For those whose copies are not ticked beside their name, SUBSCRIPTIONS are now payable, £2.75 until 26 September.
A road accident on Sunday night at the end of the built-up stretch of New Winchelsea Road resulted in one death and two local youngsters in hospital, one in intensive care. The road was blocked for several hours, and fire and ambulance services attended from Rye and Hastings. Police are asking for witnesses to the accident, which took place at 10.35 pm.
Michael Booker was killed when his Daimler Dart sports car overturned after a collision with a Metro driven by Christopher Masters of Peasmarsh, with Suzanne Swaine of Fishmarket Road as his passenger. It took firemen an hour to cut Christopher, aged 22, free from the wreckage; he was taken to RESH with extensive leg injuries, and on Monday was still in intensive care. Suzanne was more fortunate; she was also taken to hospital, suffering from cuts and bruises, but was allowed home on Monday evening - a police officer who saw the aftermath said that it was without doubt her seat belt which had saved her life. Also 22, Suzanne is the daughter of Anne and Bill Swaine, of the FE Centre and Weslake Developments respectively.
Michael Booker, a telephone engineer aged 28 and living at Sidley, was the son of a former Rye police sergeant and well known locally, and there will be much sadness at his death and sympathy for his parents, who live in Winchelsea, and for his brother in South Undercliff.
Rye has seen some very pretty weddings lately, and last Saturdays was no exception. Jeremy Jury and Anna Crouch were married at St. Mary's, and the service was followed by a reception at the bride's home in Hayes Lane, Beckley. This was a popular local wedding in the widest sense: bride and bridegroom are ex-TPS pupils, Mrs. Rosemary Crouch teaches art at Lower School and the bride's father is at present Acting Head of Hill House School, the bridegroom's parents were for many years behind the counter of Baxters Butchers in the High Street where Mr. Jury was manager and Mrs. Jury is well-known to shoppers at the Tuck Shoppe; the Jurys live in Bridge Place and Jeremy was brought up in Iden.
Even at Playden School (and his former headmaster John Bannister took the service) Jeremy was mad about buses, so it was no surprise that he organised one to take 41 of the guests from a once-only bus-stop in the High Street to the reception.
Now privately owned, it once served Rye routes for East Kent. There might have been a problem with a lorry parked at the end of the High Street, but Baxter's obligingly raised their sunblind in salutation to a former manager and all was well!
Several ex-Rye residents lent a hand with the celebrations. Anthony Pape played the organ and brought eight of his choristers from Tenterden to sing at the service. The magnificent cake was made by Mrs. Pat Carnaghan, better known to locals as Pat Higgins of Landgate. Best man was Michael Darby, a schoolfellow of Jeremy's whose parents live in Playden. Susan Manktelow did the flowers.
Anna looked perfectly beautiful in a Victorian-style dress of cream watered silk (and the two mothers' outfits went together most elegantly). Well-known local faces were to be seen under rarely worn hats or over even more rarely worn morning coats. The weather was perfect. The honeymoon is being spent in Greece; the couple will be living in West Acton for the present. Jeremy is general sales manager of a large car-sales firm in Hammersmith, and it was a friend in the trade who brought down the handsome Rolls in which the bride arrived at the church, and which took Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Jury to the reception.
2.
Many people in the town will be sorry to hear of the death on 10 June of Mr. Leslie Baker, until very recently the proprietor of the Black Boy tea-room in the High Street. Mr. Baker was 67, and had only given up the business and moved to Icklesham a few weeks before his death. He leaves two children and two grandchildren. Mr. Baker and his wife came to Rye some years ago when he retired from a senior job with a large engineering firm; sadly, his wife died several years ago, and Mr. Baker had been putting up a brave fight against his own increasing illness. The funeral has taken place; donations in his memory may be sent to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, c/o Ellis Bros, Cinque Ports Street, Rye.
Iden Boarding Kennels are urgently looking for a home for a young (about 18 months) lurcher-type dog which was left tied up a week ago last Sunday in the beer-garden of the Bridge Inn, Winchelsea - complete with new collar and lead, which doesn't sound quite like deliberate abandonment? It is, says Mr. Fiddimore, "a marvellous, friendly and unusual-looking dog" and he would very much like to find it a home. Time is running out for it, as lost dogs are theoretically only kept in the kennels for a week and it is already living on borrowed time; if you could take it, please get in touch with Mr. Fiddimore at Iden 384 at once.
Saturday week, 30 June, promises to be a busy day. The morning sees the Mayoress's coffee morning (in the Town Hall, naturally, at 10.30) held in aid of the Eye Laser Appeal, which is her charity for her current year of office. Mrs. Breeds tells us that the Appeal secretary, Mr. Owen Porter of Hastings, will be speaking briefly about the Appeal in the course of the morning (if he can give an exact time, we will have it in next Week's Events); he will be accompanied by the chairman, Mrs. Jeanne Martin, and other committee members. There will be a box for the collection of foreign coins and notes, which can be turned into cash for the appeal, so if you have a hoard of holiday drachmas, pfennigs and suchlike please bring them with you.
The League of Friends of Greyfriars have a Strawberry Tea the same afternoon, at 3 at the home in Winchelsea; there will be a cake stall and a raffle, and music will be provided by the Thomas Peacocke School orchestra.
In the evening there will be a concert in St. Mary's in aid of the Pamela Nash Kidney Dialysis Fund. Under the title "Opera, Operetta and Songs", there will be music from Alexander Oliver who has organised the concert, and from Ryesingers. Tickets, £2 and £3, are available from the Easton Rooms or from the Winchelsea Station Pottery.
The following Saturday (7 July) offers two coffee mornings, one for the Church of England Children's Society which, for reasons of space in a private house, is by invitation, and one to which all are most welcome, in aid of St. Michael's Hospice. This is the new project connected with St. Augustine's in Hastings on which we reported some weeks ago. The coffee morning is in the FE Centre from 10 to 12; organisers are Mrs. Rosemary Bagley and Miss Alma Fabes.
On Sunday, 8 July, there is a concert at 7.30 in St. Mary's to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Edward Elgar. Charles Proctor will be at the organ, and singers are the Rye Harmonic Society. More details of this nearer the time.
The Fete on Sunday, 15 July, to be held at Hill House Hospital by its League of Friends is still some time off, but secretary Mrs. Glenda Smith says that they are likely to be very short of helpers, and they will also need raffle prizes - offers of either should go to Rye 225846.
Jumble will be welcome at Thomas Peacocke Upper School on Friday, 13 July (when the school is closed) in preparation for a Grand Jumble Sale in aid of PTA funds next day - at 11 am so as not to clash with the Cadborough Social Club fete that afternoon in the Community Centre. As far as we know, the PTA jumble sale is the only one for some weeks.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 20.6.1984
(Apologies for last week's transposition of pages 3 and 6 by our careless printer!)
Only half-a-dozen members of the public turned up at the Annual Town Meeting last Tuesday, and it seems that only one question was raised, that of parking in Battery Square. The Mayor and Committee chairmen presented their reports, as did our Rother and ESCC Councillors; we hope that most of the matters dealt with have been reported on in the GAZETTE over the year, and if not that the people concerned will get in touch with us so that we can remedy the omission.
This is perhaps an appropriate moment to point out that with the GAZETTE'S circulation now at 380 copies all told, it is increasingly difficult for the Editor to attend meetings on Tuesday nights. They are normally spent folding and labelling copies for distribution on Wednesday morning.
Monday night is also impossible, since that is when the body of the paper is written. We mention this to explain why the paper is only rarely represented at meetings, etc., on these two evenings, and to apologise; reports from the organisations concerned are very gratefully received for inclusion in the following week's paper.
In connection with last week's application for a new frontage to the Baptist Church, Peter Shepherd of Le Fevre Wood & Boyle tells us that the present stepped access is deteriorating badly owing to the wet getting into the concrete, and the landings have for many months been supported inside with props. This therefore seemed a good moment to improve the access generally for the benefit of older worshippers as well as for those who attend the Day Centre; the Officers hope to have a stair-lift later. (Nuralite is in fact a roofing material which looks like the traditional lead.) In a letter to the Planning Department supporting the application, the building is described as presenting "a most uninteresting and indeed unwelcoming appearance to Cinque Ports Street, having no aesthetic merit at all, apart perhaps from the materials from which it is built". This could, we suspect, be a matter of opinion; Friends of Edwardian Rye, where are you?
This week's list has an application from Graham Cole of the Strand Snack Bar for an extension to the front of the building incorporating a balcony, which he hopes will tidy up the site and improve the look of the corner.
Readers who saw Paddy Aiken's Camber Castle photographs in the Library last month will be very glad to know that the whole set has been bought by the ESCC Library Service for its local history collection. The pictures are to be on display in Hastings Library in the near future, and also possibly at Lewes for a forthcoming ESCC meeting. (Incidentally, FEC funds benefited by as a result of the preview for Councillors and others just before the exhibition opened to the public.)
Rye WI's June speaker was Mrs. Barbara Russel, who had come all the way from Bury St. Edmunds and insisted - despite entreaties - on going back the same night! Mrs. Russel had come to talk about WI Promotion Year, but when she found that Rye had already done its stint in this direction, she allowed herself to be diverted into an account of her work on the Grain Council of the EEC; she is also a member of the WI National Executive, and - or should it be "but"? - members found her a most delightful and charming speaker, though her suggestion that they might copy her own local WI and go in for parachuting drew some wry smiles. The talk was followed by a guessing-game exhibition of members photographs of themselves when young - sometimes very young.
Next year Rye will be sponsoring a bursary at Denman College, the WI's Further Education centre; the draw was made on Wednesday, and the lucky member is Mrs. Arabella Wallis of New Winchelsea Road, who will be able to attend a course of her own choice at the College during 1985.
4.
In a report dated 11 June (so there may have been later developments) Mike Thomas tells us that Rye CC has so far played a total of 30 matches from U.13 level to 1st XI level, with mixed success.
The younger members who received awards at the recent Annual Dinner continue to show particular promise and achieve good results: Andy Edwards, David Dee, Ian Harris and Gary Bourn. Of these, Gary - newly appointed 1st XI Saturday Vice-Captain - has already scored five half-centuries including two in the League. Nigel Hacking, Neil Shepherd, Ian Addy, Neil Cloute and Simon Bourne also show great enthusiasm and promise.
Of the more experienced players, Martin Curd turned in a very fine bowling performance (7 for 45) v. Ringmer. Peter Mathews has already scored over 500 runs in his own distinctive style. Mike Thomas has played for Sussex Over 50s v. Kent and Hampshire in the new KO Inter-County competition.
The Sunday XI, captained by Peter Mathews, is now reaping the reward of encouraging the younger players and, with a couple of new members, is playing some good cricket and achieving good results. In the evening KO competition now called Phoenix Brewery (previously Argus) Cup, the Club has also been successful and Rye is through to the semi-final v. Sidley. The 2nd XI, under Stephen Tagg, is a young and inexperienced side, but is bound to improve during the season.
New players, umpires, scorers and supporters are most welcome. Please ring Mike Thomas or Stephen Tagg.
We have reported in the GAZETTE on the urban fox, the urban mink - but Mrs. Hudd of Tower Street recently had trouble with an urban squirrel. It came into her kitchen, and when she ejected it from there it ran up the side of the house and in at the bedroom window, so that she had to get a neighbour to help her move the furniture to catch it and put it out again. There is a big chestnut tree at the back of the house, from which it probably came; but she has not seen it again. However, wildlife is evidently rampant in Tower Street - a few days later Mrs. Hudd heard a terrific ornithological commotion, looked up at the roof, and saw a kestrel tearing to pieces and eating a bird it had just caught.
Graham Merrison of Quayside Service Station tells us that the garage now incorporates two new ventures on the Strand Quay premises: a jet-wash for cars (with a vacuum-cleaner facility on order but not yet arrived), and Rye Tyres, a cut-price service for new tyres and remoulds which also offers complete exhaust systems fitted free; tyres are in stock, and popular makes of exhaust can be fitted immediately. As he says, why go to Hastings when you can get it here at the same price?
Two shops in Rye - Spar and Cadborough Stores - now sell yoghurt made locally. The 130-strong Holstein herd at John Cyster's Gate Court Farm at Northiam is not only a high-yielding breed but also tested to a very high standard (now Officially Brucellosis Free, which is the highest possible classification in the EEC). From their milk the dairy staff make eight varieties of yogurt, including natural - the only ingredients used being milk, sugar and sterilised fruit (which comes from a small firm in Devonshire). No flavouring, no colouring, no preservatives, says Mr. Oyster with pride. The brand name of Norgem will appeal to the historically minded, since it was a mediaeval spelling of the village's name; but there is nothing old-fashioned about the Gate Court Farm venture - the farm is about to host a trade show of milk-treatment equipment which will bring potential buyers from all over Southern England.
The Corner Shop is selling really unusual Rye souvenirs - original, unused bottles which were left over when the Colebrookes factory closed. They have a period charm which we thought was very attractive - see the corner window of Market Road and Cinque Ports Street.
5.
The League of Friends of Rye Memorial Hospital took more than £700 at a well-attended fete on Saturday morning at the FE Centre. This money goes out again on regular minor expenditure at the hospital - the League pays for the patients' phone, the television licence, and other small luxuries - and also on at least two larger projects, chairman Mrs. Ruth Lawson-Tait tells us. The League will be providing in the near future a bath-hoist likely to cost over £1,000; and it will consider at the next committee meeting details of an ECG machine for which the hospital has also asked and which she thinks will cost at least as much again.
As for the extension wing for which the League has a considerable sum put by (of course earning interest), the hospital authorities have still not reached any final decision. But Mrs. Lawson-Tait has been in touch with Kenneth Warren, MP, and the League has not lost hope.
Wearing one of her other hats, this time as chairman of what is now called Macmillan Cancer Relief, Mrs. Lawson-Tait asks us to say that this committee is badly in need of young and active members. It meets only three or four times a year, and also runs several fund-raising events. These will, this year, include the annual fete at Monypenny, Pett, on Sunday 8 July at 2.30 - supporters please note date and time, as this will not appear in the GAZETTE Rye events list - and a show by Rye Players and others on 3 November.
This seems an appropriate place to give the solution to something which puzzled us in Rother's 1984 Planning guide: the list of ancient monuments included "the site of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Rye Hill". Whatever was this?
Alan Dickinson provided some of the answers in the course of a report on a recent "beating of the bounds" at Playden. To digress for a moment, he tells us that where Playden meets Rye, there are stones erected by Rye Borough Council, one dating from 1840; the other boundaries are not so well marked, but they did get right round, and were very pleased to find that it is now possible to descend the old sunken road down the cliff to Military Road beyond Scots Float, entered from the lane past the Old Turks oast house. The route has recently been cleared, says a sign, by the YMCA - under, we suspect, a scheme sponsored by the Manpower Services Commission for sorting out footpaths.
To revert to St. Bartholomew's, Alan says it started as a hospital in the usual sense - by the standards of the twelfth century - and is thought to have stood in what is now the car park of the Top of the Hill pub. Across the road, one of the gardens houses a piece of ancient masonry believed to be part of the hospital's chapel. Founded in the early 1100s by the Abbey of Fécamp, closely linked with Rye, the hospital passed into the hands of the English throne as a result of the wars with France. In 1343, says Leopold Vidler, a warden was appointed to "The Hospital of Lepers of St. Bartholomew"; but the Rye Customal refers to it as being more in the nature of an almshouse for the deserving poor. Until 1378 it flourished, maintained by valuable endowment land; but a new Warden sold off the timber and had the inmates begging in the streets of Rye, and though he was sacked he was followed by a succession of absentee office-holders so that the whole establishment began to run down. In 1503, so the utterly invaluable Leopold Vidler tells us, the last Warden gave up the job and the land was made over to the Abbot of Westminster.
Vidler says that no documents remain. But, by association, the name is still with us. Fair Meadow is so called, we understand, not because of the view but because it was the site of an annual fair; and the fair took place on St. Bartholomew's Day. An early version of the hospital fete, perhaps?
Another and much later local hospital was the isolation hospital at Udimore. Where and when was this? Was it just for Rye, or did it serve the whole area round Hastings? Would someone care to tell us?
6.
• Last Wednesday was an anniversary for Rye - just forty years ago the first doodle-bug was spotted overhead by the town's puzzled fire-watchers, "and soon the numbers crossing the coast increased from a few to hundreds a day" says an article in Rye's Own (vol. 2 no. 8). Women and children were evacuated for the second time, air defences were stepped up and fighter planes devised a means of destroying the flying bombs (V.ls) before they could reach their inland targets.
"Hundreds of guns were brought south and the biggest concentration of artillery in the country was massed between Camber and Rye Harbour. There were no fewer than 1,300 gunners on those sites and the cannonade was terrific... At the height of the flying bomb period the barrage at night was a fantastic sight. Looking from Rye towards the sea the whole coastline was lit by the bursting shells and the stabbing fingers of light projected by the searchlights. Dozens of flying bombs failed to get through the curtain of steel and crashed harmlessly in the sea and on the marshland around Rye. Much damage, however, was caused by the bombs that dropped in the populated areas."
The writer of the unsigned article says that six doodlebugs came down within the Borough boundary. For the record, dear readers, where were they?
• Our enquiry last week about the Heads of Rye Primary School has been answered by David Osborne of Cadborough Cliff. He started at the school when Mr. Beevers did, just before the end of the war; and Mr. Barnden had been the headmaster until then. David also remembers what we recorded in an earlier issue, the big boys being posted on the roof of the school's air-raid shelter to give early warning of the signal intended to trigger off the air-raid siren; aged 5, he was very envious of those allowed to do this exciting job.
• Her marvellous memory stirred by last week's note about Alexandra Rose Day, Miss Edith Turner of New Road tells us that she sold Alexandra Roses on the very first occasion in 1912. Her Norfolk village was only three miles from Sandringham, so Queen Alexandra was very much a real person to the girl of 13. All the sellers throughout the country dressed entirely in white (shoes, stockings and all) with wreaths of the pink roses on their big hats.
Miss Turner kindly sends us an article from "The Lady" of 1982 about the 1912 Rose Day, the first of all the flag days and street collections which now proliferate. The thousands of sellers on that 26 June collected about £220,000 (ten times as much, 70 years later). The appeal was launched to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the then dowager Queen's arrival in England and was in aid of the charity she founded - Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service, mainly for nurses serving with the forces. The choice of the dog-rose as an emblem was the Queen's own, and she made a point of driving about London to talk to the sellers - many of them young Society girls. And that first Rose Day ended with a gala performance at Covent Garden of the ballet "La Spectre de la Rose", with Karsavina and Nijinsky and the rest of the company all wearing Alexandra roses on their costumes.
• Just one more item to finish off the story of the Rye Church Choir photograph of 1923. Mr. Balcomb adds that Mr. Franks was a server at the altar, not a chorister (he had no voice). Mr. Bilsby remembers the two Misses Franks, his sisters, who taught in Sunday School, This took place before morning service and was held in the old Monastery building, then used by the Church as well as being hired out for plays, etc. (now the Cinque Ports Pottery). As the time for Matins approached, all the children went up the hill to St. Mary's and attended the service - though the smaller ones were allowed to go out before the sermon.
(Footnote: we once knew a most devout lady who habitually worshipped in a local church where the then parson was apt to preach very long sermons. She was also a very hospitable lady, and when she had guests for Sunday luncheon, she would borrow a local infant and take it to church so that she had a polite excuse for going out before the sermon to put the roast potatoes in. On one occasion the parson was a jump ahead of her; he locked the door!)
7.
• 1983/4 Inner Wheel President Sally Osborne was very proud to be part of the platform party at Poole in Dorset recently, when the Brede Class lifeboat "Inner Wheel" was launched to serve the Poole station. There were, of course, representatives of Inner Wheel clubs from all over Britain (the boat has cost the organisation some £55,000), but the party from Lochin Marine's home town was given a place of honour - Sally was accompanied by last year's President, Pat Ciccone, and next year's, Anne Wills.
• Rumours that Thomas Peacocke children would not be allowed to use the New Road pool this season were firmly refuted by Headmaster Ray Fooks. As far as he is concerned, he told us, the position is exactly the same as it was last year - when the school certainly did use the pool.
• Another Mainly Acoustic concert takes place on Saturday at 8 at the Saltings. This time the music is provided by "Local Heroes", as organiser Michael Prince puts it - Andy Bannister, Mick Knight, Eric Money, Roger Hubbard, and Ivor and Sheila. And long notice for the next concert - on 25 August, time and place as before, with Kevin Brown and Mick Knight.
Mr. Prince adds rather sadly that although parties come from Ashford, Hastings and even as far as Gillingham for this series of concerts, there are very few people from Rye. He wonders why?
• Condolences to two people whose property was senselessly damaged ten days ago. The Rev. James Gladstone had a brick and a flower-pot hurled at his Vicarage at Camber, breaking a window and damaging the door. Hazel Hammond in Ferry Road found the new iron railing in front of the house where her mother Mrs. Gibson lives torn out of the low wall on which it stands; this took place early on Sunday morning, and police have been asked by the local residents to patrol the area at the times when homegoing youngsters regularly disturb sleepers and often damage property to a greater or lesser degree. People are not mincing their words about what they consider to be the source of the trouble.
• Visitors to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition will, we are told, immediately recognise one of the portraits on the walls, that of Patric Dickinson. The painting is the work of John Ward, an old friend of the Dickinsons, and was carried out at the request of the artist after he had completed a fine drawing of the poet which now hangs in their Church Square home.
• Beryl Rixon tells us that there are to be three coffee mornings in the churchyard in the course of the summer to provide funds to buy flowers for the Flower Festival at the end of August. The first is on Thursday from 10 to 12. Flowers needed to provide arrangements of the standard expected at St. Mary's for the once-in-two-years Flower Festivals are not cheap, even with careful buying, and the Flower Guild will be glad of support from all those who enjoy the lovely arrangements which grace the church throughout the year.
• The participation of Mr. George Cumming in April's Worthing Marathon has meant more than £770 for the Rye Branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Mr. Cumming was sponsored by people from all over the area, and the Society is most grateful to him - naturally - and also to his wife and family who spent a great deal of time acquiring sponsors.
• Congratulations to 2274 ATC Squadron, who distinguished themselves at the Wing Parade at Crawley on 3 June; in the sports events, Simon Hunt won gold medals in High Jump and Discus, Nickie James a gold in Long Jump, Frank Roscoe silver in Javelin, and the senior Relay team also gained a silver. Nickie James went on to the Regional sports held at Parliament Stadium the following week, when she came third.
(We are sorry for the peculiar format of the GAZETTE this week; the photocopier gave trouble with A3 paper (the normal size). It may be necessary to omit pages 5 and 6, but if so, we promise you that they contained no vital information and they will appear in due course.)
8.
Thursday, 21st Coffee morning, St. Mary's (inside if wet), 10 (see page 7)
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10.30 to 4 (and Friday, Saturday, Monday) Thomas Peacocke School Sports Day
Rye Council for Voluntary Service AGM, TH, 7.30 (GAZETTE no. 85)
Friday, 22nd Rye Conservation Society AGM, TH, 7.30 (GAZETTE no. 85)
Public meeting to discuss formation of Rye and District Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults, FEC, 7.30 (no. 86)
Saturday, 23rd NSPCC Summer Fair, FEC, 10.30 to 3.30
"Mainly Acoustic" concert, Saltings Hotel, 8 (see page 7)
Sunday, 24th Gardens open for National Gardens Scheme, etc.: Lamb House (refreshments) and 18 Church Square, 2 to 6 (GAZETTE no. 87)
Monday, 25th WRVS Luncheon Club, CC, 12.30
Women's British Legion meeting, FEC, 7.30
Wednesday, 27th Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
TPS Parents Evening, 2nd year (in theory, anyway)
• Congratulations to Patsy and Tom Bowen of London on the birth, on 8 June, of their daughter Liza - a first grandchild for a delighted Kitty French of Black Lantern Cottage.
• Congratulations, too, to Roderick Mair of Wick Farm, Udimore, and Louise Spittal of Sandhurst, who were married at Sandhurst on Saturday.
• There are still seats available on the trip to the Game Fair at Broadlands in Hampshire, and we are saying so now since it is an unusual day out for not very much money (£3.50 return for the coach, admission to the Fair extra). The date is Friday, 27 July; the coach leaves Rope Walk at 7 am for the three-hour drive, and they expect to be back in Rye between 8.30 and 9 pm. Ring Gordon Stanbridge at Brede 882589 to book your seat; it's still a long time ahead, but his last outing had a waiting-list.
• Rye Harbour Nature Reserve funds are £120 to the good after the very pleasant Nature Day at Leasam on Sunday; obligingly, the sudden rainstorm held off until after it was all over.
• Miss Ann Hay of Devonport House, still "Matron" to so many Rye people, is at present back in Rye Memorial Hospital convalescing after a hip operation. All her friends will hope to see her about the town again soon.
• Bowls: Rye acquitted themselves creditably, though they didn't actually win, at the weekend, when Westfield scored 73 against Rye's 54 at an away match on Saturday; on Sunday Rye scored 80 against the Civil Service's 93.
• Rye Station are glad to say that they now have a supply of the remaining timetable booklet affecting our area - no. 9, the one which covers the line westward to Brighton and thence north to Gatwick, Victoria, London Bridge and Reading.
• 25 French schoolchildren from Bourg-en-Bresse are spending a week in Rye as guests of Thomas Peacocke Pupils who spent half-term with them; the Mayor, whose daughter was one of the Rye party, arranged a reception for them at the Town Hall on Tuesday.
• ...and a final reminder: subscriptions not received by the end of June will simply not be processed until the third week in July (after the Editor's move) so late payers will not get their copies until the 25 July issue!
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 from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984)