Hollington History

Most villages are located in the vicinity of the parish church; this does not appear to be the case in Hollington. As early as 1639, the churchwardens were reporting that there was no house within a quarter of a mile of the church.

 It is thought that at one time the village was centred near Stonehouse Farm, however, by 1835 the nearest thing to a village was the cluster of tenements to be found in the upper part of Old Church Road. Lower down at Hollington Corner, where the youth club stands at the junction with Wishing Tree Road, was the site of the old forge and the early nineteenth century guide books all directed visitors to Hollington Church in the Wood via Hollington Corner, where in 1835 Mrs Pain was providing ‘every requisite’ for gypsy parties and there was a public house where ‘bead, cheese, ale etc., of a good quality may be had’.

 Hollington Corner was prevented from developing into the village proper by the opening of the new turnpike road to Battle, the Battle Road, on 20^th August 1838. The licensee of the ‘Hollington Corner Inn’ moved to the new ‘Victoria’. Hollington was suddenly more accessible than it had ever been and the new road was an obvious target for growth. A large number of men who had worked on the Battle Road and the rival turnpike scheme, Sedlescombe Road North, stayed in the area, there roadside huts gradually being replaced by the cottages that shaped Hollington village as it is generally thought of.

 There was plenty of work for the men in the brickfields and quarries producing the raw materials for the building schemes that were transforming Hastings and St Leonards. While others went labouring for the railways, busy in the 1840s digging out the embankments and laying the lines which would connect the town to the outside world.

 The population of Hollington rose from 338 in 1831 to 579 in 1851 and 1053 in 1871 there was rapid growth then until 1939 when the total population of the village was estimated at 7,000.

 The history of The Rising Sun cannot be dealt with on its own, because it was part of a new development known as ‘Rose Place’.

 Rose Place

The development of Hollington village had progressed along Battle Road from Hollington Corner as far as Pitcherville Terrace by the mid – 1860s. The population increasing from 338 in 1831 to 1053 by 1871.

 This increase in population created the need for new commercial outlets to serve the needs of a growing community and as a result, work started in 1867 on the building of

4 retail outlets known as 1, 2, 3 and 4 Rose Place consisting initially of a general shop, beer house, baker and butcher. Numbers 1 and 2 Rose Place were separated from number 3 and 4 by a narrow lane down to Hollington Old Lane. (See Plates 1and 2). Number 3 Rose Place developed into a successful baker and confectioners ran by T.W. Waters and Son, whose household on the 1871 Census was;

 Thomas Waters – age 36 – Baker employing 1 boy – Born – Folkestone, Kent.

Wife – Mary Ann Waters – age 29 – Born – Yorkshire.

Son – Thomas Waters – age 3 – Born – Hastings, Sussex.

Daughter – Alice Waters – age 1 – Born – Hastings, Sussex.

Sister in Law – Jane Tailor – age 26 – Born – Yorkshire.

 While J Tindall the butcher operated at number 4 Rose Place and his household on the 1871 Census was; (See Plates 3 and 4).

 John Tindall – age 29 – Butcher – Born – Hastings, Sussex.

Wife – Emma Matilda Tindall – age 30 – Born – Wooton Under Edge Gloucestershire.

Daughter – Emily Matilda Tindall – age 6 – Born – Hastings, Sussex.

Son - Frank Tindall – age 4 – Born – Hastings, Sussex.

Daughter – Harriett Tindall – age 1 – Born – Hastings, Sussex.

Daughter – Mary Tindall – age 1 month – Born Hastings, Sussex.

Servant – Emily Burton – age – 17 – General Servant – Born – Hastings, Sussex.

 On October 31 1877, Thomas Brassey laid the foundation stone for a new mission church at the rear of 3 Rose Place. (See Plate 5).

 1878 was listed as St. Mary in the Castle Mission Church – Rose Place.

1895 to 1900 listed Silverdale Church – Rose Place.

1900 to 1902 listed as Silverdale Church – Battle Road.

1903 to 1936 listed as Silverdale Mission Hall – Battle Road.

1937 to 1950 listed as St James Mission Church – Battle Road.

1951 – St James Mission Church for sale.

The Basement Room of the Church;

1911 – Silverdale Club –Shooting, Draughts, Ping Pong, Boxing and Gym Exercises.

1920 – Opened as Church Army Social Centre.

1941 – Used as Air Raid Precautions Post.

1945 – War Department Contractors dealt with the removal of a Civil Defence Shelter which had been there for some years.

In 1956 the church was opened as Ponda Puzzle Products Ltd. Fret Cutters.

3^rd December 1965 Fire completely guts building and 60 staff lost their jobs.

1966 The site was demolished and cleared.

 Number 1 Rose Place had several changes of use as set out below;

 1871 – Maria Hills – Haberdasher – Rose Place, Hollington.

1878 – Edward Howell – General Shop and Chimney sweep – 1 Rose Place.

1886 – S. Kenward – General Shop – 1 Rose Place.

1889 – T. Meadows – General Shop – 1 Rose Place.

1903 – T. Meadows – General Shop – 171 Battle Road.

1904 – J.W. Waller – Fishmonger – 171 Battle Road.

1908 – William Waller – Fishmonger – 171 Battle Road.

1912 – G.W. White – Fishmonger – 171 Battle Road.

1913 – William Brown – Fishmonger – 171 Battle Road.

1920 – Percy Watson – Fish Shop – 171 Battle Road.

1922 – Watson Bros – Fish Shop – 171 Battle Road.

1928 – Harry Watson – Fish Shop. 171 Battle Road.

1929 – 1935 – A. Greenwood – Fish Shop – 171 Battle Road.

 

The 1871 census shows that the full household of 1 Rose Place was;

 William Spice age 56 – Railway Labourer – Born –Sedlescombe, Sussex.

Wife – Jane Spice age 52 –Born Amberly, Sussex.

Son – James Spice age 14 – Agricultural Labourer – Born – St Leonards, Sussex.

Son - Alfred Spice age 12 – Bricklayers Labourer – Born – St Leonards, Sussex.

Daughter – Mary Spice age 11 – Scholar – Born – St Leonards, Sussex.

Son – Joseph Spice age 8 – Scholar – Born – St Leonards, Sussex.

Daughter – Maria Hills – age 27 – Haberdasher – Born – St Leonards, Sussex.

Son in Law – Frederick Hills –age not shown – Born – Brighton, Sussex.

 

Eileen Parish (nee Greenwood) recalls that her parents took over the fish and chip shop in Battle Road, no 171 in 1929 from Mr Watson, for which they paid him sixty pounds for the goodwill. That the building was attached to the public house called the Rising Sun and that both buildings belonged to the brewery. That, the building had no electricity and just had gas in the shop for lighting and that the frying range was heated by a coal fire.

She goes on to state, ‘The cellar floors were rotten, so my father pulled them up and concreted it all over. The toilet was out in the back yard complete with newspaper squares. There was some spare land beside the building, where we kept chickens for the table. They were sold in the shop along with the fish. It was one of my jobs to help looking after the chickens. There were about five to six hundred. I didn’t think much about having to clan them out but otherwise I enjoyed looking after them when I was twelve years old. …. One day a notice appeared on the land where we kept the chickens to say the land was for sale, price sixteen pounds. My father quickly went and brought it. About 1937 the brewers decided to pull down the Rising Sun and our shop and build a new Rising Sun, which is still there today. My Parents decided to build a new shop which is still there today, looking very different to when it was first built’.

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Eileen Parish in Tales From Around The Wishing Tree: Memories from Hollington, Four Courts, Robsack and Tilekiln, Centre for Continuing Education University of Sussex at Brighton, (2000) pp. 36-7.

 

 

The original Rising Sun and Fish Shop at 1 & 2 Rose Place, Hollington. c. 1909.

 

 

 

            Looking up Battle Road in 1909 – The Rising Sun on the right

 

 

Number 3 & 4 Rose Place with Pitcherville Terrace in the distance