The GAZETTE (and the Editor) will move house to 2 Cyprus Place on Friday, 20 July, taking the phone number with us. Mailed letters will be redirected, but personally delivered ones should go to 94 Udimore Road until Thursday, 19th, and thereafter to 2 Cyprus Place only. To play safe, don't deliver anything at all to either address next week if possible!
As far as GAZETTE phone calls are concerned, the Editor would like to remain incommunicado from Tuesday 17th to Saturday 21st; normal service will be resumed on Sunday, 22nd, for the following week's issue.
A presentation tankard at a party given recently by the Rye Division of St. John Ambulance marked 55 years' service given by Ernest Stevens of Udimore, who holds the rank of Sergeant in the Brigade.
Mr. Stevens joined the Battle Division as a lad of 20, in 1929; during the war he served with the ARP in civil defence. In 1944 he moved to Udimore and joined the Rye Division in 1946; he retires from the service at the end of this month, but will be on duty twice more before then, at the Peasmarsh Fete on the 21st and the Iden Fete on the 28th.
When Mr. Stevens joined the Brigade, all ambulance work was voluntary, in addition to the members' regular jobs. Later, some drivers went full-time, but Mr. Stevens continued as a part-time driver before and after the ambulance service was taken over by the NHS in 1968. His day-to-day job has always been farm work, and he came to Court Lodge Farm as a teamer for Mr. R. Kenward; he tells us that he finally went over to tractor driving as late as 1954, when the last of the farm horses died.
The thanks of the whole town are due to Mr. Stevens for some thirty years of service to the neighbourhood, after a quarter of a century at Battle; we wish him a very happy 75th birthday, and an enjoyable retirement.
Last week's tragedy at Rye Harbour was followed by another within a week. On Thursday afternoon Giles Hannaford, aged 23, of Dover, was moving a dinghy on a trailer from one part of the Castle Water boat park to another when the metal mast struck the overhead power line - carrying, we understand, 11,000 volts. Mr. Hannaford suffered severe burns and shock, and was dead before the ambulance could take him to hospital. His wife and friends saw the accident.
The facts have, of course, been reported to Seeboard and to other authorities concerned with safety; it is the first time there has been an accident of this kind at Castle Water, and steps will undoubtedly be taken to make sure that it is the last.
Another local accident had, thank goodness, less serious consequences. Nigel Hall, 16, of Brede, was taken to hospital on Wednesday after a collision at the foot of Rye Hill between his moped and the car driven by Mrs. Daphne Adams of Military Road. However, he was not seriously hurt, and we gather he is more worried about the moped which he had spent a great deal of time restoring; Mr. and Mrs. Roy Hall are most grateful to all those who were so kind to him. Mrs. Adams was not hurt, though considerably shaken. We hear of a series of minor crunches and near-misses at much the same place lately; has this summer's leaf crop now produced some kind of blind spot at the junction?
2.
Mrs. Margaret Eddie - "Rose-Anne" to so many Rye people for so long - died on Monday evening after a very gallant fight against the effects of her recent stroke. The funeral will take place in St. Mary's, and there will be an announcement in the shop window about the date and time.
Mrs. Madeline Ditcher, of Pottingfield Road, died on Sunday; the funeral takes place at Playden Church tomorrow (Thursday) at 2.30, followed by burial in Rye Cemetery.
(We shall hope to have full obituary notices for both Mrs Eddie and Mrs. Ditcher in next week's issue.)
Mr. Harold Almond, whose death we reported briefly last week, was "a real old Ryer". Born in Landgate Square in 1901, he married Elizabeth Downie in 1928, and the couple moved soon afterwards to the Harbour. Mr. Almond worked for Wright and Pankhurst, and was one of those who escorted the "Mary Stanford" to Poplar for the enquiry into the lifeboat disaster, which took place soon after his marriage; in the course of his time with the firm he travelled all over the country. Later he went to work for the (then) Kent River Board, with whom he continued until his retirement. He was a well-known figure at the Harbour, the subject of many photographs and very popular with holidaymakers, who liked nothing better than to sit and yarn with him and his mates. A widower, Mr. Almond leaves no children; we are grateful to his niece Mrs. Pat Gawn for her help with this obituary.
Mrs. Hilda Nelson-Barrett tells us with entirely justifiable pride that the Blind Association's house-to-house and street collections recently brought in £903. This is twice last year's figure, when they didn't have a flag day; but it is also some 50% up on 1982, when they did. So she and her three committee members are extremely pleased, and most grateful to all who helped with the collections.
£55 was raised for Bible Society funds at the group's summer meeting on 30 June. Some 50 people enjoyed Archdeacon Nalebi's talk on the work of the Society in South Botswana. Particular thanks, says Secretary Julia Thomas, must certainly go to Mrs. McCaughey and her family for the use of their house and garden for this very successful meeting.
Saturday's coffee morning in aid of St. Michael's Hospice raised £439; this included a very generous cheque from a lady who wishes to remain anonymous. Rosemary Bagley and Alma Fabes are most grateful to all who supported this event including the Rye tradesmen and others who gave raffle prizes. We dealt with the plans for the Hospice at some length in GAZETTE no. 76, back in March when the appeal was first launched; briefly, the idea is to run a hospice for terminally ill people in conjunction with the existing St. Augustine's Nursing Home in St. Leonards, the two establishments to be under the same management and the profits from the nursing home helping to finance the hospice. The current appeal is for money to buy the nursing home in the first place.
Saturday's other coffee morning, at Mrs. Viola Bayley's home in West Street, produced just over £400 for Church of England Children's Society funds. Of this, £120 came from the raffle, with tickets sold widely in the area, for a patchwork quilt made by Mrs. Bemrose of Guestling and her helpers; this was won by Mrs. Helen Goodwin of North Salts.
This week's applications include outline permission for two detached bungalows with garages on land north of Saltcote Place; permission for a bungalow in New England Lane; repainting of the Mariners frontage in the High Street; and an application from Mr. R. Hollands of New Winchelsea Road to put up a storage building in the Fishmarket. The plans in the Council Offices are not quite clear as to the exact site for this; it would be approximately 18' x 15', single storey, and built of timber painted black with an asbestos roof.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 11.7.1984
Ralph Olesen rang us on Monday to report on the various ESCC Highways Department projects in Rye.
First, Monkbretton Bridge: as those that end of the town will know, the resurfacing is now complete from the roundabout to the beginning of the New Road houses, and a specialist firm (East Sussex. Surfacing) is dealing with the reinstatement of the bumpety joints in the surface beyond this. The main contractors have been ESCC's Direct Labour Organisation Contract Unit, and Mr. Olesen says that they really should have credit for a very special effort a week ago on Sunday. In order to get the resurfacing of the narrow bridge done at a time when traffic would be minimal - not easy at this time of year - the workmen turned up on site at 4 am, the first delivery of materials had been made by 5 am, and the whole resurfacing of the vital stretch was completed by mid-morning before the traffic really started to get busy!
The Conduit Hill rail is now finished except for some painting (and very reassuring it was on Monday when the cobbles were all slippery in the rain). Work in Watchbell Street is very nearly finished; both sets of bollards have been put in place at the Lookout (the actual rails have still to be fitted), and a high kerb and concrete posts should deter cars from parking on the Green. As for the Strand Quay anchor, it has now been decided to place it on the small cobbled patch beside the Grist Mill instead of on the larger island; this means that the plan will have to be readvertised, but assuming there are no objections to the new site some of us may yet live to see the anchor actually in position...
And finally, says Mr. Olesen, the legal technicalities are complete to give teeth to the "no parking" signs in the streets round Church Square; indeed, they are, agree the police, so anyone parking up there now does so at their peril.
Also on the subject of traffic, Councillor Mrs. Tomich tells us that Rother intends to increase the number of parking spaces in the Rye parks by marking them out diagonally; we understand that a suggestion about this was made at the Town Council annual meeting, and the system will start with the Gun Garden park and progress to the Town Wall park when this is resurfaced shortly. Rother have to save somehow £300,000 this year, and they are proposing to put up car park charges again. They had also intended to start charging for Council parks which are at present free, but this created such a rumpus in places like Battle where people are used to free off-street parking that the Council decided against it; the decision makes very little difference in Rye, where the only free Rother parks are both tiny (the one in the Gun Garden and the other by the Garden Shop in the Strand).
We got it all wrong last week about the date when the Udimore isolation hospital closed. Mr. W. Hedger, who lived at School Farm further down the lane from 1932 to 1946, tells us that he used to supply the establishment with milk, and it definitely closed down in the mid-1930s. The building was sold off, converted into two dwellings, and occupied by a series of tenants. He has promised to tell us more about it for an August issue; we look forward to his account.
It seems to be official that London Weekend Television will be coming back next year to make a second series from the Benson novels. The interesting point now arises, whether Rye will get mentioned in the credits of this one? It would be pleasant, certainly, to have a formal recognition of the very happy relationship which has existed between the LWT film team and the Rye residents among whom they worked. On the other hand, the small Yorkshire town where the James Herriott novels were filmed has apparently had its character utterly transformed by the coach parties who arrived to soak up the atmosphere - and, as far as we remember, it wasn't actually named in the credits at all! How do readers feel about it?
4.
Last week, thanking Rotary for the new seat outside Seeboard, we hinted that the design might not be well received by everyone. It was not.
Rotary have presented five seats to the town. It took some time to agree with Rother where they should be placed, and the final decision was that one should be outside Seeboard, one outside Lloyds Bank, and three on Strand Quay. The type of seat suggested by Rother is one which the Council has been using for some time and finds very satisfactory: comfortable, maintenance-free and not easily adapted as a plaything for vandals. (It is known as the Southampton seat, having been originally designed for that Council.) It consists of concrete end supports with the pebbles in the mix standing proud of the surface, joined by stout slats of treated timber, the whole thing planted firmly in the ground. There are already two seats of this type on Strand Quay, the end nearest Alsfords yard; they have been there for some time and are so weathered as to be hardly visible against the cobbles on which they stand.
Strictly speaking, seats are street furniture (like lamp-posts and bottle-banks) and do not require planning permission. The Seeboard seat was erected last week, and we were much surprised to hear from John Underwood, architectural consultant to the Conservation Society, that in his view such a seat was quite unsuitable for that site. Both Seeboard and the Central Garage next door are modern buildings and we would imagine that they lay no great claim to artistic merit - rather less, perhaps, than the Baptist Church opposite about which such unkind things were said recently (GAZETTE no. 88). However, it seems clear that not all the Conservation Society committee members are worried about the Seeboard seat; what they were worried about was the placing of similar seats in more planning-sensitive parts of the town.
The Lloyds Bank site seems to have evaporated - perhaps there was felt not to be room anyway? But a meeting was held last week at Strand Quay between representatives of the Conservation Society, the Town Council, Rotary, and Rother's Planning and Technical Services Departments to discuss a solution for the seat problem there. The Conservation Society pressed strongly for a different type of seat, with iron ends; these are, of course, more expensive, and also need regular painting. All those present agreed that such a seat would be acceptable on that site; the only outstanding point at present seems to be who pays the extra money - somewhere between £100 and £150, we gather. Two of the seats will be placed on the cobbled tongue adjoining the Grist Mill, along with the anchor (see Ralph Olesen's report on page 3); the third will be across the road, on the river side.
Leaving aside the question of the type of seat now, Clive Gilbert (now Rotary's PRO, having been succeeded as President by Tony Wills of Serendipity) tells us that Rotary is willing to provide more seats in and around the town if sites can be agreed. Any suggestions? For starters, we would like to see one outside the Post Office, or even two; nothing seems to be happening yet about the proposed rebuilding, and they could presumably be moved when it does. Another would be welcome on the grassy patch outside the Gibbet Marsh car-park entrance, for the benefit of those carrying shopping home up Udimore Road or just wanting to sit in the shade of the big chestnut trees on a hot day. The most obvious need of all is in the bus yard - narrow benches on the side nearest the market where the buses pull up; but the whole position in that area is so bedevilled by the supermarket project that it is probably useless even to try persuading British Rail to allow anything to be done there. (We are told that the sale of the land alongside the Lower School playground, where Rother wants to put an extra car park with space for coaches, has still not gone through.)
Peter Bridges tells us that there will once more be seating in the small lookout on Hilder's Cliff before long, of a type that cannot easily be thrown over the edge. Seats there would be very much appreciated, since the upper lookout is often full of school groups; we must all hope that the Conservation Society will be happy with what appears.
5.
The 1st Rye Brownies will perhaps be hoping for overcast weather on Saturday, so that people will be wearing proper shoes; they are conducting a charity shoeshine at the FE Centre from 1.30 to 5 and are even providing a cup of tea while they work their way through the pile of winter footwear that they hope you will bring them. Profits go to the FE Centre and to Chailey Heritage - the latter because it is the charity chosen by the local Brownie Division to support in their 70th birthday year.
Sunday is a really busy day. As well as the Water Sports Regatta down by the Fishmarket from 12.30, George Gray tells us that Austin 7 enthusiasts might like to hang around the Monastery car park where he is hosting a rally of these dear little cars from about 2.30; he expects 12 or 15 of them. And from 2 at the top of the hill, the Hill House Fete will welcome visitors. It will be opened by the Mayor and Mayoress, and the Hastings Town Crier in all his glory will be among the guests. For those confused by the announcement that the Cinque Ports Marionettes would be performing, we should perhaps make it clear that they are not a puppet-show but the Cinque Ports Majorettes who have recently changed their name (or so we understand?). Police and firemen are having a tug-of-war, and there will be a police-dog demonstration; other attractions will include a team engine and a fun castle (the bouncy blow-up kind).
Four local burglaries in the press book this week. Property valued at £100 was stolen from Saltcote at the top of New England Lane; £100 in £5 notes was taken from a house in Fishmarket Road; a toolbox and contents worth £90 was stolen from a car at Leasam Farm, and jewellery from the manager's flat at the Ship Inn.
In view of this, it is just as well that the new Crime Alert window-stickers have arrived from the Home Office; distribution will be arranged as soon as possible. As Chief Inspector Dyson said recently, it is publicity of all kinds that keeps the Crime Alert scheme working effectively.
British Rail have a free offer for Monday to Friday next week (16th to 20th) to publicise their Station Express Bus Link from Waterloo to Euston/St. Pancras/ King's Cross. This bus rums every 15 minutes between 10 and 4 on weekdays, also on Friday evenings and all-day Saturday and Sunday; the journey takes about 20 minutes, and the normal fare is 40p, but the free-trip offer includes a voucher for the next journey too! The service is cheaper than a taxi, and easier than the underground or bus since there are no stairs or escalators between trains and the special bus stops. It is therefore particularly suitable for those immobilised by luggage, small children or increasing years. Travellers on our line intending to go North should get off at Waterloo, since the Link does not serve Charing Cross.
Thomas Peacocke School's ATC Squadron provided the only girl on a Gliding Proficiency Course at RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire at the end of last month: Cpl. Beth McDonald, of Brede, who is of course a pupil at the school. There were eight cadets, from all over the country; they shared accommodation at the RAF base not only with a large group of YTS cadets on a temporary posting in the Forces but also with about 300 policemen on miners' picket duty, who were sleeping in the station's gym.
Beth enjoyed the course very much: 24 days spent training in the Venture powered gliders, after which each cadet went up solo. They were then presented with their "wings' and a certificate. The group were lucky with the weather; people have been known to go on gliding courses and never get off the ground at all!
6.
Friday, 13th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11 to 12.30 (not 10.30 to 12 as stated elsewhere)
Saturday, 14th Mammoth Jumble Sale, TPS PTA, Upper School (The Grove), 11
Cadborough Jubilee Social Club Summer Fair, CC, 2
Sunday, 15th Rye Harbour Sailing Club Water Sports Regatta, Fishmarket, 12.30 (see GAZETTE no. 90)
Hill House Fete, hospital grounds, 2 (see previous page)
Monday, 16th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
Wednesday, 18th Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10.30 to 12.30
Coffee morning for Flower Festival, St. Mary's, 10.30 to 12
Coffee morning for Day Centre, Baptist Hall, 10.45 to 12
• Congratulations to Kevan Crouch of Udimore and Colleen Bryant of Udimore Road, who were married at St. Mary's on 30 June; Colleen works at William Dawes & Co. The couple will live in South Undercliff.
• Beryl Rixon asks us to correct a misunderstanding which appears in Fixtures. There is a coffee morning (see above) next Wednesday in St. Mary's in aid of the St. Mary's Flower Festival expenses; there is no coffee morning in aid of the Rye Flower Club next day.
• On 3 July Rye and District Lions held their Annual Changeover Night at Playden Oasts; Trevor Humphreys handed over his chain of office to the new President, Bob Harvey of Hastings.
• Bowls: Rye beat Pett on the Salts on Saturday. It was a good day for the Club, since they were presented with a really useful asset by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Davey of Udimore Road - a tea-urn, for which they are most grateful.
• For a fortnight from Saturday, 14th, Patricia Jacobs of Beckley is showing her landscape and flower paintings and drawings at the Hamilton Galleries in Cinque Forts Street.
• The Rye Harmonic Society's Elgar Concert on Sunday evening was, of course, a great success; it was pleasant, Canon Maundrell tells us, to see among the audience people from Hastings who had come over with members of the Youth Orchestra - whose players coped, he adds, extremely well with the very considerable demands on their talent.
• The International Sheep Shearing contest takes place at Broomhill Farm, Camber, over the weekend of 21/22 July, from 10 to 6 on the Saturday and 11 to 3 next day. It is once again advertised as "a family day out"; last year we went and wondered whether the claim was quite justified, but the fringe events due this year should have a general appeal. Broomhill Farm is at the far end of the village, and there is plenty of parking.
• For those with jumble to clear, the Rye Dance Centre will have a jumble stall at its Bazaar at the Community Centre on Saturday, 21st, at 2.15. More imminently, the Thomas Peacocke School PTA will be glad of goods - and of course customers - for their Mammoth Sale (and there is plenty of room in the Upper School Hall) on Saturday morning; they chose the time so as not to clash with the Cadborough JSC Fair in the afternoon, which was very kind.
THE RYE GAZETTE is published by Mrs. Mary Owen, and registered as a newspaper with the Post Office. The address changes from 94 Udimore Road to 2 Cyprus Place on 20 July; the phone number (Rye 222303) remains the same. 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 are available from the Editor, while a few spares are on sale at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye.