Ye Olde Lych Gate at All Saints.

Has Ion Castro solved a Hastings Old Town Mystery?

For many years the Lych gate at the Tackleway entance to All Saints has been held up by a load of unsightly but very necessary scaffolding which was erected around the millennium and neighbour Terry Evans was told that it would be a purely temporary measure so he waited….and waited….and waited and no-one came forward to do anything about it – would the fairies that had transformed other untidy sites in the Old Town step forward one dark night and sort it out? There were rumours floating about and Man-about-the-Old-Town, Deeday White emerged from the shadows. Deeday had the solution, he approached Woodbase Joinery in Westfield and they supplied the kiln-dried solid oak for the replacement feet, Deeday’s nephew converted the timber into the replacement feet and Old Town Blacksmith, Woffa, fabricated the iron brackets to splice those feet onto the original structure. As if by magic helpers appeared to assemble the project, Clive White, Darren White, specialist oak carpenter Trevor White, Rob from All Saints Crescent and out-of –town team member Danny Jones from Rye all pulled together and the project was completed with finance provided by High Street Traders, and a contribution from Hastings Boro’ Council and Hastings Old Town Residents Association.

And the mystery? If Ion hadn’t happened to be strolling up Tackleway with his camera, past No 29 where he was born, and up to the end of the roads it would have been assumed that the fairies had rebuilt the gate.

A view along Tackleway part way through the refurbishment

A view along Tackleway part way through the refurbishment