A quotation of £840 a year from ESCC for mowing the Town Council's white-elephant field at Freda Gardham School has set Council members wondering yet again how to get the best use from the land.
The 6 ½ acre field was bought for £11,000 from the Lottery Fund (not from ratepayers' money) when ESCC decided to sell it off as surplus to the requirements of Freda Gardham. The intention was that it should provide space for sporting amenities for the town, but when it came to the point very little interest was shown, either by local organisations or by potential grant-givers. The Council then considered various other ways of using the land and applied for planning permission to use it as a caravan site (under the, supervision of one of the camping clubs) during the summer. Rother turned this down, for the same reasons as they had turned down a similar proposal from ESCC some years before.
The lottery folded last year from lack of support, so it would be ratepayers who would be paying the £840 to ESCC to mow the field. It was this which prompted Councillor Shackleton to suggest at the April meeting of the General Purposes and Finance Committee that the possibility of building on the land should be investigated. The proposal automatically came before the full Town Council meeting on Tuesday last week and was greeted with less than total enthusiasm by many of the Councillors. (There was apparently no discussion of an alternative proposal to use the land for caravans for 28 days a year, for which planning permission is not required.) The matter has now been referred back to the next GP and F meeting in about a month's time.
People in the town are asking why the land can't simply be let out for sheep keep. The answer, according to GP chairman Mrs. Hilda Nelson-Barrett, is that this would mean fencing and fencing is "very expensive" - though no firm figure seems to be available. However, train travellers will have noticed that sheep grazing on rape and kale in winter are penned into a particular section of field by an electric fence which is moved strip by strip with the flock. We wonder why such an arrangement could not be used at Freda Gardham? The fence would be provided by the farmer, a fact taken into account when the keep price was fixed. The Council
would, of course, have to supply water, though the trough could be near the mains supply running past the gate. Alternatively, what about shutting up the field for hay? Water would not be required, and the contractor would mow, bale and remove the hay, paying the Council a sum for the privilege. In either case the Council would have to put up a simple boundary marker fence, to keep the Freda Gardham children off either the electric fence or the growing grass; but once up, this would not cost £840 a year to maintain!
Within a couple of weeks Rye householders will find another free paper coming through their doors: "Channel 5 Champion", a Folkestone-based sheet which has for some time been distributed in the Marsh area and is now expanding to Rye. we shall be on the extreme edge of its area (aren't we always!), but it should give a useful glimpse of ventures to the east of us, for a change.
This rather oddly named paper will make the third free sheet available in the town: the East Sussex News, of course; the more recent Friday Ad; and now the new one, connected with the F J Parsons group of papers which changed hands earlier in the year. The Chamber of Trade has not discussed the new venture, but chairman Roy Barnes says they would welcome anything which publicises Rye there will certainly be Rye advertisements in it.
2.
The width restriction which starts today because of the repairs to the bridge means changes in bus times. A leaflet being handed to passengers (copies at the Council Offices) lists the following changes - phone numbers for checking are Rye 223343 or Hastings 433711.
410: (Monday to Friday) 8.42 Rye to Broad Oak will run 10 minutes later, as will the return journey from Broad Oak to Rye. Udimore Road readers who take the latter service into the town, please note!
413 and 417: this service will go to Brookland via Military Road, Appledore, etc., instead of by the usual route.
799: (the new limited-stop route to Brighton) will omit Camber for the duration and begin and end at Rye.
550/1/2/4: buses will operate to either side of the bridge where passengers will cross on foot (usually accompanied by a driver) to join a bus on the other side. Some delay will occur, though scheduled times will be aimed at except: the 6.45 am (551) from Rye to Dover will go round; the 17.47 from Rye to Camber and the return bus from Camber to Rye at 18.11 will be Withdrawn; the last two buses, leaving Dover at 19.16 and 21.06 and normally reaching Rye at 21.31 and 23.04, will have to go round and will arrive about 45 minutes later than usual. It must be a long time since we had a last bus from anywhere getting into Rye just before midnight!
Freda Gardham children from the Rye side will be set down and picked up at the Fishmarket Road bus stop. It is hoped that the width restriction will be removed by the Friday before the Bank Holiday weekend, so all these arrangements should be for the next ten days only.
Sinister footnote: driving home to Military Road across the Marsh on Friday, Mrs. Sheila Fox decided to take the diversion route out of curiosity. Imagine her horror to find that the stretch between Appledore Station and Snargate was impeded with traffic lights, single lane working a deep trench across half the road! Maybe it will be finished by today, maybe the other half doesn't need doing or anyway can wait - we do hope so…. Kent must be aware of the diversion, she says, since there were shrouded road signs in readiness at strategic points along the route.
Friday evening at 7 sees the start of a Musical Marathon Extravaganza at Thomas Peacocke Upper School based (residents in The Grove will be glad to know) mostly in the music room at the allotments end of the building - but they will have the full benefit of the Catsfield Steamers in the main hall the following night!.
The organisers - James Cruttenden, Zoe Bouras, Andrew Heather, Marion Saunders and other Lower Vlth members, with help from performers throughout the school - intend to produce music of some sort continuously for 24 hours, to raise money for the school Music Fund. Sponsors have already been sought by those taking part, and they are invited to look in from time to time to see how the players are doing.
Coast to Coast viewers on Monday will have seen the school's Wurlitzer organ playing a star part; Nigel Spooner accompanied VIth form pupils in a hymn before being interviewed by TVS and relaxed with a more exuberant ditty afterwards.
Rye has been minus its Harbourmaster recently. Colin Marsh was on a Hebridean voyage, in command of HMS Chaser, an appropriate name for a fast patrol boat; he had a crew of RNR midshipmen, mainly university students. They toured the Western Isles for a week - Mr. Marsh's only regret was that, despite a personal plea to the chap in charge at Inverness, they had to miss going through the Caledonian Canal with its 25 or so locks shut firmly "on the Sabbath!"
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 16.5.1984
• Congratulations to Chris Ashbee of Military Road, who beat his own record in Sunday's London Marathon, completing the course in a few seconds under 2½ hours - which puts him into the "elite runners" class. His time last year was 2 hours 36 minutes. Obviously someone who is never satisfied, Chris had aimed at 2 hours 25 minutes for Sunday's race, but Mrs. Ashbee says he had been over-training lately - readers will remember his course record of 2 hours 30 ½ minutes for the Isle of Thanet Marathon last month - so he will be taking things a little more gently before he runs at Maidstone in June. Chris was running this year for the Eye Laser Appeal - we hope to give the amount raised from his sponsors when all the money is in.
• Joanne Haviland's Rye Dance Centre has had gratifyingly good results in the first public examinations for its pupils since the school began just over 18 months ago. 26 girls passed in 32 out of the 34 examinations taken; 17 gained "commended" marks, and Lynda Bell of Pottingfield Road got a "highly commended" for ballet, while in the adult tap class Jane Jenkinson gained honours and Bridget Mann was highly commended. Miss Haviland tells us that Rachel Street, aged 9, took three examinations on the same day and passed them all!
Work will soon be starting on a November show. Last year Miss Haviland managed to include all her pupils in the show somewhere, but this year it will be more of a problem to do this - numbers have risen since then from 55 to around 100. The swelling classes mean that Miss Haviland has been able to give up her job in Hastings and devote herself full-time to the Centre, which meets at the Community Centre (see the poster in its window for details, or ring Rye 224979).
• Hearing recently that the Tennis Club in Military Road had just had a major resurfacing job done on its two hard courts, we thought readers might like to know a bit more about it. The Rother Meads Tennis and Games Club (to give it its full title) was founded in 1922, and now consists of the tennis club, with eight grass courts in addition to the two hard ones, and the squash club, whose two courts are very popular with its large membership. Players of both games take part in the appropriate Sussex Leagues, and there are various friendly matches with other clubs and competitions within the club itself. The tennis club has three tournaments (Annual, Junior and Closed), all taking place between 3 and 11 August. Coaching is available in either game, and there are various other courses arranged from time to time such as aerobics, self-defence, etc.
Membership fees are reduced (and the normal once-only £10 entry fee waived) for junior members (under 18); they pay £27 per annum for both games, or £16 for just one. Full membership for adults is £60 for both games, £37 for one. A married couple pay £92 or £55, and their under-18s living at home can join at just £10 or £6, which must be one of the cheapest ways ever of keeping the young occupied.
Mrs. Denny Nichol can give more information to potential members and guests.
• And finally, we hear of another Rye marathon runner. Greg Adamiw, whose parents live in Market Street, now lives in South Africa. Recently, in a temperature of 80 degrees, Greg cycled 59 miles, canoed 15 miles, and then ran the traditional marathon course of 26 miles - total time, 114 hours. No wonder this particular race is called the Iron Man!
• Just room to remind less ambitious athletes about the Footsloggers Club foot point-to-point races at Gateborough Farm on Sunday, 27 May, starting at 3. See GAZETTE no. 81 for full details.
4.
British Rail are working on the line between Ashford and London again this weekend; if you are going to London, expect delays ("some journey times will be extended by up to an hour"), but if you want one of the intermediate stations, check-up first because there are buses instead of trains over part of the route on both days. On Sunday there will also be buses between Rye and Hastings, and delays of up to 40 minutes can be expected. Passenger enquiries can be made at Hastings (429325), but we have found Canterbury very helpful for trains onward from Ashford (Canterbury 65151).
On Monday, Rye Station still had no timetables for the journey to Eastbourne and Brighton - which is, as John Smith pointed out last week, different now. Michael Dearing says that Hastings station had a notice last week saying that they "hoped" copies would be to hand by 13 May - the new service, of course, started on the 14th... He also tells us that the connections westward will be good in the summer but less good in winter, when the new 799 bus service may well come into its own.
• When Rick Springfield's new record hits Top of the Pops, Rye viewers should keep their eyes skinned, because the video to go with it was made last week on Camber beach - and Jack Fletcher, of the High Street, is in it: not bad to make one's first appearance on Top of the Pops at 83! Colin Marsh tells us that the video producer is David Mallett, son of Sir Victor Mallett of Wittersham, so he knows Rye Bay well, hence the choice of location.
• People inspired by last night's lecture on homoeopathic medicine might like to know that Millers in the High Street are now stocking the full range of Nelsons Classic Series of homoeopathic preparations, in view of the ever-increasing interest in natural and safe alternative medicines. There is also an inexpensive booklet on the use of these medicines, and Mr. Simpson points out that the current issue of Homoeopathy Today, on sale in the shop, features the treatment of rheumatism and arthritis - a subject, as he says, of considerable interest to many people in Rye.
• A dinner at the Mermaid Hotel on Tuesday last week was held to mark the retirement of Miss Ruby Dean as Headmistress of Hill House School. Miss Dean, who lives near Ashford, has been in charge there for 22 years, first under the Health Authority and since 1971 under the Education Authority, and we gather that she will not be allowing all this experience to go entirely to waste during her retirement. Mr. Longhurst from County Hall came over to make the presentations, which he accompanied with a witty speech. A new Headmaster will take over the school in September; in the meantime, Don Crouch of the present staff will be the acting Head.
• Long notice for what sounds like a very pleasant evening for the over-fifties:
on Saturday, 2 June, the Women's Section of the Royal British Legion are celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Normandy landings with a "nostalgic 1944 supper dance" at Upper School from 7.30 to 11.45. The Ted Crouch quartet will play music popular at the time, and the menu will, says Joan Camier, be very reminiscent of service days: sausages, potatoes, baked beans, fruit salad and blancmange!
There will also, of course, be a bar. Demob suits or service uniforms which have not "shrunk" unduly over the years in mothballs will be much appreciated but come anyway: tickets from Camiers in Wish Ward, £3.50 in aid of Forces charities.
• Congratulations to Joanna Mockett of Mill Road, who found herself a job before she had even finished her secretarial course. Joanna, still 17, is working for a sport and TV agency behind Oxford Street - she may be the office junior, but one of the chores of the job is attending Wimbledon for the duration of the tournament!
5.
Some 60 Rye Grammar School pupils, all now in middle life, sat down to an excellent dinner in the Swan Hotel at Bedford on Saturday. The occasion was the Bedford Reunion of the Old Scholars Association, held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the school's return to Rye in 1944. In the chair was Bob Kemsley, about to retire as chairman of the OSA; Will Dunlop, the Association's secretary, and John Smith, chairman of the present school governors, were also present as honorary evacuees.
The speakers were Ray Fooks, the present Head; the Mayor of Bedford; the Usher (Senior Master) of Bedford School; and Miss Edith Turner, the Grammar School's Senior Mistress during the evacuation, who celebrated her 85th birthday in January. 40 people stayed overnight at the hotel; two who had come a very long way were Brian Dawson who flew in from America the day before, and Len Allen who arrived at Heathrow on Saturday afternoon! Win Allen and Peter Boyce, of the present staff, were there in their own, right as evacuees; Mr. Boyce brought along as his guests the couple on whom he had been billetted. George Roberts went to see his former hostess, but she declined the party; she will be 100 in July. Evacuees who used to do farm work for 8d an hour (and glad of it) at weekends will like to know that Mr. Vincett called on the daughter of the farmer concerned, whose first husband (the son of Mr. Vincett's own hostess) was killed in Italy in 1944. Other friendships were also renewed, both among the group and in the town; and the occasion was clearly enjoyed by all those who took part.
The latest instalment in this saga (see GAZETTE nos. 79 and 81) comes from Miss Peternel Kingdon. She tells us that in the spring of 1919 the house now called Chequer was bought by her parents. It had recently been relinquished as a convalescent home for war wounded, but it was definitely still called The Convent, complete with a sign over the door to that effect. Mrs. Kingdon (who had, before her marriage, been Henry James's first woman secretary) said, rather delightfully, that she could not bring a son and three daughters to a convent, so the name was changed to Rochelle. It seemed, says Miss Kingdon, an appropriate choice for a house built on rock; but she has no idea whether her parents also had in mind the earlier connection with the French nuns from the town of the same name.
Mr. Bowen bought the house in 1954 and changed not only the name but also the Georgian front door for the present one. When Miss Warren took over the discarded name to use for her own house next door, she added the prefix "La".
Mrs. Molly Moore of Udimore Road looked out for us an impressive photograph taken in Market Street in about 1918 by Charles Axell. The occasion is obviously some kind of charity bazaar, the street closed to traffic and with stalls on both sides as far as the Flushing Inn. Unfortunately, the banner on the front of the beflagged Town Hall is caught up and the only word clearly visible is CHILDREN'S. The street looks much the same, though the house next door to the Tuck Shoppe is all in one with it and lacks its present beamed frontage; there is a Pullars of Perth sign on the drapers (then Delves?) on the corner, and a Cadbury's advertisement in the bakery window, while a vast sign outside Simon the Pieman (or its predecessor) proclaims Luncheons and Afternoon Teas and the whole corner of the shop, roof and all, is clad in ivy. Patrons' clothing seems to indicate a rather chilly summer day!
At this time Mrs. Moore's family (the Ashendens) lived over the shop on the site of the present La Rochelle, and Mr. Axell, presumably commissioned to take the picture by the organisers of the event, had asked permission to use their first-floor window for his perch. "If you go and stand out there" he said to little Molly, then aged about three, "I'll put you in my photograph". So she did, and he did; and there she is now, firmly anchored to two older girls, wearing a white lace bonnet and a velvet coat and white ankle socks and looking politely but increasingly bored by the whole proceedings!
6.
Rother Council has recently produced a useful document, now available at the Council Offices at £1.50 - "Planning Position Statement 1984". It comes from the hand of Mr. David Powell as one of his final acts as Planning Officer - he is now the Council's Chief Executive and has been succeeded as Planning Officer by Mr. L. Robinson - and it appears on the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Department and the present planning service.
Mr. Powell deals with Rother's policies for housing, industry and transport, community services, recreation and conservation. He lists the villages where there is considered to be room for "appropriate" development, and then deals place by place with the policies already approved - there is a particularly long entry covering the various proposals for Rye Harbour. The next section deals with regional and county policies and lists the various documents in the County Structure Plan. There is a brief nod to Kent - readers will be glad to know that there are no plans for development along our borders with our neighbour, though Ashford will remain what is described as "an economic growth point".
A passage about capital expenditure says that ESCC will be spending £20,000 on street lighting in Rye town centre in the coming year, the SWA £100,000 on the drains in Peasmarsh and Rye Foreign within the next five years (plus nearly £2m on the Scots Float sluice and a further £342,000 on - we quote - "Camber Sludge Digestion"!). £362,000 is set aside by Rother for 12 sheltered housing units on the old council office site in Ferry Road.
There follows some rather technical small print, and then a list of the Article Four Direction areas - this is the system which caused all the upset last summer over the painting of Mr. Apps's shop, and it also applies in different ways to a good deal of land at and near the Harbour. We then have a list of the 36 Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Rother District. Those in our area include the Monastery on Conduit Hill, the two Martello Towers (Winchelsea Road and the Harbour), Camber Castle, the Landgate, Town Wall and Ypres Tower, the Old Grammar School and the Water Tower in the churchyard, and "the site of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Rye Hill" (?) A useful passage about Listed Buildings - 930 in Rother, 13 of them Grade I and 37 Grade II• (readers will remember the trouble over the Apothecary's Shop fittings in 1982!) - precedes a complete Listed list.
Towards the end, eye-catching in yellow, comes a handy section about planning procedures, including the somewhat mysterious codings which appear in Planning Committee reports. It turns out that this is a revised list, only coming into use from this month - as we discovered when we checked it out on a recent decision only to find (apparently) that a caravan in New Winchelsea Road was refused planning permission on the grounds that it was an unnecessary illuminated sign within the Conservation Area! So anyone still using last year's list, be warned.
A final page of statistics rounds off the booklet, which will certainly be of use and interest to anyone concerned with almost any aspect of Rother's planning policy.
In his introduction, Mr. Powell mentions that despite a staff cut of 12% since the Planning Department's inception, Rother came 7th out of 370 district councils in the country for efficiency in dealing with planning applications. Fees (a recent innovation) bring in over £155,000 a year, and the Department has dealt with over 131,000 planning applications and 137,000 building regulations applications during the past ten years.
Last summer we reported on plans to build a shopping centre on the cricket ground in Hastings. After a public enquiry the D o E inspector recommended approval, but the Hastings Observer reports this week that the Environment Secretary has delayed the final permission since he is not satisfied with arrangements for roads, parking and drainage. There is, however, agreement for an alternative cricket ground at Summerfields - which leaves the way open for the Queen's Road development once ESCC has submitted detailed and satisfactory road plans, etc., to the Department.
7.
Library and museum people, and a whole covey of assorted Councillors, met at the FE Centre last week for a preview of the Camber Castle photographs, now on view in the library reading room during normal opening hours (not Tuesdays, remember) until the end of May. The organisers were much honoured to have Rye's new Mayor open the exhibition as his first public duty since the Mayoring the previous day; both he and Mrs. Breeds knew the castle as children, and he produced a photograph of himself and two mates aged about 8 sitting comfortably in one of the doorways, then with a wooden frame. The Mayor told us that most of the town's children had played out there, and the ambulance was quite accustomed to bumping out over, the track to retrieve those who had fallen off the walls and broken a leg; he remembers bringing one lad home with a broken arm on the crossbar of a bike!
It was much appreciated that Mr. Anthony Streeten, the archaeologist in charge of the more recent excavations at the castle, was able to be present; he recalled the work done on it from the 1960s by the then Ministry of Public Works and Buildings, which later became the Department of the Environment and then, last month, the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission ("English Heritage") - "the same people under a different name", he said.
The work had exposed as much as possible of the original structure - simpler to do at Camber since the castle had not, like so many of Henry VIII's forts, been a1tered at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. An article in the Sussex Archaeological Society's newsletter had given an account of the findings (and if anyone would like an offprint of the GAZETTE's rather less scholarly article last August in issue no. 46, we can gladly provide one). Now that the actual digging was complete, Mr. Streeten said, his team were engaged on sorting out the findings - with the help of the inevitable computer.
There was no date set yet, he told a questioner, for the reopening of the castle - "within a very few years" was as far as he could go; nor could he say whether it there would be a charge for entry, but certainly the dig has cost a great deal of money. Consolidation work to make the structure safe was progressing well, but it was unlikely, for practical reasons, that the objects dug up could be displayed permanently on the site.
The pictures themselves are not only of historic interest. They will impress Paddy Aiken's fellow-professionals with their technical merit, and the general public with their sensational effects - "more like ancient Egypt,” said someone. Mr. Streeten has captioned them to explain what was where (though the long view, in fact shows Leasam and not Cadborough), but it is primarily the atmosphere of this splendid ruin which comes over so strongly in the 16 photographs. Even the kitchen bastion, with its great fireplace, had gunport! The marquetry of stone and brick looks almost random - perhaps because so much of the outer masonry was later removed by the locals and put to good use elsewhere. There is a very handsome picture of the second well, found towards the end of the 1983 dig; and one showing the start of a staircase in the thickness of the wall of the central tower (the upstairs loos were also in the thickness of the outer wall - apparently sheep used to fall down them!).
The tunnels inside the walls ringed the central tower and led off to the outer bastions so that defenders could move about inside the castle under cover. These have been cleared by the excavators. But Roger Breeds surprised Mr. Streeten by recalling another tunnel outside the walls, about 100' away on the Winchelsea side: brick vaulted, perhaps 7' high and much the same width, which stretched some way in both directions. Part of the roof had fallen in, which was how the lads got in; they didn't care to explore too far, as the floor was under water. Mr. Breeds remembers the farmer later filling in the tunnel, he thinks, to stop the sheep falling in. It would be very interesting indeed to hear from anyone else who remembers this tunnel, particularly if they explored it rather further?
We wonder why the well-known Turner print of a storm-beleaguered causeway with Rye's cliff face in the background (now on view as part of the exhibition, with other local history material) shows Camber Castle on the right of the picture?
8.
Thursday, 17th Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10.30 to 4 (+ Friday, Saturday, Monday)
Saturday, 19th Hill House School coffee morning, Town Hall, 10 to 12
Bonfire Boys garden coffee morning, Ypres Castle pub, 10.30 British Legion Women's Section jumble sale, CC, 11
Rye Society of Artists Bazaar and jumble sale, FEC, 2
Celebration Evening, Methodist Church, 7.30
Mainly Acoustic concert (Dave Burland), Saltings Hotel, 8
Barn Dance (Catsfield Steamers), TPS PTA, The Grove, 8
Sunday, 20th Civic Service, St. Mary's, 10.30
Monday, 21st Monday Club, Clinic, 2
British Legion Women's Section meeting, FEC, 7.30
Wednesday, 23rd Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
• Saturday looks like a busy day! For those who can face the steps, the Ypres Castle garden is a very pleasant place for coffee served by the Bonfire Boys; and we hear that the RSA Bazaar has a super plant and garden stall this year.
• It may not seem that long, but it is in fact ten years ago this month that the new local government system began. Rother replaced Battle Rural District Council and Rye Borough Council and whatever they had at Bexhill; and Rye Town Council met as such for the first time.
• Tomorrow (Thursday) sees the moving of the lifeboat shed to its temporary position opposite the William the Conqueror pub, so that the site can be prepared for the building of the replacement shed over the next few months.
• This weekend (Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 5) Rother Parks Nurseries in Westcourt Drive, Bexhill, will be open to the public - visitors most welcome.
• Outside our area, but still... The garden of Twin Sisters, Iden (down the lane past the church) will be open to the public on Sunday from 2.30 to 5.30 in aid of the NSPCC, with stalls, teas, etc. This annual event always draws a crowd of admirers for Mr. and Mrs. Spence's interesting garden on the outskirts of this attractive village.
• Sundays bowls match on the Salts was won by Rye, who scored 85 against Battle's 50.
• Rye WI's May meeting decided which resolutions to support for the AGM. The home economics show featured some particularly mouth-watering Scotch eggs, gingerbread and lemon curd. Mrs. Freeman says that particular mention should go to Mrs. Sheila Dee, who gained top marks in every class she entered! (And she can sew, too: this is the same Mrs. Dee who has just been appointed Mistress of Robes to Rye Town Council, with the job of keeping the official wardrobe in order.)
• Planning: this week's list includes an application to convert Whitefriars on Conduit Hill (the former St. John Ambulance HQ, recently an art gallery) into two dwellings with a new garage; and a lean-to canopy for a building at Alsfords Wharf.
• Readers might like to know in advance that a wedding next Saturday (26th) at St. Mary's at 2.30 will mean a carriage and pair of greys bearing the bridal party through the town both before and after the ceremony - three trips in all.
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)