On behalf of the town, the Mayor recently sent a copy of "The Book of Rye" to the Queen Mother. The reply, from her Majesty's Private Secretary, reads in part: "The Queen Mother asks that her very sincere gratitude might be conveyed to Rye Town Council and to the citizens of Rye for such a delightful and welcome gift. Would you also most kindly offer to the author, Geoffrey Spink Bagley, Her Majesty's warmest congratulations on his most scholarly and beautifully illustrated work, which the Queen Mother is greatly enjoying while on her holiday in Scotland."
How very pleasant to think of Her Majesty sitting in her Castle of Mey on the far north coast of Scotland, reading about one of her Cinque Ports in the far south! Incidentally, Martello Bookshop says that sales of "The Book of Rye" are going very well, and it is a limited edition unlikely to be reprinted, so don't leave it too late.
Rye's main event to mark the Week of Prayer for World Peace (17-24 October) will be prayer vigil at the Methodist Church, starting at 7.30 on Friday night with an hour-long service and concluding with Eucharist at 9.0 a.m. on Saturday (the press report that this was to happen last weekend was wrong). Anyone, whether a regular churchgoer or not, will be most welcome to join in all or part of the vigil, and although it is obviously intended for all ages, parents may like to know that there will be full adult supervision. Sleeping bags are recommended for those intending to keep the entire vigil, but thermoses are not necessary as coffee will be available throughout, and there will be a light breakfast at around 7.0.
When, ten days ago, a coaster loaded with Cornish granite for road construction ran aground in the harbour entrance, there was a feeling of "not again!" about the complicated refloating operation; it was the second grounding of a merchant ship within six weeks. John Royle, who is the local representative for Trinity House, the organisation concerned with pilotage arrangements, reports that part of the trouble is a dramatic move eastwards of the harbour's entrance channel. Since last autumn a sand bar has built up, extending all the way from Winchelsea Beach to about 200 yards the Camber side of the western arm of the harbour mouth. SWA have a crane currently working on removing shingle in the area, but what is really needed are some good floods inland this winter, so that a strong flow of water down the river will scour out the entrance channel again. Last winter was never wet enough to flood the "wet levels" at Blackwall, the area deliberately flooded when there is more water than the Rother can cope with at Scots Float sluice.
We do hope that the rain of the past fortnight has gone some way to improve matters. We will have a further report on the position later in the Autumn.
Owing to some sort of misunderstanding, Rye Town Council received such short notice of an invitation to take part in this promotion event at Battle Abbey last Thursday that the councillors felt it was not possible to make a really helpful contribution. However, the Mayor and the Town Clerk were among those present at the one-day display, and Councillor Robert Bromley was in charge of the proceedings, as those who saw him on television on Thursday night will know. There were four Rye exhibitors: Hotels of the Cinque Ports (the Mermaid) and the Hotels and Catering Association in the tourism section, and Rye Pottery and Weslakes among the many stands in the industrial section. Councillor Bromley hopes that next year's event will be held earlier and will be open to the public; it was apparently a Department of the Environment ruling that only invited guests could be allowed in the Abbey this year.
2.
We are sorry to report that Mr. Laurie Seal - "Alley Barber" of Needles Passage - has had to go into hospital for a serious operation. He is not likely to be back at work for the next eight weeks, during which time Rye will be without a man's hairdresser - unless there is anyone capable of acting as a stand-in, in which case Mr. Seal's wife Jenny would be very glad to hear from him (or perhaps her?).
William Low, 17, of Lea Avenue, is also in hospital, with a broken leg after an accident on his motorbike outside Badger Gate on Friday. The bike burst into spectacular flames, but William was thrown clear. He now has a plate pinned into his thigh, and the bike is a write-off. It was a very nasty moment for his grand-mother, Mrs. Edmunds, who saw the accident from her Badger Gate window - but at least she was able to go with him in the ambulance. She would like to thank the man, not known to her, who was first to reach William and who helped to make him comfortable until the ambulance arrived. If all goes well, William hopes to be allowed home in about three weeks' time.
Another broken leg, this time in traction, belongs to Philip Pursglove of Playden, whose push-bike slipped on wet leaves in Dead Man's Lane last week. Philip is the lad who sleep-walked out of a first-floor window a couple of years ago, when he broke the heel of the same leg which has come to grief now. Perhaps it is just as well that his mother is a nurse at Rye Hospital.
Kenneth Clark's lecture on the Camber tram, which we mentioned last week as booked for 28 October, has had to be postponed owing to Mr. Clark's illness. Many people will be disappointed about this, and we look forward to giving the new date in due course.
Also in hospital are John Green, of Udimore Road (Charing Cross Hospital), and Charles Sherwood, of Ferry Road (St. Helen's). The GAZETTE sends its best wishes to all our invalids and hopes to see them back in good order before long.
We would like to offer our congratulations to Mrs. Hylda Lowry, of Bridge Place, who was 85 last Wednesday, 13 October; and also to welcome the new Deputy Warden at Badger Gate, Mrs. Cynthia Perkins from Hastings.
Edna and Denis Breeds, of Udimore Road, celebrate their Ruby Wedding on 24 October. Denis and Edna (nee Roberts) were married in 1942 when Denis was in the army, and when their first son was born Edna brought him to stay with Denis's mother in Rye. For a while she worked in the old manual telephone exchange over the Post Office in the High Street (now Liptons), dealing with all the calls for the Services units in the area - a very hush-hush job. After the war Denis taught in various primary schools in Sussex before returning to live in Rye, and Edna has only quite recently retired as Icklesham school secretary. Breeds is a famous name in Rye, and there are six sons to carry it on, as well as two daughters - five of the family are teachers, and Edna and Denis have ten grandchildren, one of them in Australia.
A big family reunion is coming up for the Clark family, of Station Flat. Chris, 29, is home (he says Rye still feels like home even after eight years away) from New Zealand, and with him is his wife Vivienne, a New Zealander whom he married six years ago. When Chris went out early in 1974 he only meant to stay a few months, but he found himself the perfect job ("more of a paid hobby really") as a park ranger, and is now in charge of a number of different sites, conserved for various reasons, within a 60-mile radius of Auckland. His mother hopes to have all the family together before Chris and Vivienne go first to Scotland and then to Europe during their three months' leave.
Taking father for a ride recently was Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot Douglas Sealy - his parents were on holiday near Culdrose, and maybe Brian Sealy's RAF experience helped him to wangle a spin. Douglas, who came home from the Falklands on Hermes, is due to go back there before long, this time on Tidespring - the ship commanded by Captain Shane Redmond of Icklesham, who received the OBE in the Falklands honours list and is now on another posting. Brian Sealy himself retired as Head of Modern Languages at Thomas Peacocke in July, and has since been teaching English as a foreign language, first in theory on a course and then in practice; he says teaching is very different when a "large" class consists of perhaps nine keen adult students!
At the end of last month, a Victorian Literary Evening took place at the George Hotel where says the press release, "a select group of guests" with Sir Brian Batsford in the chair heard Patience Strong and Anthony Miall provide entertainment suitable to the theme. We did not report on this at the time, since it had wider implications which we wanted to pursue, but it was part of the Sussex Victorian Week organised by one of the contenders for the local radio contract, Conquest Community Radio.
Conquest is based in Hastings and is interested in the Eastbourne/Hastings/Rye area, with a coverage inland as far as Crowborough. Managing Director John Wheatley says that the Victorian Week does not imply that Conquest looks towards the past - it will naturally include pop music, and he is also interested in hearing from local people with ideas for possible programmes. The company would hope to provide community service in many ways, and to promote local industry and jobs; they would like to use a lot of local programme material including broadcasts by local musical organisations and talks, stories, poems and plays by writers and broadcasters from the area. Their press handout also mentions phone-ins and panel programmes; and the company intends to ensure that the interests of the villages are well represented. They are thinking of having a studio at Battle and will also have an outside broadcast unit. Patric Dickinson of Church Square is one of the directors.
We understand that there are at least two other contenders for the contract, and would be grateful to anyone who could put us in touch with one called "1066". Sovereign Radio, however, has a Rye representative, Mr. Leslie Woolley, and he spoke to the GAZETTE recently.
Sovereign Radio has a strong connection with the East Sussex News - readers may remember a questionnaire which appeared in that paper some time ago. Sovereign reckons to extend the area as far as Dungeness and Lydd. Mr. Woolley lives in Rye, is a member of the Rye Club, and runs a business from offices in Cinque Ports Street, so he is obviously in a position to keep Rye's interests well above water as regards Sovereign. The company has been in touch with various organisations who would be interested in involvement with Sovereign, and is open to other approaches. Its first publicity event was a Jazz Festival in 1981 at Hastings (another at Eastbourne this year) - as Mr. Woolley says, jazz covers a wide spectrum of age-groups, and this is what Sovereign is aiming at. Like Conquest, the company would provide local news-and-views coverage, as "instant" as possible, and opportunities for local People.
Local commercial radio is, of course, primarily concerned with money, since it is in business to make a profit for its shareholders. As far as those shareholders are concerned, Sovereign is definitely not interested in potential investors at present - Mr. Woolley says that if they don't get the contract, they would rather lose their own money than other people's. Mr. Wheatley's company is moderately interested in possible outside investment.
There is, however, one vital difference between these two contenders. Conquest is talking of the contract being advertised early in 1983; Sovereign says not until at least early 1984. So the GAZETTE contacted the IBA, and their information officer reports that "it is unlikely to be in the next batch and therefore it will probably be a number of years before the IBA advertised Eastbourne/Hastings" - but if there is any further information he will keep us posted.
We thought you would like to know what is going on, anyway.
Rye Tourist Information Office, which closed at the end of September in the bus yard kiosk, dealt with an astonishing total of 16,627 recorded enquiries in the course of the summer (quite apart from the ones they were too rushed to make a note of). Roughly 11,000 enquirers were British. During the summer the office was staffed seven days a week, with Margaret Leopold and Geraldine Bromley sharing the job - some readers will have heard about Geraldine's unsolicited testimonial from an American whom, alas, she cannot now identify.
It is hoped that next season the office will have a permanent home in Patrick Osborne's Regent Square shop-terrace. The plan is for the Council offices to move there from Ferry Road, so that the Ferry Road site can be sold for development - various outline planning applications were made some time ago. Until that day comes, Monday-to-Friday tourist enquiries are dealt with at the Ferry Road office; weekend visitors have to fend for themselves.
4.
Fishermen - the angling variety - will welcome the opening of "Shoot-a-Line" next to the Oasis Club, where Tom Kimmitt of Beckley and Jim Wilson of Northiam sell fishing tackle of all kinds, both new and second-hand. They are still building up their stock, but they already have a good selection including rods, and also sell maggots (lugworm later on). They cater primarily for sea and coarse angling but do have trout rods and hope to offer do-it-yourself fly-tying tackle later.
Tom Kimmitt says he would like to sell guns, but the security arrangements for trade of this kind are very strictly supervised by the police, so he is starting off with the fishing side. He also thinks of stocking a few antiques of interest to sporting customers.
Rye now has a "Superwoman" service, and Claire Gowers, recently arrived in Tillingham Avenue, has already had an encouraging response to her first advertisements. Claire, who has her own car, is fed up with nine-to-five jobs and is looking for more variety in her working day - she is an artist in her spare time. She will clean, cook, paint, weed, help with pets, and is experienced with children, having worked as matron in a children’s home. She speaks fluent French and can type. Her hourly rate is very moderate, so if you have a job on your hands that defeats you, ring Rye 3364 as it may well not defeat Claire.
In our first issue we reported on the new Mint Arcade with its cluster of mini-shops inside; now there is a newcomer, just arrived - the Winding Street Gallery from Hastings, which displays a selection of work by its regular potters. About eight craftsmen and women have work on show, including teapot specialist Geoffrey Whiting, and there is one piece by a Sudanese potter who now teaches in this country. Frank Smith of Peasmarsh is also represented.
Ann Lingard of Rope Walk Antiques has had the fifth anniversary of the opening of her Rye shop marked by three credits in a new book on buying. antiques just published by the Consumer Association ("Which?"). The pieces of furniture pictured in the book were sold long ago, as Ann aims for a quick turnover of her very large stock. She now employs three full-time and three part-time assistants, and as well as the pretty little shop the business occupies the roomy “church" and large workshop behind it, plus a store in the Dairy Hall. Ann worked for eight years as a dental receptionist, and much later ran the Iden playgroup; she moved into antiques by the traditional route of Fairs and market stalls, and then had a stand in the Bexhill Antiques Market before opening in Rye, where she has lived for many years. Much of her stock goes to America and the Continent by way of foreign dealers who call on her regularly, but she also has a number of local private customers - and a browse round the shop is a fascinating experience, since she specialises in what are known as "kitchen antiques".
Can anyone throw any light on the question of why early closing in Rye is on a Tuesday? There can be very few other towns who do not close on either Wednesday or Thursday - obviously Wednesday, the day of the cattle market, would not do for Rye, but why not Thursday in the days before the general market came to the town? We seem to remember a brief period many years ago when the Chamber of Trade tried to change the day to Thursday; some of the shops objected, and since people in the villages could never be sure who was open when, they kept away on both days to play safe. That obviously solved itself, but still we wonder why Tuesday in the first place - and when did early closing begin in the town, anyway? Any answers?
Not in our area, strictly speaking, but we were interested to notice that the proprietor of Broomhill Lodge Health Farm, Rye Foreign, is applying for planning permission to turn his establishment into a nursing home. We wonder if this means that local people are more healthy or less healthy than he originally supposed?
Le Fevre, Wood & Royle are submitting, on behalf of a client, a project for the former Southern Rentals shop in the High Street, to provide a separate entrance from the street to the living accommodation above. The ground floor would either be a shop with storage behind, or an office with a reception area in front, but its final destiny is not yet decided.
Several interested parties wish to goodness that the Sussex Express would decide the final destiny of their unhappy-looking office in Cinque Ports Street!
5.
The County Education Committee - though not yet the full County Council - has now agreed to accept a recommendation from its schools sub-committee that the two Thomas Peacocke boarding houses at the top of Rye Hill - Saltcote Place for girls and Leasam House for boys - should be merged next September, to save money. The plan is for the smaller house, Saltcote Place, to be sold, and Leasam House adapted to take 64 boarders instead of the present 40 to 45.
The boarding houses were opened in the middle 1950s. Most of the children come from Service families and others where parents work abroad. Some come from other parts of Sussex where for whatever reason they are unable to live at home. There was originally talk of closing both houses, but it was felt that there was a real need for boarding accommodation within the county, and although County requirements are very much less than the total capacity of the two houses, it is obviously right that there should be a good "mix" of children from different backgrounds.
At present both Dick Wright, the Leasam Housemaster, and June Mackenzie, Saltcote Housemistress, are teaching members of the school staff; each house also has an assistant who does not teach, and of course its own matron, assistant matrons, caretaker and domestic staff. Some of Leasam House's former farm buildings are used by the school's Rural Studies Department, though the land belonging to the estate its farmed by Bertie and Jean Bull.
Mr. Fooks wrote recently to the parents of all the present boarders to tell them the planned changes and has assured them that the interests of the children will be his prime object. However, neither he nor the boarding houses' staff nor the School Governors are in favour of the change. Obviously there will have to be many special arrangements made to accommodate both sexes at Leasam, including a more regular provision of transport than exists at present down the long Leasam Lane. A new staffing establishment is now being worked out, and it is not possible for Mr. Fooks to say at this stage what the position will be about redundancies, particularly among the domestic staff; there were several not-very helpful meetings held by the Education Authority when the plan was first put forward during the summer, and at least some of the employees who attended felt that they were really there as part of a public relations exercise leading up to a foregone conclusion.
We are very pleased to put on record a public expression of thanks to Rye Police from Victor and Josephine Wear. While the Wears were abroad recently, a pipe in their Point Hill house came asunder, and the ground floor was awash by the time one of the cats summoned the occupant of the upstairs flat. The complexity of the plumbing was too much for him, so he appealed to the police for help - and they somehow managed to sort out the stopcocks of three separate plumbing systems, getting completely filthy in the process. When the Wears returned, the house was damp - but without Rye Police it might very well have drifted away down the cliff.
If one week your GAZETTE hasn't appeared by Thursday, the reason is probably that half the editorial staff is in some way laid low or has a domestic crisis. Depending on the circumstances, we should then either print a double-size issue the next week, or hold over everyone's subscription until we were in a position to publish again. We hope it won't happen, but now you know.
Some readers have kindly sent us money which we weren't actually asking for when we enclosed a subscription form last week - everyone had a form that time, which was intended for a friend. All subscriptions are arranged to expire at the end of a month, so that, for instance, in next week's issue (27th) people who paid until the end of October will find a form reminding them that we need more money if they want us to deliver in November. (The Subscriptions Manager would like to add that any system depending largely on the back pockets of the editorial handbags cannot be foolproof, so if there is any possible query about your subscription or your receipt, please do let us know.)
The title "THE RYE GAZETTE" is now registered as ours at Stationers' Hall. We took it from an eighteenth-century newspaper in Rye Museum. Luckily nobody seems to have wanted it since.
6.
Handing-in, Red Cross Shop, 10.30-12.30 only (the shop will - TODAY open from 10.30 to 4.0 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday).
Friday, 22nd No school at Thomas Peacocke.
All-night vigil, Week of Prayer for World Peace, Methodist Church, 7.30 (see page 1).
Natural History Society lecture: "Wildlife of the Tropical Rainforest" by Ian Rumley-Dawson, FEC, 7.30
Papa Joe's film: "10", Pizzeria, 9.0.
Coffee morning and mini-market (proceeds for missionary work), Baptist Hall, 10.0 to noon.
Dance (Thomas Peacocke School PTA), The Grove, 8.0 to midnight.
Sunday, 24th CLOCKS GO BACK AN HOUR TODAY (in effect Saturday bedtime).
Monday, 25th Schools' half-term week.
WRVS lunch club, Community Centre
Enrolment and opening First Aid lecture, St. John's, 7.30
Rye Museum Association lecture: "Some Unusual Aspects of Rye" — by Alma Fabes, FEC, 7.30 - all welcome, members or not.
• Good luck to the Ryesingers, who go on their annual trip to the Blackpool Music Festival this weekend.
• Last week's NSPCC house-to-house collection raised a record total of £802, and Anne Wood thanks all her helpers.
• Jumble sales last Saturday: Cancer Relief (FE Centre), £115, RAF Association (Thomas Peacocke), about £120, Rye Sea Angling Club (Community Centre), £90.
• There is to be a coffee morning (with stalls, raffle and bring-and-buy) at the Community Centre on Thursday, 28 October at 10.30 in aid of the RNLI. We shall in due course report how much money was made, and we hope to include then a note about the Rye Harbour lifeboat's season, since the boat is due to be laid up for the winter soon.
• The Swiss Patisserie in Cinque Ports Street will close its shop and restaurant at 3.0 p.m. on Mondays and all day on Tuesdays, from 1 November for the winter.
• Miss Mary Warren, who died earlier this year after a long illness, is remembered with gratitude and affection by many of Rye's older residents. She was awarded the MBE for her WVS work in the town during the war. She was also a keen supporter of the WI and, we understand, a governor of Rye Grammar School, Rye Secondary Modern School, Rye Primary School and Tilling Green Infants. Miss Warren was twice Mayoress of Rye, and the present Mayoress, Mrs. Doreen Dodd, is to hold a coffee morning in the Town Hall on Thursday, 4 November, from 10.30 to noon, to raise funds for a memorial seat. The occasion provides an opportunity both to meet the Mayoress and to see the Town Hall in its new glory, as well as commemorating a lady who did so much for Rye.
• Louis Turpin has an exhibition of recent paintings at the Drew Gallery, 16 Best Lane, Canterbury, running for about a month from 25 October.
• Rye Monday Club members provided a splendid assortment of things for their Annual Sale on Monday - cakes, produce, knitted goods and (rather unexpectedly) toys, as well as bric-a-brac - and a useful sum was raised towards the cost of next year's outings.
THE RYE GAZETTE is published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 2303) assisted by Mrs. Joan Parkes, Bridge Place, Rye. We are always glad to receive news items for inclusion in this weekly publication - normal deadline is now Monday afternoon, though minor alterations can be made before 9.30 on Tuesday morning in case of emergency (Rye 2303 only). Photocopied by Sussex Secretarial Services, 11 Claremont, Hastings.