Bushby House

[Richard]

From Holly Blue's account it does, however, now look very much like a family run business, in operation around 1905, and working at that part of the 'Hermitage' building complex adjacent to the shed.
With the daughter of Susannah (née Mathews) and Henry Bushby, being Matilda, occupied as 'Matron', with Susannah's husband William as Sup't.,
Whilst in turn, Matilda's daughter, Winifred, was employed in the business as 'Assistant Matron'.
I repeat it could have been the case that Henry (Susannah's husband) was not the one with money but Susannah may have inherited it, but that issue may be a red herring as they have, equally well, just rented the property from a private landlord as a retirement business.

Keep digging!!

[whiffler]

Has anyone time to pop into the current Hermitage?

There may be other photographs or ephemera/records from the old place.



------ Also

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2899#.VMaLPdLyFhE mentions the St John VAD hospital but had no numbers for the houses - only that they were loaned by Mrs Stubbs and later Mr Parks. Do they feature in census either side of WW1 ?

There were photos in posts on this thread that subsequently disappeared.

[Geoff]

Just to confirm that Bushby Home and the Hermitage are one and the same building, here's a new addition to my image collection...

[Gerry Glyde]

The question remains, that is, how was it financed and the nature of the clientelle.

[Gerry Glyde]

On my recent visit I visited the library to look at Pikes and Kelly's. Although the person who put on the web in 2010 that he could not find any reference to Bushby in any directory the home is clearly listed in various years.The name and number is not always included. In some it gives the Hermitage, but no number, in others no 32 and variously, Bushby Home or Convalescent Home and each stating that there was a Resident Superintendent. The entries provide no further details of the designation or type of clientèle who resided there.

[Richard]

A bit more background history, for what it is worth:

I have noted a reference suggesting that certain patients who had been discharged from hospital, presumably the 'Royal East Sussex Hospital', situated in White Rock Road (1841 - 1923) were subsequently sent to convalesce at the Hermitage, up and only until, the First World War.
The 'Royal' was later located at Cambridge Road, Hastings, from 1923 to 1992.
(The nearby 'University School', in Holmesdale Gardens, built 1874, where the thriller writer James Hadley Chase was a pupil, was eventually acquired by the 'Royal Hospital' for conversion into a Nurses’ Home in 1932.)
In 1916, 'The Hermitage' became a Convalescent Hospital for WWI Canadian troops.
As we know it next became the P.M.A (Printer’s Medical Association), it finally became “J.R.’s nightclub” and hostel for the homeless, after which it was demolished. The site was re-built as 'Clifton Court' flats.
It seems likely that 'Bushby House', as a yet to be determined, but named enterprise, did not survive the first world war requisitioning by the ministry of war, or whatever body was technically involved in taking it over for the duration.

[Gerry Glyde]

I forgot to post this, that may have a connection. In 1880 a notice in the Observer announced that a couple by the name of Bushby had arrived for a stay at the Queens Hotel. The main hotels issued lists of expected guests of nobility, gentry and the like. The inclusion of a Mr & Mrs Bushby in the list would suggest that they were relatively financially secure. Unfortunately the names do not include their initials.

Given the date it is quite possible that this was the people associated with the Bushby Home

[Geoff]

Nice find Gerry, I would say this is more than likely the same Bushby's.

[Richard]

Interesting if these were the forebears of Bushby descendants, already seen working at The Hermitage, but then the 'Fashionable Arrivals' would surely point to Susannah and her husband the Grocer?
And, in any case, why would 'financially secure' people want to start serving 'the great unwashed' in a convalescent boarding establishment 'fed' with patients from the Hospital?

The plot thickens.

[Chris Barlow]

The first of the aerial photos that was posted by Whiffen certainly shows the Universtity School, which is the building facing the viewer. So next door to the Bushby House in question. ( I'm pleased to have found the school's location). From this photo it would appear that this is a corner in the road and that only a footpath continues to the right rather than a T junction. I wonder if the two establishments might have the same patronage or foundation because in my photo it would appear that the two small gates to the shcool include a letter S in their design and so does the gate on the right which is presumably the gate to Bushby House. No Idea what the S might indicate but incorporating such an initial wasn't unknown.

This photo dates from 1919.