Our Family's Journey Through Time
Notes:
Hastings (/'he?st??z/ HAY-stingz) is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, 24 mi (39 km) east to the county town of Lewes and 53 mi (85 km) south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place 8 mi (13 km) to the north-west at Senlac Hill in 1066. It later became one of the medieval Cinque Ports. In the 19th century, it was a popular seaside resort, as the railway allowed tourists and visitors to reach the town. Today, Hastings is a fishing port with the UK's largest beach-based fishing fleet. It has an estimated population of 92,855 as of 2018.[3][4]
History
Early history
Hastings- Boats making the Shore in a Breeze, by John James Chalon, 1819
The first mention of Hastings is found in the late 8th century in the form Hastingas. This is derived from the Old English tribal name H?stingas, meaning 'the constituency (followers) of H?sta'. Symeon of Durham records the victory of Offa in 771 over the Hestingorum gens, that is, "the people of the Hastings tribe." Hastingleigh in Kent was named after that tribe. The place name H?stingaceaster is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 1050,[5][6] and may be an alternative name for Hastings. However, the absence of any archaeological remains of or documentary evidence for a Roman fort at Hastings suggest that H?stingaceaster may refer to a different settlement, most likely that based on the Roman remains at Pevensey.[7]
Evidence of prehistoric settlements have been found at the town site: flint arrowheads and Bronze Age artefacts have been found. Iron Age forts have been excavated on both the East and West Hills. This suggests that the inhabitants moved early to the safety of the valley in between the forts. The settlement was already based on the port when the Romans arrived in Britain for the first time in 55 BC. At this time, they began to exploit the iron (Wealden rocks provide a plentiful supply of the ore), and shipped it out by boat. Iron was worked locally at Beauport Park, to the north of the town. It employed up to one thousand men and is considered to have been the third-largest mine in the Roman Empire.[8] There was also a possible iron-working site near Blacklands Church in the town ? the old name of 'Ponbay Bridge' for a bridge that used to exist in the area is a corruption of 'Pond Bay' as suggested by Thomas Ross (Mayor of Hastings and author of an 1835 guide book)[9]
With the departure of the Romans, the town suffered setbacks. The Beauport site was abandoned, and the town suffered from problems from nature and man-made attacks. The Sussex coast has always suffered from occasional violent storms; with the additional hazard of longshore drift (the eastward movement of shingle along the coast), the coastline has been frequently changing. The original Roman port is likely now under the sea.[10]
Bulverhythe was probably a harbour used by Danish invaders, which suggests that -hythe or hithe means a port or small haven.[11]
Kingdom of Haestingas
From the 6th century AD until 771, the people of the area around modern-day Hastings, identified the territory as that of the Haestingas tribe and a kingdom separate from the surrounding kingdoms of Suth Saxe ("South Saxons", i.e. Sussex) and Kent. It worked to retain its separate cultural identity until the 11th century.[12] The kingdom was probably a sub-kingdom, the object of a disputed overlordship by the two powerful neighbouring kingdoms: when King Wihtred of Kent settled a dispute with King Ine of Sussex & Wessex in 694, it is probable that he seceded the overlordship of Haestingas to Ine as part of the treaty.[12][13]
In 771 King Offa of Mercia invaded Southern England, and over the next decade gradually seized control of Sussex and Kent. Symeon of Durham records a battle fought at an unidentified location near Hastings in 771, at which Offa defeated the Haestingas tribe, effectively ending its existence as a separate kingdom. By 790, Offa controlled Hastings effectively enough to confirm grants of land in Hastings to the Abbey of St Denis, in Paris.[14] But, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1011 relates that Vikings overran "all Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Haestingas", indicating the town was still considered a separate 'county' or province to its neighbours 240 years after Offa's conquest.[15]
During the reign of Athelstan, he established a royal mint in Hastings in AD 928
Latitude: 000000, Longitude: 0.57Matches 1 to 2 of 2
Last Name, Given Name(s)  |
Birth  |
Person ID | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Cannon, Janet | 22 Feb 1822 | Hastings, Sussex, England | I12616 |
| 2 | Cannon, Margaret Dilkes | Abt 1820 | Hastings, Sussex, England | I12629 |
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