My George Street jeweller recollections from 1960s Hastings

The Observer headline “Historic 18-room Hastings Old Town former jewellers building sold” brought back many memories for me because it was where, in the 1960s, I started a 30 year career in the retail jewellery trade.

The business was called H.B. Wright and it was my job to unbolt and take down the wooden shutters, which still cover the front and side windows today, first thing every morning, put them back up at 1 o’clock, take them back down at 2 o’clock and finally put them back up at 5.30 and, boy, were they heavy!

And, on top of that, my manager used to offer my services to our competitor over the road when the manager there was on holiday and his shutters needed doing four time a day!

When I worked at Wright’s the business was owned by Edwin Stafford Bradnam, the son of Edwin Bradnam who was, amongst many other things, three times Mayor of Hastings, Chairman of Governors at Hastings Grammar School and head of the Fire Brigade.

According to the Friends of Hastings Cemetery web site Edwin Bradnam Senior died following a tramcar accident at the Memorial in 1921, and that the accounts given at the inquest varied.

However, his son told me that his father was travelling on the upper deck of an open-topped tram when his hat blew off. His father tried to grab it and, in doing so, fell over the side and onto the road, causing the injuries that later led to his death.

In my day George Street was open to traffic and, on sunny days, it was my responsibility to keep an eye open for large vehicles which could bring the shop’s sun blinds crashing to the ground. There were many times when I had to sprint out of the shop, pole in hand, to push them back before they got damaged!

Every day, when Mr Bradnam arrived at the shop, I had to ask the question, “Many coaches in today, Sir?” As he lived in Collier Road and walked to work, using the West Hill Lift to reach George Street, he would stand at the top of the West Hill and count how many vehicles were in the coach park, in order to estimate how busy we would be that day.

So, in response to my question, he would respond by either saying something like, “37, Eric, we should be busy” or “Only eight, it looks as though we are in for a quiet day”.

Thinking back I could probably write a book about working at Wright’s in the 1960s!

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