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Bohemia Village Voice No. 38. Saturday 23 September 2006.
Your free local newsletter - anything and everything to do with Bohemia
NATURE RESERVE
LOCAL BUSINESS
Mr Badger’s £1 park doing well Cake Box closes, Viv leaves... ... Cake Box opens, Viv arrives Bohemia Road’s well-known and well-loved bakers, The Cake Box closed on Tuesday this week - but reopened on Thursday under new ownership. Jean-Marie and Vivienne Barboteau had operated
of three would be kept on. Another staff member, who has been there for three years said she was ‘very sad’ at the changeover, but confirmed that the ‘new’ Viv was ‘a very nice person.’ Vivienne and
Sweet chestnuts and well-tended lawns in this wild-life haven behind Lidl’s car park (photo Wed 20 September)
Did you know that Bohemia has its very own nature reserve? ‘Brocks Home Park’ in Church Road, next to the Lidl supermarket is the place: a tiny badger sanctuary tucked away behind a wooden fence next to Lidl’s car park. The site, bought for a nominal £1, is owned and managed by the Hastings Badger Protection
Society. Spokesman Don Wise said “The sweet chestnuts planted a few years back are now bearing fruit, as are the black mulberries. In another 25 years time the trees will be quite big and will be providing plenty of food for the local wildlife.” Don’s colleague, Peter, looks after the site every Tuesday (Continued on page 4)
PROFILE - KEN BROOKS
The History Man - Ken Brooks Ex-St Paul’s teacher and passionate local historian Ken Brooks is interviewed by John Humphries for ‘Bohemia Village Voice’. Part 2 of Ken’s story: serious childhood illness and bullying at work failed to prevent his eventual acceptance into the world of teaching ... and history. Last week, we learned of Ken’s passion for local history, and about his Then & Now books, for which he went to endless trouble to get just the right shots. We hear now, how he literally risked his life for one shot ... of the America Ground. “One of the photos I needed,” explains Ken, “as a Now shot, was for a sketch of a view looking over the America Ground. I’ve got an old print of it, and there didn’t
New Cake Box owner Vivienne pictured Thursday of this week
the bakery for the last four years and had decided to take a break. All the bread sold is baked on the premises, which means a 2am start to the working day. The last day of trading for the Barboteaus was on Tuesday. The shop was closed on Wednesday and new owners, Vivienne and Andy re-opened for business on Thursday. Long time customer Eileen Fermor commented “I only hope the new people’s eclairs are as good as the previous owners.” Assistant Fiona said that she understood all the current staff
Andy moved down from Northampton on Monday, just two days before officially taking over. “It’s our first business venture,” said Viv, “although my husband has been a baker for twenty years.” They will live over the shop with their two girls, Rebecca, 9 and Jessica, 6. “They’re going to St Paul’s School.” A very warm welcome to Bohemia! The Cake Box, 49, Bohemia Road. Tel. 01424 420872. Vivienne and Andy Berry.
SUMMERFIELDS SPORTS CENTRE Local author Ken Brooks
seem to be any way of taking a photo from the same viewpoint. The original was probably an artist’s impression, I don’t know how the artist had got this view, whether there was building on which he could have climbed up, I don’t know. But there was a building which stands up behind Courts Furnishers, a very tall building, now flats. I thought if I could get (Continued on page 2)
Get fit at Summerfields extend with Julie Four new exercise routines start this month at Freedom Leisure’s Summerfields’ site in Bohemia Road. Julie offers ‘Extend’ on Thursdays from 12:45pm to 1:30pm, Vicky runs hour-long sessions ‘LBT’* and ‘Cardiotone’ on Fridays from 9:40 and 10:40am respectively and on Saturdays, Leila also does ‘Cardiotone’ from 10:00 to 11:00am. The cost of each
class is £4.65 for non-members and £3.60 for members. Membership is £14 per year which covers the classes and the swimming pool. For full use of the gym, the cost is £32 per month, payable by direct debit. * LBT? - legs, bums and tums. Freedom Summerfields, Bohemia Road. Tel. 0845 337 4040 (option 7).
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Bohemia Village Voice No. 38. Saturday 23 September 2006.
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SERIAL
Vie de Bohème - how the Bohemian Club was formed (Part 16 of 24) The story so far ... Artist and musician Alexandre Schaunard has been thrown out of his room for non-payment of rent and has been traipsing the streets of Paris, searching for anyone from whom he can borrow a few francs. Hunger drives him at last to a cheap eating house, where he falls into conversation with a philosopher and man of books, Gustave Colline, who earns his living giving lessons in mathematics and various sciences ending in ‘ics’. Now read on ... The small sums that he earned by this kind of of bear-leading, Colline spent on buying old books. His nut-coloured coat was known to all the stall-holders on the riverside, from the Pont de la Concorde to the Pont Saint-Michel. What he did with all these books - more of them than a man could read in his lifetime - nobody knew, least of all himself. But the itch has assumed with him the nature of a passion; and, if he returned at night to his lodging without a new acquisition, he would say, in the words of Titus: ‘I have wasted my day.’ His pleasant manners, his language, which was a mosaic of all known styles, and the appalling puns with which he studded his conversa(Ken Brooks, from page 1) into that building and get up to the top, I’d get the view I wanted.” Ken spotted a chap coming out and explained what he was trying to do, and the fellow said ‘Oh yes, you can come in’. “The best view meant going through his bedroom, climbing through his bedroom window, onto a narrow ledge, with a drop of about 100ft! I edged my way along this ledge, until I got to the corner of the building, and that was the view, the one I wanted.” When told he was mad, Ken just laughed. PUBLISHER
How did Ken’s books come to be published? “The course I taught at Ore Community Centre, Hastings Then and Now has been running since the 1980s and each year I add more material to it. I got to a point about 6 years ago when I’d got so much material that I thought perhaps I ought to produce a book. That was when I started on the book Hastings Then & Now. It covered the Old Town, the
tion, overwhelmed Schaunard, who without further ado, asked Colline’s leave to add his name to those on the famous list we have already mentioned. They left Mother Cadet’s at nine o’clock in the evening, both passably tipsy and with the carriage of men who have held lengthy dialogue with the bottle. Colline invited Schaunard to drink coffee with him, and the latter accepted on condition that he might pay for the accompanying alcohol. They ascended to a café on the Rue Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, bearing the signboard of Momus, god of sport and laughter. As they entered, a lively discussion had broken out between two customers. One of these was a young man whose face could hardly be seen for a huge, bushy, many-coloured beard. To set off this prognathic hirsutism, a premature baldness had stripped his temples as bare as a knee. A cluster of hairs, so few as to be almost countable, vainly endeavoured to
conceal this nakedness. He wore a black jacket with tonsured elbows, which allowed a glimpse, when he raised an arm unduly, or airholes at the places where it debouched into the sleeves. His trousers were perhaps black; but his boots, which had never been new, seemed to have already made several world tours on the feet of the wandering Jew. Schaunard noticed that his new friend Colline and the young man with the heavy beard exchanged greetings. “You know that gentlemen?” he asked the philosopher. “Not intimately,” said Colline. “I meet him sometimes at the Library. I believe he is a man of letters.” “He’s dressed like it, at any rate.” The person with whom the young man with the beard was engaged in controversy was about forty years of age, and destined to die of apoplexy, to judge by a large head which entered his body
town centre and the seafront. But it meant doing all the ‘now’ photographs again, to update them. All the ‘Now’ photographs in that first book were taken in about 2000.” The first volume finally came out a couple of years later, in 2002. And the second volume? “I found I still had a lot of photographs left over, covering Silverhill, St Leonards, Ore Village and other places, so I thought ‘Right, we’ll start on another one’, which came to be called Around Hastings, Then & Now, which was published in 2004.” Both books follow the same format: on the left is the ‘then’ picture or print, and on the right, the ‘now’ photograph for comparison. Ken explained that the second book took twice as long to prepare as the first. “The ‘then’ photographs in the second book were not of the same high quality as the first book, and needed a lot more re-touching to bring them up to standard.” Ken published both books himself, and that included
getting them into bookshops. How did he manage that? “Every bookshop I went to except Smiths, said, ‘Oh yes, we’ll have them’, but Smiths, apparently, have a budget which is very strictly controlled by head office, which means that they can only take a certain number of local books. But Olio and Sussex Stationers, the Information Centre, Ottakers, the Fishermen’s Museum, the Shipmate Heritage Museum all sell them. They just phone me if they want more copies and I drop them off the same, or next, day.” Why did Ken decide to publish the books himself, rather
directly between his shoulders, without an intervening neck. All the signs of the cretin could be read on his narrow forehead, which supported a small black smoking cap. His name was M. Mouton, and he was a clerk at the Town Hall of the 4th District, where he kept the register of deaths. “Monsieur Rodolphe!” he shouted in a eunuch’s voice, shaking the young, bearded man, whom he grasped by a coat-button, “would you care to hear my view? It’s this: all the newspapers, they’re all worthless. Just to illustrate my meaning: me, I’m the father of a family, aren’t I? Well, then ... I come to the café to play dominoes ... Pay close attention to my train of thought.” “Proceed, then, proceed,” said Rodolphe. (To be continued) Vie de Bohème by Henry Mürger, a vivid portrait of the ‘Bohemian’ life of the artistic quarter of Paris in the nineteenth century was originally published (by Michel Lévy) in 1851. The extract above is taken from a translation by Norman Cameron, published by Hamish Hamilton. The illustration is by Dodi Masterman. than use a publisher? “Actually, I did use a local publisher for the first of the Hastings Then & Now books, but I was extremely disappointed by the quality of reproduction of the photographs. I decided to take over the publishing myself so that I could ensure the pictures were printed just the way I wanted. I even went to the printers on the day of printing to check that they were being printed properly.” (To be continued. In part III, read how Ken’s inquisitive schoolchildren aroused his own interest in geology, leading to a book and a course of lectures.
PROPERTY TO LET
Bohemia shop to let £100 pw A Bohemia shop came onto the market this week: number 65, Bohemia Road is being offered by agents Easy Let at £100 per week. Spokesman Mark said “The total area of the shop is about 70 square metres, which includes a large open-plan storage area and sepa-
rate toilet at the rear.” It is understood that there is also a two-bedroomed maisonette and a one bedroomed flat for rent, at £475 and £350 per calendar month, respectively. Easy Let Rental Agents. Tel. 01424 447080.
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Bohemia Village Voice No. 38. Saturday 23 September 2006.
HISTORY OF BOHEMIA
Gipsy teas and syllabub This is the final part of five excerpts from a February 1966 Hastings Observer article entitled ‘Bohemia For Gipsy Teas And Syllabub’, in which J. Mainwaring Baines, curator of Hastings Museum, explores the possible origins of the name ‘Bohemia’. In this last extract, he delves further back in time and concludes that the original name may not have been ‘Bohemia’ at all, but ‘Crotesley’. Read, also, how ‘Hornty’ was rented for 2 pence: One little field close by the modern drive to Summer Fields is just ‘Rough Land’, but a map of the estate dated 1795 shows it as ‘Tom-a-Corners’. This unusual name occurs in the Rental of the Manor of Yielding; for example, in 1729, Frances Weller, widow, paid 2d for Hornty and 6d for Tom-aCorner. Here we remember that John Collier once held the land, so we turn to his papers, and find that, in 1741, he bought the farm ‘Coteley and Cheneys’, then farmed by Samuel Cramp, and that Hornty and Tom-a-Corner paid quitrents of 2d and 6d respectively. A little earlier it was described in a deed as ‘Coatesley and Cheyneys’. Finally, and this is where we come to the point of these researches, among the Priory deeds, in the muniment room attached to the Hastings Museum, is a deed dating from the 12th century, which is a grant of land by William, son of Urban Hastings, to ‘Robert of Crottelsleha’. This
includes five acres ‘adjoining the lands of Crottelsleha’, one acre upon ‘hornegha’, and one acre lying to the east of the great way leading from Hastings to Battle. In other words, this is part of what is today the Summer Fields estate, formerly the Brisco estate, formerly Bohemia Mansion or Farmhouse, formerly Foster’s farm. ‘Coteley’ and ‘Coatesley’ are obvious corruptions of Crottesley, which is also known as Cortisley - a long, lost Hastings Manor. Crotesley was a scattered manor with lands in Hollington as well. In 1320, part of it was swallowed up by the sea. In Domesday Book it was spelled ‘Croteslei’, and owned by Lord Godwin. In the time of Edward the Confessor, it was worth 100 shillings but at the time of the survey, 1087, £6 7s. Which reminds one that Duke William did his utmost to prevent damage to property in the immediate Hastings area. Well, we have come a long way from the syllabub parties and elegant company of the 18th century to answer Miss Redmayne’s inquiry. We can only say that it is probable that Bohemia took its name colloquially from open-air parties in the gipsy fashion, but that going back far enough, the real name of the property was Crotesley. Further reading: Historic Hastings by J. Manwaring Baines, F.S.A, published by Cinque Ports Press, 1986.
HISTORY OF BOHEMIA
North Road - 1974 This listing was published in the 1974 edition of Kelly’s Directory of Hastings with St Leonards and Battle. The abbreviations are probably as follows: decrtr = decorator; Geo. = George; Rt = Robert. North Road runs from 44, Bohemia Road to 287, London Road.
2. Thorpe, L. M. 3. Cobey, Geo. C. 4. Anderson, C. F. decrtr. 5. Cosens, Doris F. 6. Stewart, Miss M. E. 7. Prince, J. V. 8. Boyle, Rt W
SOUTH SIDE 1. Speare, Florence. 2. Burge, I. A. 2. Burge, S.
NORTH SIDE 10. Everist, B. D. 11. Layen, Norman D. 12. Relfe, Kenneth. 13. Joy, Brian E.
FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY The Hastings & Rother Family Society holds its 20th annual fair at Horntye Park on Sunday 20th October. The fair is open from 10:00am to 4:30pm. Entrance is £2
plus £2 for each of up to four talks. Guest speakers include Michael Gandy, Dr Nick Barratt, Anthony Adolph and Col Iain Swinnerton. Further info: Linda Smith, 01424 437493.
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Puzzle Corner Q. Who left this large ship’s anchor lying around - somewhere in Bohemia? Answer in next issue.
straw. A drain would be provided in the bottom of the icehouse in order to drain off the meltwater. The building would often be built into a bank and covered with earth in order to insulate it thermally. The general assumption is that such buildings would be used for the preservation of meat and fish. However this was not the case; ice was used to make the icecreams, chilled drinks, syllabubs and so on consumed during the summer
Where is this anchor and chain?
Last week’s puzzle The picture is last week’s puzzle shows an ‘ice house’, once part of the Bohemia House estate, and which is shown on an 1834 map. It is located in an earth bank in a car park between the Law Courts, Horntye Park Sports Complex and
Summerfields’ icehouse
the Fire Station. The late Mr J M Baines, one time museum curator described the Summerfields Ice House as a ‘single bee-hive shaped room dug into the ground, and completely hidden except for its domed roof. It would have been packed with ice during the winter and served as a refrigerator for food’. Baines went on to say that ‘such houses are extremely rare and this house has been preserved in good order’. An icehouse is generally comprised of a deep brick lined well surmounted by a domed or sometimes pyramidal roof. An entrance passage sometimes with a curve would be fitted with two doors to prevent the ingress of heat. The ice would be cut in the winter from shallow ponds and stacked on a bed of straw and also covered in
Cross-section of the icehouse
months and the ability to provide these exotic luxuries would raise the owner’s social status. The development of compressor driven refrigeration in the latter part of the 19th century rang the death knell for these structures. In 1972 all of the upper entrance was visible. The roof to the entrance was subsequently destroyed because it was mistaken for an air-raid shelter. Listing of the structure was only finally achieved in May 1999. Part of the inspection report read: ‘The ice house was thought to have been part of Westel Brisco’s improvements to the Bohemia Estate following his purchase of the house and grounds in 1831. It was built of coursed local stone with the dome covered in cement render. The icehouse consists of ‘a semi-subterranean single beehiveshaped chamber measuring 3.7m. square on plan and 5.5m. in height built into a north facing bank. The main entrance on the south-west side was by a short tunnel, now demolished, which arrived in the chamber at mid level. The floor of the chamber contained a drain outlet. The ice house was adjacent to a courtyard fronting Bohemia House. Bohemia House was demolished about 1972’. At time of inspection this was the only known ice house in the Borough of Hastings. It was open to the public as part of the Civic Trust’s Heritage Open Day Programme in September 2005.
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Bohemia Village Voice No. 38. Saturday 23 September 2006.
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SURVIVING CHRISTMAS
(Mr Badger, from page 1) and “will be delighted to show round anyone interested in the project.” The Badger Protection Society was founded in 1987 by Don and others. Don was, for ten years, Hastings’ first Country Park warden, in Fairlight, back in 1973. The land which now forms Brocks Home Park was acquired from Lidl in about 2002 - for just £1. When the supermarket giant applied to build on their current site, one of the conditions attached to the permission was that land be set aside for wildlife, which is how the society acquired it. Don explained: “Only if there is an outbreak of rabies or suchlike calamiBOHEMIA VILLAGE VOICE Printed copies of the Bohemia Village Voice may now be collected from any of the following places: Alldays Supermarket, Bookman’s Halt, Dripping Spring pub, Empress Art in Tower Road, Horntye Park Sports Complex, Munday’s Newsagents, News & Booze in London Road, Pet Shop in Bohemia Rd, Shell Service Station, Summerfields Sports Centre, Tower Hotel, Wood’s
ty within the next 21 years will the site revert to Lidl. In the meantime, the trees continue to grow ...” The society hopes, as soon as funds permit, to remove the wooden fence along Church Road and erect iron railings instead. “This will enable the public to see what the park looks like,” said Don. “Apart from the trees, and a long earth bank, there is also a ‘splash pond’ where birds can drink and, er, splash. Our groundsman, Peter, has planted lots of daffodils.” Hastings Badger Protection Society, 304, Bexhill Road, St Leonards, TN38 8AL. Tel. 01424 439168 and 431188. Don Wise.
Newsagents, YMCA in St Paul’s Road. The newsletter is now being delivered house to house in the following streets: Bohemia Road, Cornfield Terrace, Horntye Road, London Road, Lower South Road, North Road, Spring Street, St Peter’s Road and Tower Road. Remember you can receive a full-colour version by e-mail.
The True Spirit of Christmas! This year is the 21st anniversary of the Surviving Christmas project, which endeavours to provide food and company for those for whom Christmas is a time of hardship and loneliness. The event will operate on December 25th and 26th at the YMCA Sports Centre in St Paul’s Road, Bohemia. All visitors to the centre, will be provided with Christmas lunch, shelter, company, a change of clothes, hot showers - and a free haircut! The organisers will also be packing and distributing hampers to families and individuals who find Christmas a financial struggle. In addition, they will be providing food vouchers to families and individuals. Surviving Christmas is a charity which meets monthly, throughout the year to plan, and raise funds for, its annual Open Christmas, held at the YMCA. The event is open to everyone, everything is free, and no questions are asked. There is a stock of clothing offering new & (clean) second-hand clothing for men, women and children in a huge variety of sizes. There are tea bars
open all day dispensing tea, coffee, soft drinks, cakes, biscuits, sweets etc. Volunteers provide a range of services including hairdressing and sometimes chiropody. Showers and hair washing facilities are also available. Each day the organisers serve a cooked meal - complete with a pudding - for up to one hundred and fifty visitors. In addition to the Open Christmas the Voucher and Hamper projects are also undertaken. The charity relies entirely on donations of goods, services, and money as well as a small army of volunteers who do all of the hard work. If you feel that you can help in any way or simply wish to know more please contact Surviving Christmas. They are especially keen to acquire the services of a chef, as Chris Gimblett, who was going to do the job, sadly died earlier this year. Surviving Christmas. Eileen Kilby 01424 424550. Judith Wycherley: 01424 424719. www.survivingchristmas.co.uk Charity Number 1033117.
Property round up - local homes from £75,000 Here is a small selection of houses and flats in Bohemia currently on the market. Prices range from £75,000 for a one-bedroomed flat to £275,000 for a four-bedroomed detached house overlooking Amherst tennis club. Location
Price
Description
Agent
Telephone
Bohemia Road . . . . .
£74,950 1-bed ground floor flat, fitted kit & bath, front garden
Fox & Sons
01424 722177
Tower Road . . . . . . . .
£95,000 2-bed maisonette, private entrance, dbl glazing, gas central heating
Simply Homes
01424 437666
Tower Road . . . . . . . . £125,000 3-bed first floor maisonette, bathroom, shower room, entryphone
Andrews
01424 722122
Buchanan Gardens . .
£249,950 3-bed semi-detached house, bathroom, shower room, 3 WCs
Simply Homes
01424 437666
Woodland Vale Road
£179,950 3-bed, 1930s semi-det house, 2 recep, gas cent heat, dbl glz, rear garden
Fox & Sons
01424 722177
Horntye Road . . . . . .
£219,950 4-bed end terrace house, 2 recep, kit/break room, 2 en-suite showers
Rush Witt Wilson 01424 442443
Tower Road . . . . . . .
£125,000 3-bed first floor maisonette, bathroom, shower room, entryphone
Andrews
01424 722122
Amherst Road . . . . .
£274,950 4-bed detached house, views over tennis club, conservatory, garage
Fox & Sons
01424 722177
Bohemia Road . . . . .
£169,950 5-bed semi-detached house, gas ch, dbl glzing, stripped pine panel doors
Fox & Sons
01424 722177
Tower Road . . . . . . .
£125,000 3-bed first floor maisonette, shower room, entryphone, roof terrace
Andrews
01424 722122
Bohemia Road . . . . . . £210,000 Large premises incl shop and two 2-bed flats above requiring completion
Abbey Gate
01424 772477
Spring Street . . . . . . . £159,950 Three 2-bed town houses, en suite shower, courtyard gdn, gas cent heat
Abbey Gate
01424 772477
Grapevine SPRING STREET Rumours that the three new town houses currently being built in Spring Street are ‘all sold’ was denied this week by Abbey Gate Properties who are marketing them. A spokeswoman said that ‘No property is sold until it’s sold’, that ‘negotiations are pro-
Bohemia Village Voice ceeding’ but no sales had yet been completed. CHESS CONGRESS The 82nd International Chess Congress will be held at Horntye Park from 28 Dec to 7 January 2007. Many prizes, the top one being £2,000. Further info: chess office, tel. 01424 718950. Con
Power, tel. 01424 431970. Pam Thomas, tel. 01424 445348. BOHEMIA VILLAGE VOICE Please note that there will be no edition published next Saturday the 30th September. The next issue will be available on Saturday 7 October.
Edited and published by John Humphries at 33, St Peter’s Road, Bohemia Village, Sussex, TN37 6JQ. Tel. 01424 446759. E-mail: john@johnhumphries.f2s.com Proof reader: Valentine Torrington. First published May 2006. © John Humphries 2006. Printed by Fastprint of St Leonards, Sussex. Circulation (Sept 9): print version: 324, e-mail: 80, total: 404. Next issue: No. 38, Sat 7 October 2006.