In 1972, I was asked to go to the Hastings Office of the Department of Environment to do a short course on concrete technology. I had never been to Hastings or St Leonards on Sea so I took the opportunity to have a couple of days there with my wife and son. It was not until 1997, when I began researching my family history, that I realised my direct ancestors had lived in that part of the country. In particular I found out about my great grandfather John Henry Spree who became a postcard publisher in Hastings, St Leonards on Sea and later in Nottingham.

John Henry Spree 1869 - 1932. (Hastings & St Leonards The Postcard Collection, Amberley Publishing)

It would appear that John Henry Spree started producing photographic postcards from around 1904 whilst living in St Leonards on Sea. It was from there that he registered a number of his postcards at the Stationers' Hall in London under the Copyright Acts in force from 1842 to 1912. National Archive records show that in 1910 John Henry Spree registered more of his postcards and in particular ones of a night and day image of St Leonards Pier and Multi View postcards of Crowhurst. The earliest postcards that I have which were taken by my great grandfather are from 1905 and include one of St Georges Church in Crowhurst posted in May 1905 and a series taken after the storm in 1905.

Probably the most well know postcard publisher in Hastings was Judges. In 1902 Fred Judge purchased an existing photographic business and renamed it Judges Photo Stores. According to my father, John Henry Spree took a job as a photographer at Judges in Hastings where he successfully worked for a number of years. As it is generally accepted that most of the photographs used by Judges Ltd were taken by Fred Judge it could be that John Henry Spree was employed at the previous Judges shop in White Rock run by A E Marriot or he was employed at Judges Ltd in a capacity other than a photographer.

Hasting & St Leonards First Tram on the front line, taken on the seafront near Bopeep on the 18 December 1906. (Hastings & St Leonards The Postcard Collection, Amberley Publishing)

Having previously had a book ‘John Henry Spree’s Nottinghamshire’ published, and as I had a few postcards taken by him of Hastings and St Leonards on Sea, I decided to put together this book which includes an introduction and a brief summary of the history of Hastings & St Leonards on Sea up to 1900. As a general principle I organised the layout of the book with the images in a geographical sequence starting in the east and then proceeding west through Hastings and St Leonards on Sea.  I then included some postcards of the more prominent outlying areas of Crowhurst, Fairlight Glenn, Hollington and Ore.

The book covers the years between 1900 -1918, from the turn of the century to the end of the First World War. During this period John Henry Spree published postcards in the Hasting and St Leonards on Sea area. It contains 17 images of the few remaining Spree postcards of the area and many other images from local and national postcard publishers.

St Leonards. Heavy seas and high gusts of wind on the 27 November 1905 ripped the kiosk, situated at the entrance to the pier, from its foundations and overturned it.. (Hastings & St Leonards The Postcard Collection, Amberley Publishing)

In the years covered by this book there were many significant events in Hastings and St Leonards on Sea. For example the White Rock gardens were opened on the 3 September 1904, the inauguration of the tram service in July 1905, the sinking of SS Clara in June 1905, the sea front flooding that followed an exceptionally high tide in November 1905, the S.S. Lugano on fire off Hastings in April 1906, the launching of the Hastings lifeboat in a snowstorm on 25 April 1908, the State Visit of the Lord Mayor of London to Hastings on 28 November 1908, heavy snowfall on 30 December 1908, the opening of the American Palace Pier on the 23 May 1909, the great fire in Waterworks Road on 4 January 1909, proclamation of King George V  on 9 May 1910, severe gales on 12 March 1912 and 22 March 1913 and the declaration of War 5 August 1914. Many of these events are covered in the book.

Crowhurst St Georges Church This card has a postmark of May 1905. (Hastings & St Leonards The Postcard Collection, Amberley Publishing)

The majority of the postcards in the book are in colour but due to the infancy of colour cameras many of the early post cards were coloured in by hand from the black and white originals with varying results as the shades chosen by those that did the colouring were not always true to life. Alternatively colouring could be done by the photochrom process for producing colorized images from black and white photographic negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates.

John Henry Spree and family moved to Nottingham in 1915 and became a prolific producer of postcards around Nottingham and the rest of the East Midlands. I am of course proud of my great grandfathers achievements as a postcard publisher. To date I have collected 379 images of them including 123 original postcards that I have been able to purchase. The search goes on.

I am looking forward to having two more books published by Amberley, ‘British Military Dinky Toys’ and ‘Portsmouth The Postcard Collection’.

Alan Spree's new book Hastings & St Leonards The Postcard Collection is available for purchase now.