Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
St Andrews Church, Hastings
The Bishop of Chichester opened St Andrews Church in Queens Road 30th November 1870. Robert Tressell,(real name Robert Noonan) was born in Dublin on the 18 April 1870, at 37 Wexford Street. He was author of the “Ragged Trousered Philanthropistsâ€, which was the semi-fictitous story of a group of builders & decorators working in Hastings at the time and the conditions in which they toiled. At the age of forty he died in the Royal Liverpool Infirmary (workhouse) hospital his cause of death was bronchial pneumonia and he was buried in a pauper’s grave, in Walton Cemetery. He never had the satisfaction and pleasure of seeing his book published.
He had painted a huge mural inside the church in 1904.
Demolition of the church began in August 1970. It had become dangerous and a group of people trying to save the Robert Tressell mural were threatened with eviction for being uninsured. Only one panel of the mural was saved and it is now on show at the Hastings Museum along with other mementoes of Robert Tressell. Demolition of St Andrews Church was completed in September 1970.
