Mount Pleasant Crescent

Some of the houses of Mount Pleasant Crescent

Mount Pleasant Crescent is a twitten running from Cromer Walk to Elphinstone Road. Most of the houses form a Victorian crescent-shaped terraced building back from the path. The only one not in the terrace is Quarry Cottage, on the corner of Cromer walk and Mount Pleasant Crescent. It appears the terraced houses were probably built about 1866, so were probably some of the first built in the Blacklands area.

Map showing the crescent shape of
Mount Pleasant Crescent

Originally, it must have been planned for houses to have been built on the other side of the path, because in one National Archive entry, it refers to 'even' houses and a shop to be built (1881). I found no evidence of any shop being in the crescent, but there was further planning permission for one at number 1 Mount Pleasant Crescent in 1905. The houses were likely re-numbered at a later date, when it was obvious that no other houses were going to be built.

Because I couldn't find out much about the buildings in the crescent, I thought I'd see if I could find any people who lived there... (To be honest, I didn't find out much, because I'm on a haitus from my Ancestry account, which is how I usually find out interesting tidbits in the censuses, but got a couple of snippets anyhow).

Quarry Cottage

(If you do your own search, not to be muddled

with Quarry Cottage, adjascent to Quarry House

on Quarry Hill in St Leonards)

Quarry Cottage on the corner of
Mount Pleasant Crescent and Cromer Walk

I first came across Quarry Cottage in "Conservation Area 03 - Blacklands" on the Hastings Council website when I was researching the Blacklands boundary. It piqued my curiosity that it was a protected Blacklands building and I pass it every time I go into town via Cromer Walk.

So, I hoped to find out a lot of fun things about it. Unfortunately, I found very, very little. Just a couple of planning permissions for 'additions' (1875/1900) and a temporary greenhouse (1952) in the National Archive. I'm still not sure when it was built.

The only other mentions I found were regarding a music teacher in a 1969 Hastings Music Festival Programme which mentioned the cottage.

It was an advert for London's Trinity College of Music, in which it mentions that the local representative is one Mrs V. M. Harvey (A. Mus. T C L).

With a bit of digging, I got a full name for Mrs Harvey: Violet Mabel Harvey. The following entry says she was born in 1909 and married Charles Harry Harvey. Also that she was a piano teacher and taught Musical Theory:

Some further research from these two bits of information, gave me that Violet Harvey was born in Hastings as Violet Fermor and she married Charles Harvey in 1940 near the beginning of WW2.

From the "Who's who in Music in the Musicians' International Directory' (1962) it says that she gave local Private Tuition. I'm not sure what the other entries for her name meant, but suspect the 's' is for musical education (schooling) and that she went to Harrogate Ladies College, (boarding school) and Queen Margaret's School (a prep school) to study Music. Either that, or that's where she taught music (if anyone knows what the entries mean, please leave in the comments below): 

s: l. Harrogate; Harrogate Ladies' Coll. (college);Q. Margaret's Sch., Music 

Pianoforte and Music Theory teacher,
Violet Harvey, of Quarry Cottage
Mount Pleasant Crescent

Other names I found related to the crescent were:


2 Mount Pleasant Crescent:

(A search revealed some more recent geneological entries, but due to not wanting to share details about possibly living people or their relatives, I won't share these.)

But one older entry of interest I did find was from THE PLANTAGENET ROLL, the descendants of the British royal family. The one that linked to a house in the crescent was:

which shows that

Isabel Emilia Lucy Maddison married to Nicholas Caesar Corsellis Lawton of Wyvenhoe Hall, co. Essex (2 Mount Pleasant Crescent, Hastings)

and had two children:

John Corsellis Lawton, b- Aug. 1868.
Sydney Corsellis Lawton, b. 6 Dec. 1896

Looking at the dates, it appears they married 21 Ap. 1896 in Tendring (confirmed on FreeBMD) so it seems their oldest son was born out of wedlock (?)

Isabel Emily L Maddison seems to have been born in Horncastle toward the end of 1874. I found a Nicholas Ceasor C Lawton born the same year, also in the last quarter, in Thirsk.

Because of the Plantagenet relationship (Isabel Maddison being a descendant in the royal bloodline), I thought this might be of interest, but I didn't find anything exciting about her. On her husband's side, however, a little snippet is that Wivenhoe Manor was passed down through 8 other Nicholas heirs from Nicholas Corsellis (d. 1665), a "London merchant of Flemish immigration descent" who bought the hall, and he had the family vault in Wivenhoe's Old Cemetery to himself.

Wivenhoe Manor

But, more relevantly, I'm still not sure what the mention of 2 Mount Pleasant Crescent referred to. It's not where they got married, since that was in Tendring, Essex (but if anyone understands this reference, please let me know in the comments below)

3 Mount Pleasant Crescent

Here's a little entry found in Hampton's Scholastic Directory (1894-5) for a Miss Martin at "Preparatory School for Little Boys", who lived at 3 Mount Pleasant Crescent.

Principal of Preparatory School for Little Boys,
Miss Martin of 3 Mount Pleasant Crescent

7 Mount Pleasant Crescent

In 1876 a 'gentleman' by the name of Michael Maloney is listed in the London Gazette as living at 7 Mount Pleasant Crescent.

Michael Maloney, a gentleman, of 7 Mount Pleasant Crescent

8 Mount Pleasant Crescent

I found this a fun one: October 2nd 1897, the Girl's Own Annual (pg 702) lists "six shillings each" to winners of Our Puzzle Poem Report: "Fluctuations", which included Annie Roberson of 8 Mount Pleasant Crescent.

Competition winner in Girls Own Annual
Annie Roberson of Mount Pleasant Crescent (1897)

9 Mount Pleasant Crescent

I like to promote local businesses, so, although this one isn't historical, I thought it worth giving it a shout out. Hopefully still current. (if you are in touch with Hazel or Jeremy, let me know :-) )

[*Local Business]

Hazel and Jeremy Brook

Graphic Ideas

Check out Graphic Ideas at 9 Mount Pleasant Crescent

12 Mount Pleasant Crescent

An entry in the "Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute" lists Arthur Claydon (of 12 Mount Pleasant Crescent, Hastings) as being elected 'a fellow' 1880. 

Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute, Arthur Claydon,
of 12 Mount Pleasant Crescent

Since most of the other entries came from around the world, it was nice to see this one being local. I'm not sure what being a 'fellow' would have meant back then, but I'm sure it was important to Arthur Claydon. 

Final thoughts for now

Funnily enough, although I found out so little about Mount Pleasant Crescent, the place intrigues me. Hidden in the triangle between two roads and another twitten, it is already a place of mystery.  I love the curved design of the buildings and their long narrow gardens (I understand they have beautiful sea views from the upper floors). Also, this row of houses being built so early in Blacklands history makes it of particular interest to me. I'd love it if anyone has any memories or stories about the place to share (get in touch in the comments or on Nextdoor).

Grow Trees. Grow A Trillion Trees!

 For those who know me, I have spent the last few years growing oak trees.

In October 2019, soon after it was declared that planting a trillion trees would go some way toward heading off the climate emergency, I got involved in planting trees in Bexhill, with the Bexhill Environmental Group (BEG). We planted trees around the edge of The Down (the common we pass every time we drive to Eastbourne) and another 300 odd in the field behind Bexhill Cemetery:

Planting 300 trees in the field behind Bexhill Cemetery

Volunteers of BEG plant 300 trees

It felt good to be a part of doing the right thing.

At the time, my work took me walking around the streets of Sussex in many towns. All the acorns were falling from the trees, many on the roads, paths and commons, where they were run over, trampled or mown. They were being crushed. Even squirrels weren't picking them up to store for winter.

They were the ones that would rot and return to the earth.

It saddened me to think of all the energy put into creating seeds that could last hundreds of years as an oak being crushed - what a waste! So, wherever I went, I filled my pockets with a few from this tree and a few from that tree... some from all over.

Acorns planted in pots

And then Covid-19 happened. Lockdown.

And I had all these acorns, and a stack of pot noodle pots. So, I started planting the acorns.

Acorns planted in anything that could take an acorn

Throughout the winter, I'd been planting acorns, and it continued on through March, April, May... anything that had the vestige of a root or shoot went into soil. I ran out of pots so I used anything else I could find, including milk cartons with their side cut off (they make good temporary pots, in case you ever want a pot for a seed tray... they lasted a year or two outside as well! ) Over 750 oaks in all. I called it my 'Pot Noodle Forest' :-)

My 'Pot Noodle Forest'

The oaks grew. Or most of them, at least. I think there was about 650 in the end, which we eventually moved up to the allotment

The oaks, collected from so many places
were all different when they grew

Eventually, I repotted the trees into black nursery bags and they grew. Two years ago, through the NextDoor app, most of them went to a good home - a garden memorial, some turning a bit of land into woodland, some to replace ash-dieback tree spaces. But I still had 150 odd.

So many varieties of oak!

This year, I was told they should go from the allotment, so it gave me the push I needed to find a home for them. Again through NextDoor, I found a few good folk who wanted them for hedges and bonsais and to replace 'lost' trees. The last of my little acorns have gone.

The Oaks grew so much bigger and
had to be re-potted

So, it comes to now.

Yep, I've already started sticking acorns into pots (I can't help myself), and all the ash seedlings growing on the allotment we have to pluck out as weeds? They, too, are going into pots. I just can't seem to chuck them out as weeds, especially knowing how many species of animal and plants rely on them.

JOIN ME IN PLANTING TREES FOR FREE ON TREEAPP

But, at the same time, I'm also planting all over the world. I joined an app called Treeapp, who plant a tree-a-day for you for just watching one ad. I don't like ads (who does!), but these ones are usually for some environmentally-saving product or service, so it's not a hardship, knowing that

ONE AD = ONE TREE

and, as a bonus, if you do seven days in a row, one extra tree is planted in your name.

So far, I have, as of today, 428 trees planted in my name. 

JOIN ME IN PLANTING TREES FOR FREE ON TREEAPP

So, since the 'Refer a Friend' option shows up every time I check my community page, it occurred to me that there might be other folk who would like to grow trees with me. So, in case you do, here's my sign-up referral link - lets plant trees, folks!

JOIN ME IN PLANTING TREES FOR FREE ON TREEAPP