Tin Town

[Lucyb]

Was wondering if anyone has any photos of the area known as Tin Town? My grandad was telling me all about it and that he only has a few photos of it. Would love to be able to find more to show him.

[Geoff]

Hi Lucy and welcome to the forum.

If your father has photos of Tin Town, i'm sure we would all be very interested to see them. I'm afraid we are lacking in this department so anything you could share with us would be greatly appreciated.

[Lucyb]

I will get my Grandad to dig them out and share them when he does. It's a shame there aren't many around he has tried looking himself but had no luck.

[Richard]

Hi Lucyb,

It might be worth trying to pin-point the location and time a bit more as scattered accounts seem a bit vague.
As far as I can make out the area known as 'Tin Town' was located in Ore, at the top of Parker road and included Fellows Road, Upper Broomgrove and Parker Hill.
I believe they were built pre-WWII and were hated by tenants who found them freezing cold in winter and too hot in the summer.
These were not very large, more like sheds and quite unlike the post WWII 'Aluminium Houses' built over at Hollington at Coventry Road, which had fridges and other 'luxuries'.

I have yet to find old photo's but will have a look around.

[whiffler]

From http://www.hastingschronicle.net/oreValleyWorkhouse.html

In the late 1920s, with many local jobs available - unlike today - the forerunner of the Broomgrove council estates was built. But these were extraordinary houses: they were made of steel. ‘Tin Town’ as it was widely known was the new Fellows Road and Clement Hill Road, plus the west side of the existing Upper Broomgrove Road. The old house of Broomgrove, from which the area drew its name, was demolished to make way for them. The steel houses where very cold in the winter, with frost and damp on the inside as well as outside, and were exceptionally hot - like an oven, it was said - in the summer months. They were replaced in the early 1960s by the more conventional houses that stand there today.

[Geoff]

Nice excerpt thanks Whiffler. I must adjust my own history snippet when I get a chance. I like the bit about Tin Town being the forerunner to the more conventional estate that is there today.

[whiffler]

I asked my Dad (b1932) at the weekend, just saying to him "Tin Town. What does that mean to you?"

His response was to place it pretty much bang on, and although he didn't know anyone who lived there (born & raised off Queens Rd) he said the common understanding was that it was occupied by poorer families. He's never been a snob, and I think it all fits with the Chronicle info.

He also mentioned that he went to the top of the Power Station tower, his Dad worked for the electricity board for 44 years (and time in RE, RFC, RAF) and got him in. I took it that this was pre-war

I hadn't realised about the older power station, and once I'd looked it up he didn't know about the earlier one.

[Gerry Glyde]

In 1929 into the 30s there was a organisation in Hastings called the YMCA Town Council who had elected councillors, Town Clerk,deputy Town Clerk, Transport Committee, Public Health Committee etc. who it seems debated and passed resolutions on all manner of public issues almost in parallel to what was going on in the Council itself.

In a debate on the Housing Problem in 1929 it discussed a proposal to build 50 homes at Broomgrove, 50 at Bulverhythe and 60 at Hollington an the resolution "authorised" (the quotation marks are from the Observer article) at a cost of £500 each with a rent set at 12/- a week that could be afforded by those of low incomes of £2-10s to £3 per week. Cllr Sadler stressed the need for direct labour to be used and bulk buying of materials to minimise costs "and quoted "a case in Manchester where from £250 to £290 had been saved per house". Cllr L A J Glyde "pointed out that there would be 5s rates in addition to the rent that would be prohibtive for the type of people they wished to live in the houses" Cllr Sadler said "If you admit that people cannot afford to live in these houses then conditions must be bad". "Perhaps Cllr Glyde has overlooked the fact that the cost of living in Hastings is lower than it is in other towns". Cllr Miss Major outlined a scheme of community living for women in London where "each person has their own room communal wash house, dining room and kitchen" Cllr Sadler urged the Council to consider the overcrowding that existed saying "the sordid surroundings which has been erected by man can be abolished by man". The scheme was approved nem com.

The report is in the same manner as would have happened in the council itself. Was it the actual background plan for the actual development of Tin Town and the other housing at Hollington after the slum clearances ? The YMCA was a peculiar body.

(As an aside, L A J Glyde was an employee of Hastings Council finance department and was convicted of embezzelment of Council funds in the early 1940s but got away without prison despite such crimes being very serious at a time of war. He also went on to write a regular Chess column for the Observer)

[e_would]

I lived at 10 fellows rd... we had thick ice in side the windows...

[JACK :)]

I remember Teddy Mann living in Tin Town, and a rope swing by a steel fence on Tin Town side, by the train bridge.