Drill Halls In Bexhill

posted by Peter Cole on 23 Nov 2006 at 2:08 pm

Great site, Good Trumpet blowing.

Your historic info obviously comes from the museum,so I am copying my note to them. From my sketchy knowledge there were at least three drill Halls in Bexhill after the Barracks, for the Rifle Volunteers which was a patriotic movement in Victorian times, paticularly at the time of the Boer Wars, as we came towards WW2, there were territorial units with titles such as 1st Cinque Ports Volunteeer Artillery HQ at Dover but enrolled 60 men at the Queens Head (then in Belle Hill), in 1886. The Landlord built them a Drill Hall at the back of what is now the York PH (Entertainer)in London Road. The next Drill Hall was the eastern one on the Down in 1901 and a second in 1915 to the west. There are plans afoot to pull the older drill hall down.

In 1890 there were about 53 All ranks in the artillery Volunteers who practiced 5 nights a week Mon - Fri for two hours, plus annual camps. see Bexhill Chronicle for 1890.

Peter C

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