I'll be moving back home to Bexhill at the end of August. Can't wait!!! Heading down to Hastings with my kids for the pirate weekend this weekend coming, and I'll also go to Bexhill to chat with the people who I'm doing the mutual exchange with
Hastings have the massive Jack in the Green and Bonfire processions, really beautiful and Pirate Day. Yes, I'm very biased- and homesick. I'm gonna try and pursued ny kids to walk from Bexhill to Hastings lol 😂.
Thank you Ida - Glad you liked it (mostly). My content isn't for everyone but I certainly appreciate it when someone gets something out of it - makes it all the more worth while :)
You passed Glynde Gap beach, as you walked passed Tesco's (in the background of your video). The beach is not as busy and then you have the retail park there if you need to go to Poundland. I also love the little café by the sea, where you can pick up a drink for the walk and a bite to eat :)
I'm going to St Leonard's on sea next week, that where my hotel is and I'll be walking to Bexhill and the retail park at the beginning of De La Warr Road and then having a well deserved dinner at the Marina Inn. And then chill in a pub and the next day I'll be walking into Hastings :) ❤
I used to live in Hastings. It has always been busier than Bexhill. But like you I used to love to wander around the streets of the Old Town. Also, and something you missed from this video, walking across the countryside at the top of the West and East hills (that in effect frame the Old Town) gives beautiful views of the coastline. You can also walk from the top of the East Hill through Hastings Country Park down into Fairlight Glen. A lovely walk.
Landlords increase rents on high streets to levels only big corporations can afford. Simply greed by the land lords and being priced out by the massive chains.
Wonderful video - Thank you for sharing. I absolutely love Hastings, but unfortunately because of the pandemic and looking after a vulnerable person not been able to go at all. Lovely to walk in your footsteps though virtually.🙂🙂👍
Nice video! I know the walk well. I live in St Leonards and used to walk into Bexhill (and back) every Saturday morning, stopping off to look at the shops. I still walk one way sometimes, but I'm not as young as I was! St Leonards was more popular than Brighton at one time but has fallen into decline. I still love it though and wouldn't want to move back to the Big Smoke! Hastings may have one of the largest beach-based fishing fleets, but the fishermen have said they are already facing big problems thanks to Brexit.
Thank you for watching. Why do you think St Leonards has fallen into Decline? You have probably seen the stages of that happening. Plenty of more content to come.
@@TheWonderingEnglishman I'll subscribe. Well, it has had a high unemployment rate for some years and shops seem to be closing down. Having said that, I've always found it fairly safe. There are certain rough areas, but they can be found in every town. On the bright side, I think its a great place to live. There is something for everyone: historical places to visit, an art gallery, a great sense of community and a country park nearby. Rye and Battle are easy to get to by public transport. People often move down here from London and find it a good place to bring up their children.
Do you think the offloading of the homeless and problematic from London to St Leonards had anything to do with it? I can see it used to be such a nice place I hope it recovers to be greater.
@@TheWonderingEnglishman I'm not really sure why this is. People started going abroad on cheap package holidays instead of going to our seaside resorts, so that might be one reason. We had a councillor called Jeremy Birch who launched the highly successful Grotbusters scheme, which made a lot of improvements to the town, but sadly he died a few years ago. There were hotels along the seafront with crumbling facades that had facelifts. That was one good thing! I know there's a graffiti problem. Bottle Alley keeps being painted over to cover up the "tags" etc, which must be quite costly for the council. It's difficult to install CCTV there to catch the culprits. I don't know if the homeless have been offloaded here from other towns. We have enough of our own. There have been some Syrian asylum seeker families brought in, but I think every town had to take their share. I have a friend whose job it is to look after their needs. They're not really a problem. Another friend, Mike Matthews, wrote a book about this very subject called The Decline of Hastings as a Fashionable Resort. It's quite a rarity now I think.
The winters are windy. I was once a language student in Hastings, and lived in Bexhill, currently living in Suffolk but I want to move back home to Bexhill or At Leonard's or Hastings
@@TheWonderingEnglishman me and kids are off home to East Sussex for Bonfire night on the 16th of October. We're staying in a flat in Bexhill, as there are no available hotels in Hastings or St Leonard's
Camber Sands ( clue's in the name) is here in the South East. Bottle alley was called that because of all the Alcoholic homeless people who used to live in the Alley and the bottle's on the wall are all the broken bottle's they left behind.
Wrong. Bottle Alley was part of the massive concrete construction that raised the whole sea front to prevent the frequent flooding of Hastings and St Leonards. It was the brainchild of the 'Concrete King', Sidney Little (later involved in the construction of Mulberry Harbours in WW2), and the construction took place in the 1930s when the country was still suffering the after effects of the Depression and little money was available. People in the town were asked to save used bottles to be used in the decoration of Bottle Alley. The thousands of bottles collected bottles were sorted into different colours and broken up to create a loose mosaic effect, hence different panels the length of the Alley are blue, brown ,green etc. At night the Alley is lit up in different colours and it looks very attractive. There is no problem walking along there at night. I've lived in the area for over forty years and I was surprised by some of the comments in the video that make the area sound far more run down than it actually is.
Thank you for a very interesting walk. You had a very nice day for your walk. I am particularly interested in this part of the South coast, especially Hastings and Bexhill so the walk between the two was really interesting for me. As you say, Bexhill seems very peaceful and Hastings is very nice, especially the view from above when standing nearby the castle and the old town with its quaint shops and little alleyways. As someone who has witnessed changes in England since the 50s, 60s and onwards I completely agree with your thoughts, England has changed a lot. Although the mods and rockers period and their visits to coastal towns in the 60s (as one can see in the movie made by The Who called Quadrophenia) was quite bad, I still prefer that time. Once again, thank you for an interesting and an enjoyable walk.
Hi. Thank you for this post. I have been regularly visiting the Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill area since I traveled down from my home in Scotland some 30 years ago. When I first visited Hastings it was somewhat rundown, particularly the housing/hotels on the coastal road between St Leonard's and Hastings. In recent years, it has benefitted from more investment. There are now more, better shops and places for tourists. Unfortunately, locals have remarked to me that this has had a negative result in some cases, as DFL's ( Down from Londoners ) drive up housing prices and have changed the nature of the area. You are right about there being a lot of poverty in the area but even St Leonard's, which suffers from this too, has been remaking itself and has a artistic quarter and trendy coffee shops, complete with poseurs, to prove it! As for Bexhill, its hardly changed over the years and perhaps this is a good thing. I'm hoping to visit the area again soon and your video is good preparation for this.
Jim thanks for your insightful message and your appreciation. It's always pleasing to hear the past from other people and I'm certain you will have a great trip there when you return. Have a great weekend:)
Re your comment passing by the beacon on or near Galley Hill, Napoleon gave up the idea of invading after the loss at the Battle of Trafalgar, October 1805. Nelson was killed there so he wasn't able to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo - unless they dug him up to help Wellington. (Comment passing through Old Town Hastings).
The beacon at Galley Hill was put up around 1804 which is what I say in the video. Obviously the plan went out the window by 1805 but as I stated the little French man was still a threat until 1815.
@@TheWonderingEnglishman Thanks for your reply. The little French man you mention was hoping after Waterloo to surrender and then live the life of a gentleman in England. The chief spot mentioned is Torquay, but what about Bexhill or, even better, Hastings with all the features you describe, plus being able to pop up to London by train now and again.......Keep up the good work.
It can be done in a couple of hours if you don't stop and appreciate the scenery but I did stop in many places to take in the sights as you see from the video so it took a lot longer. A useful tool is Google maps. Type in your start and end and look at walking estimate on any walk and it will give you a rough idea. I really hope that helps? Thanks for watching!
Hmm rather uncomplimentary and in my opinion, as a resident, wrong about St Leonards which when you know it, is a vibrant, bohemian arty community. Generally poor narritive.
I wouldn't agree about the sea life. The truth is that I am not very informed about what is going on in the oceans, but I saw lots of water creatures in the river I went to this summer.
A river isn't the world though. My brief experience on this planet seems to show everywhere I've ever gone back to... there is less sea life. Very telling in places like Thailand now.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
You get sandy beaches in Suffolk and Norfolk as well, like Felixstowe Lowestoft, Gorleston on sea, Great Yarmouth and Sea Palling 😊
I'll be moving back home to Bexhill at the end of August. Can't wait!!! Heading down to Hastings with my kids for the pirate weekend this weekend coming, and I'll also go to Bexhill to chat with the people who I'm doing the mutual exchange with
Pirate weekend sounds amazing. Sounds like you are going to have a great move home 🏡 :)
Brilliant. Love it , Brian
Hastings have the massive Jack in the Green and Bonfire processions, really beautiful and Pirate Day. Yes, I'm very biased- and homesick. I'm gonna try and pursued ny kids to walk from Bexhill to Hastings lol 😂.
Love the images and mostly your explanations I agree it’s a peaceful and clean city, I agree with your thoughts about how England has changed, 👏👏👏👏
Thank you Ida - Glad you liked it (mostly). My content isn't for everyone but I certainly appreciate it when someone gets something out of it - makes it all the more worth while :)
Thank YOU.That’s the big difference between yours and all other UA-cam same category videos, images and food for thoughts🌟
Great video...keep up the good work... :-) 😀
Thank you :)
More to come every week
I miss my first home so very much. Very homesick
You should return?
Lovely video. Bexhill has a genteel charm and a lovely place to live.
Thanks Richard- it certainly does and I bet it is a great place to live.
I am from Bexhill. Moved to the US in 2003. Absolutely wonderful video.
Thank you Mark and greetings from your old country to your new country in wonderful USA 🇺🇸
You passed Glynde Gap beach, as you walked passed Tesco's (in the background of your video). The beach is not as busy and then you have the retail park there if you need to go to Poundland. I also love the little café by the sea, where you can pick up a drink for the walk and a bite to eat :)
I'm going to St Leonard's on sea next week, that where my hotel is and I'll be walking to Bexhill and the retail park at the beginning of De La Warr Road and then having a well deserved dinner at the Marina Inn. And then chill in a pub and the next day I'll be walking into Hastings :) ❤
I’m sure you will have a great day :)
I used to live in Hastings. It has always been busier than Bexhill. But like you I used to love to wander around the streets of the Old Town. Also, and something you missed from this video, walking across the countryside at the top of the West and East hills (that in effect frame the Old Town) gives beautiful views of the coastline. You can also walk from the top of the East Hill through Hastings Country Park down into Fairlight Glen. A lovely walk.
I'll try to do that next time I visit:)
Thank you for watching this walk at least:)
Nice to see small independent coffee shops and restaurants.
I can't understand why costa and Nero are so popular in the UK.
Landlords increase rents on high streets to levels only big corporations can afford. Simply greed by the land lords and being priced out by the massive chains.
Wonderful video - Thank you for sharing. I absolutely love Hastings, but unfortunately because of the pandemic and looking after a vulnerable person not been able to go at all. Lovely to walk in your footsteps though virtually.🙂🙂👍
Glad I could take you back there Ray.
Nice video! I know the walk well. I live in St Leonards and used to walk into Bexhill (and back) every Saturday morning, stopping off to look at the shops. I still walk one way sometimes, but I'm not as young as I was! St Leonards was more popular than Brighton at one time but has fallen into decline. I still love it though and wouldn't want to move back to the Big Smoke! Hastings may have one of the largest beach-based fishing fleets, but the fishermen have said they are already facing big problems thanks to Brexit.
Thank you for watching. Why do you think St Leonards has fallen into Decline? You have probably seen the stages of that happening. Plenty of more content to come.
@@TheWonderingEnglishman I'll subscribe. Well, it has had a high unemployment rate for some years and shops seem to be closing down. Having said that, I've always found it fairly safe. There are certain rough areas, but they can be found in every town. On the bright side, I think its a great place to live. There is something for everyone: historical places to visit, an art gallery, a great sense of community and a country park nearby. Rye and Battle are easy to get to by public transport. People often move down here from London and find it a good place to bring up their children.
Do you think the offloading of the homeless and problematic from London to St Leonards had anything to do with it? I can see it used to be such a nice place I hope it recovers to be greater.
@@TheWonderingEnglishman I'm not really sure why this is. People started going abroad on cheap package holidays instead of going to our seaside resorts, so that might be one reason. We had a councillor called Jeremy Birch who launched the highly successful Grotbusters scheme, which made a lot of improvements to the town, but sadly he died a few years ago. There were hotels along the seafront with crumbling facades that had facelifts. That was one good thing! I know there's a graffiti problem. Bottle Alley keeps being painted over to cover up the "tags" etc, which must be quite costly for the council. It's difficult to install CCTV there to catch the culprits. I don't know if the homeless have been offloaded here from other towns. We have enough of our own. There have been some Syrian asylum seeker families brought in, but I think every town had to take their share. I have a friend whose job it is to look after their needs. They're not really a problem. Another friend, Mike Matthews, wrote a book about this very subject called
The Decline of Hastings as a Fashionable Resort. It's quite a rarity now I think.
I'll see if I can find it- thank you
The winters are windy. I was once a language student in Hastings, and lived in Bexhill, currently living in Suffolk but I want to move back home to Bexhill or At Leonard's or Hastings
Nothing is permanent - maybe you will :)
@@TheWonderingEnglishman me and kids are off home to East Sussex for Bonfire night on the 16th of October. We're staying in a flat in Bexhill, as there are no available hotels in Hastings or St Leonard's
Bexhill is nicer than St Leonards so you have won :)
Nice vid but you didn't show the fishing fleet! It's on the other side of those tall black net shops 😊
Camber Sands ( clue's in the name) is here in the South East. Bottle alley was called that because of all the Alcoholic homeless people who used to live in the Alley and the bottle's on the wall are all the broken bottle's they left behind.
Imagine if the council had built something beautiful instead of bottle alley... Makes you wonder how these people have jobs!? Appreciate the insight!
Wrong. Bottle Alley was part of the massive concrete construction that raised the whole sea front to prevent the frequent flooding of Hastings and St Leonards. It was the brainchild of the 'Concrete King', Sidney Little (later involved in the construction of Mulberry Harbours in WW2), and the construction took place in the 1930s when the country was still suffering the after effects of the Depression and little money was available. People in the town were asked to save used bottles to be used in the decoration of Bottle Alley. The thousands of bottles collected bottles were sorted into different colours and broken up to create a loose mosaic effect, hence different panels the length of the Alley are blue, brown ,green etc. At night the Alley is lit up in different colours and it looks very attractive. There is no problem walking along there at night. I've lived in the area for over forty years and I was surprised by some of the comments in the video that make the area sound far more run down than it actually is.
Thank you for a very interesting walk. You had a very nice day for your walk. I am particularly interested in this part of the South coast, especially Hastings and Bexhill so the walk between the two was really interesting for me. As you say, Bexhill seems very peaceful and Hastings is very nice, especially the view from above when standing nearby the castle and the old town with its quaint shops and little alleyways. As someone who has witnessed changes in England since the 50s, 60s and onwards I completely agree with your thoughts, England has changed a lot. Although the
mods and rockers period and their visits to coastal towns in the 60s (as one can see in the movie made by The Who called Quadrophenia) was quite bad, I still prefer that time. Once again, thank you for an interesting and an enjoyable walk.
Thank you for joining me Juno. More walks are to be found on my channel and more will come. Some vastly different to others:)
Have a great day :)
Nice thx
Hi. Thank you for this post. I have been regularly visiting the Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill area since I traveled down from my home in Scotland some 30 years ago. When I first visited Hastings it was somewhat rundown, particularly the housing/hotels on the coastal road between St Leonard's and Hastings.
In recent years, it has benefitted from more investment. There are now more, better shops and places for tourists. Unfortunately, locals have remarked to me that this has had a negative result in some cases, as DFL's ( Down from Londoners ) drive up housing prices and have changed the nature of the area.
You are right about there being a lot of poverty in the area but even St Leonard's, which suffers from this too, has been remaking itself and has a artistic quarter and trendy coffee shops, complete with poseurs, to prove it! As for Bexhill, its hardly changed over the years and perhaps this is a good thing. I'm hoping to visit the area again soon and your video is good preparation for this.
Jim thanks for your insightful message and your appreciation. It's always pleasing to hear the past from other people and I'm certain you will have a great trip there when you return. Have a great weekend:)
Re your comment passing by the beacon on or near Galley Hill, Napoleon gave up the idea of invading after the loss at the Battle of Trafalgar, October 1805. Nelson was killed there so he wasn't able to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo - unless they dug him up to help Wellington. (Comment passing through Old Town Hastings).
The beacon at Galley Hill was put up around 1804 which is what I say in the video. Obviously the plan went out the window by 1805 but as I stated the little French man was still a threat until 1815.
@@TheWonderingEnglishman Thanks for your reply. The little French man you mention was hoping after Waterloo to surrender and then live the life of a gentleman in England. The chief spot mentioned is Torquay, but what about Bexhill or, even better, Hastings with all the features you describe, plus being able to pop up to London by train now and again.......Keep up the good work.
This definitely looks like you filmed it in the summer, certainly not an October weather
Yes over the summer:)
We did some of the painted pebbles on 5.30 with the kids :)
how long did it take you to walk from Bexhill to Hastings ?? thanks for sharing
It can be done in a couple of hours if you don't stop and appreciate the scenery but I did stop in many places to take in the sights as you see from the video so it took a lot longer. A useful tool is Google maps. Type in your start and end and look at walking estimate on any walk and it will give you a rough idea. I really hope that helps? Thanks for watching!
@@TheWonderingEnglishman Thanks for your kind reply
No worries:) anytime- have a great walk if you decide to do it :)
Please, are electric bikes allowed on the path as well, or just traditional bikes, if you get my drift, please?
Never seen anyone have a problem - just ride considerately
Electric bikes yes, motorbikes No.
Whats the safest way to walk between Bexhill to Hastings, please? I know there's two massive round abouts near De LA Warr Road
Google? And the time of day probably matters :) sorry for late reply!
Hmm rather uncomplimentary and in my opinion, as a resident, wrong about St Leonards which when you know it, is a vibrant, bohemian arty community. Generally poor narritive.
It's rainy in the winter 😂😂
I wouldn't agree about the sea life. The truth is that I am not very informed about what is going on in the oceans, but I saw lots of water creatures in the river I went to this summer.
A river isn't the world though. My brief experience on this planet seems to show everywhere I've ever gone back to... there is less sea life. Very telling in places like Thailand now.
@@TheWonderingEnglishman Hmm. Didn't know. That is sad.
Yes incredibly sad. The human race is growing way too fast. The growth is coning from Africa and Asia.
We have the great Reset now which includes population to be reduced by 80 %
I have been coming to Bexhill all my life and see seals weekly in the Summer, never saw them as a kid.
It seems beach huts are quite popular around the world according to Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_hut
Wiki knows all :) and these beach huts aren't even listed on Wiki :)
Thank you- I hope you are well?
@@TheWonderingEnglishman So far so good. Any plans for future foreign trips?
More to come - I was in Bulgaria and all my footage was lost! Honestly very frustrating as one of the videos I was very excited about :(
@@TheWonderingEnglishman how did that happen with the lost footage?
Corrupt memory cards - no idea how to rescue them have wasted hours and hours on software and time on trying to fix the failed memory cards....
Queen Victoria is standing proudly at St Leonard's Warrior Square 😊