8 George Street, with 18 West Street, St Clement, (HT 7002)

As to 8 George Street

In 1775 William Polhill merchant bought a stable, shop & beer cellar from Lucy Sargent widow & others & on 5 Nov 1789 mortgaged the property (now a warehouse & land) to James Dippery of East Dean gent for £600. On 24 May 1793 Polhill, a merchant, assigned his property to John Tilden of Battle gent (as executor of Richard Sampson) & John Sinnock of Hailsham gent as principal creditors; an auction of the bankrupt's estate was held 31 July at which the warehouse (which Polhill had occupied with John Tebay) was sold to William Scrivens innkeeper for £181. The conveyance was made 17 & 18 Oct 1793 & the mortgage term was assigned by Nicholas Willard, Dippery's executor, to John Tebay, ironmonger, in trust for Scrivens

On 27 Mar 1810 WS sold the property to Thomas & John Mannington, blacksmiths, for £367 10s; William Gill banker was their trustee & John Cossum mercer & Joseph Hannay gent (executors of Tebay who died 12 Jan 1810) assigned the mortgage to Henry Tindale linendraper

On 17 Mar 1826 Thomas conveyed his share to John Mannington & William Bishop gent his trustee for £300

Bishop's will of 29 July 1828 was proved (PCC) 6 Dec 1837 by his son Henry; Gill's will of 11 Nov 1831 was proved (PCC) 4 Feb 1832 by his grandsons William & George Scrivens

By his will of 22 Dec 1851 John Mannington appointed his nephew Thomas Mannington & friend John Phillips trustees for sale, subject to his sister Sarah Richardson's life estate in 93 High Street (in his own occupation) & 133 All Saints Street occupied by John Tolfree

Mannington died 20 Oct 1853, the will was proved (Lewes) 14 Nov and on 24 Jan 1854 the personal representatives of the trustees conveyed the property to Phillips & Thomas Mannington (of Fleet Street Mx tobacconist) subject to the trusts of John Mannington's will. The property was described as a house which JM had built on the site of the warehouse; it was occupied by the London & County Bank to whom it had been leased 18 July 1848 (AMS5828/23/1, 2)

On 6 Feb 1854 the trustees sold to William Blackman Young gent (married 1852) for £810 who sold 1 Apr 1875 to Hans Semadeni of 48 Preston Street, Brighton confectioner for £850 (AMS5828/23/3, 5). HS sold 26 May 1881 to Giulio Semadeni the occupier for £1150 who sold 29 Oct 1883 to Richard Ragsdale Collard of Hill Street wholesale fruiterer for £950 (AMS5828/23/6, 7). A receiving order in bankruptcy was made against Collard, a steamship owner, 13 Oct 1892 and 26 June 1893 John Henry Bull of Newhaven coalmerchant & shipbroker (who had been appointed trustee 19 Oct 1892) sold the property to Kate Parkes of Ashford spinster for £250 subject to a mortgage of 1883; she (as Kate wife of Archibald Stoakes of 8 George Street gunmaker) mortgaged the property in 1895 & 1897 & it was reconveyed to her 25 Mar 1927 (AMS5828/23/8 - 12)

As to a warehouse at 18 West Street

On 20 May 1875 Catherine Elizabeth Ellman of Battle widow sold to William Rogers, fruiterer, a blacksmith's shop which had been mortgaged to her husband's firm by William Woolgar Smart, blacksmith, 8 May 1863; the property had formerly belonged to William Ranger (AMS5828/23/13)

On 22 Oct 1883 Rogers purchased a house & warehouse from Robert Ransom of Maida Vale Mx gent, the assignee of a mortgage by the executors of William Ranger (d 21 Dec 1846) (AMS5828/23/14)

On 3 Jan 1854 John Mannington's trustees (see AMS5828/23/2) sold a shop & stable (once occupied by Thomas Culham, then by Thomas & John Mannington then by John Stubberfield), which the Manningtons had bought in 1826, to John Reeves bootmaker for £125. Reeves sold 8 Aug 1885 to William Rogers for £150 (AMS5828/23/15)

On 18 Aug 1885 Rogers, of Harold Gardens Clive Vale brickmaker mortgaged the whole area (now described as a newly-erected warehouse) to the Hastings & East Sussex Building Society for £990 & on 24 Mar 1887 (then described as a wholesale fruit, vegetable & potato merchant, vegetable, fruit & potato broker, factor & salesman) leased to Paine Rogers & Co Ltd of Hastings & Eastbourne for 21 years (AMS5828/23/16 - 20)

On 22 Mar 1898 Rogers' property was auctioned by order of the mortgage & on 12 May the West Street property was sold to Paine Rogers & Co for £1150. 1 - 4 Offa Road, Ore, 43 Manor Road, 201 Harold Road, the Primrose Laundry 199 Harold Road, building land in Harold Road and the Hare & Hounds brickfield were all included in the sale. On 30 Mar 1920 Paine Rogers & Co sold to Leslie Stoakes of 65 Clive Avenue, motor engineer for £350; a plan appears on the abstract (AMS5828/23/21, 22)

As to the whole property:

On 26 July 1928 Kate Stoakes of Church Farm House, Fairlight wife of Archibald Stoakes joined with Leslie Stoakes (now of Lenham, Kent) to sell both properties to William George Harris of 27 George Street, cycle dealer for £1100, who mortgaged to Mabel Jennie Wickens of Bexhill widow & Charles Hide of Willingdon gent the same day. On 12 June 1935 the property was reconveyed to Harris who sold to Norman Ernest Wapshott of Colchester Ex engineer for £1700 (AMS5828/23/23 - 25)