The Brett Manuscripts have been transcribed by Rod Lavers as part of "Hastings Local History Resource"

Rod has over the years been working on a number of things to try and help anyone doing local history research with the intention to eventually be able to electronically search through the indexes of all the Hastings history books and antiquarian guide books, all at the same time, and to further know what Hastings pictures, drawings and photos were already in print or in private collections, and what subject matter they showed. This would all then be combined in order to help others with their archaeological and local history research.

Thank you Rod, I am happy to be able to publish your work.

Chapter Forty Nine: St.Leonards 1853 Page 1

Application from the Hastings Local Board to the St.Leonards Commission re drainage - The Commissioners' reply - St.Leonards Coal dues - Stone crossings (some to be re-laid and some to be taken up) - Sea-wall to be re-pointed - Groynes to be altered - Groynes to be repaired - Pigs to be removed as a nuisance - Commissioners disqualified and others elected. - Notice that a resolution of the Local Board respecting alteration of groynes had been rescinded - Parochial officers of St. Leonards. Ditto of St. Mary Magdalen - Rates and new assessments - St.Leonards and St. Mary Magdalen Vestries - Cemetery movements - Mechanics Institution and its unique Exhibition - Mechanics Institution affiliated on the Society of Arts - Melancholy deaths and Coroner's Inquests - Sheep-stealing - Drowning cases - Horticultural exhibitions - Prize meeting of the Queen's St.Leonards Archers - Confirmations. Mrs. Smith convicted of manslaughter for fatally stabbing her husband; sentenced to ten years transportation, but died in gaol.

Chapter Fifty: Hastings 1853 Page 10

Contents: (See also general index) Town Council meetings pages 10 - 31 - Street lighting, 10 - payment of map, 10-11-& 15-16 Baths and Washhouses, 11 - District rates, 2,26,37 - Cavendish place 12 - Putland's resignation, 12 - His successor 13 - Thanks to ex-Surveyor, 14 - Site of old lighthouse, 14 - Town Clerk's "extras", 14 - Financial accounts 14 - Steps and crossings, 15 - Pelham Place improvement, 16 - Drainage, 16 & 21 26 - Cinque Ports privileges, 16 - Custom House 17, 22, 28 - Crier's fees, 17 - Widening parade and road, 17 - Removal of rocks, 18 - Watch house 19, 22 - Condolence (strange proceedings), 19 - 20 - Election of Alderman, 20 - Leanstock show, 20, 36 - Cemetery required, 21 - Parade improvement, 21. - Chalk-road groyne, 21 - Old Warm Baths, 22,27,29,30 - Tackleway improvement, 23,30 - Water supply, 13, 30 - Naming of houses, 21, 23 to 25 - Watering roads, 25 - Surveyor's enlarged sphere, 25 - Rise in rates, 26 - Condemned Hole, 28 - Queen Elizabeth's Charter, 28 - Encroachments, 31 - Balls, concerts & lectures, 31 to 36 - School treats, 34 - Mechanics' Institution, 34 - Athenaeum, 35 - Literary Institution 35 - Board of Guardians, 35 - Gas Company, 35 - Cinque ports pilots, 36 - Carpenters' strike, 36 - Printers' demands 36 - Proposed new road, 36 - Building operations, 36 - Mayor at church 36 - Cost of negligence, 37 - Death of Sir Godfrey Webster, 37 - Magdalen Church, 37 - Fishing, 37 - Accidents, 38 - Burglaries, 39 - Rowing matches, 39 - From Australia, 39-40.

Chapter Fifty One: St. Leonards 1854 Page 41

Contents: Transactions of the Commissioners and parish offers - Appointment of a Burial Board - Difficulties in the search of site for a cemetery - Severe weather and a trying winter - The distressed poor - Accidents - Sudden deaths - The Baltic fleet - The Jasper gun-boat destroyed by fire off St.Leonards and Hastings - Collections for those engaged in war - Horticultural shows - A sleigh ride in the snowy streets - Railways blocked - Fall of Sebastopol - Archery meetings - The autumn season - Public bands - The St.Leonards Mechanics' Institution – Lectures in connection therewith - Postal arrangements - An attempt to get the St. Leonards post-office abolished - For and against memorials thereupon - Humourous and serious letters concerning the same.

Chapter Fifty Two : Hastings 1854 page 55

Contents :(See also general index) Town Council meetings pages 56 to 70 - police tippling, 56 - Removal of boats, 56 - District rates, 56, - Advertising, 56 - Groynes, 56 - Parade seats 56 - General drainage plans exhibited 56 - Plan approved 58 - Finance condition, 57 - "No hurry" 58 - "No delay", 59 - "Intermediate action", 59 - Braithwaite's high charges, 60 - Memorial to proceed - 62 - More objections, 62, - Putland disapproves, 63 - Another claim - 61 - Petition for delay 61 - Rating the poor, 64 - New road at Wallinger's Walk proposed, 65 - Water supply, 65 - Cinque Ports' jurisdiction, 66 - No educational help, 66 - Numbering of houses, 67 - New Fishmarket, 67 - Ironstone 67 - Defensive works, 68 - Market room, 68 - Viscount Chewton 69 - East parade 69 - Pierwardens, 69 Choosing Mayor 69 - Curious potato 71 - Escape from gaol, 70 - burglaries and robberies, 71 - Distressed poor, 71, 73 - Relief fund, 72 - Vestry meetings, 72, 73 - Herrings, 73 - Coal famine, 73, 74 - The fishery, 73,74 - Maritime casualties, 74 - Deaths of "Blind Tom", Henry Went Tree, Joseph Simmons, Musgrave Brisco, Mrs. Lloyd Shoesmith, Samuel Phillips, John Banks, "Old Humphrey” & Mrs Simmonds 75 to 77 - Vital statistics, 74, 77 - Census tables 77 - Accidents, 77,78 - Dinners 78 to 88 - Welcome home to Capt. McClure, 79,80,85 - Welcome home to Jeremiah Smith, 86, 88 - Balls, concerts and entertainments, 88 - An outlaw's dividend, 89 - New magistrates, 89 - Coastguards' exodus, 89 - Volunteers at a premium, 89 - A daring feat, 90 - Removal of baths, 90 - The Infirmary, 90 - Gas company's new Bill, 90 - Chalybeate spring, 90 – Anti Church-rate movement. 91 - Annual Lamb Fair, 91 - The right of way, 91 - Schools, 95, Guy Fawkes scrimmage, 91 - An Irish wake 91 - Early closing, 98 - Mechanics' Institution, 95, 96 - Athenaeum - 96, Literary Institution, 97 - Hastings Regatta, 139 - Church matters, 92 - Proposed cemetery, 93 - Board of Guardians, 94, Ellsworth's Charity, 98 Postal contention, 99,100,101,102 - The Russian War; Letters from Hastings men serving thereat, Local articles, poems, etc., together with pictorial representations (26 engravings), and other special information, compiled - from the "Hastings News" and the “St. Leonards Penny Press” 102 to 139.

Chapter Fifty Three: St. Leonards 1855 Page 140

Contents: (See also general index). - Meetings and transactions of the St.Leonards Commissioners, pages 140 and 141 - Vestry meetings and Burial Board proceedings of St. Leonards parish, 141-142 - Ditto of St. Mary Magdalen parish 143-144 - Local Health statistics, 144 - Slanderous reports refuted, 145 - Royal visitors sojourn, 145-146 - Concerts and other amusements, 146-147 - Mechanics Institution and its progress, 148-149 - Atmospheric, Celestial and meteorological phenomena, 149 to 152 - prize meetings of the Queen's Royal St.Leonards Archers, 153 & 154 - The Parochial Schools, 154 - Founding of the St. Mary Magdalen Schools, 154 & 153 - Proposed Towns Improvement Association 155 – 156  Collections, Offertories, etc., 155 - Railway matters (Great fall on the Hastings and Tonbridge route, & the line obstructed for six months) 157 - Railway accidents (personal) 157 - Robberies, etc., 158 - Antiquarian discovery, 158 - Flower show, 158 - Repairing the Martello Towers - 158 - Fetes and pyrotechnics at the Tivoli Tea-Gardens, 146 & 147 - The St.Leonards Choral Society, 147 - The "Wizard of the South", 147 - Lectures, various, 148 - Phenomenon, 152 - Destructive thunderstorm 153.

Chapter Fifty Four: Hastings 1855 Page 158a

Contents (See also Index) General Drainage, pages 159,165,169 - Prejudice against the Surveyor, 159 - Want of confidence vote, 170 - Sheepwash Bridge, 161 - The Foyster Legacies, 161-2 - Bill posting, 163 - Hastings & St. Vallery communication, 163 - Railway matters, 164-5 - Parade seats, 165 - Election of Mayor, 168 - Assessment returns, 169 - Vestry Burial-Board meetings (Turbulence and personalities) 171 to 188 - School items, 191 - Collections, various 192 - Special Relief Fund, 192 - The Fishery (Marvelous and enormous catch of Herrings), 193 - Four-masted ship, 196 - The Annual Regatta, 196 - Surveyors "extras" objected to, 100 - Troup's promised generosity, 160 - Borough rates, 100 - Water supply 160a - Waterworks manager's defalcations and discharge, 160 - Town Council's petition to the Queen to assume the functions of a Burial-Board granted, 160a, & 162 to 166 - Cemetery question, 164 - Distances to cemetery site, 166 – Enlarged Burial Board, 168 - In search of cemetery site, 171 - A site at last, 166 - Cemetery plans, 171 - Fencing cemetery ground, 168 - Wellington Square, 163 - Charities Trustees, 164 - Deaths of Archdeacon Hare, Mrs. Frederick North, Rev. W. Davis, Rev. J.G. Foyster, Count de Vandes and Mr. Hoof - 188 to 191 - Death memorials, 191 - Market tolls, 165 – Corn dealers' memorial, 167 - Westhill path obstructed, 165 - Removal of same ordered, 166 - "Smiler” to be sold, 165 - Great gale and high tide (cause and effect), 194 - Shipping arrivals & landing of passengers from abroad, 195 - The schooner Herbinger, 195 - King of the Belgians at Hastings, 197 - Prince Albert and the Queen at Hastings, 198 - The Pett Clerical case (Rev. R. West suspended) 201-203 - Early closing and early rising, 207 to 211 - Proposed Holy Trinity Church, 211 - Municipal Elections (remarkable addresses) 412 - Political Partnership condemned, 214-217 - Accidents, 224 - Curiosities, 225 - "England a naval power", 196 - Church rates defeated, 204 to 206 - Mechanics' Institution, 198-200 - Literary Institution, 200 - Rate-collector's defalcation (sureties called upon,) 206 - Inquests and Burglaries, 224 – The H.I.P.S. severely censured, 219-223 - The Russian War, with numerous letters from Hastings, men serving thereat, together with local articles, poems, diary of events, and six illustration, making 32 with those given in chapter 52. This History of the war, as compiled from local sources (Hastings News and St. Leonards Penny Press) is altogether unique - pages 226 to 279.

Vol. 5 - End