HASTINGS PIER DESTROYED BY FIRE A written memory left by Leonard Scrivens (1911 - 1992)

(from Hurrah for Hastings, p.30 by Cynthia Wright, with her kind permission)

15th July, 1917, was a Sunday and I remember it well. In the afternoon I had gone for a walk with Aunt Nell (E.M. Morris). Probably at my request, we headed for the abandoned quarry/brickyard at the top of Red Lane (now Harrow Lane) - in those days unmade but with one terrace of twelve houses (Red Cottages) on the south side. From the high ground we saw a mass of smoke from the seafront area and hurried Home to find out what was wrong.

We learned that the Pier was ablaze and, with grandfather (H. Morris) and my mother (A. Scrivens), hastened to White Rock where we had a good view from the rising ground at the side of the Hospital. There was a huge crowd (Hastingers always enjoy a free show) and we could easily see Uncle Harry Morris and his fellow-firemen at their work. The fire, however, was gaining, forcing a continual retreat as it crept along the decking under the firemen’s feet, and quite early on grandfather declared that the only way to beat it would be to cut a firebreak. This was eventually done, but not before everything up to the almost new Parade extension had been destroyed.

The Hastings Fire Brigade was then, and until the last War, a voluntary body (really a sort of tradesmen’s club) and the following will emphasise how amateur things were.

Early in the afternoon of the 15th July, all appliances were called out. The Silverhill section fire engine was kept at Battle Road adjacent to Ellis Bros. timber yard, this firm’s heavy draught horses always being used, but it was a Sunday (the day of rest) and the horses were not available. Herbert Till, Foreman-in-Charge, did not hesitate - he, a man of decision, commandeered a passing tramcar, the fire engine with steam getting up was attached, and thus the firemen, in comfort, proceeded to what was certainly the Brigade’s biggest fire.

The devastation was complete and after a week or so the Fire Brigade formed a catwalk to the pier-head and, for a small fee, would escort parties to view, the proceeds being passed to charities. I was taken and, thereafter, had a recurring and very unpleasant dream in which I was caught by the sea on the Pier when making for land - I always woke up before things reached a climax!

Incidentally, the biplane in the photograph was sent by the military at Dover to see what all the smoke was about. Presumably, in 1917 Dover Castle was still without a telephone!