Bushby House

[Richard]

The directories (street) will give a listing of all the properties, but I can't access them currently.
Either someone else may visit the library or I will do so in few days time.
They may even give the 'Bushby Home' name and number.

As for the name itself, that is another matter.

[Gerry Glyde]

I love that house on the corner because it is so different to everything around it. Wouldn't fancy cleaning the windows though

Is it numbered as part of Homesdale Gardens?

If you could afford the house you could afford a window cleaner!

[Gerry Glyde]

Thank you all so much for all this information even if we really are no closer to finding out what Bushby House was. I did notice that the dog in the 1910 postcard was in my relatives card in 1912 too!!!
My old mother in law(she's 90) said that she had thought that as one of her family worked for the Evening Standard back in the early 90's that maybe it was a holiday home for journalists????!!!
Anyway lets keep digging its a real puzzler!!

Please put up the 1912 card as there may be something in it.

[whiffler]

I just love the thrill of the chase.

Now - a thought on the numbering.

The Hermitage (now) is number 25 HG, using the fact that it is on the odd side.

Imagine that the bit of road dropping down to the Glass House had no houses, and that the numbering continued along in the same alignment as 16 18 22 etc - and that it might eventually been further developed over the railway tunnel.

That way the Hermitage (then) might have been 30 and the other chunk 32.

Sorry - 80 miles away from 'home' these days so the library is not within reach.

Was the Evening Standard so named way back? Was Bushby a newspaper magnate?

[Richard]

...that seems highly likely whiffler, there was another building attached and the shed is suspiciously similar to the one in the original postcard:

from Geoff's photo's :

http://www.1066online.co.uk/hastings-ph ... mitage.php

[HollyBlue]

Hello all
I’ve had a look on the East Sussex Records Office, The Keep, and found about a dozen references to “30/32 Holmesdale Gardens”. These are all planning applications and range in date from the earliest in 1888 for a conservatory, to 1955 when there was an application for an extension to a gamesroom. Unfortunately it isn’t possible to see the records in detail on The Keep’s website (you have to visit in person).
However, I then did a search on the Hastings Borough Council website for planning applications for 30/32 Holmesdale Gardens and found three results, one of which is for Re-building of Garage. The address given is “The Hermitage, 30/32 Holmesdale Gardens, Hastings”.
See http://publicaccess.hastings.gov.uk/onl ... CAPR_94040
If you click on the Related Cases tab you will find: Properties (1) The Hermitage, 25 Holmesdale Gardens, Hastings TN34 1NU. So it does look as if the property was re-numbered at some point, from 30/32 to 25. Whiffler, this ties in with your thinking the Hermitage might have been 30.
One of the other planning applications for 30/32 Holmesdale Gardens is this one, Extension to Games Room and Dining Room. http://publicaccess.hastings.gov.uk/onl ... CAPR_92469
The developers name on this one sparked my curiosity – I have never before heard of The Printers Medical Aid and Sanatoria Association – so I did a Google search and found this: “Printers’ Convalescent Home – New Institution opened at Hastings” from the Glasgow Herald, dated 22nd February 1926. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2 ... 88,6639703
I have to say Lord Riddell’s remark about the good old days made me smile “Printers were not so well dressed then as they are today, and they were not so good-looking as now. Their wives and daughters were not so well dressed in the past, although perhaps they were more dressed.” How times have changed – that remark would be considered quite outrageous today !
Eaton, it sounds like your mother-in-law was not far off when she said it might be a holiday home for journalists, but we still haven’t discovered what the building was used for prior to 1926, when it (or part of it) was known as Bushby Home. I'll carry on digging and let you know if anything else turns up.

[eaton]

WOW Hollyblue!!! This really does sound like it could have been what my mother-in-law was thinking of!!! _ How exciting!!! - She doesn't always have the bestest of memories but she remembered her grandfather working for the London newspapers!!!
Thank you sooo much for all of this!!!

[Gerry Glyde]

Your mother in law's memory of her grandfather might be more appropriate for post 1926 rather than around the turn of the century as on your postcard. The news item suggests that the home was for printers rather than journalists. There were fairly strict demarcation of trades at that time and it is doubtful that there would have been a cross over to enable a journalist to benefit. Trade Unions and friendly societies often provided convalescent homes for members and their families before the creation of the NHS although some TUs still provide recuperative facilities for members. The London County Council and some bus companies also provided homes for employees.

It is interesting that the article is from the Glasgow Herald rather than a London based paper. I was surprised to see that the Home was opened by a Lord who according to wikipedia, was the MD of the News of the World and a "press baron who represented newspapers (presumably as companies, not reporters) at the Versailles Peace Conference", rather than someone from the TU and Labour movement. His Peerage was for services of attending the Conference. The hereditary title became extinct on his death. He was also an author.

This still does not provide answers to the Bushby Home question of 20 years earlier.
Can you add your postcard please?

I have found one more reference albeit way off the mark to Bushby and Hastings.
A Thomas Bushby sued the Marquis of Hastings for a debt in the middle of the 19th C.

Thanks Holly for the google news site. Had not heard of that before

[Richard]

Gerry is right,
The Printer's convalescent 'Home' only moved to Hastings in 1926 - after first establishing a 'Home' in Carshalton in 1916.
It moved to Hastings, at that time, because Carshalton was deemed unhealthy, by dint its proximity to the 'London Smoke'.
In Hastings it became known as the 'Alf Evans Memorial Convalescent Home', a title retained when the Home made its final move, in 1958, to purpose built accommodation in neighbouring Bexhill.
Hermitage Convalescent Home was eventually sold by PMA (Printer's medical Association?) circa 1970 and reopened as private home.

So the 'Bushby' connection predates all this anyway.
We now think we have the right location but not the group identification, or its use at the time in 1910.
All very interesting, nonetheless, it's quite a team-effort getting to the information, little by little.

[Gerry Glyde]

Have just found another card dated 1 Mar 1910. This time just 13 women and perhaps 40 odd men. (and resident dog!).

The few women could indicate domestic staff of a residential/vacation place along with a group of guest staying for a defined period of time, each having a souvenir of the holiday?

It was on a site whose name is Bushby.co.uk!
I have sent them a message