My Blacklands and Beyond

Blacklands 1898
The start of building
(A lot of countryside!)

I thought, today, I might just write.

I am currently researching so many topics - too many topics! - and my head's going in all directions., so I need to take a moment to remember my focus here.

When I first started this blog, it was because I was curious about the bricked-up archways and haylofts in my cellar and how there was once a stable under my house. Fascinating, my cellar once stabling horses, reminding me how folk in the household used to get around.

I also kept seeing historical buildings and places around the area and wondered at their history... what were the buildings for, what happened to the building, who worked there. One such building was Church House, plastered with the word 'Blacklands', further down my road. I really enjoyed finding out about it, and the other parochial buildings, once used for church clubs and scout groups and even as a cinema. All these things brought the building to life.

Misty morning from my window

I don't think I'm the only person that finds that knowing stuff about buildings makes you feel like it's more part of you. Recently, a reader said, "I’ve lived here for nearly seven years and felt the area lacked a certain identity [...] But reading your blog makes me proud to be a Blacklander!" The comment warmed my heart. It also reaffirmed my reason for wanting to share what I learned (*by the way, if you're the person who wrote that lovely comment, please contact me so we can talk about your idea of a Blacklands social event).

It's funny. I've always loved returning to Hastings ever since I came here, and before that visiting as a child but, recently, I felt a huge pride on returning to Blacklands specifically. When I drove into the Blacklands coming down St Helen's Road, I smiled. Actually smiled. I felt a big whoosh going through me. Now, knowing that there was once a well here, or a bridge there, or that the ponds in the park were  hollowed out and made into bricks for a bridge that used to be opposite the park entrance, or that a tram used to run from there up past my house... these things make this place... 'home'.

Yes, home.

View from my window over Blacklands

Walking into town, I feel the expansion of the Blacklands boundary to include right up to South Terrace... right up to the bridge. All those extra streets between the Alexandra Bridge (Queens Road Bridge) and South Terrace! It feels like Blacklands now includes a large chunk of the town that I'm not accustomed to thinking of as Blacklands (it used to be part of St Andrews ward). It feels strange, but not so strange I haven't already started mapping it out my mind, looking for interesting places that might be fun to research.

It's not just the streets, of course, not just the buildings. None of that would matter at all if it wasn't for the people who live here now and who have lived here over the centuries. People I love finding out about, like Grey Owl, or Jane Strickland and her mother Mary Slade.

Even knowing only some of Blacklands' people, where and how they lived and changed history, really brings the town, our town, to life. It makes you feel part of it, our inheritance. I hope you, too, enjoy this voyage of discover about our area, and come back for more. And I also look forward to hearing more shared memories. :-)

Moon setting over the Ridge