2016 and all that

A new exhibition opened last weekend at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, called ‘The Story of Hastings in 66 Objects’. It’s a concept borrowed from Neil Macgregor’s highly regarded book and radio series, ‘History of the World in 100 Objects.’ If the world can be covered with 100, Hastings ought to be able to manage the same with 66. Toby Sargent went to have a look.

I was 11 in 1966, the 900th anniversary. I recall playing King Harold in 4B’s dramatic reconstruction of the Norman conquest, on stage at Sandhurst Road Junior Mixed school in Catford. The costume was made from brown hessian – very itchy – and a splendid gold crown made from an upcycled cereal packet. I’m guessing I had a sword, tucked into a belt made of rope, but the memory can play tricks when you go back 50 years.

But I know that I had an arrow hidden up my sleeve, so that when the crucial moment came, and the Norman archers fired their arrows into the sky, I could briefly turn my back to the audience, whip out the arrow and hold it up to my eye. Then I had to stagger to centre stage, collapse and die. Good stuff.

Historic invasion and historic retreat

And I like to think that at least some schools will be doing something similar this year, the 950th anniversary of the battle. Perhaps the year will also draw in more visitors to our town, attracted by the story, noting I hope the gentle irony of us marking a historic invasion from Europe in the same year as we’ve had a historic retreat from Europe.

There will be plenty going on in Hastings across the summer and autumn, with this new exhibition providing valuable context, and highlighting a great deal of what happened here after the conquest.

‘The Story of Hastings in 66 Objects’ takes the battle as its starting point and then picks out events, social trends and cultural landmarks in chronological order up to 1966, representing each one with an object and a clear description of what it is, why it matters, and where it fits in the 900 years being covered. This last point is achieved by the simple but effective device of running a timeline along the wall, just below the ceiling, so that everything is effortlessly placed in the wider historical picture.

So I’m pleased to report that it’s a really excellent little exhibition, occupying just two rooms of the fine building that houses the permanent collection, but presenting a very impressive range of objects, each brought to life by clear and informative labelling.

Three kings on the throne

The exhibition starts with a silver penny from around the time of the Norman invasion. So far, so museum-y, but we also learn that Hastings had its own mint – one of only two in Sussex – where coins were cast and the ‘moneyers,’ that’s those licensed to make the coins, paid the crown a levy every time a new type of coin was issued. That insight is further gilded with the curator’s comment that 1066 must have been a particularly expensive year for them, with three kings on the throne at different points. A licence to print – or cast, in this instance – money is not always as good as it sounds, it seems.

And 23 objects later we find an exhibit devoted to George Bumstead, a Hastings fisherman who was convicted of smuggling in 1825, sentenced to ‘sea service’ (conscription to the navy) and spent many years helping prevent the slave trade and encountering West African culture and customs in a way that must have been mind-blowing for someone like him at that time. The exhibit is an illustrated account of his voyages, presented in immaculate script, but brought alive by the museum who also exhibit a ship’s biscuit alongside. Imagine the most unappetising and tooth-bothering oatmeal cookie, about the same size and toughness as a particularly hard-wearing frisbee, and you get the picture.

As we go round, we pick up so many nuggets of information, each brought to life with a well-chosen artefact. Did you know, for example, that by 1851 the train journey time between Hastings and the capital had come down to ‘less than three hours,’ compared to nine hours before? I’m sure I won’t be the only one who ruefully notes that this momentum was not continued in the 165 years that followed.

Or that public executions took place at the junction of Priory Road and Old London Road? Then there’s the information that the Rockers who drove down to join battle with the Mods in the early sixties came here because, as one put it ‘the best mad run was (to) Hastings, as it had the most bends’.

Cracking exhibition

‘The Story of Hastings in 66 Objects’ is a cracking exhibition. Like the best museum shows these days it’s clever without being elitist, accessible without being patronising, entertaining without being banal, and . . . free. Go and see for yourself; you won’t regret it.

‘The Story of Hastings in 66 Objects’. The museum is at John’s Place, Bohemia Road, Hastings, TN34 1ET (Telephone: 01424 451052)

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