John Manwaring Baines was, in his day, a famous even fêted historian. He turned his attention to St Leonards (the posh part of Hastings), in 1956 in a book full of facts and fascinating illustrations. Its now reprinted in full with the addition of many rediscovered illustrations in full colour.
St Leonards, like Brighton at the same time, turned from minor fishing hamlet to fashionable town during Regency times under the almost singlehanded direction of architect Decimus Burton who, in the 1820s and 1830s created a new town of big, modern and fashionable town houses on the English south coast.
Then, a four storey, six bedroomed town house was £727 – put in perspective, many labourers earned less than £1 a year at this time.
Frequency: one off
Size: A5
Pagination: 88 pages. Full colour