I decided to stop in Hastings. Mom had not visited the place to my knowledge. We did however enjoy together the TV series “Foyle’s War” which was filmed in Hastings. I highly recommend the series which can be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and PBS. It has won awards for the most authentic show with period cars, costumes, and scenery. It is about a policeman in WW2 and every crime is based on real life war experiences. Hastings had a very colorful war. Because of the fear of invasion the population went from 65,000 down to 34,000. It received 750 incendiary bombs, 550 bombs, 15 V1 rocket strikes, 700 injured, 154 killed and 450 houses demolished. And as the films show it was an RAF spitfire base during the Battle of Britain. It was the most heavily fortified beach on the coast. Today I walked the street where Foyle lived in the series. It is the same as it was in 1941. Little wonder the Brits are obsessed with WW2. On the TV even today about 5-10% of the programing has to do with that war. We often forget they were in it from 1938 to 1945 and it cost them an Empire. Hastings too had a famous pier with a theater at the end. It burned down in 2010 and will be rebuilt by December 2015.
Note: In Guildford I saw a play about the evacuation of children from London in 1939 to protect them from the bombing. It was cute and I sent Jade the book. “Carries War”
Hastings was also the site of the Norman invasion in 1066 which resulted in the freedoms we now enjoy as a democratic society. King Edward dies (The same Edward whose name and buildings make Brighton, my last stop, so interesting) Harold and William war over succession. Harold loses along with his viking supporters and William wins with his Normans and become king. (Say thank you!! That took hundreds of pages when the Brits tell the story.)
The rain here even seems wetter! We have had one month of rain in the past two days. Burr!!!!!