Old Town Carnival: Saturday 29th July 2017

I tend to think the Old Town Carnival begins with the Tug-O-War in front of the Lifeboat Station (land side) at 10.30am on the Saturday, though beware of the Miniature Railway! But there will be a number of other events already happening, including the Coastguard Station Open Day, Rock-a-Nore Road, 10am to 4pm; Car Boot Sale at the Stables Theatre (10am to 1pm); and numerous other exhibitions and fairs; see website for full details of Saturday's events.

There are also numerous guided walks this coming week, including the Old Hastings Preservation Society's Stade Walk, meeting up at 11am outside the Fishermen's Museum. Sturdy walking shoes are advised, and, seeing the weather forecast, it may be worth wearing/carrying wet weather protective clothing; the guided walk is free, but a donation to the Fishermen's Museum would be appreciated, many thanks. 

The crowning of the Carnival Queen is planned for 12 noon on the stage at the Stade Open Space, quickly followed by the official Opening Ceremony of Hastings Old Town Carnival Week at the Fishermen's Museum, Rock-a-Nore Road, at 12 noon, or 12.30pm, depending on where you look (I'm guessing they'll get the coronation over with first!). The Union Flag will be raised up the Museum's flagstaff, and various local 'dignitaries' will be present, no doubt Mayor included, and who knows who else?!?

Plenty more happening, of course, and from 2pm until 8pm is the free "Nearly on the Beach" Concert, though collection boxes will be all over the place in support of Hastings RNLI, Pett Level Rescue, and Hastings Sea Cadets, so have plenty of small change, at least, available!

I presume the FILO will be providing a bar, as usual, but remember to look at the Carnival website, as there are many other things going on, so enjoy the fun!

Hastings Pier Construction Update

The end of the Pier Restoration is nigh! I have recently received correspondence from the charity that reflects upon the achievements of the last two years, which goes something like this... 

Around 70% of the high-level steelwork has been replaced, which took the form of 320 trusses and 850 deck beams. Over 400 new bull rails and nearly 700 sets of cross bracing have been installed.

In all some 3,000 tonnes of new steel has been fixed. In addition, all of the timber has been completely renewed. There are 50 miles of new deck boards fixed with half a million screws. The boards are built on 18 miles of joists fixed with 12,000 bolts; all 1,000 tonnes of Ekki timber is from 100% sustainable resources.

There have been many different companies involved with the Construction; the majority of these have been local organisations. FPE steelworkers and TimberCraft carpenters have formed the backbone of the labour force throughout. The other contractors and specialists have been here as needed to give a typical labour strength of 50-60 people. In all, though, over 400 people have worked on the Pier, and each has played a valuable part in getting it to where it is today. 

As there was only limited access before work started, knowledge of the structure was limited and, therefore, a lot of assumptions had to be made about the condition of the structure. In reality, things were worse than originally assumed, and more steelwork needed to be replaced.

Furthermore, poor weather conditions had to be contended with, in particular, damage caused to the structure by storms in February 2014. Even now, the weather is very influential; the constant high winds over the past six weeks have severely restricted operations at the Pier Head. Only the last twelve trusses still need to be installed, and a couple of calmer weeks will enable this work to be completed.

The Visitor Centre is near to completion inside, and outside the cladding with old deck boards is progressing well. The arena seating on the North end is now being constructed and the glass balustrade will shortly be fixed around the roof. Fitting of the Old Bandstand Pavilion for the new restaurant is underway. Everything is now in the final stages heading towards completion with a 'gala celebration' planned for May 2016, great stuff! 

See website for more information.      

Hastings Week starts today!

The 2015 Hastings Week kicks off today with the opening ceremony at 09.35 at the Town Hall in Queens Road, having started forming outside BHS 10-20 minutes beforehand. For more information on what's happening this week, go to the website.  

Stade Saturdays, in conjunction with Hastings Week, carries on with the Classic Car Show at the Stade, and continues on to Sunday (website).