Biddy the Tub Man

I remember Biddy Stonham well. I was 11 in 1947 when we holidayed in Hastings. I was lucky enough to ride in the tub with Biddy and what an experience it was, spinning around this way and the other, then with Biddy doing a handstand before tilting the tub and filling it with sea water. "She'm unsinkable!" he would cry. And it was.

Biddy would sometimes on a Sunday do the rounds selling freshly boiled shrimps he had caught. We were sent out to buy a couple of pints then spend the next hour shelling them to make the best tasting shrimp sandwiches for tea. Sunday tea was always an occasion in those days with all the family at the table and I seem to remember an abundance of celery in season, I hated celery and still do.

I have somewhere in my collection, a photo of him in his tub. It would have been taken by my Dads late brother around that time. He lived at 36 Salisbury Road for a while with my Great Grandparents.

I lived with my family in Newgate Road, and during the 1950s i remember being woken many Sunday mornings by Biddy. He would stand opposite our house on the corner of Clarence Road, and sell his shrimps, shouting out "come and buy my shrimps" or something like that. He was a real old Hastings character.