There will be no GAZETTE next Wednesday (25 April); the next issue will come out in a fortnight's time, on 2 May.
Once upon a time Rye Town Hall had six keys.
Last Wednesday, five of them were in Hastings, where the holders (the Mayor and his Deputy, the Town Clerk and his assistant, and the Town Sergeant) were at the Brotherhood and Guestling meeting of the Cinque Ports. The sixth key is kept, clearly labelled, at the police station.
Rye Magistrates Court regularly sits on Mondays and Wednesdays; normally Gus Gale as Town Sergeant opens up the Town Hall, but the police key is to enable them to get in if Gus is not around. The previous Wednesday, when Gus had gone with the Mayor to visit HMS Illustrious, the police opened up, locked the Town Hall again after court - and must have put their key back on the wrong nail, because last week, with Gus again out of town, they couldn't find it!
The magistrates waited half-an-hour, and then decided to deal with the local licensing applications downstairs in the Town Hall foyer; thereafter, the whole cast had to move over to Battle for the rest of the Court's business to be transacted...
There is now a seventh key to the Town Hall. The Magistrates' Clerk probably sleeps with it under his pillow!
The Rother seal was due to be released into the sea at Cliff End, Pett, on Tuesday afternoon, having made a complete recovery. It has been nursed back to health over the past week at the RSPCA centre at Mallydams, who have only had two seals in the previous 20 years (both of which died, so they are particularly pleased with ours).
We wondered if any of the seal's friends might care to send donations to the RSPCA on its behalf? And Mallydams would be very glad to hear from anyone who spots it - with its distinctive '11' mark on each side of the head - if it comes back to the river. The seal people at Cambridge told them that the mark meant it had been hand-reared by a zoologist in Denmark, so it may eventually travel back across the North Sea to settle down; but young seals, like young humans, often like to see a bit of the world first!
As a result of a meeting with the police some months ago, Rye Chamber of Trade have set up a telephone warning network among their members and other business and commercial premises in the town - a network which could cover as many as 100 businesses. One call from the police warning of shoplifters, forged banknotes, stolen cheque cards, etc., in the area can alert all the town's traders within a very short time.
This is a new and very welcome development of the Crime Alert scheme, which takes it out of the domestic burglary field into a much wider area. In view of the two burglaries reported on page 4, perhaps the next stage should be the employment of a night-watchman?
In connection with their new system, the Chamber have arranged a meeting at the FE Centre at 8 on Wednesday, 25 April, when Detective Chief Inspector Fallon will be speaking about "Aspects of Fraud", dealing particularly with cheque and credit card frauds. This is not just for Chamber of Trade members - anyone who would find it interesting will be most welcome, says Chairman Roy Barnes of Merrythought.
2.
For the second year running, Miss Rye is a member of the staff of the George Hotel. The 1984 Carnival queen is Melanie Dunster, who comes from Peasmarsh but lives in Rye. Runners-up were Danielle Reed (of Rye, we understand? Details were hard to come by), and Donna Neighbour from Woodchurch.
At the Worthing Marathon on Sunday, Mr. George Cumming did Rye proud by arriving as number 441 out of 2000 runners - and he will forgive us for pointing out that he was one of only 47 contestants over the age of 50. His time was 3 hours 52 minutes; and Elizabeth Goldsworthy tells us that after a shower and three cups of tea he looked quite fit enough to run the 26 miles back again. Mr. Cumming was running on behalf of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and a group of supporters from the Rye Branch went over to cheer him on - not that he needed it, clearly! Sponsor money has, of course, still to be collected, and we will put on record the amount raised in due course.
Winners in Rye Boys Club's second Super Star contest were (over 14s) Colin Robinson, Peter Ashbee and Bernard Carter; (12-14s) Wayne Ridges, Kevin Hatter, and Martin Doyle, last year's winner; (11 and under) William Kirkham, Nathan Smith and John Fitzgerald. The events included basketball, weightlifting, penalties, darts, gym tests and an obstacle race; entrants were sponsored, and Stewart Doyle hopes to top last year's proceeds of £272 towards Club equipment.
Some of the Club's seniors have left recently, and there would be room for a few more in the over-14 age-group, to take advantage of the new volley-ball nets and indoor hockey equipment.
The seniors would also be glad of a volunteer to help, mainly with the tuck-shop, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.30 to 8.30. More local members would be useful on the committee, too - this involves a meeting once a month only, not helping with the club sessions. For further information, please contact Mr. Doyle (Rye 223239) or F. Tolhurst, 136 Pottingfield Road.
The new exhibition at Hamilton Galleries features the work of some half-dozen local artists, all of them women as it happens. Caroline Glibbery calls the show "Real Rye - pictures painted by local artists for themselves", and she tells us that some of the prices reflect the painter's reluctance to sell the particular picture! Daphne Adams is a regular exhibitor in the annual summer shows, but it is very pleasant to see a whole wall displaying her work, including a view of the town from the bank of the Rother painted with snow on the ground. Other artists include Greta Walter, Evelyn Cutler, Margaret Pearce, Aimee Shepherd, Janet Thorndyke, and there are four of Sheila Draffin's tiny watercolours. Caroline herself has a drawing of contorted timbers on the Bexhill foreshore which look like a science-fiction artist's imaginings - she swears they did look just like that before the Council put a groyne on top of them. The pictures will be there for at least the next three weeks.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Kerry Woodman, aged 7, who was still in St. Helen's on Monday after suffering concussion, with cuts and bruises down one side, after trying to cross King's Avenue between parked cars into the path of the Pontins works bus. Mr. Woodman tells us that she is still running a temperature, but they very much hope to have her home before the end of the week.
We are asked to say, for the record, that a mistake in the addition at the Rye Group Craft Show led to the Pottery Vase for the highest average marks going to Rye rather than to Iden, the rightful winners. Apologies have already been offered and accepted and the vase transferred to its rightful home.
Rye WI has, however, won the Group's Darts League, with Mrs. Doris Preece gaining the highest individual score; they were also runners-up for the knock-out contest.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 18.4.1984
A Department of Transport notice in the Express on Friday announced innocently that Monkbretton Bridge was to undergo repairs and would be closed to vehicles wider than 6'6" from Monday, 30 April, for probably the whole of May. There would, it said, be single-lane working for traffic less broad in the beam.
Somewhat shaken to learn of this prospect, so thoughtfully timed for the start of the holiday season, we rang Jempsons to ask how wide their lorries are. "Eight foot" they said, "but we don't use that road much anyway".
So what about the buses? We rang Hastings & District and found that they knew nothing about it at all - they hadn't, on Friday, even seen the notice in the paper, let alone had the courtesy of an advance warning from the D o T. Buses are also 8' wide, and they do use New Road extensively, for long-distance journeys as well as the regular Camber run. Checking back on Monday, we found that there had by then been a sharpish phone call or two made to the Department, and a site meeting was due to be held yesterday to see what could be done. Since the alternative route is via Military Road, Appledore, Snargate, Brenzett and Brook-land - a ten-mile circuit along roads not intended for heavy traffic - we must all hope that some better arrangement can be made.
And what about the fire engine?
Looking for light on this whole matter, we rang Ralph Olesen of ESCC Highways Department. He wasn't best pleased with the D o T, either, for putting notices in the paper without doing their homework first. But, he says, it is not quite as bad as the notice says. The work is expected to take the whole of May, and there will have to be single lane working with traffic lights and all the attendant delays. But the width restriction will probably only come into force for a week towards the end of May, when a resurfacing machine will arrive to work on the bridge. The earlier stages can be done "by hand" (which conjures up a fascinating picture of chaps picking away at the tarmac with little trowels, like archaeologists:); the surface of the bridge will be stripped right down to the deck and then built up again after waterproofing and other repairs.
After that, the resurfacing machine moves in; and it is too wide to allow a lorry or bus to pass it, hence the problems.
Mr. Olesen adds that ESCC, who will be carrying out the work on behalf of the D o T, hope to get authorisation to improve the road surface from the Skinners roundabout to the bridge, while they are at it, and also to iron out some bumps along New Road. But this is a different section of the D o T, and they are still waiting for permission; the D o T is involved because the A259 is a trunk road.
We shall hope to report in our next (2 May) issue what the buses are going to do.
Rye Bowls Green opens for business tomorrow (Thursday). Casual players can use it for 70p an hour; woods can be hired for 30p a session, overshoes for a further 30p. A season ticket costs £22, but this allows the holder to play as often as he or she wishes throughout the summer and will probably appeal to members of the Bowls Club. The Club, now in its third season and with a membership fee of £2.50, is anxious to welcome new members. Both experienced players and beginners can enjoy this congenial pastime during the summer in a friendly atmosphere - and it is not just a sport for elderly people, members are accepted from the age of 14. As well as local Club contests, they have 46 fixtures, home and away, booked for the coming season.
Enquirers will be most welcome at a coffee morning which the Club is holding at the Pavilion on the Salts from 10 to 1 on Saturday, 28 April. Come along, they say, and see what it's all about!
The putting green next door, incidentally, has already been open a week - it costs 40p for adults and 20p for children.
4.
Still no timetable from British Rail for the summer services, but evidence keeps dribbling in from other sources!
Mr. Lampon, concerned about commuter times, has received a letter from BR which confirms the morning times we published two weeks ago. It also gives the new evening timings. The 15.25 and 16.25 from Charing Cross will arrive at Rye at 17.05 and 18.05 respectively, with about six minutes at Ashford. The present 17.00 from Charing Cross vanishes entirely. Both the 17.20 from Cannon Street and the 17.25 from Charing Cross (two separate trains, it seems) reach Ashford with at least seven minutes to connect with the train arriving at Rye at 19.05.
Robert Bromley has had the Saturday timings, and the sad thing here is that we shall be losing the last train in each direction. The crossover time has been advanced five minutes - and in view of the previous paragraph, this would seem to apply during the week as well. British Rail say rather sniffily to Mr. Lampon that they cannot suit everyone; but they point out that the overall journey times are faster - which is quite true in some cases, if the connections do work out as intended.
Rye's main grievance seems to be the unsatisfactory position about the first Awayday train, which combines the present 8.35 (London 10.20) and the 9.11 (London 10.40) into one train leaving Rye at 8.45 but not arriving until 10.37.
Congratulations to Chris Ashbee of Military Road, who came in first for the Isle of Thanet Marathon recently with a record time of 2 hours and 30.5 minutes - a record for himself as well as for the course. Chris is running in the London Marathon again this year (13 May) on behalf of the Eye Laser Appeal (GAZETTE no. 78) - phone Beckley for sponsorship details. Last year, raising £525 for the Poppy Appeal, Chris completed the course in 2 hours 36 minutes, and is hoping to get his time down to under 2 hours this time.
Incidentally, there seems to some confusion about where the new eye laser will be used. Michael Hancock, of the appeal committee, tells us that although eye in-patients will soon be sent over to Eastbourne for treatment, out-patients will continue to be treated at Hastings; and the advantage of the laser is that it can give treatment on an out-patient basis for troubles which would otherwise mean some days in hospital. The convenience to patients is obvious; the saving to the NHS will be considerable. Eastbourne already has a laser, though less advanced than the new one; it will definitely be Hastings area patients who will benefit from this appeal.
Burglars visited two Rye offices on Thursday night. At Geering & Colyer they took some £10 in cash, and at Dawes, Son & Prentice they had £60-worth of cash, stamps and jewellery and did £30 worth of damage as well.
An Elswick Jetstream pedal cycle worth £149 has been stolen from a garage in Military Road; the press book describes the garage as "insecure" - there must be a moral here!
Rye's avant-garde ATC Squadron was unique among the 20 squadrons attending the annual training camp at Crowborough last weekend; three of its ten cadets were girls, the only ones in camp. Various assessed exercises were carried out, Beth McDonald tells us, and Rye came 3rd out of 20 at the end of the weekend.
Canon David Maundrell tells us that he ceases to be Rural Dean of the Rye Deanery this month, after doing the job for just six years (starting, of course, when he was Rector of Icklesham before coming to Rye). He thinks it is time for someone else to have a go; his successor will be appointed in due course by the Bishop after consulting the clergy of the Deanery.
5.
Peter Gould, on behalf of Simpson (Rye Harbour) Ltd of Fordingbridge, Hants, is asking Rother to confirm "established use" of the Nook Beach area of the Harbour for the shooting of wild duck, geese, game birds, hares and all vermin. In the application, the present use of the land is described as "agricultural purposes including livestock, arable, horticultural and fish farming; mineral extraction by both land and boat mounted methods; recreational purposes by the directors, shareholders, employees and friends of the above company". Mr. Gould backs the application with letters from five local sportsmen saying that they used to shoot over the land (J E Jempson, Bob Langrish, Hugh Ashby, Rufford Whitehead and someone who simply signs his letter Stan).
Confirmation of such established use would strengthen the firm's position when the appeal is heard over its rejected plan for commercial sporting facilities on the site. It would assist the Planning Committee in considering the position if they could hear from people who have regularly walked over the footpaths in the area at any time, and who can give authoritative evidence as to just how much recreational use of this land there has been. Letters should go to the Planning Officer at Bexhill Town Hall, quoting application no. EU 84 0628.
The current weekly planning list includes a garage in Lea Avenue, a roof over existing car sales area at Skinners, and change of use from offices and storage living accommodation for the first floor of "The Kettle o' Fish" at Strand Quay. The Tarrants would be interested to know if there was once a flat above the shop in the days when it was the gas showroom, or whether the gasworks staff lived elsewhere; we are sure someone will be able to tell them? The remaining application is for change of use from canteen to social club room with licensed bar for 63-81 Winchelsea Road; this sounded like some enormous project but is merely Jempsons Social Club thinking of transferring to the old Farnborough canteen.
The Gatehouse Restaurant, next door to the Landgate, has at last opened its doors again. Customers who knew the premises as a little place for lunch will get a big surprise when they enter a large room with panelled walls and all the trimmings of a full-blown restaurant. Upstairs is a comfortable lounge with a bar for pre-meal drinks, and squashy sofas for those who like to take their coffee at their ease afterwards. We asked who did the work. "We did" said
Miss Poole, who is co-proprietor with Mr. Boufrahi, "- that's why it took so long!" Miss Poole told us that they have come from the hotel business in London and chose Rye just because they liked it - which is always nice to hear.
The restaurant has a full licence, and of course a wine list. The menu shows a very wide selection of continental dishes. The Gatehouse serves lunches from noon (last orders 2.30) and dinners from 6 - unusually early for Rye - with last orders at 10.30; they are shut all day Tuesday, open on Sundays, and the phone number is Rye 222327. (If the weather stays warm for long enough to justify it, they hope, later in the summer, to place tables out on the sunny little terrace under the town wall at the back.)
Rye enjoyed two illustrated talks last week - and both of them showed pictures of Camber Castle. But J G Coad, addressing the National Trust on Wednesday, was speaking about monuments in Kent and Sussex, and his talk had a military flavour - his monuments ranged from a mini-Stonehenge to an early radar installation! Alma Fabes's talk to the Museum Association on Friday, on the other hand, dealt exclusively with Winchelsea, and as always in her fascinating shows she poked about in all sorts of places not usually accessible to the public and came up with some lovely pictures of a Winchelsea not suspected by those of us who only go through it in the bus. Both talks drew large and enthusiastic audiences - and after Friday's show Miss Fabes was deep in confabulation with that other slide collector Laurie Band, apparently arranging "swops". How very grateful future historians should be to those who are preserving the town's past and its present on film!
6.
Last year's Easter Week issue contained reminiscences, from Mrs. Bodilly and Mr. Goddard, of the Rye musical scene before and after WW1. It is an odd coincidence that this year we are also writing about music in the town, with a historical emphasis - but this time a very different sort of music.
The electric organ was invented by an Englishman called Hope-Jones, who took his idea to the States and sold it to an American company called - you've guessed? - Wurlitzer. Wurlitzer started selling these organs in the States in 1919, and the first ones arrived in this country in 1925. The very first went to a cinema in Walsall and is now in the Congregational Church in Beer, Devon. The second - no. 999 - was destined for the Palace Cinema, Tottenham, the third for the New Gallery Cinema in Regent Street (and it is still there); the fourth and fifth went to Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively. Imports continued until the mid-Thirties, but there are only 65 Wurlitzers known in this country today.
On Sunday, members of the Theatre Organ Club of Great Britain came considerable distances to Thomas Peacocke School, where Wurlitzer no. 999, the one from the Tottenham Palace, was At Home to its admirers, performing under the skilled hands of two professional players.
An electric organ comes in three sections, which can be housed quite separately from each other. At Thomas Peacocke the audience for once had its back to the stage - though the organist was seated sideways in the gallery, and one longed for a mirror angled above him to reflect his hands. At the back of the gallery, fluttering shutters (normally hidden by a curtain) conceal the pipes, etc.; and the blower is in the tank room further along the corridor. (The blower, Clifford
Foster tells us, was not the one from Tottenham but a less noisy model from the Regal Cinema, St. Leonards - where it had been housed in the roof and had to be lowered down the outside of the building on ropes at the start of its journey!)
In GAZETTE no. 16, we recorded how in 1957 Mr. Foster and the Grammar School music master Mr. May had negotiated the purchase of the Tottenham organ, had dismantled it, brought it down to Rye in a Bournes lorry (at a cost of £12.10.0), hauled it up to the gallery on large baulks of timber borrowed from Hinds, and then reassembled it. At that point it still had its "effects" section; but the money would not run to incorporating that in the rebuilt organ, so the pieces were stored in the roof of the Saltcote stables. They have, alas, now vanished - unless anyone knows where they are? A replacement set would cost around £500 nowadays, if one could be found and would complete the restoration of the organ which began a year ago, when the school's new chemistry teacher Nigel Spooner realised that we had something well worth restoring.
Mr. Spooner, who had been an organ scholar at university, got in touch with Ralph Bartlett, who founded the Theatre Organ Club 45 years ago and is now its General Secretary. With Mr. Bartlett's advice, and using money garnered in dribs and drabs by Mr. Spooner and his friends, the restoration work proceeded, and Sunday's concert was to celebrate the end of the first year. The organists were Michael Wooldridge and Trevor Bolshaw, both true professionals, who proceeded to enchant their audience with melodies old and new. The organ seemed particularly to welcome the music from Walt Disney's films, and the Gershwin and Cole Porter numbers, with which it must have been familiar from its youth; but the programme was chosen to show what it could do, and the traffic accident incorporated into that old favourite "The Whistler and his Dog" was certainly an ear-opener! Finally, Trevor descended to floor level and the hall piano, minus its lid and with mikes suspended over its works; Michael took over upstairs; and they were joined by Frank Stewart with a drum kit, for a very happy strict-tempo session which was enormously appreciated by the largely middle-aged audience. It would have taken very little more to set us on our feet, fox-trotting round the hall - as the Head said, perhaps the PTA might think about tea-dances? (He also said it was the most enjoyable and worry-free afternoon he had spent in school for years!) The programme was recorded, for a cassette which will be available from the school in about a month's time at a cost of £4. The Club promises to come back next year.
And the parents who raised the money, some of it before the war and more in the early Fifties? The organ cost £450 in 1957. Another couple of noughts would, we were told, reflect its value now!
7.
• The 1st Rye Brownies are having a tea party tomorrow - up the church tower! Not at the very top, but in the ringers' chamber; and guests will include the Mayor, the Rector and the District Commissioner. This is part of the Brownies' Celebration Tea Making Fortnight, a national event with medals, certificates, etc.; the 70th Anniversary Tea Party is an optional extra which the let Rye pack are certainly making the most of. If they win, they will get a VIP Day trip to Paris; but even if they don't they will have a lot of fun, and the Editor is extremely sorry not to be able to accept their very kind invitation to join them.
• Rye British Legion Women's Section is saying "Wear a rose on St. George's Day" two days early this year; 23 April is Bank Holiday Monday, and they think there will be more people around the Town Hall on Saturday (21st). Roses - silk ones, so they will still be wearable two days later for purists - will be on sale in the Town Hall foyer from 10 to 4 in aid of the Sussex Poppy Appeal; coffee will be served, and there will be a white elephant stall, raffle, etc. This idea was a Sussex innovation, and last year raised £5,000 within the county - Rye made £130 before they ran out of roses.
• Readers may remember an exhibition of paintings which was held at the FE Centre one day last August, when four professional artists from South London showed their work. They were so pleased with last year's reception that they are coming back for two days this time, and at what may be a better time of year - 28 and 29 April. The four painters are Martyn Vaughan Jones, Bob Broadley, Sue Broadley and Pat Emery, and their work will include a selection of subjects with many paintings of local scenes - some 150 pictures in all, at prices from £15 to £250. Admission is free, browsers are welcome, 10 to 6 both days.
• Thomas Peacocke School's open evening is to be held on Thursday, 3 May, from 6.30 to 9 pm at both Upper (The Grove) and Lower (Ferry Road) schools. The limelight this year falls on activities which take place during school classes, and the Headmaster's letter included in the programme discusses the school's approach to the curriculum. There are a large number of displays planned, and parents with children at both halves of the school will have their work cut out to see everything on offer! In addition to the static displays in the classrooms, Lower School has a concert from 6.30 to 7 and a modern dance programme from 7 to 7.30; at 7.45 the interest transfers to the Upper School Hall for dance, choral and orchestral numbers. The kitchens and dining-rooms will be open, so that parents can see for themselves The Truth About School Meals. And up at Leasam, both the boarding house and the Rural Studies Department are hoping for plenty of visitors.
• St. Mary's Church holds its Flower Festival the weekend of the August Bank Holiday - 25 to 27 August. Beryl Rixon asks us to say so now in order to book the date; the same weekend two years ago, readers may remember, there were two flower festivals in Rye and three or four in nearby villages. The St. Mary's festival only happens every second year and is a major event - forty local organisations are being invited to take part.
• Rye Museum Association has booked a 45-seater coach for Tuesday, 29 May, for an all-day outing to Firle Place, near Lewes. They have a special arrangement with the owners which means that the Museum party is the only one that day and can therefore see as much of the house as is not occupied by the family at the time. The coach leaves Rope Walk at a very reasonable 11 am and returns about 5; packed lunches should be taken, but Firle Place provides a cup of tea. On the way the party will call at Berwick Church, eat lunch on Firle Beacon (weather permitting), and glance into Firle Church.
The cost is likely to be about £6, and Museum Association members should make sure of their places early by contacting Mrs. Audrey Bartlett (East Street). Spare seats will be available to non-members.
The Association's AGM will take place on 4 May in the Town Hall, and after the formal business of the evening Mr. Geoffrey Barley will be speaking, with slides, on "Thirty Years of Rye Museum" - a rather special evening. The Museum itself reopens tomorrow, Thursday, for the season.
8.
Thursday, 19th WI Market (instead of Good Friday), CC, 10
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10.30 to 4 (and Friday, Saturday)
Friday, 20th Good Friday United Service, St. Mary's, 10.45 (procession leaves Tilling nGreen, 10.15)
Saturday, 21st BL Women's Section sells roses for St. George (Poppy Appeal), Town Hall foyer, 10 to 4 (see page 7)
Craft Market reopens, FEC, 10 to 4
Monday, 23rd (Bank Holiday) Cancer Relief coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
Wednesday, 25th Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Chamber of Trade, "Aspects of Fraud", FEC, 8 (see front page)
Thursday, 26th Muscular Dystrophy Group coffee morning, Red Cross, 10 to 11.30
Friday, 27th Old Scholars annual reunion, Mermaid, from 7.30 (1966/69 leavers are
especially welcome; and Bob Huxstep will be present)
Saturday, 28th Bowls Club coffee morning, Salts, 10 to 1 (see page 3)
RNLI Ploughman's Lunch, FEC, 12 to 2
Art Exhibition, FEC, 10 to 6 (also Sunday - see page 7)
Monday, 30th Term begins
WRVS Luncheon Club, CC, 12.30
BL Women's Section meeting, FEC, 7.30
Tuesday, 1st Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
Conservative Assn. coffee morning, 113 Udimore Road, 10.30 St. Mary's
Tuesday Club, Rev. E. Wilkinson, Rectory, 7.30 FRAG, "Making a Television Programme" (Shaun Sutton), TH, 8
• Both buses and trains will be running Sunday services on Good Friday and Easter Monday - otherwise as usual. Rye Station says that the Saturday timetable alterations should have returned to normal by the time you read this (sorry about last Saturday, that's one BR's Press Office missed out on!). But CHECK.
• Rye Festival Council are very grateful to helpers and supporters who enabled them to take £234 at their Spring Fair at the FEC on Saturday.
• The new low-fare limited-stop route from Camber to Brighton started on Sunday, and leaflets are available from Baldwins Travel. Day return fare from Rye to Brighton (nearly 4-hours there) costs £2.95; the 30-minute journey from Rye to Hastings costs £1.40 for a day return. Cheaper than the train, for those without railcards?
• Badger Gate residents had what is known as an unbirthday party last week - "just a party, for no reason at all" says Warden Mrs. Lilian Sinden. There was a musical entertainment, and the evening was very much enjoyed.
• The Scouts took £83 at their jumble sale on Saturday.
• New owner of the old Eagle Brewery - and we are sure she will preserve the lettering on the outer wall - is Ann Lingard, who is using it to store stock for her Rope Walk Antiques shop. The big "church" hall, now the main part of the Rope Walk shop, once belonged to the Salvation Army; perhaps those sworn enemies of drink would see poetic justice in the ex-brewery coming under the same innocuous management!
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303). News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon, Tuesday 9 am for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly, and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday; extra copies and back numbers can be ordered from 94 Udimore Road, while a few spares are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984)