Winner Announced For This Year’s Order Of 1066 Award

Last night, dedicated volunteer Reg Wood was presented with this year’s Order of 1066 Award to recognise and honour his exceptional service to Hastings.

This year’s winner, Reg Wood, was decided by a panel, which was chaired by the mayor, and the award was presented to him at a ceremony at Hastings Town Hall on Monday, as part of the Hastings Week programme.

Although not born in Hastings, Reg has taken on the town and has played and continues to play an important role in our local community and its events.

Reg has been involved in many significant events, including in 1976, when he was chosen to represent Hastings during a visit to Schwerte, Germany. It was this visit that led Hastings to being twinned with Schwerte.

For 30 years, Reg’s father did most of the organising of the twinning trips, before he took over 12 years ago and has been chairman of the twinning group ever since, finding hosts, bringing families together, organising the exchanges and arranging outings.

He also takes on the role of vice chairman of the Hastings association of twin towns which oversees all four of Hastings’ twinning groups.

And if that wasn’t enough to keep this year’s winner busy, he is a key part of Hastings Borough Bonfire Society, Hastings Week, Hastings Old Town Carnival, and Hastings Winkle Club.

Reg has also been involved in lots of other local events, including the beer festival, the 2012 Pirate Day record for the largest gathering of pirates, the 950th anniversary of the battle of Hastings celebrations in 2016, and as treasurer of the Hastings Trolleybus Group, who have looked after Happy Harold for the past eight years.

The Mayor of Hastings, Cllr Judy Rogers, said:

“I have known Reg for many years through the different roles he plays in the town, so I was delighted to present him with the Order of 1066 Award last night, to recognise his ongoing dedication to Hastings.

"Reg is a very deserving winner, who does so much behind the scenes to make sure our local events run smoothly, so I want to thank him once again for this commitment, it really doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Selecting someone for this award out of all of the incredible nominations we receive each year, is never an easy job, but that is just a testament to how many amazing volunteers we have in our town.

"If you know someone deserving of the award, please make sure you nominate them next year, so they too can be recognised for their hard work.”