The story of how the Wish Tower became home to one family and their museum for half a century
Introduction
Many visitors to The Wish Tower in Eastbourne are surprised to learn that it has been home to various families. In this article, we are going to focus on one of those families – the Hollobons.
By the time Harry Hollobon and his wife moved in to the Wish Tower in the 1880s, both he and the Tower had already lived full and varied lives. The Tower had been built over 70 years previously as a part of the English coastal defence system and by 1812 was in use by the East Sussex Defence Corps during which time up to 25 men would be stationed there, living on one floor. Once the threat from Napoleon had been dissolved, the Tower was used to combat smuggling, and was lived in by the resident coastguard and his family. The first recorded birth in the Tower was of John Boyce Roberts in 1837, and another family who lived there for a while was Sergeant George Smith and his large family of 11 children.
Meanwhile, Harry Hollobon was born in Willingdon in 1825, around 20 years after the Wish Tower had been built. The Hollobon family (spelt in 54 different ways over the centuries!) can trace their Sussex roots to at least the thirteenth century according to a comprehensive family tree compiled by Tom Hollobone. They had lived in Willingdon since the mid eighteenth century, when William Hollibone (born 1715/16) had married Susanna Dulvey from Willingdon in 1746, and they set up home together there. William was Harry’s great-great grandfather.
Harry was the eldest of ten children to parents William and Elizabeth, and remained in Willingdon throughout his childhood and young adult life. In 1846 he married Mary Crunden at Eastbourne Parish Church, and they went on to have three children, namely Elizabeth, William and Harry. Prior to her marriage, Mary had been a post-person, and used to deliver mail to the Tower as part of her round when soldiers were stationed there.
Harry was reported to be a quarryman by trade, although the census records of 1841 and 1851 record him as an agricultural labourer (perhaps this was a general term that included quarrymen?). Maybe it was this trade that sparked his interest in collecting stones, or perhaps he became a quarryman because he was already fascinated by stones. We can only speculate.
Harry Hollobon and his family relocate to Eastbourne
It became increasingly difficult for Harry support himself and his family on a weekly wage of ten shillings as a labourer, so he moved his family to Eastbourne. Initially, he worked as a bricklayer and assisted in the building of Victoria Place. After this, for twenty years, he worked as a bath chairman, wheeling people around in a bath chair for very little money.
A couple of newspaper articles describe an encounter that led to Harry first becoming a serious collector of stones. He was apparently on Eastbourne beach when he noticed a gentleman with a hammer, picking up stones, smashing them, and then putting them in his pocket. This man was a lapidary (someone who cuts, polishes and engraves stones). Harry decided to try and find some good stones. The next time he saw the man, Harry sold him a stone for three shillings; when the man returned a few days later, the stone was beautifully polished. The lapidary visited Harry at his home in South Street, imparting his knowledge about how to distinguish stones and how to cut and polish them. Harry decided to learn the art of stone cutting and polishing and for the next two years, studied with a man from Brighton. Harry gradually bought the equipment he needed, sometimes going without food in order to save for tools. Once his skills were honed, Harry opened a lapidary shop in South Street from which he sold his cut stones. Above the shop, the wording reads “Pebbles cut and polished on reasonable terms”. Presumably this meant people could come in with pebbles which Harry would cut and polish for them.
In 1871, when Harry was 43, he and Mary were living in Station Road, Eastbourne and Harry’s occupation was lapidary, and by the 1881 census, the family address was Chapel Cottages, Grove Road. Whether this occupation overlapped with his work as a bath chairman is unclear but would seem to fit date-wise.
Moving to the Tower
In around 1886, Harry was granted permission to live in the Tower, which had been decommissioned in 1873, and had remained un-tenanted for five years. At the time, there were eight rooms in the Tower, and Harry and his family occupied four of them. Described in an obituary as ”a very industrious and persevering man”, Harry set about creating a museum inside the Tower. His collection included stuffed birds, old weapons, pictures and other curios. At least some of the birds were ones he shot himself, including a piebald blackbird which he shot in the dry moat of the Tower. Much of his time, however, was devoted to his work as a lapidary. He would go out onto the beach and find pebbles, which he cut and polished using his own equipment. The resulting cut stones were sold to visitors from all-over the world, or displayed in a cabinet inside the Tower. These included flints, geodes, moss agates, silicified sponges, and corals.
A successful business in the Tower
Harry’s work began to receive recognition. He received a bronze medal and certificate in 1884 at the Fine Arts Exhibition held at Devonshire Park, and in the late 1880s, Holcombe Ingleby, a frequent visitor to Eastbourne, wrote an appreciation of Harry called “The Pilgrim of Beachy Head”.
JC Wright, in his 1902 Bygone Eastbourne book, noted that Harry spent forty years collecting stones on the Eastbourne beach and chalk cliffs. Wright quoted from Notes on Eastbourne pebbles by Rev. A N Malan MA: ‘Day after day, in all weathers, Mr Hollobon used to spend four or five hours among the chalk boulders. His affection for the stones was that of an enthusiast. His enthusiasm has enabled us to know thoroughly the pebble-yielding capacities of the beach seven miles west and east of Eastbourne. To know the produce of fourteen miles thoroughly is a genuine gain to science. We may have a general idea that a shore fronted by chalk cliffs with flint will yield the fossils and geodes above mentioned. But to see the most beautiful specimens that is has produced in the cabinet of a laborious and enthusiastic collector, well polished and arranged, is a commentary on the mineralogical wealth of the district more valuable and instructive than a whole library of books. Mr. Hollobon searched that portion of beach more thoroughly than the same distance has perhaps elsewhere been searched in England. His collection contains unquestionable evidence that it would be impossible to find more beautiful agates anywhere in England.’
By 1891, Harry was 65, and still living in the Wish Tower with his wife Mary and one grandchild, aged eight. He was described in a press article of that year as a man of humble station running an unpretentious museum, with a mighty enthusiasm for “gems of the ocean and wonders of the deep”, as he called them. Visitors were encouraged in this article not to grudge the twopence, but to cross the drawbridge and spend a few minutes inside.
Three years later, Harry had a severe infection which his wife “despaired of”. Thankfully, he recovered and in 1896, he and Mary were presented with a portrait of themselves by Councillor B Rowe in celebration of their golden wedding anniversary.
Harry’s death
In March 1898, Harry greeted his brother at the drawbridge of the Tower and it was reported that he caught a chill as he was “scantily attired”, having gone to bed before his brother called to visit. He became very ill, eventually losing consciousness and then died a week later in the Tower. Mary was keen to let the public know there was no truth in a theory that was circulating which claimed Harry’s death was hastened by a threatening letter he had received from the “Eastbourne Nihilists”. In fact, the letter had been written by their grandson Trayton who still lived with them, now aged 15. The letter read, “Hollobon, your time has come. You are to die before another Christmas eve. The president of the Nihilist Section of Eastbourne has demanded your life and the lot has fallen to me. I am to be your executioner. The police will be powerless to assist you. You will be found dead down in your garden with the sign of the Nihilists on your brow. Trayton was cautioned by magistrates in March 1898, at which time he said that he only meant the letter as a joke. Little could he have known that his grandfather Harry was actually to die later that same month.
Harry was buried at Ocklynge Cemetery. After his death, Mary moved away from Eastbourne to live with her daughter in Brixton. However, she died just three months later, and was buried at Norwood Cemetery. A brief obituary about Mary concluded by saying that she and Harry were “well known to many of our best visitors, who ever made it a duty to pay them a visit. They were both much respected by all who knew them.”
The family continues to live and work in the Tower
The Tower was leased to Harry and Mary’s son William, who took over custody of the museum and who lived there with his wife Mary. In the 1901 census, they were both still living at the Tower, but Mary suddenly died there later that year aged 55. William remained in the Tower until his death in 1908. The Tower was then occupied by William’s youngest son Frederick, who, with his wife, ran the museum for a further 32 years, longer than his father and grandfather combined. The collection of stones his grandfather had amassed remained the museum’s pride and joy. Frederick and his family lived in the Tower until 1920, when ill health due to war service necessitated a move to Rotunda Road.
In 1925, the Tower was open every day except Sunday, and the admission charge was still two old pennies, according to the Ward Lock local guide. At this time, the moat was spanned by a footbridge. The Tower was often referred to as “The Wishing Tower” and some of the thousands of visitors to the museum had written their wishes on the whitewashed interior walls.
During the Hollobons’ time in the Tower, various plans and schemes were being proposed about what should be done with the site, some of which involved proposals to demolish the Tower altogether. I have written about these schemes in the first of my Wish Tower blogs: “Historical Schemes and Plans for the Tower”. However, nothing came of any of these schemes and the family carried on with their museum.
The Hollobons have to leave; what became of their collection?
Things would all change in 1939. After a period spanning just over half a century, when three generations of the Hollobon family had lived in the Tower with their families, run the museum, and kept the lapidary business thriving, the outbreak of World War Two would finally mark the end the of the museum’s life. The War Office reclaimed the Tower as part of England’s coastal defence and in moved 342 Coastal Defence Battery, followed by the Home Guard. Harry’s collection was relocated to the museum in the Technical Institute, although sadly, the Institute was destroyed during the war. I wonder if any readers know what happened to the collection…was it destroyed? Can you help end this story? The Wish Tower Friends would be very grateful to hear from you if you know anything – please do get in touch.
