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Designations

• Scheduled Monument 1002291: Hastings Town Wall
• Conservation Area: Old Town
• Listed Building (II) 1043382: Part of Town Wall in Winding Street and rear of flats known as Hastings Wall, East Street

Summary

A defensive wall defending the southern area of Hastings Old Town from the mid 16th century. For more information on this building please see: http://www.archaeologyse.co.uk/rohas/index.php.

Monument Types

• CURTAIN WALL (AD 16th Century to AD 18th Century - 1500 AD to 1799 AD)
• GATE (AD 16th Century to AD 18th Century - 1500 AD to 1799 AD)
• BATTERY (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Description

A defensive wall existed at the southern end of Hastings Old Town by the mid 16th century and may have been constructed as early as the late 14th century. There were originally three gates, known collectively as the Seagates, through the wall. Good sections of the wall survive within Pleasant Row. A fort is recorded in C16 at the western end of the wall at the western end of George Street, with another located at the eastern end on the seafront. The town wall appears to have been redundant by the mid 18th century with sections being robbed in advance of housing developments. [1]
During recent renovation works in the basement of 58 High Street (formerly Harris Restaurant and Tapas), the new owners revealed a section of in-situ stone walling surviving as a component of a brick coal store and forming part of the foundation for the building above.The no longer accessible coal store is located immediately below street level, projecting c. 1.1 metre west from the street-fronting foundation wall of number 58 i.e. below the pavement and was recorded shortly before it was closed off. The stone wall is located c. 5 meters north of the considered (now truncated), western end of the late medieval Town Wall. Associated documentary evidence and further discussion with David and Barbara Martin (UCL), concluded the wall is a surviving section of the Town Walk’s west boundary/ retaining wall.The Town Walk, a ‘wedge-shaped piece of ground’, ‘upon some part of which the Hundred Court or Court Leet had been immemorially held’, enabled access to the north side of the Town Wall and facilitated ‘rapid movement across town’ (Martin, p12). Although the date of the wall’s construction is uncertain it is mentioned in documents of the 17th century and recorded in town plans by Samual Cant (1750) and Shorter’s plan of 1769. The brickwork of the attached coal store would suggest a 19th century date i.e. probably built around the same time as no. 58 (c. 1828).[2]
Built in late C14 to protect town from French. Very scanty remains now exposed by demolition. Scheduled AM. [3]
The site of a section of 16th century town wall historic building between The Royal Standard and Neptune Café, Incluidng the site of Bourne Gate, Hastings. For more information on this building please see: http://www.archaeologyse.co.uk/rohas/index.php. The monument and component dates only flag the earliest date for which there is evidence of their existence. To understand the duration of the monument or component the researcher is directed to the original building report. [4]

Sources

Associated Events

• 4 Winding Street, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3EN: Watching Brief (Ref: NO.3098)
• The Old Town Wall, Hastings : Historic Building Survey (Ref: 1234)
• 58 High Street, Hastings : Historic Building Recording
• The Royal Standard Public House, Bourne Street, Hastings : Watching Brief and building Recording (Ref: 866/1315)

Associated Monuments - none recorded

Associated Finds - none recorded

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