A major new book by amateur historian Bob Wilcock has just been published and is being launched at an illustrated presentation at Hastings Museum at 2pm on Sunday 30 March -https://www.hmag.org.uk/event/mills-and-millers-of-hastings/ .
The event is free and there is free parking.
The book will be available to purchase at a significant discount on the recommended retail price, and after the event will be on sale at the Museum, and in Hastings History House in Courthouse Street.
Bob is descended from the Carswell family who were Hastings’ principal millers and bakers in Georgian times. The dynasty was started by Bob’s 6xgreat-grandfather Richard Carswell . A tailor and Customs Officer, he only became a miller when he retired. In trying to delve into his story Bob discovered there was no book giving the history of milling in Hastings, .
Previous researchers, including the renowned curator of Hastings Museum, J. Manwaring Baines, acknowledging that Hastings mills history is among the most difficult to tackle, particularly the most prominent site, the West Hill.
The result of 10 years of meticulous research, Bob’s book has risen to the challenge, and, in the words of one reviewer “the book will be the definitive source of mills, millers and owners for Hastings and its environs.”
Bob’s innovation is to focus on the millers, mill owners and mill workers, their fascinating lives, their families, their milling connections.
The Carswells were followed in Victorian times by the Haywards at Baldslow and the Crisfords at Fairlight, then William Draper and his sons kept traditional milling going well into the twentieth century.
