Hastings, an important fishing port,
Cinque Port and defence site on the southeast coast of England, was already a significant town in 928 when it was first documented. Its development, constrained for many centuries by a deep valley and poor transport links, accelerated rapidly in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as sea-bathing, promenading and other seaside leisure activities became increasingly fashionable. Roads and (later) railway lines were built, attracting day-trippers and new residents, and by the 1820s the town was a noted leisure destination.
James Burton, a London-based builder and speculator who had executed large-scale developments in North London before moving to
Tunbridge Wells in
Kent, saw the potential of the land immediately west of the growing town. It was originally the pre-medieval
Manor of Gensing. By the 1820s it consisted of a large area of flat land on top of some small cliffs leading to the beach, and a gently sloping tree-lined valley. The landowner had died in 1818, and his
trustees planned to sell the site to be built upon. Burton bought it on 27 February 1828, having already drawn up plans to found and construct a new, high-class town and resort to rival neighbouring Hastings. The town was called St Leonards-on-Sea in reference to the ancient Hastings parish of St Leonard's, whose church of that dedication stood in the area covered by the new town from the 11th century until it was destroyed between 1404 and 1428. A
turnpike was built in 1836 connecting St Leonards-on-Sea to the main road to London (the present
A21), cutting out the former indirect route via Hastings,
Ore and The Ridge.
St Leonards Warrior Square railway station was opened nearby in February 1851, and this inland part of St Leonards-on-Sea became a new growth area housing mostly working-class people. was soon followed by the establishment of a
Nonconformist community who needed a church of their own:
Protestant Nonconformity was thriving in the Hastings area by the mid-19th century, in common with many other parts of
Sussex. James Griffin, a local
Congregationalist, founded the church in 1863, and building work started on 23 February 1864 when the
foundation stone was laid. The first service at St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church was held on 27 October of that year. Thomas Spalding, board member of
Spalding & Hodge and the owner of
Ore Place (formerly the
manor house of the nearby village of Ore), donated locally quarried
sandstone, and the design and building work were credited to William Habershon and his pupil Edgar Brock. The partnership were prolific in the mid-19th century; most of their work was on Anglican churches such as the new St Helen's Church at Ore, St Andrew's Church (now demolished) in central Hastings and the former St Peter's Church at Baldslow, and further afield in Sussex in places such as
Hove (
St John the Baptist's Church),
Ebernoe,
Copthorne,
Ashurst Wood and
Scaynes Hill. The church formed a landmark on the main road, especially in conjunction with the old and new Christ Churches slightly further down the hill towards the seafront, and particularly after its copper
spire was added. the shingles were replaced by tiles in the 20th century. (A United Reformed church in Hastings,
St Luke's at
Silverhill, also had its spire destroyed in the same storm.) The church founded a mission hall in the
Silverhill suburb in 1892. The incumbent, Reverend Freeman, built a
tin tabernacle on Sedlescombe Road South, and Congregational services were held there until the mid-1940s. The building was demolished in 1966. Later, the
Congregational Church in England merged with various
Presbyterian churches to form the United Reformed Church denomination in 1972. St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church declined to join the new denomination and instead joined the
Congregational Federation, a group formed of churches which had opted to remain separate. In the years after the storm, the structure continued to deteriorate, and damage caused by a series of burglaries in 2002 caused the building's insurance contract to be withdrawn. The congregation stopped using the church for worship in 2002, after which vandalism and continued weathering accelerated its decline into dereliction. As of February 2001, it was one of 521 Grade II listed buildings, and 535 listed buildings of all grades, in the borough of Hastings. Hastings Borough Council enacted a "fast-track" policy to get the building listed quickly by English Heritage, giving it some protection against alteration or demolition. Under its former name of St Leonards Congregational Church, it had been licensed for worship in accordance with the
Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 with the registration number 16637. ==Architecture==