, and the best fish & chips at Maggies – above the fish market)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Lacking industry, and with a comparatively slow connection to London, Hastings went the way of many British seaside resorts, entering a marked economic decline, attracting only elderly retirees and the decanted urban underclass.<\/p>\n

However, perhaps because of its ramshackle charm and cheap property prices, Hastings has long had a considerable reputation for bohemian and artistic types. Take a seat outside on the pedestrianised George St. and it won’t be long before you spot plenty of fine (if mostly elderly) examples of the English ‘eccentric.’ If, like me, you are tempted to believe they are more concerned with the appearance of non-conformity rather than with original iconoclastic rebellion, well, I’m reluctant to unweave the rainbow by questioning too deeply, or to cast the first stone.<\/p>\n

\"Jerwood<\/a>

Something of a white elephant, the Jerwood gallery sits uneasily amid the ramshackle fisherman’s beach and the amusement arcades<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Lately, the disparity in property prices between London and Hastings has led to an influx of DfLs (Down From Londoners) and gentrification. Expensive seafood restaurants catering for the arty set, and the new Jerwood Gallery, sit uneasily alongside amusement arcades patronised by shirtless and tattooed men and their kids. It’s a great mix and always fascinating to watch!<\/p>\n

\"Beach<\/a>

Beach launched fishing fleet overlooked by the East Hill Funicular<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Hastings nestles against the only hills that run down to the sea along this part of the coast, between Beachy Head which rises like the back of some great geological whale, and the White Cliffs of Dover. \u00a0\u00a0The quaint Old Town is riddled with alleyways and passages, called twittens and cat-creeps, where houses were shoehorned into any space into which they could be fitted. Sometimes the twittens seem to run through people’s gardens and, in at least three places, they actually run through underneath houses. \u00a0\u00a0As long as you can manage some steps, it’s a great place to explore.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the more colourful twittens. Note how it passes under a house<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\"Quaint<\/a>

Quaint All Saints St.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The centre of the New Town is less attractive, but towards St Leonards, there are some fine developments by John and Decimus Burton from 1828 onwards. The rest of the town, including the pebble beach, is a great place for watching the British at play.<\/p>\n

Hastings retains the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Europe, and a visit to Rock-a-Nore and the Fishermen’s Beach is a must, especially if you want fish straight off the boat,<\/p>\n

So what is there for the Scientific Tourist? Apart from the battle, Hastings’s main claim to fame is technological. \u00a0Just before you crest the final hill on the road into Hastings, you pass a small sign welcoming you to the ‘Birthplace of Television’. Considering the almost inestimable power, influence and consequences of the medium, the discreet sign seems somehow inadequate to commemorate such a momentous legacy.<\/p>\n

Does Hastings deserve the accolade? \u00a0\u00a0In the technical sense, probably yes. Hedged with caveats and restrictions from the pedantic, but it was there, in 1924 that John Logie Baird cobbled together a Heath Robinson assembly of biscuit tins and string, and first demonstrated the principle of television by creating a very low resolution blurry moving image. \u00a0\u00a0See The Birthplace of Television<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0The main museum (Hastings Museum and Art Gallery<\/a>) has an interesting exhibition on Baird.<\/p>\n

\"Reproduction<\/a>

Reproduction of an early prototype television by Baird. Hastings Museum<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Practically uncelebrated, apart from a small Blue Plaque, Michael Faraday was a frequent visitor to Hastings, escaping the pressures of London for quiet contemplation by the sea. Perhaps most portentously, in August 1831, when he was about to report his momentous discoveries in Electromagnetism. (see Faraday in Hastings<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/a>

Blue Plaque on retirement homes just by the public toilets commemorates Faraday’s great discovery<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Alan Turing, mathematician and computer pioneer, boarded in St Leonards as a child and attended his first school there, where his mathematical abilities were recognised by his headmistress.\u00a0 A Blue Plaque marks the house where he lived under the care of a retired Indian Army couple (his father was in the Indian Civil Service) but his school is unsigned.<\/p>\n

\"House<\/a>

House where Turing Boarded as a Child<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Marianne North<\/a>, a Scientific Tourist of some eminence, a friend of Darwin, and a noted botanical illustrator lived and began her career in Hastings.\u00a0 The museum here was offered her important (and beautiful) collection of illustrations and the money to house it but inexplicably turned her down.\u00a0 The collection is now housed in its own lovely pavilion at Kew.\u00a0 Sad to say, but the current management and staff at Hastings Museum seem to be exactly the same species of small-minded, self-serving and incompetent idiots now as they were then.<\/p>\n

\"Marianne<\/a>

Marianne North, c.1878 Sri Lanka. Photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Hastings and the surrounding area are happy hunting grounds for anyone interested in steam power and railways. The town has 2 miniature (but still rideable) railways, as well as a pair of funiculars ascending the East and West Hills, and not far off are the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway as well as the Kent and East Sussex Steam Railway. \u00a0See A Bit of a Thing About Railways<\/a>, The Whispering Giants of Brede<\/a> and And Yet More Steam Engines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scraping the barrel a little, Hastings was home to the mother of Sir Cloudesley Shovell, whose infamous loss of\u00a0 a British navel fleet through navigational error led to the establishment of the Longitude Prize and the subsequent invention of the marine chronometer, which revolutionised navigation and opened up the world for exploration and trade.\u00a0 Shovell’s mother’s house is a quaint little cottage on the charming All Saints Street.\u00a0 For much more about the story see, Review of \u2018Longitude \u2013 The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time\u2019 by Dava Sobel<\/a>, and several other posts under the Greenwich category.<\/p>\n

But, saving the best till last, the hills that give Hastings a good deal of its charm are an offshoot of the Wealden sandstones and clays, and the area has several sites of scientific, naturalist and geological interest. \u00a0\u00a0The Weald itself, and the Chalk Downs that bookend it, form an anticline that was raised by the same tectonic collision that created the Alps and is even now closing the Mediterranean Sea. One of the best places to appreciate the landscape is the Country Park and Nature Reserve. \u00a0 See Ferns, Fossils, Fauna and Inspiration – Hastings Country Park and Nature Reserve.<\/a><\/p>\n

This area’s geology is well described in Professor Richard Fortey’s ‘

Ferns, Fossils, Fauna and Inspiration – Hastings Country Park and Nature Reserve. <\/a>Baird said that it was while walking along these cliffs that he first had his idea for ‘seeing by wireless’. See Baird and the Birthplace of Television. <\/a><\/p>\n

A great source for current information on local wildlife in the Country Park is RXWildlife<\/a>, with almost daily updates on what has been seen.<\/p>\n

Slightly further afield, the old Royal Greenwich Observatory<\/a> at Herstmonceux Castle now houses a Science Education Centre alongside the domes and is well worth a visit. \u00a0\u00a0The pumping station at Brede (see The Whispering Giants of Brede<\/a>) amidst beautiful East Sussex countryside is a delight for steam enthusiasts, and incorporates a Nuclear Bunker, and is close to the Kent and East Sussex Steam Railway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Further away, you can take a tour <\/a>of the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, which supplies part of the electricity that supplanted the Giants of Brede. Lonely out on its great shingle bank spit jutting out into the English Channel; it’s an almost surreal sight set in a fascinating, if bleak-looking, landscape. (See also Dungeness – A Surreal Landscape & Nuclear Power Plant<\/a>)\u00a0 Again, this is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with much rare flora and fauna.\u00a0 The miniature Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway<\/a> runs a regular scheduled service out to the plant.\u00a0 The human inhabitants are equally unusual, living way out here in a scattered collection of eccentric chalets, and the film director Derek Jarman’s garden<\/a> is worth looking out for and is not the strangest. You can also climb the old lighthouse.<\/p>\n

Behind Dungeness lies the Romney Marshes, another special wetland habitat, famous for its sheep, the extensive marshes embody a fascinating story of a landscape reshaped by the efforts of humans and the sea. (See )<\/p>\n

\"Dungeness<\/a>

Dungeness seen from Country Park<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

And for the plain, non-scientific tourist? \u00a0My personal recommendations are available in more detail at The Hastings Blog<\/a>, but for the short version;<\/p>\n