After years of decline, the British seaside holiday is back. The evidence is that airport delays and terrorism alerts are blunting the appeal of trips to Spain. Global warming has brought better weather and made resorts in southern England in particular more attractive. The latest figures from the UK Tourism Survey show that there are now 25.5 million seaside holidays in the UK each year, and that there are a staggering 270 million day visits made to the British coast.
Of course, most of this happens in the summer. For me, though, there is nothing like a blustery autumn day in Hastings, walking over the East Hill with its sweeping cliff-top views over the town and the sea, then poking about the antique shops and galleries in the Old Town.
But what truly sets Hastings apart from its rivals along the coast is the fishing fleet. Just across the road from the flashing lights of the amusement arcade and the yells of the people on the fun fair rides on Rock-a-Nore is The Stade, a beach that keeps alive hundreds of years of fishing traditions. The Sea Fish Authority described it "as near perfect a fishery as could be devised" because of the environmentally sound methods used by the fishermen (which includes changing their net size to allow young cod to escape and keep stocks high).
On the Stade there are more than 25 boats, the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Britain. Fishing boats similar to those used at Hastings today have worked from almost the same beach under the Hastings cliffs for at least 400 years, and probably much longer. Despite the exposed landing site the Hastings fleet has survived many difficult times because the town lies next to one of Britain's most prolific fishing grounds.
It is a local business, fishing between Beachy Head in the west and Dungeness to the north-east. The grounds the boats fish have traditional names that are still used: Back of the Sand, Hole in the Sand, the Mud and the Bank, Hooks Hard and Cliff End Hard, Leezes and Shingle Beck.
The fishing is seasonal, the boats turning in spring to sole and plaice, in summer to lobster and crabs, and in the autumn to the cod that migrate down the Channel from the North Sea. It is a hard life – poorly paid and dangerous. A plaque on The Stade commemorates young Hastings fishermen, lost at sea in recent years.
A celebration of the fishing community on The Stade is the Hastings Fishermen's Museum, one of the town’s leading tourist attractions, in a former church built in 1852. The major exhibit is one of the last of the luggers (sailing fishing boats), the Enterprise. All around it are models, photographs, paintings, nets and ropes. The Fishermen's Museum is still used for christenings and baptisms, with a carol concert every Christmas. Admission is free.
On the beach next to the Museum are the net shops, tall, narrow wooden constructions, weatherboarded and black-tarred, of various shapes and sizes, used for storage of fishing gear. Some are made from the up-turned hulls of old fishing boats. It is sometimes said that the huts were used for net drying, but this is not the case. Nets are dried on the beach or on a nearby piece of land known as the Minnis.
Hastings offers plenty of opportunities to sample what the fishermen have landed, from the fish shops on the Stade to the stall selling the famous “fishermen’s rolls”, fresh caught fish fillets fried in olive oil and served in bread rolls for just £1.50. Right across the road, The Neptune, run by a Chinese lady, offers cod chips and mushy peas or grilled plaice washed down with Tsingtao beer.