Nostalgia: How a Hastings parish church sprang from farmland

The Railway Bridge 1898: The original caption reads Built to replace the old brick tunnel which was taken down in 1898. The three-horse omnibus to Mount Pleasant Road is seen in the picture The St. Andrews Archway, described by some as a hideous hole stood at the bottom of Queens Road, until it was replaced in 1898 with the present lofty viaduct carrying the railway over the road. The original archway or tunnel was built of bricks made from clay taken from the brick-fields on the site of the present Alexandra Park and some of the ponds in the park were originally clay pits in those days bricks were usually made from local brick-earth in temporary kilns as close to point of use as possible.

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This week, in his continuing series Ion Castro takes a look at the history of the Church and Parish of Christ Church Blacklands in Hastings from 1878 '“ 1928.

He writes: The Reverend James Morgan D.D became vicar of Christ Church, Blacklands in 1927, replacing George Ruthven Thornton, M.A., vicar since 1921, who had left to become Archdeacon of Stanley, Falkland Islands.

The following year, 1928, he published a small hardback booklet of 44 pages to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the building of the church and, as would be expected, included details of the many generous benefactors in those early days. But the content is much wider, it describes the church in the geographical context of the area 150 years ago.

The period 1928 - 1878 would have been within the living memory of many local residents and parishioners and they would have been able to contribute their recollections.

The Vicarage before additions were made :The Vicarage at 28 Laton Road had been completed in 1882, but 30 years later was still without a bathroom and proper sanitation, although, at its original completion, it had been described as a very elegant and commodious residence and a great ornament to the fast-increasing neighbourhood. Plans were made to add a drawing room, additional bedrooms and other accommodation, and a new wing was duly added.

This area, originally known as the Blacklands Farm Estate, adjoined the Kite’s Nest Farm, Ore Valley Fields and the large wooded area known as St Helen’s Park. It was almost entirely rural land owned by the Frewen family who had started selling off plots for development in the 1870’s. The original church building was paid for entirely by Charles Frewen who died 16 months after the church was opened leaving the building unfinished for some years. The north side was without heating or lighting and building of the church tower hadn’t started until June 1889 but the vicarage was completed in 1882.

Hastings was expanding, its population of had risen rapidly from 14,016 in 1851, through 25,929 in 1861, 37,842 in 1871 to 49,755 in 1881 (90,000+ today) and farm land was given over to housing to accommodate this increase.

In 1878 the Church appears to have been little more than a mission hall half buried in earth and the road by the Church was an unlit, narrow lane leading to a farm, just wide enough for one cart and there were only three houses in Laton Road, St. Helen’s Road ended about where No. 22 now stands and it used to be considered quite a long walk into the country to reach local historian and five times Mayor, Alderman Ross’ home, nos 70 and 71. They had been built on part of the land belonging to the old Blacklands Farm which had been was situated near the junction of Baldslow, Elphinstone, and St. James’s Roads and gained the name ‘Ross’s Folly’.

Ross went on to be one of the first Churchwardens of the Church. Other residents of Laton Road included Hastings Observer proprietor F.J.Parsons and his family and Robertson Street Jeweller Ebenezer Dobell.

The Church, previous to the building of the tower: The Church and Parish continued to grow. Lord Brassey laid the Foundation Stone of the tower in 1889 and the construction of the Tower, with new entrances and porches provided seating for a further 150 worshippers.