Do You Remember When?

A look back through the archives of the Bexhill Observer.

1909

I HAVE been making some very searching enquiries, and I am impelled to ask whether there is an alarming condition of affairs existing in Bexhill, owing to unemployment. There were last week nearly seventy names, it is said, placed upon the "unemployed sheet" at the Town Hall, and I hear this week that the number has has been decreased considerably, the men having been found work. In any case, I don't believe the Surveyor will be in any position to engage more than thirty odd men, who will, I hope, be selected according to their needy condition. - From Pithy Points column.

THE most delightful entertainments were given by the Pupils of Gelston School, Dorset Road, Bexhill, on Tuesday afternoon. They took place at the school, and were in aid of the funds of the League of Pity, the juvenile department of that thoroughly deserving institution, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which, in the words on the back of the programmes, "secures a more endurable life in the cases of 364 children every working day of the year."

1959

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AN inquiry from an independent firm in Surrey regarding a site on which to erect premises has been received by the Town Council. The firm have been supplied with details of the industrial site in the De La Warr-road and the committee will be informed of any progress made (early reference to Drallim Industries moving to Bexhill).

SIR, - My wife and I have resided in your town a bare four months. We are much impressed by the gentle manners of all types, especially by the unselfconscious chivalry with which many young teenagers, male and female, surrender their seats to older people on the buses. - Letter to Editor.

1969

THE sound of 450 happy children enjoying a Christmas treat filled the Classic Cinema on Monday when the management gave a special free morning showing of cartoons and comedy films. The manager (Mr. G.W. Gentle) said afterwards that it was the first of its kind the cinema had attempted.

COOK-in-charge for main hospital kitchen soon to be equipped with gas plant. Wages 14 18s. (male), 12 (female) for basic five-day, 40-hour week plus 1 2s. A week for person holding recognised qualification '“ Hastings Group Hospital Management Committee advertisement.

1979

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THE inadequacies of the National Health Service in general and Hastings Health District in particular are heavily criticised this week by the people's "watchdog" on health. Hastings Community Health Council says its work is against a background of "continuing deprivation" for which it wants results from Whitehall.

THERE was some encouraging news for beleagured home buyers this week. Following dramatic increases in house prices in 1978, the market in 1979 shows signs of steadying. According to Anglia, Hastings and Thanet Bulding Society, house prices in the South East have increased by 30 per cent over the past year.

1989

RUMOURS that the South East Thames Regional Health Authority may be about to abandon its Thrift House headquarters have been quashed by management. Following an anonymous telephone call to the Observer last week, a spokesman for SETRHA said that talk of mass redundancies and withdrawal from Thrift House was "premature."

TEARS came to the eyes of some elderly women as they listened to the choir of St Peter's Church sing at a service in East Berlin. The choir sang in churches on both sides of the Berlin Wall when they visited the city.

1999

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"WE are looking for a very up-beat 1999." That is the New Year message from Chamber of Commerce and Tourism chairman Steve Ayres. Chamber focus groups have been working for four months on a regeneration strategy for Bexhill. A major campaign '“ Making Bexhill Better '“ will be launched at the end of January. The chamber chairman said: "We want to involve the whole town, not just the trading community but schools, businesses and voluntary groups '“ everyone."

A MASKED raider armed with a bread knife dropped bank notes in the street as he fled from the scene of a hold-up. The raider entered the Murco filling station in Town Hall Square shortly after 6pm on Sunday evening wearing a ski mask. He threatened the cashier with what is thought to have been a bread knife and escaped with 65.

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