Easter Weekend in Hastings

It certainly appears that there is plenty going on this weekend, as you'd expect, I'm always happy to support Hastings RNLI Lifeboat, crew and volunteers, and this Saturday heralds Easter at Hastings Lifeboat Station! From 11.00 am to 3.00 pm you are invited to join in with "some Easter fun" including refreshments and cake, stalls and tombola, a bit of singing, the chance to meet the Easter Bunny, a goodie bag for every child who visits wearing an Easter Bonnet (facebook), and, of course, the chance to help raise money for the RNLI and Hastings Lifeboat.

Great to see that this Saturday and Sunday also heralds the return of the first of the 2019 guided walks organised by the Old Hastings Preservation Society (OHPS) with their Stade Guided Walk (website). If you wish to participate, you need to meet up outside Hastings Fishermen's Museum, Rock-a-Nore Road, at 11.00am both days (meet indoors in inclement weather, but the forecast looks very good with blue sky every day of the weekend - Met Office). You will be led on this tour of the Stade Fishing Quarter by an experienced volunteer from the Fishermen's Museum, and it usually lasts between 60 and 90 minutes. Strong shoes are advised, and if, like me, you burn easily, a hat and/or Factor 50 might be advisable. The walk is free, but any donations to Hastings Fishermen's Museum would be very much appreciated, many thanks!

One building along from the Fishermen's Museum in Rock-a-Nore Road is the Shipwreck Museum (website), also well worth a visit! In addition, this Saturday they have organised a guided walk of the wreck of the Amsterdam, a Dutch East Indiaman that ran aground at Bulverhythe in 1749 (website). This guided walk costs £6 for adults and £2 for children, and meets at the viewing platform above the beach opposite the wreck at Bulverhythe at 7.00 pm on the 20th of April; appropriate footwear is necessary and more details can be found at the website.

One building further down in Rock-a-Nore Road is the Blue Reef Aquarium (website), where you are invited to meet Mermaid Anna today (Friday 19th between 11.00 am and 3.00 pm), and with Easter events until Monday the 22nd April.

Back to the Stade Open Space in front of the Lifeboat Station, and Saturday, from 4.00 to 10.00 pm will be the Hastings Easter Music Festival, with EDM, Hip Hop, Rap and Soul live music featured. From 12.00 to 4.00 pm over the weekend there is also an associated art exhibition (website).

Hastings Pier (facebook page) has also announced that there will be another "grand reopening of Hastings Pier" at 11.00 am on Saturday 20th April, this time with "Free Entertainment" and an Easter Egg Hunt, Mascots, Ice Cream, Tea, Coffee and Cake.

Whatever, wherever, there will be plenty more happening with the usual sites, beach and music events, good food and drink, and gorgeous weather, enjoy!

The Amsterdam

The tides are right out now, so time to take advantage and walk out to the wreck of the Amsterdam at Bulverhythe, quality! 

Seaside Tsar?

Will Hastings really need a Seaside Tsar, I don't think so, despite the British Hospitality Association wanting one, now that we're leaving the EU, and the Euro being much stronger than the £sterling? Surely more Europeans are likely to come over here for cheaper holidays, and, with the very likely increase in costs to travel abroad to come for us, surely more Brits are likely to have their holidays at the British seaside in future!

The Nearby Amsterdam wreck.

And look at just some of what we have to offer...

For more details of what the British Hospitality Association say go to link.  

Looking up at the West Hill.

It looks pretty rosy, looking up at the East Hill from Rock-a-Nore, and it should look rosy for Hastings tourist-wise, an opportunity that shouldn't be missed!

If there's any money going around, pass it to us, local people should get the chance to spend any extra money available, local people know better than some faceless bureaucrat, rather than keep reducing your annual contributions towards our council, pretty please!

Hastings Oldest Pub Part IV

By Steve the Beermeister 

Very soon after passing the sign welcoming you to Hastings & St Leonards you reach The Bull Inn, 530 Bexhill Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN38 8AY (website). Some may argue this is really in Bexhill, but The Bull falls within Hastings Borough Council's boundary and is licensed by Hastings, and is on the Hastings' side of this sign... 

Though I can think of something else!

The main building, bar area and kitchen of The Bull Inn is a Grade II listed property, mostly built in the late 18th century, with an early 19th century extension added to the eastern side, ie to the right as you look at my photograph of the pub. According to licensing records, this building was first licensed to James Kenward in 1795, though records show a license was given as early as 1622, with only the kitchen area at the back apparently surviving from the 17th century.  

The Bull Inn

A couple of hundred years ago, the sea came up much closer to the pub and the port of Bulverhythe, but nothing now remains of that port except the ruins of the Church of St. Mary, which is close to the back garden of The Bull Inn. There is evidence to suggest that stone used in the construction of the pub is very likely to have come from the ruins of the church; church cornerstones, windowsills and window tracery are all in evidence, and much old stone work can be seen in the rear walls of the building. 

Stories of tunnels going 'to and fro' the pub and smugglers abound and, almost certainly, the earlier Bull Inn played host to the investigators of the wreck of the Amsterdam, the Dutch East Indiaman that was beached the other side of the railway bridge (which was built much later of course) in 1749, and which can still be seen when the tide is out, notably at Spring and Autumn tides. Though the last time I walked out to it, the deck was virtually full of silt and sand. 

The Amsterdam

The Shepherd Neame website mentions this premise, and also says that "in the eastern part of the old pub, John Keats sat and did his writing while looking out to sea. Part of the pub was used as a court house and in the basement under the bar were the cells where condemned prisoners were held before hanging at Gallows Hill." 

You can take it from this that The Bull is a Shepherd Neame pub, though with an interesting alternative ownership and brewery linkage over the years. Indeed, Thomas Breeds bought The Bull Inn a few years before establishing the Hastings Brewery in 1828; The Bull becoming one of the first pubs to trade under the Breeds’ name, as was the Duke of Wellington in the High Street. 

Warmth coming from the older end of the pub

The Bull was much later sold to George Beer and Rigden of Faversham in 1931, then Beer and Rigden was taken over by Fremlins of Maidstone in 1949. In 1967 Fremlins became part of the Whitbread group, before Lord Young's Beer Orders from 1989 restricted the number of 'tied' pubs that could be owned by individual breweries to 2,000. Shepherd Neame since bought many of the Whitbread pubs in the Hastings area, including The Bull Inn.  

A year ago, The Bull Inn was faltering, but the return of the present tenant, Dawn, and her 2 daughters, Jo and Lisa, has brought life back to the pub and its restaurant trade. When I walked into the pub yesterday, I felt very much welcomed into the bar, and I immediately noticed the beer handpumps, (well I am the "Beermeister") which I imagine are Victorian, art nouveau methinks! 

The handpumps caught my eye

Anyway, The Bull is now a Shepherd Neame tenancy, and 3 of their beers are served from the 4 handpumps. The pub is open all day every day, except on Mondays during this winter season, when it closes at 3pm and for the rest of the day. Food is served between 12 and 2pm every day, and from 6.30 to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday, with an impressive looking choice of 3 roast dinners every Sunday lunchtime. 

To the ales! I tried 2 of the 3 on offer, the Spitfire and the very good Kent's Best, which was nice and bitter, and both were in very good form, and well served by the affable chap behind the bar, yet another 'Steve'; as was the rather eatable BLT with salad on the side I enjoyed. The other ale was their Masterbrew, and they have plans to replace the Kent's Best with Shep's 3.9% Whitstable Bay Pale Ale, a very pleasant session bitter. 

Welcome back!

I also had a nice chat with Dawn, and I wish her well, my only suggestion would be to have a 'guest ale' from a more local Sussex brewer, but what do I know? Dawn's the person making a success of The Bull Inn, not me!   

Also, my thanks to John Hodges for suggesting I investigate The Bull Inn, and for sharing historical information that helped me to write this, cheers!