LORNA HAMILTON -BROWN MBE

Written by Sophie Harper

Photography by Caitlin Lock

There was absolutely no mistaking Lorna Hamilton-Brown for anyone else when I saw her enter Eggtooth’s The Nest at The Old Town Hall for our interview this May. Dressed from head to toe in colourfully printed sports luxe with matching bucket hat and luminous trainers, donning her trademark Black Girl Magic earrings, she looked every part the craft maverick I’d heard so much about.

Lorna's knitted magazine cover, WE MEK. ©passion4.com

It’s true that most of us not privy to the world of drop stitch and purl have a certain image in our heads of what a typical knitting enthusiast looks like and admittedly, in my mind at least, Lorna is an exception, except she’s not – not in the real world.

The problem is, as Lorna so expertly explained to me, is that we only know what we’re told, what we see, and historically black people have been left out of craft books, magazines, and TV programmes on the topic. “Black presence in craft is really important to me,” she says, “early examples of knitting are found in Egypt, but everything else is from the European point of view. Everyone knows what Fairisle is or Scandinavian knitting style, but no one knows what African knitting looks like. I remember hearing about Indian knitting and being really surprised for the same reasons – because you never read about it or see examples – it’s not seen. If you were just relying on reading books about the history of knitting you will never see us. If you look at magazines in craft, it’s only recently that you see a black person featured on the front.”

Lorna tells me how despite being a keen knitter from the age of five, and now a knitting personality well-known in the community, she is frustrated by the lack of diversity in the craft world. “We did a talk with Heritage Crafts, that was interesting. They asked, ‘what do you think of when you think of British craft or heritage craft?’ – it all started from that point – I think it was Elaine Mullings (sculptor and art collaborator on Lorna’s We Out Here exhibition at Hastings Contemporary who said ‘whose heritage are we talking about?’).

“We’ve always crafted, but during slavery black people weren’t allowed silk or yarn, so they typically crafted with found materials, limited materials, so of course their work was always going to look different, but it was viewed as inferior. There was always a lot of snobbery over the level of stitching and that stitches had to be a certain size or length, but the skill was always there, it was just different. I think it’s important to look at craft from the black gaze, how we see things, and realise how our history hasn’t been written.

“My dissertation I did when I was at the Royal College of Art is about the myth that black people don’t knit. I was at an academic knitting conference (yes, there are such things!), and I commented that the audience wasn’t very diverse, and one academic said in response ‘that’s because black people don’t knit’! So, I thought I’d cover this in my dissertation, titled ‘Myth: Black People don’t Knit – the importance of art and oral histories for documenting the experiences of black knitters’. I actually came to the conclusion that she was right, because if you look at books on the history of knitting, we’re never mentioned, we’re never featured.”

Working hard to address this misconception, Lorna has championed black artists within the craft community, aiming to achieve more equal representation and diversity that on top of her first class honours degree in Digital Multimedia from De Montford University, Leicester, and Masters in Knitted Textiles from the Royal College of Art, has also gained her the position of a Patron of the Knitting & Crochet Guild, a spot on Vogue Knitting’s Diversity Advisory Council, and awarded her an MBE for her services to the community.

“I left school with no qualifications, I only had one CSE, which was art, so I went and did screen-printing at A-level – it was really complicated with overlaying. When we went to the moderator having looked for my work and seeing it had ‘fail’ next to it, we asked why and he said, ‘because somebody like her is not capable of that work – she must have cheated’. That happened to a lot of people and there was no recourse, my parents didn’t know how to appeal – that was my experience of studying art.” Astounded at what Lorna was telling me, I asked her whether anyone spoke to her or tried asking her about her work, “No,” she says, laughing at my disbelief.

“I’ve always knitted from an early age,” Lorna tells me, “it’s something that’s always been there. I had quite a disruptive childhood, but knitting was always something I went to and saw the artistic qualities in. It’s a place that I go to and it’s calming. My mother made clothes and my father made and sold candlewick bedspreads. They were both makers, my dad worked for himself he was always selfemployed, and I saw that you could earn a living from making. I started making children’s clothes when I was working in Knightsbridge, and I went to Harrods to speak to a buyer who said to me, ‘are you on the list?’ – I didn’t even know what the list was but she told me they didn’t consider anyone who wasn’t on the list, so I said fine, but then she came back to me and said, ‘oh actually, we found some space’ so there I was with my things being sold in Harrods! I didn’t enjoy it though – I remember going to look with my mum and they followed us around like we were shoplifters. I remember asking if I could have my name on the labels in the clothes and they said no, you’re nobody.”

In her thirties and living on the North Peckham Estate, Lorna heard about a mini foundation course she could take at Camberwell School of Art, so went and enrolled herself. “At the time my son, who’s going to be 30 this year, was a few months old. I went along and did this foundation, but I was so tired because I had to go home during the lunch break to breastfeed so I said to the tutor, ‘I’m really tired, can I sit down?’ and he said ‘we draw with the whole body, we stand when we draw!’ – really old school – they offered me a place but I didn’t want to take it because I was really tired and didn’t like the way they taught – I remember he said, ‘you don’t understand this is such a prestigious place, you will never have this opportunity again!’

We moved to Leicester and I thought I’d like to do an art foundation, I didn’t want to do textiles or anything like that, so I did digital multimedia and went to De Montford University afterwards – that was my first degree. They had game design, web design, but I was drawn to performance –doing projections and things like that. When I got to my final piece, which was about domestic violence, they said if you do this piece we will fail you – this isn’t a performance course, I was ahead of my time, but I’d calculated that even if I failed that module, I was still getting a first and I didn’t care, so I just did what I did. One of the tutors there used to say, ‘I’ve lectured at the Royal College of Art’ – I didn’t really know what the Royal College of Art was at that stage and I didn’t really care, and I remember saying ‘I’ll have your job one day!’ I ended up lecturing there and we worked together!” She laughs.

“I started to incorporate knitting into my artwork and then I started to incorporate performance into my artwork.” Telling me how she’s listened to The Archers since she was a child, she now works out her day by the show. “I listen to Radio 4 and it gets repeated at 2pm, so when I hear that I usually go for lunch and then I’ll work to The Archers until 7:15pm and stop. There was a storyline about domestic violence and I really wanted to respond to it and put the word out. In the Old Town there’s a plaque dedicated to a lady that was murdered – you walk past these things every day and don’t really notice and so I did a piece about Helen Archer and I put it out in front of there and did a whole social media post about it. It was really about coercive control, her partner was doing these things making her feel like she was going mad and then he took the son’s bunny, so I made the jumper with a bunny on it for Henry and I tied it on the railings at Alexandra Park and left it there.”

A lot of Lorna’s work is responsive to media headlines or topical debate, and often she’ll place her work in plain sight in public spaces to offer up a talking point to passers-by, an act that has gained her the reputation for being the ‘Banksy of Knitting’, according to Lauren O’Farrell, aka Deadly Knitshade – creator of the Stitch London craft community and founder of Graffiti Knitting and craft collective, Knit the City.

“When I first moved to Hastings I did two large knitted pieces. It was just after the London riots in 2011 – a lot of the pieces I make I just make them, there’s no commission, I just respond to things – anyway I made these pieces, called ‘Out of the Blue’, they were of two young people –the newspapers were demonising youth at the time talking about the ‘feral youth’, but it wasn’t only young people rioting, so I made these two pieces and I hung them at the seafront and asked people what they thought they were doing. People would stop and comment thinking they were holding guns, doing drugs, but the truth is they are just standing around minding their own business. I took them around schools to show the kids, and I’d tell them I was going to show them some knitting and they’d be like ‘ah Miss, knitting is so whack!’ and then I’d show them and they’d be like ‘oh this is so great’.”

Lauded for her work in the community, one of Lorna’s most recent projects has been the We Out Here (WOH) exhibition at The Hastings Contemporary, highlighting the talents of six local Black artists of Caribbean heritage,, which at the time of interview was in full-swing, and after hearing about her life (and finishing our hot chocolates) she asked if I’d like a whirlwind tour of the exhibition – I leapt at the chance, obviously.

Leading myself and two others in tow, Lorna offered up such insight into each and every artist’s background, medium, and role in the craft community. It struck me how generous she was with her time and knowledge, genuinely wanting to share the skills of her peers, speaking about Paul Hope’s stitched leather artwork ‘FROM’, Elaine Mullings’ vibrant sculpture ‘Co27: Blue Tears’ and ‘OG: A Kind of Blue’, Eugene Palmer’s touching paintings making up ‘Wave and Parade’, Richard Mark Rawlins’ wonderful tea towel piece ‘Conversations Over Tea’ and ‘JAB JUMBIE’, and Maggie Scott’s excellent printed velvet/nuno felted lenticular ‘Shopping?’ on waste colonialism, leaving her own work ‘Woman Blue-Elevate’ and ‘WE MEK’ knitted magazine covers, until last. Showing no sign of slowing down, I’m looking forward to more art collaborations and exhibits from Lorna – if you’re into art and storytelling, you’ll keep an eye out for her work too. ⚫

Talking Shop:

Written by Mel Elliott with photography by Caitlin Lock.

Bumble bees and hippies love ‘em and so do I! The earliest dates of us humans gifting flowers go back to the time of Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and the Roman Empire, then, because they were massive show-offs, the Victorians really went for it! With flowers on cards, wallpaper, soft furnishings, clothing, and with large bouquets adorning tables and mantelpieces. Our love of flowers hasn’t waned since these times and flowers are used for romance, to show appreciation, to celebrate, and to commiserate, they bring the outdoors in, provide fragrant aromas and an explosion of colour on even the dullest of days. They provide our brains with all of those ‘happy chemicals’ that we’re always searching for and you can literally make someone’s day by surprising them with a £1 bunch of daffs.

Searching for happiness himself, in 1980, a fresh-faced 22-year-old Geoff Clarke bought a modest shop at 13 Norman Road in St Leonard’s – he had ambitions of becoming a green grocer. “It was sort of half grocery, half florist and within about three weeks I realised that I hated green grocery but that I did rather like the flower side!”. Fast forward 43 years and La Collina Gardens is rooted firmly into the community, employing fifteen local people and providing fresh flowers, plants and happiness to local businesses, individuals and those all important weddings.

“When I first came here, it was a very well-to-do area,” he said of St Leonards, “there was a Russell & Bromley on the corner and there was a department store on Marine Court, it was a very posh area but it soon started going downhill and it went down and down and down, but recently it has all changed again and its a wonderful place to be now!”

Geoff explained that the florist industry has also changed considerably and that people are far more aware of flowers than they ever were. “I put that down to the good old supermarkets,” he said. “They’ve educated people into enjoying flowers and they’ve done us florists a favour.”

Geoff used to go to Covent Garden to buy his flowers but then he decided to do things a bit differently. “It was something that no florist in this country had ever done,” he told me. “I would go to Holland and buy flowers in the auctions. Holland is the flower capital of the world and they have the largest flower auction there. They have 24 hours of growing in these glass houses and when it gets dark, they have these special lamps that come on. When you approach, you get this wonderful orange glow and the closer you get, the stronger this glow gets.”

Geoff used to get in his van and make this trip to Holland every week, load it with flowers and then make a mad dash back again - I’m guessing that his van didn’t need one of those Magic Tree air fresheners dangling from its rear view mirror. Because of these trips, Geoff would often be the first in the UK to get hold of new varieties of flowers as Holland was so ahead of the flower game, not only growing flowers, but also having exotic species imported from Colombia, Israel, Italy, Brazil, you name it. “I did that trip every week right up until the 31st December 2020, before Brexit, and then I couldn’t go anymore. It became a nightmare with customs etc, and I miss it so much. I used to love going to Holland but sadly, those days are over.”

As with most things, flower trends change frequently and Geoff has to keep his finger on the pulse of his industry. “It’s always changing,” he said, “I’ll try something new sometimes and I’m too not sure, but then six months later it’s everywhere. I keep up to date, I’ve got to, it’s part of my job.” He tells me that some flowers never go out of fashion, such as peonies (a personal favourite of mine).

Along with his wife, Sharon, Geoff opened a second branch of La Collina Gardens in Bexhill, in 1992. “It’s fairly equal but I think St Leonard’s slightly has the edge these days, it’s because of all the trendy people coming in and spending a lot of money,” he said when I asked him which shop was more profitable. “In order for a florist to do well, they have to be linked to an undertaker,” Geoff told me, “and of course we have Towners straight across the road and he takes care of two thirds of funerals in the Rother area, he’s cornered the market. He’s my closest friend and I couldn’t wish success for a better person, he’s really generous and supports lots of local charities.”

Whilst Geoff insists that all his staff are qualified, paying for their tuition and allowing them time to study, he himself, has no qualifications to his name. “I had to learn in a hurry!”, he admits, telling me that back in the day, his only qualified staff member left to start up in London, creating arrangements for the likes of Elton John and George Michael rather than the residents of St Leonards. Geoff was left with no choice but to learn the art of flower arranging. “But I picked it up quickly and had a bit of a flair for it,” he said.

Whilst Geoff’s passion for his business, his shops and his team is absolutely clear to see, he does plan to retire in the near future, and no doubt his team will present him with a lovely bouquet when that day comes. ⚫

St Leonards shop: 13 Norman Road, St Leonards, TN37 6NH

Bexhill shop: 18 St Leonards Road, Bexhill, TN40 1HN

Vinyl records are cumbersome. They're delicate and are susceptible to warping in the heat. They can be annoying to flip over. But they're also perhaps the only piece of media technology that has remained unchanged in 75 years, when the first mass-produced 33rpm disc was manufactured for Columbia Records in 1948.

There's a reason for the continued survival of this format in spite of – or perhaps because of – its shortcomings. There's just something magical about vinyl. The physical connection between the stylus and the groove, the beautiful large-format sleeve art, the tactile physicality of the square paper sleeve and round plastic disc. Even their symbolic power as a reflection of your passion for a musician or subcultural tribe. A record collection might contain albums recorded and manufactured in 1955, 1977 and 2023, all different but equal, nestled together, waiting to be flipped through and rediscovered again and again.

When my partner Susan and I quit our day jobs and moved to Hastings nearly 10 years ago, it was with the sole purpose of opening a record shop in this seaside town we’d become smitten by. We’ve always been record collectors and had been selling records at London boot fairs for a few years, and were struck by the enthusiasm and friendliness of so many of the crate diggers we met at these fairs. It was such a pleasure to spend Sunday mornings in the company of these music fans – young and old – and to hear their stories. This raised the question –why not take a risk and do it full time? Many years later, we know that we chose the right town to do it in.

There are some towns, even cities, where an afternoon’s trawl through new and used record shops can be a dispiriting experience. The same old boring records at inflated prices in shops helmed by unfriendly staff who act more like gatekeepers. This has never been my experience in Hastings and St Leonards. I’ve lost count of the number of visitors to our town who have told us how lucky we are to have such great record shops here. I usually resist the urge to tell them it’s not luck but a lot of hard work and dedication, because who wants to be that person?

It’s no coincidence that this area is a haven for music obsessives and record collectors. It’s a deeply musical town, stuffed full of performers, writers, producers and journalists who have chosen to make a home here. Throw a stone from Hastings beach and you’ll almost certainly hit a DJ or a musician, though it would be discourteous to do so. It’s remarkable for a town of our size to enjoy such a rich seam of creative musical people, and this is reflected in the quality and vibrancy of its record collecting scene.

So whether you’re a fan of jazz, hip-hop, punk, soul or prog rock, you’re sure to find something in the racks of one of our local shops – not to mention the excellent Revolver record fairs that take place throughout the year.

Over the next few pages you’ll find a handy guide to the record shops of Hastings and St Leonards, along with honourable mentions for more great shops a little further along the coast. Happy digging!

Introduction by Tim Scullion

Listings by Beth King

Map illustrated by Mel Elliott

Photography by Joe Charrington

1. Bat Cave Records

23 Rock-a-Nore Road, Old Town, Hastings TN34 3DW

Open Sat 12–5pm

Opposite the fishing net huts, Bat Cave Records is open just five hours a week on a Saturday, or when the owner feels like opening. Look for the sign outside, it’s through a private courtyard. Don’t forget to visit the cashpoint first. Cash only!

2. Courthouse Records

Courthouse Mews, Courthouse St, Hastings TN34 3AU

Open daily, except Weds

Formally Rick’s Records, Courthouse is tucked away in the yard of a junk dealer in the Old Town. Now owned by Simon, it offers a huge selection of records for crate diggers.

Record I love:

Dave (pictured): The Hits of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood.

5. Japhy

Theaklen House Unit TH22, Theaklen Dr, St Leonards TN38 9AZ

Open weekdays, 9–5pm (by appointment)

Japhy specialises in dance music in all forms - techno, deep house, electro, acid, italo, hip-hop and electronica. You can dig through his warehouse unit of records up on the Ponswood Estate, which includes specialist collections that he sells globally on behalf of record labels, collectors and DJ's.

Record I love:

Laurent Garnier — 33 Tours Et Puis S’en Vont

6. King Records

14 Kings Road, St. Leonards TN37 6EA

Open Mon – Sat

You’ll find King Records down on the lower floor of the Dandelion Deli on Kings Road. Will and Andy sell the full spectrum of second-hand 12" and 7" vinyl. There’s a steady — and interesting —selection of new material that fills the racks - Latin, folk, disco, pop, soul, jazz, funk, rock, prog, reggae and more.

Record I love:

Will (pictured): Harout Vol. 8 Armenian Disco Folk

Andy: Nucleus – Elastic Rock

3. Dark Circles

Unit 6, Marine Court, St Leonards TN38 0DZ

Open Mon – Sun

Dark Circles is Adam (aka The Disc Slinger/Cloth + Wax) and Kim’s brand new seafront coffee and music hang-out. The shop was about to open when we went to print, but its record racks are guaranteed to be filled with quality, hand-picked new releases that’ll delight any discerning vinyl junkie.

Records we love:

Kim: De La Soul — 3 Feet High and Rising

Adam: Alice Coltrane — Journey in Satchidananda

4. DayGlo Records

20 Silchester Rd, St Leonards TN38 0JB

Open Mon – Sun

DayGlo is a record store, second-hand clothes shop and artists’ studios. Owners Rosie, alongside her parents, and Haydn have a nice selection of second-hand vinyl in stock from indie and soul to funk and disco, with some rock and pop jostling for attention.

Records we love:

Steve Sullivan: Pillows & Prayers Vol.1: Cherry Red Compilation Haydn: Naran Ratan — Trees etc.

7. Pressing Matters

85 Queens Road, Hastings TN34 1RG

Open Thurs – Sun

Marc (aka Mr Thing) and Steve Underwood’s record shop is in the basement of Printed Matter. Between them they sell an impressive selection of rare and sought-after soul, funk, hip-hop, breaks, jazz, library, punk, post punk, and more.

Records we love:

Mr Thing (pictured): David Shire – The Taking of Pelham One

Two Three (Original Motion Picture Score)

Steve: The Decayes – Accidental Musik

8. Printed Matter

85 Queens Road, Hastings TN34 1RG

Open Thurs – Sun

Owner of Printed Matter, Lee Humphries, sells the best vintage Jamaican re-issues ranging from rocksteady, ska, dub, roots reggae, soul and funk, as well as hosting author events and a radical book club. Together, Printed Matter and Pressing Matters is Hastings’ answer to a Virgin Megastore Three independent record sellers selling together.

Record I love:

Ernest Ranglin – Below the Baseline

* Check with each shop for opening times.

9. Tough Love St Leonards 10. Wow And Flutter

73 Bohemia Road, St Leonards TN37 6RG

Open Tues – Sun

Owner Anja Petitto’s Tough Love stocks a wide range of mostly new and pre-loved metal and rock vinyl, along with the latest obscure releases – anything from Nordic, neo-classical, soundtracks to indie and pop, alongside a 'Local Legends' section dedicated to local musicians. It's a community hub for music lovers up in Bohemia, hosting regular in-store performances each month and selling takeaway coffee, merch, artist prints, gifts, and more.

Record I love: Metallica – 72 Seasons

8 Trinity St, America Ground, Hastings TN34 1HG

Open Tues – Sat

Located in Hastings' offbeat America Ground for almost 10 years, Wow And Flutter sells a fine selection of curated used vinyl, CDs and tapes, along with vintage comics and cult Japanese toys. Owners Tim and Susan ensure there's a heaving rack of fresh stock every Saturday, so checking out what's new is a must.

Records we love:

Susan: Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking

Tim: Sun Ra – Liquidity

11. Music's Not Dead 12. Platform Two Records

De La Warr Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill TN40 1DP

Open Weds – Sun

Ollie and Del’s Music's Not Dead is a small indie record shop housed in one of the UK's most iconic cultural buildings, the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill. Specialising in new releases and re-issued Americana, folk, rock and blues, plus books and T-shirts.

Record I love:

Ollie: Garden Party – Rose City Band

Del (pictured): This is the Kit – Careful of Your Keepers

9 London Road, Bexhill TN39 3JR

Open Weds – Sat

Psych legend, Nick Saloman from The Bevis Frond who owned Platform One, handed the reigns over to Alex and Graci who now run Platform Two Records in Bexhill, specialising in psych, garage, prog, jazz, soul, reggae and punk. Their racks are filled with interesting and unusual vinyl, without silly prices.

Record I love:

Alex: King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King Graci: Fotheringay – Fotheringay ⚫

Steve Pai n ter food photography stevepainter_food_photographer www.stevepainter.co.uk

Written by Linda Baxter with illustration by Mel Elliott

From a child brought up by her grandparents, living in extreme poverty, to a lady amassing a fortune of £14 million, this truly is a “rags to riches” story (a kind we all love to hear). Catherine Cookson born Catherine Ann McMullen (Katie), until the age of seven thought her mother was her older sister. Her real father was a bigamist and a gambler.

She left school at the age of 13 and took many jobs, one of which was in domestic service. After this at 18-years-old she took a laundry job at Harton Workhouse in South Shields. In 1929 Catherine Cookson moved to Hastings. This was to run the laundry at Hastings Workhouse on Frederick Road in Ore.

In 1930 the workhouse was renamed Hastings Municipal Hospital and then after the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, it became St Helen’s Hospital. St Helen’s closed in 1994 and the 1903 buildings have now been demolished and a housing development now stands on the site. There is a road named Cookson Gardens just off Frederick Road (named after Catherine Cookson).

Mounted on West Hill House on Exmouth Place in the Old Town is the blue plaque that reads “Katie McMullen later famous as writer Dame CATHERINE COOKSON resident of Hastings 1930–76 lived here 1931-33, Hastings Borough Council” This was the first home where Catherine Cookson lived after moving to Hastings. It was a modest tworoomed flat.

Catherine Cookson was a diligent saver and by 1933 she bought a large Victorian house in Hastings, this being The Hurst, 114, Hoad’s Wood Road, Hastings. Here she took in lodgers and it was where she met her husband Tom Cookson. She resided here until 1954 and was able to stop working and concentrate on her educational book reading. There is also a blue plaque on this property which reads “Katie McMullan Later famous writer Dame CATHERINE COOKSON resident of Hastings 1930-76 lived here 1933-1954”.

In 1940 aged 34, Catherine married Tom Cookson, a teacher, at Hastings Grammar School. Sadness then came into her life when she experienced four miscarriages which resulted in a mental breakdown. It was because of this that she took up writing, to ease her depression, she also joined a writing group in Hastings. Her first novel (Kate Hannigan) was published in 1950 when Catherine was 44 years of age.

In 1954 Catherine and her husband instantly fell in love with a house in Hastings “Loreto” St Helen’s Park Road, which they were advised not to buy “as it needed work and was always up for sale”. They bought this house positioned in a most prestigious location in Hastings next to St Helens Woods where they would spend the next 22 years. This house had six bedrooms and was built in a mock Tudor style in 1938. They had to decorate this house themselves as money was limited at that time.

This was to be the home where Catherine Cookson would pen 40 books whilst always keeping a low profile. The blue plaque on this property reads “Loreto, Catherine Cookson Author lived here 1954 – 1976”.

Catherine became one of Britain’s bestselling authors; her upbringing played a big part on her writing as she wrote novels containing characters and conditions they lived in, worn down by their circumstances. She would visit mines, run down areas, farms and industries etc. to research the material for her books. She became the most borrowed author in Britain for 17 consecutive years.

Many of her novels have been adapted for TV, two that spring to mind are “The Mallen Streak” and “The Cinder Path” both of which I watched years ago. Others include “Dinner of Herbs” which was a TV series and “The Wingless Bird”. Many films have been made based on her writings and I’m sure Catherine Cookson readers all have a favourite.

Catherine Cookson left her beloved house in Hastings in 1976 to return to her birthplace in Newcastle. She was awarded an OBE in 1985 and made a Dame (Commander of the Order) of the British Empire in 1993.

Before her death in 1998 just before her 92nd birthday Catherine Cookson had written over 100 books (written in her own name or two other pen names) which sold more than 123 million copies in at least 20 languages.

Catherine Cookson donated over £1 million to medical research examining vascular diseases. This included a focus on detection of deafness in children conducted by the University of Newcastle. As well as the above she also helped the university fund its Hatton Gallery and library. Financial help and support would go to the less fortunate writers than her. Today the Catherine Cookson Trust gives donations to worthy causes in the UK.

Dame Catherine Cookson was a woman Hastings should be very proud of. ⚫

Written by Bev Lee Harling

When I first began looking into my family ancestry I had no idea of the impact it would have on my life. In January 2022 I was feeling creatively stuck. The postcovid landscape for musicians such as myself was looking pretty bleak and my Dad had just been diagnosed with mixed Dementia and Alzheimer's.

I sought the help of a creative coach, and Dr. Mo Cohen burst into my life. After a few sessions of focusing on what was holding me back, we got right down to the fundamentals of 'Who am I?' And 'Where am I from?' These might seem like fairly basic questions, but to me, they had been a huge question mark over my life ever since I was a kid. My Mum was a very secretive person and never spoke about her parents or family and as a result, I didn’t even know what my Grandparents' names were.

Through working with Mo Cohen and his transformational approach to creativity, I was encouraged to look into some of my family stories. The idea behind this is that we're all influenced by these inherited tales and that by working through them, we can free ourselves from the grip of those narratives, choosing how we would like to move forward.

I began doing this by recording some of my dad's early memories of life with my mum. Ask my dad what he had for breakfast and he couldn’t tell you, but drift back to the 1960's and the day he drove from London and met my mum at a coffee house she worked at in George Street and his descriptions can make you smell the coffee and hear the jukebox.

Then, using the usual genealogy sites, newspaper periodicals and local museums I began to do some family tree research and quickly became obsessed.

Through my research, I found out that my mum had lost her mum to cancer when she was just 8-years-old. Her father died a year later leaving her orphaned at the age of nine and she was then fostered until she got married to my dad.

In my research, I found two areas particularly difficult to find evidence of. The first was if you were a quietly law-abiding citizen, the second was if you were a woman. Thankfully my grandpa, George Victor Hutchinson, was neither of these and once I’d found a couple of newspaper articles about him and his various scurrilous petty crimes in the Halton area of Hastings, I was on a roll.

It turned out he'd been in and out of the local courts and prisons during his lifetime for assaulting policemen in Albion Street, driving dangerously, car crashes in Ore village, drunkenness in and around various different pubs in the Old Town, Halton and Mount Pleasant areas, violence towards pretty much anyone he came into contact with once he'd had a few drinks and my personal favourite, Larceny by Trick – where he tried to flog a motorbike that he didn't own by impersonating a door to door banana salesman (I'll leave that one to your imagination!). Usually, his defence was that he couldn't remember a thing due to the amount of homemade wine he’d consumed. It sounded like a normal night out in Hastings to me.

After my grandma, died, he left his kids to fend for themselves and shacked up with a Mrs Humm, the landlady of the Fortunes of War pub. She called the police on him several times for being drunk and violent, then he reported her for having illegal guns on the premises. According to her, they belonged to her dead husband Herbert Humm, who'd kept them after being in the military. There was, interestingly, no record of him ever having served in the military, but he had died very suddenly, leaving her to run the pub single handedly. Predictably, my grandpa also came to a sticky end in her pub from taking an overdose of Soneryl tablets, causing butobarbitone poisoning. It became clear why my Mum never talked of her earlier life.

I found a census from 1911 which showed that my longsuffering grandma, Jane Elizabeth White had lived in Ebernezer Road, just off All Saints Street and that her father, George Louis Duncan White's occupation was sited as being a fisherman. This was a revelation to me, I knew my mum had grown up in Hastings but had no idea that she was a part of one of the fishing families.

I was suddenly transported back to a memory as a kid, sitting on a little stool in our utility room in Ore Village. There is washing dangling from a string strung taut along the ceiling and there is rain, so much rain tapping its rhythms on the windows outside, rain drops having races with each other to get to the bottom of the pane. A door at one end leads to a concrete driveway where I have spent many hours bouncing on my rusty, hand-me-down pogo stick and learning how to ride my second hand bike with rubber rainbow tassels on the handle bars.

My mum is gutting fish. Chop, slice, swoosh. The fish are flat and brown with orange spots on them. Chop, slice, swoosh. The smell wafts over from the massive freezer trunk she uses as a work top, you know those ones which often house dead bodies in murder mysteries. I don't like that smell, it makes my nose wrinkle, but it is a familiar one that has always been in our house. The freezer trunk is always full to the brim of fish. I never question why or wonder where it is all coming from. It doesn't occur to me that these fish are actually a part of our family.

My whole understanding of my mum had changed. As I delved further back using the discovery of my great grandfather's name, I received an email from Nona Jackson at the Fishermen's Museum containing photographs of him and his son, Louis. To look upon the faces of my recently discovered ancestors was such a thrill.

Newspaper searches threw up a series of articles about a sea mystery that shook the residents of Hastings in March 1940 when a lugger boat called the Happy Return disappeared off the coast of Rye. There were no adverse weather conditions and an eye witness account from the harbour master told of how the boat was there one minute and not, the next.

I quickly went to the next article which talked of a body washing up on the ranges of Lydd several weeks later. There were two fishermen aboard the boat when it had disappeared: Richard Eason and my great uncle, Louis White. The body was Richard's, identified by his family. There was no trace on his body to indicate how he had come to be in the water, only that he had tragically drowned. I felt as though I was in the middle of a mystery novel, except this was about my own family and a town I'd known my whole life. It was nerve shredding as I clicked on the next article. Had Louis survived? How on earth had a whole boat disappeared?

A wave of sadness overtook me. There, in the black and white print, it told me that a second body had washed up, identified by my great grandpa, George White as being Louis. Devastated, I scoured the article for a mention of the boat or why this tragedy had happened. Nothing.

The following article, however, proved more fruitful. A diver from London had been employed by George Steel, the owner of the boat, to investigate where the boat had last been seen. He discovered the boat in its watery grave with the whole of the starboard side blown apart. His conclusion was that a mine had caught up in the trawl net of the Happy Return (the irony of that name!) and had blown the ship apart catapulting the two men into the water.

A heart melting description in the final article of "Crowds of silent watchers gathering at Rock-a-Nore road for the funeral, under the watchful eye of the flags of the fishing fleet at half mast" completely floored me. Listed under the evocative account of that day were all the people I had been researching – my grandma, great aunts, great grandparents, great great uncles and aunts, all grieving for the loss of Louis. It helped me to pull all the research together to be sure that all of these people were indeed my family.

A few weeks later, I found a picture of Great Grandpa George and his brother 'Jumbo' in Navy uniforms from WW1. They had both been Minesweepers, locating the underwater bombs and detonating them before they could cause any damage. I can't imagine how George must have felt when he realised what had happened to his son.

Inspired, I began creating music and writings influenced by the kind of traditional folk music you can hear on a Tuesday at The Stag pub in All Saints Street. Mo Cohen supported me throughout the process as I navigated through some difficult family revelations and my writing gradually began to develop into a one woman show. At The Stables Theatre, I was able to work on songs whilst looking straight out into the old town and the stomping ground of my ancestors. My interest began to be held by the women in this community, how had they coped with all the trials and tribulations, the losses and living their lives so closely in tune with the weather and the changing seas? Their lives were so poorly documented and so I allowed my imagination to start telling the stories I could find, but from the perspective of the women. My attention kept drifting back to my grandma and how she would have felt, waiting for the safe return of her brother, Louis.

After finding the story of the Happy Return I posted it on the local Hastings Old Town Fishing Community group on Facebook, asking if anyone knew anything. Incredibly, I was contacted by 95-year-old local, Violet Bailey, whose dad, Jack Simmons went out on the lifeboat looking for my great uncle Louis. I was lucky enough to meet with Violet and hear first-hand how close her dad had been to Louis and how shaken he’d been coming back from their fruitless search for the boat. I asked more about the lifeboat he’d been on and when she told me the name of it, I felt a shiver run down my spine. The Cyril and Lilian Bishop was the lifeboat used for the search and now stands, pride of place at the bottom of Harold Road, exactly opposite where I had been staring out of the window, writing the song about the Happy Return in the Stables bar.

Since embarking on my research, I have developed a stronger understanding of my mum, the hardships she faced and how they shaped the kind of mother she was to me. She overcame so many things to give me and my siblings a safe and caring environment to grow up in.

I've spent some great quality time with my dad visiting important times in his life. Recording them has been a fun project we've both been able to share. Also, by discovering the stories of people in my history and locals, it has given me new understandings of who I am and where I'm from and through telling the stories of other people it has begun to inform my creativity in new ways.

With the guidance of Mo, I've begun to choose which inherited stories I want to take with me and which ones to leave behind and, because this process has worked so well, we are starting up LifeWrights to help others go through the same process that I have.

So, unlike my grandma's poor brother Louis, over the course of investigating my family ancestry I have fortunately had a very happy return to my life as a creative. ⚫ bevleeharling.com lifewrights.com

Many towns will revel in the fact that they have a huge Cineworld complex with about a dozen screens and all the latest blockbusters available the second they’re dropped off of the Hollywood hills. Here we like to do things a bit differently though (of course). Whilst we do have an Odeon cinema in Hastings and a much larger Cineworld just down the road in Eastbourne, it’s the independent options that we are so privileged to have here in the area.

At the Kino Theatre in St Leonard’s, we can get dressed up to the nines to go and watch the latest Bond movie from the comfort of a chesterfield sofa and with a cocktail (shaken not stirred) in hand. At the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, we can enjoy rooftop screenings of classic films during balmy summer evenings, and in the heart of Hastings Old Town, we have The Electric Palace Theatre which feels nostalgic and traditional, with its gold velvet seating and dim, hazy lighting.

Walking up those steps is like entering another world. This small but perfectly formed cinema is run by a dedicated team of volunteers. One of those volunteers, Jamie Sellers, tells us more about what goes on there:

October 2022 saw the Electric Palace cinema in Hastings Old Town celebrate the 20th anniversary of its opening. But for a short time, it looked like this beloved local institution might not reach that landmark. The covid pandemic hit businesses everywhere and placed the very future of the cinema in doubt. The local community’s response to an appeal was overwhelming though, raising over £15,000 in less than a week.

I began working at the Electric Palace as a volunteer four years ago. I’m one of around 30 people, on rotation, from the local community, who will greet you as you enter, answer your questions and, on a very busy night, guide you to that last free spot in the cinema. Some of us do it out of a lifelong love of cinema, some to be surprised by films they know nothing about, and others simply because they enjoy meeting and talking to people. All of us appreciate the communal experience of sitting in a darkened room anticipating what unfolds on the big screen, something for which there is no substitute.

A volunteer since the outset, Glenys Jacques, describes her favourite thing about the Electric Palace:

Another who runs the door, Chris Pierre, highlights a key benefit of volunteering at the Electric Palace: the chance to socialise and discuss films after screenings, something the team says is really key to why people feel so passionately about the Electric Palace. It provides a welcome and open-minded safe space to share your thoughts about film. Chris says:

Some of the more unusual recent events in the cinema’s annual programme include a series of films about the great outdoors, with ‘forest bathing’ sessions held in nearby woods before screenings, and honey tasting from local vendor Bee Potion, as part of the annual Dear Future Film Festival, co-curated by the Electric Palace’s founder and co-director, Rebecca Marshall.

Local B-Movie enthusiast, Robin Elliott-Knowles, has been curating the monthly Sunday night B-Movie Fan Club at the Electric Palace since he was 13, inspired by a screening of Ed Wood’s legendarily hammy Plan 9 from Outer Space that he attended at the cinema. The idea behind the B-Movie Fan Club was both to celebrate the B-Movie genre and also to create an opportunity for Robin, who has autism, to cultivate an independent social life and make more connections. The club is a fantastic example of how this grassroots venue embraces ideas from its audience and enables them to flourish and create a community of its own within the venue. If that sounds in any way far-fetched, come along to a B-Movie night and experience it for yourself. When Robin was asked what he loves about B-Movies, he replied “I love their quirkiness and sometimes they are so bad that they are better than a so-called well-made film. They are just so unashamedly FUN!”

Robin loves sharing these films that he loves with other people, he enjoys being around like-minded nerds and autistic people. “They are my tribe” he says, “I love showing films that hardly anyone else has seen before and surprising them”. Robin also enjoys giving talks before his films which he promises are “both factual and fun”. And yes, sometimes he gives away the plot! “It’s an opportunity to talk to people, which, as a young autistic, adult, is very rare. I love the audience responses and laughing along with them. They are special nights and the audiences are wonderful, eccentric and kind.”

The team of directors steering the cinema into the future (existing co-Director Annie Waite, joined by new appointments Julia Andrews-Clifford and Antonia Clarke) have ambitions to really boost opportunities for the space to be used by more local community groups, schools and businesses to enjoy the benefits of the big screen setting.

A common reaction from newcomers to the stylish bijou setting, is a gasp of “Wow! What a lovely place!”. With its vintage golden velvet seats, a bar stocked with thoughtful items including liquorice sticks (“Some customers are very passionate about the liquorice!” notes Annie), and local ales handpicked by The Jolly Fisherman pub. The team really wants to ensure the community has the chance to make the most of the place. If you’re looking for a stylish venue for a special occasion, the cinema can be hired for private events and parties. There was even a romantic marriage proposal at one private hire screening a few years back.

The cinema already plays host to a variety of clubs and festivals, including the annual Hastings Comedy Festival, art exhibitions regularly adorn the walls. The now firmly established Hastings Punk Choir uses the venue for its weekly practice, and younger audiences are encouraged to learn about the industry via the Young Film Programmers Group.

As a Community Interest Company, the Electric Palace’s goal from the outset was to ensure it diversifies from being ‘just a cinema’ to really providing a community-focused venue. Many screenings have a ‘cinema plus’ element, an added incentive to ditch the sofa, brave the elements, and watch a film in the company of others. In its programming, the Electric Palace tries hard to represent films that are F-Rated: the F-Rating is applied to all films which are directed by women and/or written by women. This allows audiences to pro-actively choose to go and see F-Rated films, and highlights that women can and should have more than just a supporting role within the traditionally male-dominated industry.

Unpaid carers with a Carers Card can attend screenings for free alongside the person they care for, while any pianist who would like to entertain arriving audience members on the cinema’s 1880 Chappell piano, prior to a show, can earn themselves a free ticket to that performance.

But to continue to provide this warm and welcoming space, the Electric Palace really does need regular support. Competition from streaming services is at an all-time high, and if we don’t use these community spaces, we’ll lose them.

Hilary Claire Dunham Philips, profiled in the How We Met feature in Spring 2023’s Get Hastings, is a regular. The last word goes to her: “There are two things I love about the Electric Palace, first: the programming. I go to the Thursday morning film, only £5 and I get a free coffee. Unless I’ve already seen the film, I just book for whatever it is, regardless. The second is the staff. My memory is dreadful and I give them endless opportunities to point and laugh, I get the film wrong, the day wrong – once I even booked twice! But they just smile, pour the coffee and make sure my favourite seat is reserved. One of the best things about Hastings, that cinema.” ⚫