Clearing up Hastings the Following Morning...

This morning, you'd expect the Pram Race would have left more debris, the worst cause now is the Herring Gull, our perpetual litterlout. Taken before Paul, our intrepid street cleaner, had even started on George Street, just after 06.00, so it was reasonably well cleared up after the pubs shut last night, and many £££s were raised for charity, nice one Hastings!

And what about the forecast trouble? Well, no doubt the Police handling and preparation, not to mention catching, charging and prosecuting rioters, and some already in prison, has made a big impact. So my thanks to local dignitaries, the Police and Courts is well deserved, the organs of State are now well prepared. But I also believe the good people of Hastings, East Sussex, and around the country made an impact too. Hundreds, thousands in some places, turning up to protect our town centres and local people, and to stand against violence. Indeed, in Brighton the handful of thugs present were hiding behind the Police they'd been battering elsewhere, and were happy to seek an exit in Police buses, which they've been setting on fire elsewhere! As you can see above, squeaky clean in Hastings Cambridge Road at 06.00 this morning.

And this image shows that many decent Hastings folk turned up, not the "busload of muslims" I was told by someone yesterday were coming (not necessarily a concern), but ordinary local people; I told him he shouldn't believe everything he hears in Wetherspoons! And this morning someone told me that hundreds of Palestinians were there last night, can anyone else see the hundreds of Palestinian flags she said were present? No, I can't either, I told her to not believe everything she hears or reads on the internet, as Socrates once wrote, "Don't believe everything you see on the internet." Indeed, the anti-hate counter movement followers, the Defenders of Hastings, shall we call them, stretched back to where the Post Office used to be; I know the Police asked people not to turn up, but well done fellow Hastings citizens, respect!

£10,319.53 raised for charities by Hastings OT Carnival!

From the Hastings Old Town Carnival facebook page, nice one! 

The total amount raised this year by the Hastings old town carnival and pram race was an astounding £10319.53. Thank you for your participation and generosity. We will tell you how much you individually collected and how much was given to local charities when that has been worked out.

Hastings Old Town Carnival Wednesday 3rd August.

Carnival Week continues today too, as I said in my blog yesterday, but tomorrow...

OK, the main event of Wednesday is the return of the Old Town Pram Race (website), apparently a large number of teams competing in this pub crawl of the Old Town, and raising money for charity of course. If you've never seen it, there will be themed 'prams' supported by team members in fancy dress, racing around the Old Town (roads closed), collection boxes galore, and each team has to visit each pub/bar on the 'crawl' and have a drink and answer a question in each, or make a forfeit, before continuing on to the next. By 10.00pm it can be quite enlightening, and debauchery indeed, cheers! 😄

But yes, there are other events on Wednesday too, including the ongoing events, of course, and a much less raucous Children's Workshop earlier in the day from 11.00am to 3.00pm at St Clements Church; Organic Cream Tea from 2.30 to 5.00pm at the former Old Town Rectory; and Lost Pubs and Breweries and Ancient Streets of Hastings Old Town walks; more details at the website.

Have a great Wednesday, and watch out for stragglers late in the evening!

Follow that Duck!

Yes, Follow that Duck! Yesterday a friend castigated me for not writing anything about the ducks that have appeared across town, there are more than 50 apparently, so I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, cheers Louise, I deserved it! 😉 Particularly, as the 'rubber duck' sculpture opposite Johnny Swan's The Net Shop in Rock-a-Nore Road, and next to Hastings Contemporary, features the local fishing industry, notably standing out on the Duck's 'bow' (above)  RX134 Stacie Marie (blog).

Outside M&S, Queens Road

If you haven't stopped to read what it's about, it's about raising money for our local hospice, St Michael's (website), directly below each sculpture is the prompt to text DUCK to 70580, which would donate £5 to the hospice. There are other ways of supporting suggested too, and the sculptures will be auctioned off to raise more money to support the great service that the staff of St Michael's provide (website). Sculptures go westwards as far as Bexhill, and the event is due to end on the 4th of September.

Follow that Duck! 👉

Hastings Beer & Music Festival 2022 on now!

I nearly missed this, yet it's in my diary for this weekend, but it began yesterday apparently, oops! The 2022 Hastings Beer and Music Festival (29 June to 2 July - website) is being held at The Oval, Bohemia Road TN34 1EU (Hastings Borough Council website), and tickets can be bought from this page of the website, however, they state it is sold out for this evening (Thursday). The Festival is organised by Hastings Round Table, thus all profits go to charity, indeed, "Film, DJs and Live Music all raising money for local good causes."

The Oval

The Festival has been running since 1981, when it was situated in Alexandra Park, but as it grew in size it had to move to a larger venue, hence from 2017 it has been held at The Oval. It is entirely staffed by volunteers, which means more money going to charities. Oh yes, BEER! They have a large Real Ale Tent supplied by many local breweries, also local ciders and wines, lagers, and 'high quality' local food...

What more do you want? oh yes, and live music! Their facebook page appears to be the best place to find out what's on at the Festival, enjoy!

London Marathon: Best Wishes!

I'm sure I must know people running in the London Marathon today, so, very best wishes to them and, indeed, all the runners, who annually raise £millions for charity, like my friend Paul, who ran for Macmillan Nurses 4 years ago, in memory of our friend Debbie (blog), and for whom I followed closely writing many blogs that year (eg blog).

Best wishes and congratulations, in advance, to everyone, and if you know anyone who has entered or you did, please feel free to let me know and I'll publicize them/you and the charity for which money was raised, good luck all!

Congratulations to the Dolphin Inn!

By Steve the Beermeister...

Our congratulations to the Dolphin Inn for being selected as the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) South East Sussex Community Pub of the Year for 2018!

The Dolphin Inn is at 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road, TN34 3DW (tel: 01424 434326 and website) and sells 6 cask-conditioned ales (mostly local), a few of crafty keg ales, and the usual keg beers and ciders, spirits, wines, soft drinks etc... It also raises £thousands for charity every year (for example, amongst others, at the moment, the Elsie-Rose & Friends Foundation - blog), and is a centre for many locals, supporting the local fishing fleet by sourcing its kitchen from across the road, minding out for those who need help, and also supporting Hastings Fishermen's Museum and RX134 Stacey Marie (blog). Again, congratulations and well deserved!

Stacey Marie







Wonderful People of Hastings!

It was a month ago that I wrote about the Dolphin barmaid, Debs, and others, having their hair shorn to help raise money for a local 7 year-old girl who has been treated for cancer, when they went from this (above) to this (below):   

(Many) more photographs can be seen at my previous blog, however, all the money has now been collected, and passed over to the lass and her family, with even more money being donated since, particularly on quiz nights at the Dolphin, and from RNLI volunteers, who regularly visit the pub. The total donated was more than £2,300, £1,634.23 of which was collected at the Dolphin for Debs and Richard, before/on/since the day of the collective shearing. 

The lass herself will be taken on holiday soon, when she is feeling better from her treatment, and she has asked that the remainder of the donations be passed on to charity (website) to help educate people about children with cancer... 

I'm proud of the people of Hastings, indeed!     

4 Shaven Heads, and a Hilter Moustache, for Charity!

John, Mick, Debby and Richard... before... 

Because Debby also donated her hair to charity for making a wig, she had to prepare for this a wee bit, so off upstairs now, looking relaxed...

Back downstairs, and her hair prepared in elastic bands.

First off, Mark (the landlord) showing precision skills with the shaver...

John looking pretty cool! 

Next up...

Mick looking a wee bit shocked, but it's done! 

Next, Richard, and having a laugh too, great joy!

He's done too...

Then to Debs, not quite so relaxed now; and Mark carefully cuts off the locks for Lou to place in a special plastic bag provided for the purpose  by the Charity. 

Mark decides to have a bit of fun...

And even more fun, the last of the Mohicans!

But no! He's carried on shaving her head.

Mark and Maureen provided the flowers; great support for all participants from a friendly crowd, we're proud of you Debs! 

Barman, Jason, felt out of the loop, having little hair anyway, but asked for his eyebrows to be shaved off...

Silly boy Pike! Mark decides to attack his beard too, fellow barman, Neil, draws false eyebrows, and Mark leaves him with a Hilter moustache (think Python). 

And the 5 afterwards, well done, and for a good local cause, nice one! 

A fair amount of money raised on the day, and a wee bit pledged to come in still, but I'll let you know when the final total is counted. Well done to these peeps, to the people of Hastings, and to a great community pub! 

FOUR heads being shaved at the Dolphin!

As I said recently, the 7 year-old daughter of a customer of the Dolphin Inn, Rock-a-Nore Road, has sadly been diagnosed with cancer recently. I am not publicising her name for privacy reasons, as you will appreciate. Whatever, the coming months are going to be a very tough journey for her, and for her family... 

Another 2 volunteers, Mick and John, have agreed to have their heads shaved, as well as the barmaid Debby (Debs) and another customer, Richard, to help raise money to provide the brave wee lass with a special treat or two in the near future, to help her through the difficult months ahead. If you wish to know anymore about this, please visit the Dolphin and talk to the landlord and landlady, Mark and Maureen, who can tell you more. 

Debby and the three gents will be having their heads shaved at the Dolphin this Sunday 13th September at 2pm. Please come along that afternoon and give them your support, and any further donations would be most welcome, many thanks! 

I addition, Debby is donating her hair to charity to kelp create a wig for a needy child.

Hospice Fire update...

Irene Dibben, chairwoman of St Michael's Hospice, has been reported to say that the consequences of the 11 July fire have been "quite major", and the hospice may take up to a year to reopen (BBC), though nothing has been recorded to this effect on their own website, to date.  

Meanwhile, numerous local fund-raising schemes for the hospice continue to evolve, including many organised by local people, and businesses and shops; eg a Concert for St Michael's, featuring a variety of local music, on 6th September at the White Rock Theatre (website), and the 1066 Charity Walk on 27th September (Hospice website). 

Keep up the excellent work people of Hastings!  

Charity Fundraising Night for Debbie, TONIGHT!

There is a charity fundraising night being held in honour of Debbie's memory up in Glasgow this evening, and one of her sisters and brother, Caroline and Brian, will be there... 

Still gone, but not forgotten! 

Hastings Winkle Club award goes to...

Yesterday evening the Hastings Winkle Club (website), supporter of local causes and charities, not forgetting famous members past and present, awarded The Dolphin pub at Rock-a-Nore with... 

Marl Little, the landlord of the Dolphin, was pleased to receive the award of "Best Collection of a Pub in 2014", ie the money collected in the collection box at the Dolphin was more than that collected in any other pub in the area! So, congratulations to all those who donated, as well as to the Dolphin, Mark and his family and staff... proves what a great bunch of folk work and drink down opposite the Fishermen's Beach! 

The Trophy was awarded, together with a certificate signed and dated 'Richard Read, Chairman, 5th January 2015', but the Winkle Club is yet to announce the total of monies collected at the Dolphin, or monies collected overall. 

Whatever, congratulations to a great cause! 

Seasonal Results for Charity

No extra expense to you, but at this time of year, because of the number of Christmas Cards sent by post, and the number of Christmas Cards given anyway, here are 2 examples of how charity can benefit! 

First, used postage stamps are valuable to the Leprosy Mission (website), and you can either send stamps directly to them, or put them in an envelope and deposit this through the letterbox of the Parish Office of the Old Town Parish of St Clement & All Saints in The Bourne (back of All Saints' Hall), from whence they will be forwarded appropriately. 

Second, as in most years, the Woodland Trust (website) has a 'Christmas Card Recycling Scheme', where received cards can be donated/recycled via Marks & Spencer shops in January 2015 (2nd-31st). 

Please do donate your stamps and cards rather than throw them away, many thanks! 

If you know of any similar recycling charity schemes, please share them.