Hastings and St.Leonards Boys Brigade

More footage of bygone Hastings and its people. This time from what looks like late 1950s. This is the Boys Brigade Parade, which used to be an annual event. Many old landmarks you will recognise. The parade starts in Ore Village near to what thew site of the forthcoming Secondary School for girls... which in 2013 was demolished a a new building constructed. The parade continues into Rock Lane. The video concludes with the parade proceeding from White Rock Gardens to St.Mary In The Castle. Note the old department store 'Mastins' (Now Iceland) near to the end of the video

[@dougcheshire2031]

This is about 1963 judging by the sight of a Mk 3 Ford Zephyr in one shot. The diesel Leyland Atlanteans are evident which replaced trolleybuses in May 1959. I was in the Ist Hastings company of the Boys Brigade at the time and the parade was clearly going to our church St Mary-in-the-Castle for the annual church parade of all the BB companies in Hastings. The definition is not clear enough to pick out individual boys or officers but it is very likely I was there somewhere. There is one shot near Falaise Rd of a blue sit up and beg Ford Popular which may have even belonged to my father......perhaps having driven me there (probably wishful thinking in those days!!) The original movie film may just be a bit clearer for identification. Happy days! Doug Cheshire

[@TomLockeTrustee]

I was in the BB in Hasting in the late 1960s - weird!

[@JimBreeds]

Yes, It definitely starts at top of Churchill Avenue in Ore. That might even be Roy Mills leading the parade in the opening scenes? Ore BB leader. His son Allen was one of my best friends. Then at 3:27 I'm sure that is Red Lake Terrace and we can see the shop on the corner with Grove Road. Then down the hill past the nursing home wall (near to where Aldi is now) to the bottom of Rye Road (then called Red Lake Road) where Ore Community Centre is (then it was part of part of Sandown School). Then I think they turn down off Old London Road down Victoria Avenue. Which would make complete sense because they would have been heading back to the Methodist church on the corner of Clifton Road/The Ridge where the Ore Brigade was based. I suspect that the earlier interior church scenes may well be inside that Methodist church too but can't be sure. Then at 4:40 'ish it jumps of course to Falaise Road and White Rock Gardens and this is in colour so two different parades are spliced together here - maybe even from different years. It's a pity that the camera pans so quickly from the Queens Hotel across Harold Place and back but brief glimpses of the memorial clock tower are in there somewhere! Great to see Mastins there, and I think the roundabout suggests that the (then) new fountain is in place? So early 1960s for this colour footage?

[@MrTantrums007]

This film is early 1960s when Costa Del Hastings started going into decline with far worse to come in the c1970s and c1980s. The best years for Hastings were probably late 1940s and 1950s.