Hastings Old Town Guided Walk

Well I seem to have sorted out my IT problem, but don't hold your breath... Anyway, tomorrow (14th August) will again be blessed with an opportunity to take part in the Old Hastings Preservation Society's (OHPS) regular Tuesday afternoon free guided walk of Hastings Old Town. If you wish to follow the walk you need to meet up by the top of the West Hill Lift for 2.30pm. A volunteer guide from the OHPS will show you around the old town, with its historic buildings, twittens, and its many stories, and will tell you about the wealth of talented celebrities of their age who have visited and/or lived here, for example, a number of the Pre-Raphaelites in the 19th century (blog), indeed, the celebrities do still keep on arriving!

The walk will proceed across the West Hill and lead gently downhill into the old town, with a number of steps involved, and will last about 2 hours. The OHPS provides for this guided walk free of charge, though as a registered charity, they would be very grateful for all donations made, many thanks (website). You are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes, and the weather is forecast to be fair again, though likely some cloud (Met Office). Enjoy the afternoon!

Hastings parks win national awards, yet again!

Hastings Country Park

Hastings Country Park, Alexandra Park, and St Leonards Gardens have all won Green Flag Awards (website), an extra notch from last year (blog).

Alexandra Park

St Leonards Garden

In addition, Alexandra Park (blog) and St Leonards Gardens (blog), both the creations of award-wining designers, received Green Heritage Site Accreditation for their historic management. Congratulations to them all, and to all those who work to preserve these excellent green spaces for Hastings, nice one!

The Carnival is over!

The Carnival Parade on Saturday, not quite here yet, but a crowd's gathered...

 

So a wander down the road, and the Coastguard truck at the front...

 

And a few on foot following the Coastguard truck...

 Lifeboat coming up!

The lifeboat and crew/volunteers, and with her last journey as the leading light of the Hastings Old Town Carnival Parade. In case you weren't already aware, the new Shannon Class Hastings lifeboat will be arriving this autumn, apparently it is too long to get around the roundabout at Iceland, though you will still be able to view the new boat at the lifeboat station, when it isn't out on call.

Respect to the RNLI lifeboats and their crew and volunteers!



Old Town Walk - Back to normal...

Well, the Carnival is over, and the Old Hastings Preservation Society's (OHPS) regular Tuesday afternoon free guided walk of Hastings Old Town is back to just it's usual day, for now. The walk meets up later today, by the top of the West Hill Lift at 2.30pm. A volunteer guide from the OHPS will show participants around the old town of Hastings, with its historic buildings, twittens, tales and stories, and share knowledge about the number of talented celebrities of their age who have visited and/or lived in Hastings, eg a number of the Pre-Raphaelites in the 19th century (past blog), and they keep on arriving!

The walk will cross the West Hill and head gently downhill into the old town, with a number of steps involved, and lasts up to 2 hours. The OHPS provides for this guided walk free of charge, though as a registered charity, they would be very grateful for all donations made, many thanks (website). People are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes, and the weather is forecast to be sunny, mostly, but with the chance of a shower (Met Office), so maybe an umbrella, light waterproof clothing, and Factor 50 and/or head covering may be appropriate!

Whatever, enjoy the afternoon!

Hastings Old Town Carnival, still occurring!

So, the Pram Race was blessed with lovely weather this year, thankfully, and here is the Lifeboat team halfway round in the High Street (with many thanks to their facebook page for the image, cheers!), and the full sized lifeboat may well be in the parade on Saturday (though the new Shannon Class lifeboat due for arrival in the Autumn may not be in the parade next year, apparently, due to technical reasons, as in it is longer, I believe!), anyway, a wee bit larger than the excellent lifeboat 'pram' on show above!

Plenty still to come, of course, walks, exhibitions and so much more, for example, today (Thursday) sees the Whelk Eating Competition, 5.00pm at Reeves Corner, and the Grand Charity Auction from 6.30pm at the same venue (with thanks to their website for this image, and for more details of events). Although events carry on into Sunday (website), the real culmination of the week is the Grand Carnival Procession which starts at 5.00pm from Rock-a-Nore Road on Saturday (website); though some local roads will be closed off to normal traffic from 3pm until 8pm!

Whatever you do, please enjoy yourselves!

I'm still having IT issues, so my apologies for brief and irregular blogs, I should be back to normal in a week or so, fingers crossed...