Hasting Net Huts

For as long as fishermen have put to sea from the beach at Hastings, there has been a need for storage facilities on shore. For some time during the last century over 100 net shops reflected this need. At the time while all the smaller boats were fishing locally – as the boats do today – the larger luggers would set off on voyages lasting many weeks, and they in particular needed stores. In August they would set out in search of the herring shoals in the North Sea, and they would return for Christmas and the New Year and would change their nets and then put to sea again – this time to seek the mackerel up-Channel sailing as far as Cornwall. In early summer they would return and overhaul the boats, and their nets, ropes and other tackle. So, while the luggers were fishing for herring they needed storage space at home for the mackerel nets, and visa versa. As these larger boats carried as many as 100 nets each, the stores had to be sufficient size to accommodate those not in use. It is hard today for us to appreciate how limited the space on the Stade was in the last century when the Hastings fishing industry was at its height: there was only a strip of shingle beach on which to build stores. The broad beach as we see it today simply did not exist, and the tide came within yards of the cliffs and houses. So it is that the netshops had to be tall, and compact on plan. The formal layout with double rows of close-set net shops with a large space in between – dates from the 1830's when the Council laid down detailed regulations for the location of all net shops, including a rule that they should not exceed 8 feet square. All the net shops are built of wood and the framing is very slim and incorporates diagonal bracing to give strength against the wind. Headroom on each floor is limited and simple vertical ladders are nailed to the walls inside, with small openings through each floor. The doors at each level open outwards and can usually be hooked back. Some net shops have small shuttered windows; many have stable doors at ground level and sometimes a fisherman can be seen in the doorway repairing his gear. Today there are around 45 of these net huts left.