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The shortest day of the year and officially winter.
Knees aching after a 12-hour work shift and a slight head and chest cold, I was determined to get out for a seaside walk before Christmas. So, off I went to Hastings in East Sussex.
Hastings is not the nearest seaside town to where I live, but it is a town I have been visiting for over 40 years.
Hastings (old town) is a lovely and quaint seaside town. Set between two cliffs serviced by funicular railways, charming Hastings Old Town blends an old-school seaside vibe with Tudor styling and a lively arts scene. It is also one of Britain’s oldest fishing ports. Boats have worked from the beach in front of the ancient town for over a thousand years, the beach is known as the Stade. On the Stade there are more than 25 boats, the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Britain. The shingle beach has always been called the Stade. The word dates from before the 1066 battle of Hastings and means ” landing place “. The Stade was originally a small area between today’s boating lake and coach park, but the building of the 1887 groyne at Rock-a-Nore and the 1896 harbour stopped shingle moving east along the coast. The result was that the Stade then steadily grew out to seaward, providing new room for the fishing fleet and many amenities.
On the Stade is Britain’s biggest fleet of beach-launched fishing boats. The boats have to be hauled out of the sea after each trip, which stops them being more than about ten metres long. This means that they can only carry small amounts of gear and travel just a few miles. As a result, the fleet has always fished in an ecologically sound way.
Harbours built at Hastings have never given much shelter, so the boats have always had to be pulled up the beach. Each vessel has a shed containing an engine and winch, operated by a ” boy ashore” and tractors help push the craft into the sea, especially when the tide is low.
