The Beauport site was abandoned, and the town suffered from problems from nature and man-made attacks. With the departure of the Romans, the town suffered setbacks. There was also a possible iron-working site near Blacklands Church in the town – the old name of 'Ponbay Bridge' for a bridge that used to exist in the area is a corruption of 'Pond Bay' as suggested by Thomas Ross (Mayor of Hastings and author of an 1835 guide book) It employed up to one thousand men and is considered to have been the third-largest mine in the Roman Empire. Iron was worked locally at Beauport Park, to the north of the town. At this time, they began to exploit the iron (Wealden rocks provide a plentiful supply of the ore), and shipped it out by boat.
The settlement was already based on the port when the Romans arrived in Britain for the first time in 55 BC. This suggests that the inhabitants moved early to the safety of the valley in between the forts. Iron Age forts have been excavated on both the East and West Hills. Įvidence of prehistoric settlements have been found at the town site: flint arrowheads and Bronze Age artefacts have been found. However, the absence of any archaeological remains of or documentary evidence for a Roman fort at Hastings suggest that Hæstingaceaster may refer to a different settlement, most likely that based on the Roman remains at Pevensey. The place name Hæstingaceaster is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 1050, and may be an alternative name for Hastings. Symeon of Durham records the victory of Offa in 771 over the Hestingorum gens, that is, "the people of the Hastings tribe." Hastingleigh in Kent was named after that tribe. This is derived from the Old English tribal name Hæstingas, meaning 'the constituency (followers) of Hæsta'. The first mention of Hastings is found in the late 8th century in the form Hastingas. Hastings- Boats making the Shore in a Breeze, by John James Chalon, 1819
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