in Days Gone By with John Dowling

1911

IT is now nearly three years ago when Miss Muriel Matters addressed an open-air meeting in front of the Bexhill Town Hall in support of the Women’s Enfranchisement movement and won the admiration of friends and opponents alike by the witty repartee which she used in dealing with interruptions. Shortly afterwards this young lady, who comes from Australia, created a scene in the House of Commons by chaining herself to the grille in the Ladies’ Gallery. At the Victoria Hall on Wednesday night she was the principal speaker at a Votes For Women meeting and kept a fairly large audience engaged.

OF late years, as everyone knows, Little Common has advanced by leaps and bounds, but it may not be a matter of common knowledge that it already possesses its Playhouse. Perhaps it has not been specially erected for the purpose, and it may not have a pit and gallery to which critics in the village resort to pass their opinions on the latest London productions. Still, Little Common has its Temple of Thespis, a cosy building with a well-appointed stage and on Saturday evening it was once more the scene of a very successful production by the Lake House School (then in Collington Lane West) Dramatic Society.

1961

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

HEADED ‘Church Hall and Vestry Fund – Urgent,’ St. Peter’s Church Magazine states that the gallant efforts of the voluntary labour working towards the completion of St. Michael’s and All Angels Church Hall continues, but funds are still urgently needed for the hall’s completion and for repairs to the vestry roof.

THE Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, Chatham, had told the Town Council that H.M.S. Beachampton will visit Bexhill on July 28-30 to coincide with the Regatta – subject to any unforeseen operational requirements.

1971

IN what was described as the first appeal challenge to the Town Council’s policy in which town centre developers have a choice of providing off-street parking on their own or making a cash contribution towards public parking, an “earnest appeal” has been made for the Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr Peter Walker) to support the local authority.

1981

AMBITIOUS plans for a £100,000 extension to Pebsham Community Centre were laid before local residents at an open meeting this week. The Community Association has acquired the leasehold of the site for the present centre in Seabourne Road and an area of rough land behind the building where the new building will be constructed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

THE long-established Galley Hill coal yard in to close down, Corralls Coal Merchants announced this week.

1991

TOWN Hall plans to outlaw daytime angling off Bexhill beach during the summer months have caused a furore. New bylaws aimed at greater public safety are way over the top, opponents argue, and council chief executive David Powell hints that a compromise may be agreed.

ONE of the most popular participant events on the Bexhill sporting calendar has had to be postponed because of a combination of organisers’ family illness and shortage of volunteer marshals. Bexhill Amateur Sports and Leisure Association (BASALA) has organised its fun run on Spring Bank Holiday since the early 1980s.

2001

FINGERPRINT and DNA tests on cheques alleged to have been stolen from the post have led to the arrest of a Bexhill man. The arrest was one of nearly 100 across Bexhill, Battle and Rye as Senlac police division completed a five-day crack-down on crime. Both Bexhill’s sector sergeants have been closely involved in Operation Muster, the largest effort of its kind Senlac Division has undertaken.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A PLAN to commemorate the great and the good of the area was put aside by councillors on Monday. Members of Rother District Council’s policy committee were asked to put £10,000 of unspent Millennium cash towards supporting Bexhill Museum’s Blue Plaque Project. The Museum Association wants to put up the plaques as memorials to famous people who lived in the town.