In 1984 The Hastings Observer Group of Newspapers was sold by Westminster Press to Senews, a company owned by Robert Breare.  By the middle of that year the move out of its long-running home in 53 Cambridge Road to Woods House in Battle Road was completed. There followed the production of the first Hastings Observer using photocomposition modern-press technology, rather than the hot metal letterpresses once housed within the fortress-like concrete walls of the landmark building.

This signalled the end of an era for a lot of the F J Parsons workforce and the Observer Building itself.  The doors closed and the all of the old printing presses, Linotype machines and such equipment sold off for scrap.

Banging Out is part of an on going multi-layered project by photographer Benedict Stenning which is delving into the often-turbulent history of the building; from when it ceased to be home to a vibrant newspaper family and important local employer to the present day hopes and efforts to resurrect it as a community hub.  The project title refers to  a  newspaper tradition aptly named the Banging In or Banging Out ceremony. Banging in happened on the first day an apprentice entered his department as a journeyman, when it was customary to repeatedly bang anything metal very hard whilst cheering and shouting crude advice. Similarly, a Banging Out ceremony was given on the last day an employee worked as they made their last walk of the floor and clocked out for the final time.

Creating an artistic photographic narrative using  both original photographs, archive material and ephemera, Benedict reflects on the building as it was and how it was used to what it is now and what it hopes to  become. Looking through both a mirror to the past and a window to the future, his interests lay in the stories from its past which are etched into the very fabric of the building and the hopes and dreams of the new tenants who plan to breathe new life into it and resurrect it as a community hub.

The photographs on show here feature some of the ex F J Parsons workers standing in the exact spots where they used to work in this landmark building and invite you the viewer to travel back with them and imagine a time when the chatter of the machines, smells of ink and workshop banter filled the myriad spaces and what the subsequent closure of this iconic institution must have felt like.