Hastings Forum

Hello and HELP!. I am looking for the location of the Boat House Cafe which was in business 1939. The couple who rented the converted boat house and ran it as a Cafe were Elizabeth and Clemens Koder. They are listed in the 1939 Register as living there. The Registration area for the address was Sussex>Battle Road> EKEO. Family tales include outside loo and wash area built into the high bank which protected the garden from the beach. I cannot find any old maps which show Battle Road coming as far as the beach.
All the other addresses either side of them on the 1939 Register have names eg. Rosedene, Sunnyside, Robins Nest, Shady Nook, Roselma The lighthouse. I am assuming they may be cottages or Holiday B&B's. Can anyone hone down my search area This request is comming from Western Australia, so I cannot pop into your local library or Shire Offices to look at any records and am relying on the Internet. Thanks for any replies

You're right in that Battle Road and any beach are a good mile apart.

What Register are you dealing with?

What is EKEO ?

Do you have any photos ?

I believe Clem Koder's parents ran the Boathouse (Cafe?) at Pett Level, Hastings.
There is also a house called the lighthouse at Pett Level.
So that all seems to tie in with your research, Jeanne.

Below is a small photo of the beach and headland (Cliff End).



Cliff End (Pett Level) showing the Boat House, the White House and the westernmost extension of the R M Canal, now hidden in the caravan site, circa 1910 - 31.

Good find Richard

Indeed. I did think of Pett Level but couldn't find any names with my limited resources.

So that's the Canal between the road and the coast proper ?.

Does that make the Café the old Cliffend Coastguard Station on OS 1872, with Flagstaff marked. If so, it looks to have been replaced rather than extended.

The further property stood on the corner of the road as it came from Fairlight and turned to parallel the coast. It is white, old, and on same plot in suitable alignment as the White House.


Jeanne - perhaps next port of call is a local. Good hunting

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cliff-En ... 1288593286

It goes canal, road, coastline - as per the video at around the 2 minute mark:
Although the canal appears to go under the road towards Cliff End - not sure exactly where it went from there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLJWx3MiUYU

The beach is where 'Ashes to Ashes' video - D. Bowie was filmed in 1989, I think.

re last element of RMC

Compare with :- https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/588981 ... /12/100315

If you stop the video at 3:00, you can see the White House, and the track serving properties abutting the cliffs. You can also see a row of trees/bushes? which has a small kink (as did RMC), and the dog-leg in the cliff which RMC ended with. The rest is down to speculation.

The map shows CG station with flagstaff (as per photo), adjacent embankment to RMC (almost per story), close by white house (story, photo, google).

imho, the building now sporting solar panels in the video occupies the rough site of CG station/café.

Pett station sold 1926 - coastguardassociation.org.uk/2015/06/pett-coastguard-from-1861/

Interesting to see if Jeanne is happy or has any more questions for us.

https://www.pettnet.org.uk/pett-and-pet ... n-the-past

Feast yourselves on the photo gallery, with some decent captioning. The CG station on 1872 map may have been a more recent building, as the 4/5 cottages along the shore are captioned as Old Station - with a garage alongside. Garage … or boat house ? Wouldn't need a big café, but no room for accommodation.

Sunnyside and other cottages get a mention.

Beach Club café built c1932 - no room for 2, so is this the name. Battle Rd was a red herring, might Boat House have been another?

Hurrah - number 63 captioned the Boat House, where CG Station labelled on 1872 map. number 11 and others have the same building, and show a small hut abutting the bank on defensive side of RMC.

67 - Sunnyside refreshment rooms - must have been some trade there in those days


Jeanne - anything else ?

Hello Whiffler,

Well done with all the photo images.
would you kindly you post the 'number 63. captioned the Boat House, where CG Station labelled on 1872 map. number 11 and others have the same building, and show a small hut abutting the bank on defensive side of RMC'?
There are so many photo's I cannot pick it out easily.

We can't yet know why Jeanne, from Western Australia, wanted to find the location.