Next GAZETTE in a fortnight, on 24 August; thereafter our normal weekly publication will be resumed.
Rye Carnival procession seemed a little thin this year; there were only six of the traditional floats, and just two entries in the new decorated bicycle class. But it was still a very enjoyable show, with two bands, both Rye and Cinque Ports Majorettes, and various fancy dressers young and old, including Mr. John Langley from Hastings, who took up the profession of Pearly King as an amusement for his retirement, and is now into his second pearly suit, with all the buttons sewn on by him personally; he was accompanied by his princess, young Antonia Morgan.
The commercial class was won by Computing Devices Social Club, from Hastings, with their superb Dr. Who entry (the police box was part of this and not an official Police float as we heard rumoured - pity!). Non-commercial class winners were the Wishing Tree Playgroup (Hastings) - the cottage garden; Rye Pre-School Playgroup - the circus; and Rye Summer School – Jo Ciccone's disreputable-looking horde with the squeezy bottles. The Special Youth Award went to Junior Club's flea circus, devised by Yvonne and Morris Metcalf. Runner-up was Hasting Opera, advertising their production of Carmen at the White Rock on September 13th to 17th.
Fancy dress winners were Darren Speer, the little jester; Hannah Lage and Rachel Saunders as "The Great Borendas"; and Melanie Burdett's pierrot. Natalie Page of Peasmarsh and Tracy Jenner of Udimore Road shared first prize in the decorated bicycle class, and the judges awarded the third to the Pearly King (after all, his barrow had two wheels).
Down on the Salts, a large crowd patronised the stalls and sideshows and enjoyed the antics of Clown Barney and his mates. Final figures are not yet available, but Round Table are talking about roughly £2,000. To everyone's pleasure, the outsize bottle of whisky was won by Brian ("Ringo") Chapman of Udimore Road; the lucky programme prize is still unclaimed at the time of writing, but a family weekend at Butlins goes to the owner of programme no. 2113 (claims to Colin Stutely at Vidler Co, Rye 222124).
It was coincidence that Ron Reynolds and his wife were back in Rye for a visit from their home in Spain, two days after the Carnival; Mr. Reynolds was the Treasurer of the group which revived this event soon after the war and ran it for five or six years, but they had to abandon it because the organisation took so much time. Presumably it then lay fallow until Round Table revived it again in 1972?
Mrs. Amy Breeds has sent us a fascinating newspaper cutting from her great-grandmother's scrapbook (Mrs. A.J. Clark); it describes the Rye & District Cycling Club's decorated and illuminated cycle parade which took place in the autumn of 1900. The bikes were most elaborately prepared; the winning entry bore a replica of a field hospital "fully equipped, with patients in bed and convalescent, nurses, orderlies, doctors, stretcher-bearers, ambulances, soldiers in khaki, with a large marquee in the centre for the general hospital and small bell tents for isolation cases, etc., the whole forming a very realistic representation". (How one longs for a picture!) Mrs. Clark herself had a cycle decorated with "a miniature football field, properly lined out and with goalposts and corner flags, and the 22 players in the red and black of the Rye Town Club and the black and yellow of the Eastbourne Hornets, in proper positions, preparatory to the kick-off, and the referee and linesmen also in position" - Mrs. Clark and her four fellow-pushers were "attired" in the Rye colours. This event was in aid of the Hastings and East Sussex Hospital; it raised £10.16.0, and the organisers were very pleased!
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On 11 July, Mrs. Joyce Ida Southerden, of Cadborough Cliff.
On 17 July, Mr. Albert Hatter, of Rye Harbour.
On 22 July, Mr. William Cramp, of The Link.
Mr. Richard Dunk, of Rye, died in a St. Leonards nursing home on 30 June after a short illness. Mr. Dunk, who was a widower, was born in The Mint, in the shop (now Tuckers) in which he later ran his greengrocery business and where his father had worked as a boy. He was for some time a fireman, and after his retirement from business used to work in Vidler & Co's saleroom. Mr. Dunk was the last of his line, and his death marks the end of this branch of an old Rye family.
There were 53 cash prizes, totalling £200, in the Multiple Sclerosis Society's raffle run in association with the recent Mile of Pennies appeal; the draw, made by the Mayor and announced round the town by the Town Crier, took place at the Town Hall on Saturday, and everyone was delighted that Peter Cooke was allowed out of hospital for this very special occasion. The object of Peter's plan was not, of course, simply a raffle; 15p of the 20p ticket money represented twelve inches on his mile-long (paper) route round the town, and in consequence of this £544 has been raised for MS and donations are still coming in (we think £544 represents a total yardage of 1,209 - not quite a mile, but a long way in the right direction). The organisers who took over the project when Peter had to go into hospital are grateful to those who bought tickets, and specially so to those who sold them; and we are sure Peter would want us to express his own thanks to his splendid back-up team. The MS "Alice in Wonderland" event due to take place in the Town Hall courtyard on 3 September is being postponed.
Gus Gale, well-known of course as our Town Sergeant, tells us that he is always willing to act as Town Crier for Rye events; he just needs asking. We can testify how effective he is: Kath Elworthy says they took over £40 in last-minute ticket sales at the Town Hall on the 30th as a result of his efforts. Gus's services are free for charities, etc; he will also "cry" commercial events (shop openings, etc.) and merely asks the customer to give a donation to whatever charity he or she pleases. It was really nice to hear the familiar bell and shout again, and tourists with cameras were delighted too.
Lights went on in the town at midnight on Tuesday (26th) when people were woken by screaming police sirens as a high-speed car chase swept twice round the town and finally disappeared up Rye Hill. The Ford Capri eventually crashed and was severely damaged in Beckley; one of the pursuing police cars also sustained damage. The police officers - not from Rye - were not hurt, but two of the Ford's three occupants were; they face proceedings in Hastings, so no more information is being issued.
Next issue of the GAZETTE will include all events in the Town Diary from the beginning of September to the end of the year; please let the Editor know at once of any recent additions, so that they can go in. We would like to warn off anybody thinking of adding to the intellectual congestion in the first two weeks of October! The Friends of Rye Art Gallery have their regular date on Tuesday, 4th (Michael Tweedie on photographing insects and plants). On Friday, 7th, the Museum Association have Alan Dickinson talking about his investigations into the history and structure of houses in Rye, and the National Trust have Peter Hughes on "Lord Hertford and the foundation of the Wallace Collection". On Friday, 14th, as well as a concert at the school and the Natural History Society's talk by Peter Goodman of Mallydams Reserve on "The Ecology of a Woodland", Laurie Band is showing slides of the Rye area at the Community Centre. There is also a concert in St. Mary's (Leo Halle) on Saturday, 8th. Enough is enough.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 10.8.83 - page 3
A Rye Harbour Sailing Club burgee was flying proudly on Friday, when April Magic - a winter visitor to Strand Quay - was among 250 yachts leaving Cowes at the start of the Fastnet Race. She belongs to John Barwell, the man behind the Rock Channel development, and among her crew of seven are John Royle and Adrian Townsend. The week's food supply they were taking should theoretically be plenty - but news reports indicate that it will be a very slow race indeed with practically no wind, so we do hope their ribs aren't showing by the time they get back! The course is 600 miles round the Fastnet Rock off southern Ireland and back to Plymouth. They don't expect to win, not against Admiral's Cup competitors; but April Magic is ten years old (she has raced the Fastnet before) and so is eligible for a special class for older yachts, and she did come second in that class in one of the two cross-Channel races sailed earlier in the season in order to qualify.
...and there should be plenty of laughs when Rye Racers hold their annual Silly Race on Sunday: this year they call it a Hopalong Sackety Race, and each team of three shares a sack - admittedly rather a big one, a pair of hop sacks joined together (by courtesy of John Jempson & Son). Fancy dress for the racers is optional, but will be judged before the race by Miss Rye and John Rootes of the News, at 11.50 am at the Ypres Castle pub. Teams move off on the round-the-town course at about noon, and the race is followed by a barbecue at the Ypres Castle, who have an extension to their licence for the occasion. Proceeds for the annual senior citizens' party.
Self-help groups have some pretty odd names, but the one called "Gingerbread" must be among the oddest! However, there is nothing odd about the group itself. It is a nationwide organisation for single parents (of either sex), and at grass-roots level it holds coffee evenings and other events to which members can go, with or without their children, and enjoy an informal and inexpensive evening out. Gingerbread already has branches at Hastings and at Tenterden; there are now plans afoot to start a branch in Rye. Those interested should ring Rye 224224 for details. Do please pass on this information if you have a friend who might be glad to know about the new group.
Rye Festival booking office at the Easton Rooms opened to the general public on Monday, and leaflets are available there as well as elsewhere in the town. We are therefore not going into details about the programme here, except to mention the free events: the Eastbourne Silver Band concert in the Gun Garden at 2.45 on Sunday (4 September) - if it doesn't rain, the remains of the Pavement Artist Chalk-In from the previous morning should still be visible. There is live enter-tainment on the Salts (clowns, buskers, etc.) on Saturday, 3rd, at 2.30, and again the following Saturday (10th) at 11 am at the Town Hall. There is also a show for Freda Gardham pupils on Friday afternoon, described intriguingly as "an adventure playground in words". If you are at all interested in any aspect of the arts, a study of the Festival programme listing all the events would be well worth while.
When Mrs. Jane King received the deeds of her new purchase, she was disappointed to find that they were not as complete as she had hoped, having been among papers bombed in 1942. We have more or less promised that some of our older readers will be able to help her reconstruct the history of the cottage; lots of you will know who lived there between the wars, and any information from the time before WWI would be particularly welcome. What Mrs. King would really like, of course, is to hear from someone who lived there themselves, as she is keen to find out how the accommodation was arranged, and she is puzzled by a vast oven in one corner beside the fireplace.
Mrs. King lives at 47 Ferry Road (on the Tillingham Avenue corner), phone Rye 224661 - or you might find her working at the cottage. Do please get in touch with her (or with the GAZETTE if you prefer) if you have any information for her.
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Loud demolition-type noises near the south door of the church had us wondering why nothing had appeared in the planning lists; but apparently work done on ecclesiastical buildings doesn't have to have planning consent as such, just building bylaws permission and of course the approval of the church authorities. Since the work is in the hands of Le Fevre Wood & Royle, all the right things have been done; and it is in a very good cause.
The heating boiler was originally installed in 1932 and converted to oil in 1955. It was housed in an almost inaccessible underground lair, served by a narrow iron ladder, slabbed over with concrete supporting the oil tank, and with a flue going up inside the wall of the Upper Room. As its den was usually awash with the overflow from a broken gulley, diligently pumped out only to be recycled back in, it is creditable that it lasted the half-century; but we gather, the Len Stocks legacy arrived just in time.
The old boiler was installed by Mr. Bob Bailey and Mr. Mike Morphy, now no longer with us; Mr. Human, of Burnhams, who is on the present job, used to work with them for Ellis Bros when he was a lad, and they told him that several skulls were found when the boiler-room was first dug out. (The present excavations have produced nothing more exciting than a load of 1930s cast-iron on its way to a scrap dealer!) The floor of the boiler-house is being raised by about 3'; the new boiler, gas-fired, will be covered by a small lean-to building whose sloping roof will accommodate the flue but neatly clear the bottom of the big window beside the south porch. The triangular wall of this building will be all louvres to allow a good flow of air to the boiler. The removal of the oil tank means that not only will the large window (now boarded up for safety) be clear, but also the small window in the porch itself.
So much for the actual heating. But other alterations are also involved in this major project. According to an inscription inside, the Upper Room was restored through the generosity of Lt-Col Don Motley Morehead, Mayor of Rye NY, as a result of his visit to the sister town of Rye, Sussex, in 1929. The outside staircase dated only from this period, and so it was hardly a crime to remove it to allow for the new boiler-house. Underneath are the remains of a much older staircase which must have served the Upper Room before the 1930s restoration. Both led to a door in the west wall. This doorway is now being closed off and the wall built over with masonry. The actual door will be used in the new entrance to the Upper Room from inside the church, with a flight of steps leading up to it from near the vestry. Three rows of the small side pews will have to be moved or turned sideways as on the other side of the church; and the memorials on the wall will be suitably rearranged. Canon Maundrell says that to have inside access to the Upper Room will mean that it can be used a great deal more; the advantages of the new heating system hardly need mentioning at all!
The Planning Committee at the end of July only had four Rye applications to consider (those which missed that meeting will not now come up until September). An application to alter the original permitted roof-line of the Mill extension was withdrawn; the British Rail sheltered housing development plan in behind Winchelsea Road was deferred; Jempson & Son's proposed car park at Farnborough Engineering was also deferred at the firm's request; and the Planning Officer tells us that there were no objections to the Bellmount reorganisation by the end of the statutory period, so the Committee's conditional approval for that is now official.
Just two applications this week. A Fishmarket Road resident is playing safe, applying for permission to repaint her house the same colour as before. There is a change-of-use application for Rye Vaults opposite the Town Hall (for absent friends, this used to be Countrycrafts and before that Hide Bros) - Freight Express Seacon, of London and with an office in the High Street, are asking for permission to turn it into offices.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 10.8.83 - page 5
Did you bury your rubbish neatly after a picnic at Camber Castle - fifty years ago? Twenty? It was a long time ago, anyway, because the castle has been closed for a regular series of archaeological digs since 1972 - an earlier set started in 1963. The castle used to be part of the Castle Farm estate, but it has been purchased by the government and is now in the "guardianship" of the Department of the Environment; and this year sees the final dig, due to finish in ten days' time. Among the material which the young team working there, wash, list, and then send off for further investigation are pieces of Tudor tiles and domestic pottery, a scrap of iridescent Venetian glass from the sixteenth century - and broken Colebrookes' stoneware bottles which, we suspect, the archaeologists will not bother to reassemble! There are also innumerable bones - but of these, only some are chuck-outs from the garrison cookhouse; since the castle was finally abandoned 450 years ago, quite a few birds and animals must have just died there, perhaps sheltering in vain from the bitter marsh gales. (Those who beat the bounds last year will know the feeling...)
But although the digging is almost finished, we can't have our castle back yet. The archaeologists now hand over the ruin to a different branch of the Department of the Environment, who are responsible for consolidating the structure: making it safe from the worst of the weather, and also safe for the public to enter - they don't want claims from people who happen to be underneath if a bit drops off. There is a permanent team of three craftsmen working there all the year round, crying to catch up with the consolidation needed after each season's dig; but all we could extract from the people on the site was that these things cost a lot of money, and it would certainly be a matter of years even now.
In view of this, we thought readers might like to know what is happening inside, which means a little bit of history. The original tower - just the middle roundel - was built to about half its present height in 1514, probably to protect the harbour while a warship was built there. Some twenty years later, with the threats from France becoming more serious, Henry decided to lay out some of his profits from closing the monasteries on building a chain of forts along the south-east coast from Deal to Dorset, and Camber was an obvious candidate for expansion.
We have no space here to go into the technicalities of castle-building, and anyway Camber was treated to a whole series of improvements to allow for new techniques in gunnery. The tunnels remembered so fondly by picnic parties and school treats were in fact designed to give access to every part of the building from every other part, protecting the garrison from artillery fire from outside; there were also guns inside the tunnels (with vents for the smoke) to protect the inner courtyard if the outer walls should be breached or scaled.
It must have been quite exasperating for the designers that, by the time they had finished, the sea had receded so far that the castle was no longer on a long spit of shingle, but well inland and no use at all as part of the coastal defences. No shot was fired from it in anger, and it ceased to be garrisoned by 1637. (But does anyone know if troops were stationed there during the war - either war?)
With the garrison gone, the castle was abandoned. The stone, some of which came from a quarry near Fairlight, was taken by locals for their own purposes – there are one or two buildings in the town which look suspiciously similar! The cobbled courtyard disappeared under layers of soil. The four bastions had been filled in deliberately to take the weight of heavier guns as Tudor artillery design improved, but the gatehouse also grassed over when the roof fell in, and the wild flowers of the area established themselves inside the ruin.
What is so special about Camber from the archaeologist's point of view is that it was abandoned. Other castles have been "improved" over 450 years. Camber is, apart from the effect of time, weather and local depredations, just as the garrison left it. The diggers have found material which will be invaluable, and we shall hear more about this when the report of the whole excavation is produced. But they have also uncovered much of the fabric of the building itself, clearing three of the four bastions (one is left for another generation to work on) and digging down to the original floor some 12' below the surrounding ground. They have cleared (continued overleaf...)
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the courtyard which surrounds the central tower, dug out the tunnels where necessary, and lowered the floor-level of the middle tower to show the original gunports dating from when it was the only building there. (One puzzle is the well; there is one in the tower, but it is quite small and anyway would have been brackish if not actually salt. Did they store rainwater, or bring it by cart from a fresh spring or river?)
In consequence of all this very hard work, what appears from outside to be a rather uninteresting masonry lump turns into a magnificent ruin seen from within. From the lowered floor level, the walls soar upwards. Sockets for floor joists, fireplaces, "garderobes" (the loos), reveal the domestic quarters above the courtyard. Almost the horses' hooves ring on the cobbles, the gatehouse sentry calls a silent challenge. It really does look like a castle now, not a picnic site. It is just a pity that a whole generation of children has grown up and left the town without ever seeing inside it. We do hope it won't be too long before we get it back.
County Councillor Mrs. Joan Yates asks us to point out that the Council is now inviting applications for grants (for next year) from organisations concerned with giving a service to the community. Mrs. Yates is a member of the sub-committee which considers these applications, and she suspects that organisations at this end of the county are not aware of the opportunities offered. The sums of money given are useful if not enormous - perhaps between £100 and £500. They are intended for specific projects rather than general support (she quoted equipment for a holiday play-scheme as being something that could well attract a grant).
The sub-committee first meets in November and again in March to consider applications for next year's money, so interested organisations should start thinking soon. This is perhaps something that the working party for the Day Centre might consider?
Mrs. Yates has also very kindly sorted out for the GAZETTE the different responsibilities of the County, District and Town Councils as regards the town. We quote:
"The East Sussex County Council, with offices in Lewes and elsewhere, is responsible for providing large-scale local government services such as schools and colleges, libraries, strategic planning, most highways and the Social Services. The Police and the Fire Service are organised on a County basis.
Rother District Council holds meetings at Bexhill Town Hall and The Watch Oak, Battle with district offices at Rye and Battle. Rother District Council and Hastings Borough Council have equal status and are responsible for such services as housing and house improvement, local technical services, refuse collections, environmental health matters, amenities and recreation, parks and allotments, local planning and development control. The interests of Rye are now represented by three elected councillors in a District Council of 42.
As a result of local government reorganisation in 1974, Rye lost its coveted Borough status, amalgamating with Bexhill and Battle and the surrounding rural area to form the new Rother District. However, it opted to keep its "successor parish council" - or Town Council, as it is known - and with it the right to appoint its own Mayor. Though its power is narrower than that of the old Borough Council, it still remains a channel of local opinion and must be consulted about planning applications and other related matters. Rye Town Council retains the Town Hall and the ceremonial regalia of the former Borough Council. There are 16 Town Councillors including the Mayor (Mr. W.H. Simpson), assisted by the Town Clerk (Mr. John Baker) and a Sergeant at Mace (Mr. Gus Gale)."
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• The Gluepot is back in business - still a family business, but a different family. David Osborne, of Cadborough Cliff, has already reopened John Green's furniture repair workshop at 16 Ferry Road; and on Friday (11th) his wife Ann opens the front shop as "Childsplay" (the attractive signwriting on the window, incidentally, is by Linda King). Ann will be selling dolls-houses (new and second-hand), and their accessories; she will stick to the 1:12 scale for the shop, though she can always order items in other sizes from her wide range of suppliers - this is not a sudden impulse of a business, but the logical expansion of a long-time hobby, and Ann really knows her way around the subject. The shop will normally be open from Tuesday to Saturday. She describes it charmingly as a "miniature emporium"!
It is interesting to note how, in little more than a year, the image of the Banister's Corner area has changed, with the arrival of Squirrels, Crafty, Pedlar's Pitch and now Childsplay - all a regular temptation to some of us coming into the town via Ferry Road!
• A sign saying "Beeswax" over a workshop at the beginning of Winchelsea Road (no. 43) sounded interesting. Further enquiries reveal a furniture polishing business which Maurice Care has recently opened there. The firm does contract polishing for new furniture and deals with several small factories; but they also do one-off jobs, either in their own workshop or, if necessary, at the owner's home - so you don't have to load your great-aunt's wardrobe on top of the Mini, Mr. Care will come to you, but he would rather you brought your coffee-table to him. Phone Rye 225997 for more details.
Rye shops and restaurants can now get their supplies of fruit and vegetables delivered direct from Covent Garden market daily. H M P is a new firm, based at 50 Udimore Road, whose big van goes up to the market overnight, returning to deliver to customers in the Rye area the following morning (they serve Jempsons of Peasmarsh, among others). The business is entirely wholesale, but individual customers will benefit when they do their own shopping in the town. This is something new for Rye, and we wish the firm every success.
• Rye Library has a smart new photocopier, both more efficient and more convenient to use than the old one. Though the paper size is the same as before, the whole sheet now emerges white instead of with the old grey edges. The Xerox 3100 machine does a first-class job on photos (we experimented with a page of the News) and will work from very pale originals or those on coloured paper. Copies still cost only 5p each, but instead of needing a vast supply of 5p pieces for a major session, it will take 50p or 10p pieces - e.g. for one 50p piece you can either have 10 copies of the same document or one copy each of 10 different ones - just set the wheel accordingly.
Lloyd Huggett, 16, of Playden, goes to Rugby on 14 August to take part in the finals of the British Junior Grass-Track Championships. He qualified for this at a meeting at Smarden a month ago, but on 31 July, also at Smarden, he won all his races in the South-East Junior Grass-Track Club meeting. It is a busy August for his parents, Tom and Madeleine, since at the end of the month he goes to Liverpool to take part, with another boy from County Durham, in the British Pairs Championships. We hope to report his success in both these top events.
Lloyd left Thomas Peacocke School this summer and is now allowed to ride a 50cc moped on the road! He is at present working with his mother and Charlie Morfey in their haulage business - Madeleine also works as a porter at Vidler's auction rooms, but she must be one of the few female furniture removers in the country. She says that as a working mother, she is able to be Lloyd's sponsor - and grass-track riding at this level doesn't come cheap, the Huggetts spend about £20 a week on petrol ferrying Lloyd and his 200cc Bultaco bike around the country to meetings. She does wish a few sponsors would offer to help out, even if just with the odd tyre. At present Lloyd wears Weslakes' name on his leathers - for no reason other than that he admires the firm, though. We wonder if any of the businessmen among our readers might feel able to help a local lad on the way up? After all, someone was Barry Sheene's first sponsor!
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The Rye Society of Artists' exhibition in the Boys Club in Mermaid Street continues until 29 August. Once again, the Society is sadly using the foyer for a memorial exhibition of the work of a member - this year there are 20 of the late Derek Bridgwater's beautiful pictures which set a high standard for the exhibition as a whole.
As with the Tuesday Painters, we do not presume to offer artistic criticism; this is again a purely personal view. The far gallery was dominated by four large pictures, one at each end and two more on the sidelines: a real pleasure to local people who know them is Louis Turpin's delightful painting of Nick and Glynis Martin's three red-heads, and Louis also shows his own son Aaron's birthday party, the guests doubtless equally recognisable to those au fait with that age-group and anyway great fun as a picture. A vast and vivid splash of scarlet is provided next door by Angela Braven's tulips, and Kitty French has a magnificent "Emancipated Woman" in collage which would certainly enliven the bedroom for which she suggests it. Kitty also has four examples of her work in batik, interestingly hung with diffused light behind which shows them off to full advantage.
Holiday memories come from Evelyn Cutler and Leslie Davie, and from this year's Chairman, John Owen, who has obviously spent some time in Greece - though sometimes the vivid colours of the Mediterranean seem less than happy in our more subdued interiors. As usual there is pottery from Carol Steward, Wally Cole and Ernest Collyer; Richard Horner shows four painted plates and Joan de Bethel a selection of her popular cats. Eight of Peter Jay's hedgerow scenes hang in a rural group. Robert Greenhalf shows both watercolours and etchings, skilled and detailed records of aspects of the marsh and its wildlife. Davida Smith and Pamela Nash (now, we are glad to say, out of hospital) both have attractive groups of country etchings, quite different is Margaret Barnard's affectionate study of three favourite pieces of Rye pottery; and Annie Soudain, now a member, always has something new and interesting - this year it seems to be a fascination with hair. Michael Renton shows a set of the tiny engravings which he produced in 1980 for the Folio Society's edition of Thoreau's "Walden".
Work from non-members (or anyway non-local members - the Society has expanded nowadays from its original ten-mile catchment area) varies in standard from what could reasonably be described as the Hastings Art School Playgroup to Gus Cummins's three technically skillful and visually attractive drawings of work-place interiors.
It was, apparently, coincidence Jo Ciccone's very successful holiday school in The Grove caters for children from 8 to 12; and Rachel Sarrieddine won't take anyone over 7 for her contribution to peace in the holidays, a story-reading session every Monday and Wednesday during August, from 10 to 11.30 with a break for squash and biscuits (and a breather for the reader) half-way through. Although Rachel had her Sunday School children in mind when she started this, anyone under 8 is most welcome, and there is no need for parents to stay. And it is not Bible stories - Rachel reads anything she thinks her young audience will enjoy. (There is nothing to pay - even the refreshments have been provided by some of Rachel's kind friends.)
We have been rightly reproached for complaining about the Art Gallery Garden but failing to commend the Ockman's Lane approach to the Gallery. This is at present guarded by masses of glowing begonias lining the lane - provided, planted and tended by Mr. Jack Worth, who has after all no obligation to do more than look after the narrow bed in front of his own house. Margaret Casson tells us that he has made himself responsible for the delightful appearance of the little entry for more than thirty years, and to judge by the comments of visitors looking down it, his work is much appreciated. (What visitors looking down can't see is Miss Casson's own back yard: not just a back yard, but much more colourful than many borders in real gardens. As a lesson in what can be done with a bit of bare concrete and some flowerpots, we recommend a visit.)
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• Readers will be glad to know that Mr. Frank Cheese, Manager of Rediffusion in Cinque Ports Street and in fourth place for our three Rother seats in the May local government elections, is now back on Rother Council as one of the Battle members after a by-election there.
• Footnote to the various shearing competitions in which Robert Bull of Peasmarsh has done so well; we hadn't realised that he is also Robert Bull of Rye, being the son of Bertie Bull of Leasam Farm and stepson of Jean. Robert is a full-time shearing contractor and, like Brian Goodsell, a Wool Board Instructor; Jean tells us that he is just off to Norway and will then spend the winter shearing in New Zealand, returning home for a short break before our new season starts in May.
• We are very sorry to hear that Mr. Les Paine, of Bridge Place, one of the town's two macebearers, is in Pembury Hospital; we do hope he will soon be home again.
• Rye Camera Club members will already know that after 12 years as "slides secretary" and longer than she can say offhand as general secretary, Miss Alma Fabes has resigned so that she can give more time to collecting material for her slide shows. Her successor as secretary is Mr. George Delamare, of 1 Heron Cottages, Newenden (Northiam 2655), and the new slides secretary is Mrs. Barbara Slater of Winchelsea.
• Trevor Paine brought his Canadian wife Janet, her parents and four friends home to Rye last month - somehow Trevor's own parents managed to fit everyone in for the entire visit! Janet had only been to England once before, on a school journey to London when she was 11; and Rye, Mrs. Paine senior tells us, went down very well indeed - "Don't, whatever you do, change it!" they said. Trevor, who gave up a career in the RAF a year ago in favour of matrimony and a job as manager of a big sports complex in Goose Bay, has done extremely well, bringing it up to a very high standard and appearing several times on television as a result. Mr. and Mrs. Paine are thinking about going out to see it all for themselves with a return visit next year.
• Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Collett, of Love Lane, have received a letter from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, thanking them for their latest batch of used postage stamps. Mr. Collett sent off recently a shirt-boxful - and that, he says, is quite a lot of stamps when you think about it! Any stamps are welcome - even boring 14p and 16p ones are of interest to foreign collectors - and they should be torn from the envelope with a good border of paper all round. Maison Fleur in Market Road will take in contributions for Mr. Collett's next shirt-box.
• Sygurt Cochius is back in the High Street with his flute - having been playing in the tennis tournament until eliminated, he then turned his attention to another sort of playing. To shoppers in the High Street, his music sounds very cheerful, but it is apparently less welcome to those living nearby, who prefer the regular street noises.
• Mary Lestocq has set up a charming Victorian photographer's studio "set" in her side window in Market Road, as a prelude to the opening of her own studio in the shop when the sale has finished.
• Condolences to Rye United Football Club, whose manager and five other first-team players have left to join Hastings United Reserves. Two other players also quit, and the three remaining members of the first squad can see no way for the Club to play in the County League this season after more than 30 years.
• A very simple wedding at St. Mary's recently - Canon Maundrell was asked by two young Americans if they could be married here rather than have all the hassle of a formal wedding "back home". Their landlady and someone they met in the town acted as witnesses. Good luck to them!
• Alma Fabes conducted 48 National Trust members round Rye recently - the party came from St. Albans and had already stopped to eat their sandwiches in Winchelsea. She told them a ghost story new to us, which we hope to find room for in a subsequent issue.
10.
Wednesday, 10th Organ recital, Nigel Spooner, St. Mary's, 7.30 (GAZETTE no.45)
Rye WI, "Expedition to Borneo", FEC, 7
Thursday, 11th Band Concert, Cranbrook Town Band, Thomas Peacocke Upper, 7.30
Saturday, 13th Fire Brigade Open Day and Fete, Fire Station, 10.30
St. John Ambulance coffee morning, St. John Centre, 10.30
Sunday, 14th Rye Racers Hopalong Sackety Race, Ypres Castle pub, 11.45 (see page 3)
Tuesday, 16th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship meeting, Red Cross, 10.30
"Ghouls and ghosties", Rye Library, 10.30 to 12 (tickets)
Thursday, 18th Thrift Shop, Red Cross Centre, 10.30 to 4 (and Fri, Sat, Mon).
Monday, 22nd Women's British Legion meeting, Red Cross, 7.30
Wednesday, 24th Organ recital, Nigel Spooner, St. Mary's, 7.30
• New charges for Rother car parks (GAZETTE no.41) come into effect on Monday (15th).
• Northiam and Rye RAF Association is looking for house-to-house collectors (Rye and villages) for Battle of Britain Week, 12 to 17 September. Offers to Gordon Stanbridge, Brede 882589 (evenings).
• Brown Owl (Mrs. Daliea White) and Tawny Owl (Mrs. Heather Howard) have taken a dozen of their 1st Rye Brownies on a "pack holiday" this week; Brownies don't camp under canvas, so the group is based at the Lewes Guide HQ building.
• Rye Bowls Club won their match against Rye Rotary Club on Sunday (7th) at the Salts.
• Rye and District Lions have given £100 to the ATC's fund to repair the roof of their rifle range at Thomas Peacocke School.
• We have been asked to mention two events on Saturday, 20th (when there is nothing in Rye itself): Camber Village Fete, and Winchelsea Flower Show and Fete, both starting at 2.
• Claude Auberson announces that the Swiss Patisserie will be closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (15th to 17th), prior to reopening in its new premises at 50 Cinque Ports Street (formerly Mills, greengrocers), on Thursday, 18th at 8 am as usual, in time for breakfast (and his croissants are a dream!).
• Regular lunchers at the Old Vicarage in East Street will be disappointed to know that, owing to the demand for dinner, John and Toni have with great regret decided to stop serving lunches for the present.
• The broken window in the new Social Services office in Cinque Ports Street is due to a vehicle reversing into it early on Sunday morning - and then driving off.
• Twice last week campers were taken to hospital after fires in tents; the latest victim, a lad of 17, is now in East Grinstead Hospital with serious burns after a cooker blew up in his tent. Please be warned: tents are not kitchens. Much better to cook outside.
• We have had an enquiry for someone who can mend china - not valuable antique pieces, just a shrinking but favourite teaset: perhaps an opportunity for a beginner at this useful art? We have had no offers so far from anyone willing to service either sewing machines or typewriters, alas.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office. It is published by Mrs. Mary Owen at 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303), and news items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline is Monday afternoon, or 9 am Tuesday for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday morning. A few spare copies may be available at Squirrels, Banisters' Corner, Cinque Ports Street. (Copyright Mary Owen, 1983)