The Hastings Old Town pub that came back from the dead

The scene seems to be thriving with previously closed pubs, such as the Plough, on the West Hill re-opening and new bars, like the one in Heist, St Leonards, springing up.

The latest news centres on a new pub re-opening in Hastings Town Centre in what used to be the Royal George, close to Priory Meadow. That pub had a long, illustrious history. Popular with railwaymen and cricket spectators, it was once used as a cinema just after the First World War. After closure it looked destined to be lost forever, becoming flats. But now it is set to open as The Seadog pub this month.

There is also the quality and wide choice of the beers on offer throughout the town, reflecting a huge upsurge in independent Sussex breweries. Beer lovers once had to get on a train and head to Brighton to get that sort of choice. Now it is like a permanent beer festival in the town.

One pub story I would like to single out though is that of the Jolly Fisherman, in the Old Town, close to the Stade.

According to research carried out by local pub historian David Russell, deeds show that the building known as the Jolly Fisherman dates back to 1769. It was first licensed in 1834 and by the 1840s the landlord had acquired a lease for part of the stone beach opposite, known as the Stade, which included a traditional rope and net shop for the use of his fishing customers.

In the 1880s a lease was issued to ‘fisherman and landlord’ William Adams. His son, Thomas Adams, was a fish wholesaler in the nearby Fish Market. He also owned a net hut next door to the pub. He earned his living from his boat, from the market and from the pub.

Fishing families had allowances in the pub, which provided credit until the skipper paid the bill on a ‘day of settlement’, usually when the trawlers returned. Wives also had allowances with the butcher and the baker, who were paid in the same way. The fishing community was very much pub based and until 1855 some pubs opened throughout the day and night.

In 1855 a woman charged with disturbing the peace at 3 am claimed she had just left the Jolly Fisherman ‘in consequence of a collier being ashore’. These cases demonstrate that the fishing pubs opened and closed on demand to serve the crews of colliers, traders, brigs and trawlers.

In 1925 the Jolly Fisherman again applied for an early morning licence from 6.30 am to 8.30 am, on the basis that ‘several hundred people are out and about at the fish market during these hours’ and if the pub was closed ‘fishermen wouldn’t get their glass of milk and whisky’.

In 1942 the Jolly Fisherman, being on the front line, suffered from enemy bombs. Although not directly hit it closed for the remainder of the war.

The Jolly fisherman closed its doors in 1959, and was used for different purposes over the years, including a tea room.

But in 2016 Lewes couple Oliver and Becky Bostwick re-opened it as the Jolly Fisherman. They spent long hours researching the pub’s history and have re-created it almost exactly. It became the town’s first micro-pub and is currently thriving.

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