There is an old saying, so the story goes, about Hastings.

The East Sussex town, on the south coast of England, was once-upon-a-time cursed and if you ever stayed there, you would never leave.

If you DID leave, however, and took a piece of the town with you – a pebble from the beach, a blade of grass, a branch of a tree – then you would be fine, and free to come and go as you please.

Our boys – 10-year-old Harry and Archie, who is 14 – are struck by this tale when we arrive at Dolphin Cottage, a former fisherman’s house in the historic Rock-a-Nore area of the town.

“I like it, but I’m not sure I want to live here FOREVER,” ponders Harry, dubiously. “Let’s take some pebbles from the beach, just to be sure…”

It is day one, and the sun is shining, the temperatures are in the high 20s and the beach seems the perfect place to start.

It’s just across the road from our cottage – a narrow three-storey townhouse, which has been modernised by the owner in contemporary colours but with more than a nod to its heritage.

Across the road, between us and the beach, lies the Fishmarket, and an intriguing collection of striking tall black buildings which we later discover are net ‘shops’.

Now Grade II listed historic buildings, these structures were ingenious space-savers – fishermen needed somewhere to store their nets and ropes on returning from the sea and these huts allowed them to go up, rather than out, on an eight-foot square base.

They are like nothing we have ever seen before (in fact, they are unique to Hastings) and seem to belong to a different era. But fishing is very much alive and well in Hastings, which has one of Britain’s oldest fleets. Boats have worked from the shingle beach (known as the Stade, which is an old Saxon word for ‘landing place’) for more than a thousand years.

Today, there are more than 25 under-10 metre boats, making it Europe’s largest beach-launched fishing fleet.

As boats come ashore, they are winched up the shingle, and the fish is unloaded into boxes straight into the Fishmarket. All along Rock-a-Nore road, there are fishmongers selling fish and seafood as fresh as it could possibly be from little huts, stands and shops.

Still trying to complete the two-minute walk to the beach, we get distracted again by the Fisherman’s Museum, a friendly introduction to the area’s fishing past.

Housed in a former church, it is home to a fascinating array of photographs, documents, model boats and more, with the impressive Hastings’ sailing lugger Enterprise taking pride of place.

It was built on the Stade in 1912, just before engines were installed in local fishing boats, so was one of the last of its kind used in the town.

The Museum holds us all spellbound – as well as bringing the old days of Hastings’ fishing industry to life, it’s a sobering reminder of how harsh life at sea can be. There are stories of lives lost and ships wrecked, of daring and courage on a scale most of us can hardly imagine.

Back out in the sunshine, we do finally make it to the beach, which is pretty and pebbley and perfect for a picnic and a rest after our long drive.

Harry is keen to collect some pebbles, as insurance, so after a while we return to the cottage laden with stones of all shapes and sizes and a few shells for good measure. The next few days pass in a haze of sunny, seaside bliss. Hastings is a fine place, an odd mix of historic old town and seaside glamour (albeit a little faded in places); it’s part busy fishing hub, part modern shopping centre, which, says Archie, reminds him of home – a kind of East-Kilbride-on-sea – and there is some top class culture thrown in for good measure.

The Jerwood Gallery opened on The Stade five years ago, housing an impressive collection of 20th and 21st century British art, including works by Sir Stanley Spencer and L S Lowry on display to the public for the first time. Contemporary exhibitions and family workshops also take place here, in a building designed with more than a nod to the black net huts which surround it.

Around 8000 black tiles, hand glazed in Kent, cover the exterior of the gallery, evoking the tarred boards of the huts nearby.

It’s a calming, welcoming place and one afternoon, we spend a couple of hours enjoying a tour of the artworks (and some excellent cakes and tea in the café, Webbe’s at Jerwood Gallery).

Perched behind and above our cottage, on the rocky cliff, lies the East Hill Lift. This is the steepest funicular railway in Britain, providing access to Hastings Country Park (where John Logie Baird is said to have been inspired to start his first television experiments) and some jaw-dropping views over the town and out to the English Channel. (There’s a West Hill Lift too, which takes you up to more views, and the castle, but more about that later.) Taking these cliff railways is a joy – it’s not hard to feel transported back in time and it’s clear why local people are so proud of these quirky landmarks. The West Hill Lift still has its original wooden Victorian coaches, and it runs through a tunnel which is highly unusual for a funicular railway. At the top, the views stretch round to Beachy Head in the west and out across the Channel. This lift is currently closed for engineering works.

Getting to the West Hill Lift entrance involves a walk along George Street, an old town gem full of continental-style cafés, art shops and bookshops.

At the top, after a picnic on a grassy spot overlooking the town, we found Hastings Castle, the first Norman motte and bailey castle to be built in England.

Thanks to Horrible Histories, mainly, the boys know a bit about William of Normandy, aka William the Conqueror, and his defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. On our visit, we learn a bit more about the castle’s turbulent past – when King Henry VIII declared himself the head of the Church of England, for example, he commissioned the Castle’s church to be destroyed, leaving the site in ruins, and by the 1800s it was buried in undergrowth and rubble.

As the popularity of Hastings as a holiday destination boomed, the castle became a Victorian tourist attraction but during World War II it was heavily bombed.

It is now run as a tourist attraction again, by the same people responsible for Smugglers Adventure in St Clements Caves nearby. The caves provide the perfect backdropto a spooky trip through the dark history of the Sussex Coast, when smugglers practised their dangerous art in the caves and caverns and underground passages leading down to the sea.

It’s a bit too much for Harry, but Archie – and the crowd of American teenagers who shrieked their way around behind us – enjoyed it. It’s not going to appeal to anyone who doesn’t like the dark, but it brings this blood-thirsty part of history convincingly to life. It was good to get back into the sunshine, all the same… Hastings is not all about history of course, and along the front, you will find all the family-friendly, cheerful bits and pieces you’d expect from a seaside town. There’s candy floss and fairground rides, ice cream and crazy golf – we had a brilliant time at Hastings Adventure Golf, for example. It’s crazy golf heaven, with three courses to choose from, littered with obstacles and windmills and, er, pirates. Too much fun.

We also walked along to Hastings’ outstanding and award-winning pier which has survived against the odds to become a fantastic community resource.

Originally designed by Victorian engineer Eugenius Birch and opened in 1872 by the Earl of Granville in a bit of a grand do, it attracted visitors from miles around, keen to enjoy the ocean views and attractions like the American bowling alley, roundabout and more.

As piers fell out of fashion, Hastings also suffered and it closed down in 2008. Despite a devastating fire in 2010, a passionate local campaign resulted in its restoration and thanks in part to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, the pier re-opened in 2016.

Recently, it won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize but it continues to face challenges as a long-term funding solution to ensure its survival is sought. We fell in love with it on our brief visit, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that solution is found.

East Sussex is packed with interesting places to visit, and on a longer stay, we might have taken in Battle (scene of THAT famous battle); or Rye, which everyone told us was lovely; or Bedgebury Forest. But there are so many things to see and do in Hastings which make it perfect for a family holiday that we stayed put.

Leaving was harder than we thought, in the end.

“Have you got my bucket?” asks a sleepy Harry, as we make our way home, car packed with seaside souvenirs and holiday washing. “Are we going home with a bit of Hastings beach?”

Yes, indeed – we left with a piece of the beach, and a whole lot more besides.