Do You Remember When?

1908

A SHOCKING accident which ended fatally occurred in Barnhorn Lane (now Barnhorn Road), Little Common about one o'clock on Thursday afternoon, the victim being aged 17. The youth was driving a horse and cart along the lane, being seated on the top of a large quantity of hay, with which the cart was laden. By some means the hay "shifted," and he was pitched off. He fell between the horse and the front of the wagon, and was dragged about 40 yards, when the wheels passed over his body, causing terrible injuries. He accident was witnessed by a gardener, who was working in the vicinity, and he at once went to the unfortunate youth's assistance.

THE first annual open tournament arranged by the lawn tennis section of the Bexhill-on-Sea Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club concluded on Monday last. The event has been highly successful from every point of view. The arrangements were excellent, the play was of a high order, and the weather, with the exception of one afternoon, was all that could be desired.

1958

BEXHILL residents who were travelling on the ill-fated Ore to London Bridge electric train with which a steam train from Glasgow was in collision at Eastbourne Station early on Monday morning have told, in interviews with the "Observer," of their amazing escapes from serious injury in the disaster in which five people lost their lives and at least 25 others were hurt.

SOUTHERN Television opens today with the first independent television programmes to be broadcast from the Southampton studios via the Chilerton Down station on the Isle of Wight.

1968

THE long life of the Manor House came to an end this week when, after a long period of discussion, work started on demolition of the property. Work started on Monday and is expected to last for nearly two months. Demolition workers began their task by stripping out all the panels and internal fittings. They hope to start on the roof and walls in two weeks.

BEXHILL is losing one of its few local industries because the Town Council will not change its policy and dispose of land at the Bexhill West Trading Estate as freehold. The Ibex Engineering Company Ltd., a small Bexhill firm with wide experience in the export of pump and valve equipment, is leaving the town to expand on a new site at Hastings.

1978

MIRACULOUSLY, no-one was hurt when a 14-ton track shovel crashed off the back of a low-loader in Barnhorn Road, last Friday, gouging out part of the pavement and flattening a lamp-post and a garden wall.

LOCAL sports clubs from football to fencing will be given a "shop window" on Bank Holiday Monday when Bexhill's Festival of Sport and Leisure provides a day of exciting track and arena events. But the event should provide more than sport and entertainment for the town. The organising committee hopes to obtain Charity Commission approval for the establishment of a fund-raising trust.

1988

THE controversial film The Last Temptation Of Christ, condemned by some Christians as blasphemous, may be banned in Bexhill despite getting the thumbs-up from the film censors. A vicar has called for Christians in the area to write to Rother District Council's chief executive if they think the film should not be shown in the town.

1998

NOBODY'S watered the new trees in Western Road and now they are dying from neglect says a local committee member of the Sussex branch of the International Tree Federation. Jane Offord, of Amherst Road, said: "I noticed that the beautiful trees newly planted in Western Road are dying. It's obvious that they haven't been watered because they are all brown. The council has spent all that money on planting them- and nobody had thought to water them!"

SIDLEY'S last banking outlet closed on Friday. Now the last customer to use the Barclay's branch has spelled out the difficulties of trading in a district without a bank. Lesley White and her husband David run a company called Technical Dispense and Cellar Service from their home in Ninfield Road and brew 1066 Country Bitter at the White Brewery Company's micro-brewery at Pebsham. Closure is causing great difficulty for both businesses, says Mrs White.