Hastings Forum

In 1901 the department store in Robertson St accommodated 47 live-in staff on the upper floors of the building. It may have relieved overcrowding in the usual family home at a time when five or six children would have been average.

They would have probably had shared rooms or even a small dormitory. A senior staff member may have been lucky to have their own room. The staff included shop assistants, seamstresses and domestics. As there were so many people living there they are quite likely to have a kitchen and perhaps a communal lounge.

No excuse for being late for work, or saying you had an awful cold. No high jinks or tom foolery allowed. Was life better then?

I don't understand what the store sold Gerry, or why the name PRT.
The shop situation must have placed firm guidelines on all kinds of behaviour, in the premises at least, but People always reminisce about times being better when they had little but had more fun, even in a fairly strict setting.

What people behind the Victorian and later department stores in Robertson St would have made of places like Debenhams of today I cannot imagine.
Transport in the early 1900's would have meant that most workers were very local.
There was at least one type of 'snobbery' in place, where people from The Old Town were excluded from employment in fashionable places like RS and would have been very much looked down upon as the social/living conditions were deemed totally inappropriate and squalid, perhaps adding to the insularity of that part of Hastings.

The store was presumably quite similar to what is was in the 1950s in the range of things it sold and some of the older single lady staff, may have been the same as in 1901, given the old fashioned visage that some had to me as a wee boy.

As they had seamstresses on site they would have made and altered a lot of garments, curtains and other items in store. They would have had a household section amongst others.

It was PRT as the name of the proprietors. By the 1950s it had become Plummer Roddis and then perhaps by late 1960s just Plummers.

I assume that the young men's and young women's accommodation would have been separated for reasons of decency, with a senior staff member in charge of each part, perhaps even with a curfew. Separate entrances? The Temperance League was prominent at the time, perhaps the firm had a rule prohibiting staff from frequenting ale houses because the shop would have wanted customers to be served by decent young men and women. As far as any employment was secure in early 1900s, a good job with warm and dry accommodation would have been keenly sought.

A high percentage of proprietors running shops in Robertson street also had premises elsewhere in town and did not live in RS, but much accommodation was provided for managers, assistants and apprentices.

1880 - Roddis & Goldsmith (Draper, Silk Mercer, Milliner) at No 1 and 2.
The Victorians were obsessed with death and mourning, and Hastings had now become a smart place in which to die. It was a sensible idea to simplify shopping for the bereaved by concentrating all the necessary items for complete mourning under one roof as at Plummer, Roddis & Beecroft (of unknown date) at number 7 Robertson street , where they had a ‘mourning warehouse’ and declared that ‘Family and Servants Mourning’ would be conducted with ‘strict regard to ceremony combined with respectability and attention.’

James Burton in the design for his new and exclusive town of St. Leonards had allowed for a parade of 15 shops on the seafront called “The Colonnade.” The range of goods available between 1848 and 1871 were mostly the normal day to day requirements consisting of Butchers, Grocers, Fishmongers, etc, with non of the specialist shops required by the population here.
This deficiency in St. Leo's led to the commercial success of the traders in Robertson Street, where a large range and variety of shops was available to meet the needs of both residents in Hastings, St Leo's and visitors alike.

Reference: http://www.rootschat.com/history/hastin ... nt/view/3/

The period you mention Gerry, was the start of the Edwardian era (1901 - 1914).
A good job, or almost any type of job, would have been very keenly sought in Hastings in 1901, being around the time Tressell arrived in town.
I am not sure why this period was a particularly bad time for Hastings, since there was no country-wide depression and a general prosperity elsewhere.
Possibly it was connected more with coastal towns, or Hastings just grew out of fashion?
It has been suggested that this was a bad time for workers after the coming of the railways and Victorian expansion had drawn in many (to seaside resorts) only to find their services surplus to requirements, except in servicing large-scale projects, such as the later work on Tramways by 1904.
The rest of the time Workers from places outlying such as Clive Vale and Ore had little work and wages were very low.

By the end of the period there was a still a considerable amount of unemployment in Hastings, with a backdrop of Suffragettes, Soup Kitchens, Hunger marches,Trades Unions and The Workhouse.
Hotels and boarding houses also reported very poor business or simply closed.
Old age pensions (means-tested) started up in 1908.

And then WWI broke out in 1914 !!

The first time Plummer Roddis and Tyrell is listed in a local Trade Directory is 1899; but by 1905 according to Kellys Directory it was just Plummer and Roddis Ltd.

Excellent drawing Chris. The place at Station Yard must have been a storage warehouse.

Looks like a steam traction-engine with ad-ons.
Were vehicles still like locomotives in those days (1905)?

Richard

Thank you for Quoting my research from my 1066 Genealogy web site


1880 - Roddis & Goldsmith (Draper, Silk Mercer, Milliner) at No 1 and 2.
The Victorians were obsessed with death and mourning ..........‘Family and Servants Mourning’ would be conducted with ‘strict regard to ceremony combined with respectability and attention.’

and

James Burton in the design for his new and exclusive town of St. Leonards had allowed for a parade of 15 shops on the seafront .............. Robertson Street, where a large range and variety of shops was available to meet the needs of both residents in Hastings, St Leo's and visitors alike.

Chris in 1066

Well Chris, I did reference it on another discussion here, so saw no need to reference it twice.
Perhaps I should have done, sorry !!