Police suspect arson as the cause of a fire on Saturday at the back of Rye Foundry in South Undercliff. The premises were unoccupied at the time. Rye Fire Brigade put out the considerable blaze, but not before several thousand pounds' worth of damage was done to machinery. A highly inflammable liquid was used to start the fire, and it is likely that whoever did it would have received burns to their clothing and perhaps to their body as well. Rye Police would, of course, like to hear from anyone with information relating to this incident - Rye 222112.
Rye Harbour Sailing Club's cruising secretary John Royle sends us a lively account of the Club's visit to Le Crotoy over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Thirteen boats set out, but only twelve arrived at Le Crotoy. One got lost and landed up at Dieppe - unfortunately this contained the Commodore, Richard Mockett, who was due to reply to the speech of welcome from M. le Madre! The cruising secretary had to fill the gap, as he says, "in hastily constructed French - but the champagne was flowing so freely that it didn't seem to matter". The Rye visitors, after the mid-day reception at the Maine, enjoyed an evening party at the Club Nautique de la Baie de Somme (with which they are twinned); there was then the Kermesse aux Poissons (somehow the French hand-out's translation to "Fish Festival" doesn't sound nearly so glamorous) which included dancing on the promenade, innumerable groups of majorettes and a firework display.
Sunday morning, continues John, saw many sore-headed yachtsmen setting out in thick mist for a race in the bay. Two Rye boats promptly went aground on the sands, but this was considered perfectly normal by the French. The cruising secretary won the race with Rye boats also coming in 4th, 5th and 7th - which seems a most tactfully balanced result. Returning from the race, Trevor Stapley in "Rum Line" went hard aground inside the harbour and not even a boat full of gendarmes could pull him off; with true British aplomb he dressed his boat overall and set his crew to scrubbing the bottom when the tide went out.
Monday's journey home was not without its excitements. Thick fog enveloped the twelve Rye boats as they motored in calm conditions across the shipping lanes - where possible they kept in groups so as to present a better radar target to approaching ships. Somehow, they all found the harbour entrance, which seems near miraculous since the fog was so thick they could not see the walls just ten yards away. Some boats grounded in the mud up-river, but Peter Bellingham in "Our Emma" hit the eastern arm of the harbour, reversed and went over the western wall where he had to wait for the Harbourmaster's launch to pull him off.
In the meantime, a team of Customs men had appeared from Dover. Two of them boarded "Our Emma", but since the fog had momentarily lifted Colin Marsh told the skipper to get up the river as quickly as possible while he could. Off went "Our Emma" with the two young Customs officers still on board; halfway up to the town the fog came down thicker than ever, the boat went right up one bank (they looked over the side and could see grass), and there she stuck - at an angle of 45 degrees. The Customs officers spent an insecure night on board, and at 7 am on Tuesday stepped ashore and went back to start their day's work at Dover.
The citizens of Le Crotoy are very anxious to have a twinning arrangement with Rye, and their Mayor sent over a formal message to this effect. It seems logical the town across their estuary, St. Valery-sur-Somme, is twinned with Battle, and Le Crotoy is a maritime town with plenty of history and many similarities with Rye. But when John Royle raised the matter at the 1983 Town Meeting, the Town Council expressed remarkably little enthusiasm. What, we wonder, do the generality of our citizens think?
2.
Mr. Bill Mills of Church Square died on Monday in hospital after a short illness. The funeral takes place in St. Mary's on Saturday (8th) at 3.
We record belatedly the death some weeks ago of Mrs. Susan Stringer of Peasmarsh, for many years the proprietor of the Pette Shoppe in the High Street.
We hear from author lain Finlayson of Ayr that he and his very well-behaved lurcher Angelica are looking for a small house or flat to rent in Rye or Winchelsea for six months from the beginning of January. Mr. Finlayson is engaged on a book about the Scots and wants to get away from them while he writes it; but he has also been commissioned to do a book about the writers of Romney Marsh, and feels it is important to live in the area for a while in order, as he says, to acquire some sense of the spirit of place. Ideally, he would like two bedrooms, and a garden; he doesn't need a garage, but there must be a phone. Rent might be around £200 a month. If you can help Mr. Finlayson, write to him.
On Saturday morning over 20 children opened the Festival by making banners at the FE Centre and parading them round the town afterwards, with Kitty French in charge. The Arioso Trio concert in St. Mary's was very much appreciated, and next day Ryesingers gave an excellent performance of a Mass by Tomas Luis de Victoria in the course of the Festival service in St. Mary's. There were no pickets and no politics in the Gun Garden on Sunday afternoon when the Betteshanger Colliery Band - drawn from the area and not exclusively the mine - entertained a large and comfortably sedentary audience of all ages in the sunshine, with a pleasant choice of popular music. The rich fruitcake of "Under Milk Wood" proved too much for the Editor, but we are told that it was an absolutely first-class rendering by SBH Productions - assisted off-stage in a most professional manner by Bron Burke in control of the sound and Francis Hadfield dealing with the lighting.
There are plenty of goodies still to come; see last week's GAZETTE or the posters round the town.
Local secretary for the WEA, Barbara Fearon, writes:
"A former British Ambassador to the Ivory Coast will be the tutor for a course aptly entitled 'A World Divided: East/West, North/South', which begins on 24 September at the FE Centre. Mr. J.B. Wright, BA, CMG, is well qualified to lead the discussions on this explosive subject, having served during the course of his diplomatic career in most of the world's trouble spots including Jerusalem, Cyprus, Indonesia and Vietnam, where he was Consul General in Hanoi when it was bombed by the Americans.
"The popular course on Music Appreciation again features in the curriculum on Wednesday evenings, conducted as before by Kathryn Bennetts and George Veness who perform on a variety of instruments to illustrate the work of various composers. This year they promise to focus on less well-known aspects of musical history, from music of the Middle Ages to modern times, and will include works by British composers.
"Not surprisingly in a town with a literary reputation the literature class held on Thursday afternoons has established itself as a permanent feature of the WEA programme. The emphasis this year is on the novel world-wide, and works by Flaubert ('Madame Bovary'), Tolstoy ('Anna Karenina'), Henry James ('Portrait of a Lady') and by Thomas Mann, Pasternak, Camus and V S Naipaul will be studied.
"New and old students will be offered a warm welcome" adds Mrs. Fearon; for further details, contact her at Hucksteps Row.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 5.9.1984
Anyone leaving it rather late to buy school shoes this week will have had a nasty shock. Freeman Hardy & Willis closed on Saturday for two months while the shop is refitted (they reopen on 9 November). The staff would have liked a notice put in the window warning customers of the impending closure, but head office presumably didn't consider it necessary.
The Rye branch of FHW is, rather unexpectedly, one of the oldest shops in the town still under the same ownership. It now comes under the flag of the British Shoe Corporation, along with other own-name retail chains; manageress Doris Henley can remember in her early days with the firm a Mr. Hardy who appeared from time to time, but whether he was Mr. Hardy I, II or even III she never discovered. Anyway, the business was established in the town some time before 1903; in that year it was based next door, occupying nos. 21 and 22 (now Penny Royal). No. 23, the present premises, was then occupied by Bartholomews, who sold clothes; but perhaps times became hard for Bartholomews, since by 1907 FHW was installed in the spacious no. 23, Bartholomews had no. 22 only, while no. 21 was a "fancy repository" kept by John Harvey (whose daughter Ella taught music to many of Rye's young ladies).
The pretty mosaic doorstep at no. 23 would seem to date from the changeover, and BSC has kindly said that the Museum Association can have it, to be laid out some- where in the Museum precincts, if they can remove it. Are there any mosaic specialists among our readers?
The charity shop run by the new Mentally Handicapped Society has now closed. £636 was raised during the four weeks which, together with the proceeds of last week's coffee morning, means a really good start to the group's plans for a play- group in school holidays. The Committee are most grateful to the Post Office and to the Hastings and District Bus Company for their kindness in lending premises, and to all who helped to make the shop such a success.
Chairman Vickie Piper (Rye 224228) and Secretary Sheila Beeton (Iden 496) would like to hear from those interested in joining the branch, whether or not they are immediately responsible for looking after mentally handicapped children or adults. The subscription is only £l a year, and they would be glad of as much support as possible.
We wonder if readers are aware that Hastings now has a British Telecom shop - in Havelock Road, just uphill from George Rose. This is well worth a visit. The whole range of B. Tel. phones, from Mickey Mouse to a bedside model about the size of a packet of butter, is available for inspection, so that anyone having a phone installed can choose which model they would like. But if your house is fitted with B. Tel.'s new socket system, you can if you wish, buy and take home with you whatever you fancy for use as a second phone (the first one at least has to be rented). Since modern phones have the bell inside them, the old-fashioned bell on the wall is no longer necessary; so, to escape from the telephone entirely, you simply unplug all your phones - and relax!
Some of the work now on view at the Easton Rooms has been seen in Rye before, but there are some interesting new pictures. The main gallery is dominated by Bernard Sindall's full-size seated nude. A view of Monte Gorda, by Anthony Eyton, looked very like Camber on a good day; also eye-catching was a luminous sketch of Chollenford Weir by Keith Grant. Brian Collier uses lines intriguingly in two large pictures, and Peter McNiven's huge green trees were cool on a hot afternoon.
David Crew has a mysterious three-dimensional painting entitled "In the Mountains", and we much liked Gus Cummings' "Basement Tableau". RAs and ARAs are sprinkled freely throughout the exhibition, which offers work of a very high professional standard (and often, alas, at very high professional prices as well!)
4.
On a national basis, O-levels are taken by the top 20% of fifth-year pupils, CSE by the next 40%, while the remaining 40% are not expected to be up to exam standard at all. But things are different at Thomas Peacocke. This year's CSE list shows 210 candidates, and only a very small handful of them achieved no passes at all. Some of the 230 pupils in the fifth year took a mixture of O-levels and CSEs, and some took O-levels alone; and a grade I CSE pass counts as a grade C O-level pass, so inevitably the numbers overlap. But out of those 230, 128 - over 50% - gained at least one O-level or the equivalent; and 50 pupils had five or more O-levels.
At A-level there was a 70% pass rate, and we would like particularly to congra-tulate Tim Maskens of Beckley on three grade-A science passes. Breathing down his neck were Daniel Owen of Rye with two As and two Bs, and Marc Chapman of Guestling with two As and one B. Tim and Daniel are trying for Oxbridge next term, while Marc will be going to university this autumn.
Mr. George Hunt tells us that of the year's leavers who are going on to further education at some level in a month's time, only three are still unsure about their placing; some people have had to settle for a different college or a different course, but almost all are now slotted in somewhere. We hope to have before long a report on the job situation for Thomas Peacocke leavers from both fifth and sixth years.
• In GAZETTE no. 94 we wrote about Richard Ormrod's book "Una Troubridge, the friend of Radclyffe Hall". That book dealt mainly with the lives of the two women, who spent part of their time in Rye between the wars. Now there is to be an opportunity to hear American critic Claudia Stillman-Franks speaking on Radclyffe Hall's fiction. Dr. Stillman-Franks has recently published a study of the novelist's work, "Beyond the Well of Loneliness", and her talk presents an interesting assessment of Radclyffe Hall's contribution to the literary scene. Dr. Stillman's talk is on Friday, 14 September at 7.30 in the Tudor Room at the Mermaid Hotel; the admission price of £1.50 includes wine, and the proceeds go to the Radclyffe Hall Memorial Fund.
• The Museum Association has a pleasant outing planned for the following day, Saturday (15th). Members are meeting at 2.30 in the car park near Tenterden railway station for a tour of Georgian Tenterden, led by a member of the staff of Tenterden Museum; this is preceded by a visit to the museum itself, and followed by a jaunt in the train - a there-and-back trip lasting about 45 minutes and providing a suitable opportunity to eat a picnic tea for those who like to bring one. Several car-owners have offered lifts, so anyone who would like to go and has no transport should contact Mrs. Audrey Bartlett.
The Association's winter programme includes the Christmas party for members and their guests on Thursday, 6 December, and also four lectures open to the public, all on Fridays at the FE Centre at 7.30. On 19 October Geoffrey Bagley shows slides illustrating the travels of "An Artist and his Camera in Sussex". On 16 November Ralph Wood, ARIBA, discusses "Some Aspects of Sussex Churches" (it will be remembered that Ralph took many of the photographs for the book on this subject which came out earlier this year). Stella Pigrome talks on 18 January on "Life in the Middle Ages" - probably only marginally less gruesome than her much-enjoyed "Worms and Epitaphs" last year! And on 15 February Kate Davson has been persuaded to speak on "Theatrical Influences on European Ceramics" - and European ceramics are something about which Mrs. Davson is a top-class expert.
• Two forthcoming coffee mornings: for the Labour Party at the FEC on Saturday, 15 September, from 10.30 to 12.30, and for the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council at 26 Cadborough Cliff, by kind invitation of Phil and Rusty Ellis, on Tuesday, 18 September, from 10.30 to 12. ARC also have a Ploughman's Lunch at the Community Centre on Tuesday, 13 November from 12 to 2. (—and just room to point out that the full-page article on page 5 has not meant the loss of lots of fascinating local news - there really isn't any!)
5.
This issue sees the beginning of the GAZETTE's third year.
All subscriptions will expire at the end of September; if you wish to receive the GAZETTE from 3 October onwards, we shall need some more money. The paper will close down for two weeks over Christmas, which means that there will be no GAZETTE on 26 December nor on 2 January. This is not entirely from laziness but due to the virtual ten-day Bank Holiday which now seems to take over at the end of December. Last year it was impossible to contact any official source until after the New Year, which led to a very scrappy paper on 3 January.
There will therefore be 12 issues in the coming quarter, and also 12 in the following one. This means a subscription of £3 for one quarter, or £6 for those who like to pay six-monthly (till 27 March) and get it over with. Postal subscribers will need to add stamp money depending on what service they require - first- or second-class post, weekly or fortnightly dispatch.
Subscriptions should reach 2 Cyprus Place by 1 October at latest. Cheques payable to THE RYE GAZETTE; if you are paying cash, please put your name and address or pick-up point on the envelope, for obvious reasons! Udimore Road deliveries will continue as usual until Christmas. Thereafter, we shall deliver only as far as Badger Gate and Ashenden Avenue. Subscribers living beyond this will need to collect from one of our regular pick-up points (see below) or from Cyprus Place. We hope to continue using Cadborough Stores as a pick-up point, but this will depend on finding someone willing, for a consideration, to deliver that batch first thing every Wednesday morning having picked it up from Cyprus Place. Perhaps a paperboy might like to do it on his way home? Suggestions will be welcomed by the Editor. Anyway, it doesn't arise until January.
Apart from Cadborough Stores, our regular pick-up points are Squirrels, Penny Royal, the Tuck Shoppe, the bar of the George, the Freezer Centre and also (by arrangement only) Hazel's. The recently rearranged delivery rounds cover most of the centre of the town including Church Square, Landgate, Eagle Road, Rope Walk and The Strand, and we can always leave your copy at a friend's house if a pick-up point is not convenient for you. For the sake of the shopkeepers who so kindly provide the service for us, we do ask readers to collect their GAZETTES from pick-up points as promptly as possible; if you are going to be away for several weeks, we will gladly accumulate your copies in the office and deliver the lot the week of your return.
Each week Squirrels in Cinque Ports Street has a limited supply of spare copies
of that issue (only - not back numbers). These are sold on a first-come-first- served basis, and named copies are not left there for those who have not subscribed in advance for the quarter. But complimentary copies for non-subscribers who have helped us with a particular week's issue are normally left there; there is of course no charge for these. Back numbers as well as copies of the current issue can be obtained from 2 Cyprus Place.
This is perhaps an opportunity to remind correspondents that material for Wed-nesday's paper should reach Cyprus Place by Monday afternoon, if possible, when the Editor sits by the phone to receive it (Rye 222303, as before); she is usually still sitting by it until gone midnight on Monday, so don't worry about phoning late! Small news items can usually be fitted in on Tuesday morning first thing, but there is no guarantee about this; prior warning of a likely Tuesday story would help.
We are really most grateful to all our subscribers over the past two years. Circulation has built up from the original 57 to this week's print of 390 copies. Our only advertising, apart from the Editor's shopping trolley, has beer in the Rye Society of Artists and Rye Festival programmes, so the increase is clearly due to the real need for a paper which provides anyway most of the news that's fit to print - from Rye, for Rye, weekly.
8.
Thursday, 6th NSPCC coffee morning, 32 Church Square, 10.30 to 12
Irish poetry, song and humour with Henry Kelly and. Toni Arthur, CC, 7.45
Friday, 7th Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
Tasting of English wines, The Old Store House, 6
Barbecue, Sea Cadets HQ (Rock Channel), 7 - some ticket May still be available, adults £1.25, children 75p; ring Mrs. Thomson at Rye/p>
"Instant Sunshine", CC, 8
Saturday, 8th Rye Flower Club, "The Fun of the Fair", FEC, 10 to 5
Tell Tale Theatre, Tilling Green 10.30, Gun Garden 11.30
Buskers, Town Hall, 11
Carmen Lynn "The Human Mop" (Buster Keaton), Mermaid, 12
Ryesingers, Town Hall, 2
Women's British Legion coffee morning (Poppy Appeal), Red Cross Centre, 10.30 to 12
Concert, The Academy of St. Martinb-in-the-Fields, St. Mary's, 7.45
Monday, 10th Enrolment for Adult Education classes, FEC, 7 to 9: (not Tuesday)
Wednesday, 12th Over-6Cs Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Rye WI, "The Sue Ryder Foundation", FEC, 7
NB Next week's GAZETTE will include a list of all events booked into the Town Diary from mid-September until the end of the year. Please make sure yours are included - ring Rye 222303, or leave a note at 2 Cyprus Place by Sunday.
• Congratulations to Brian Atkins end Liz Booth, near neighbours in Eagle Road, who were married last week; Mr. Atkins is a member of staff at Thomas Peacocke.
• Readers who remember Councillor Everest's fight to save the railway will not be surprised to learn that he is once again embattled, this time in his new home at Bexhill. At 85, he is one of the leaders of a campaign to keep his local sub-post-office, used by hundreds of local pensioners and now threatened with closure; and he is, he tells the Bexhill News, prepared to lead a deputation to the House of Commons in protest. (Many thanks to Michael Dearing who sent us the cutting.)
• A coffee morning last Wednesday at 26 Cadborough Cliff raised £142 for Cancer Relief.
• Alan Dickinson is looking for a small second-hand car to replace his ageing Renault 4 - offers, please, to Alan at New England Lane.
• Our Bowls Club correspondent, Mrs. Care of Camber, has been on holiday so we have been without some recent results; but last week Rye won at home against Westfield on Sunday, and lost away to St. Leonards and to Ham Street. Mr. Atkinson of Udimore Road says it looks as if the new flagpole will not now be erected until the 1985 season, since play is almost over for this year; he is not only presenting it to the Club, but he has also made it himself!
• Term begins for the Adult Education classes in Rye on 24 September; enrolment is on Monday, or forms can be sent in by post (see the back of the pink booklet listing the courses, obtainable from the FE Centre or Library). Those unable to embark on a full course might like to study the choice of single-day "Saturday Specials" on practical subjects from first aid to flower-arranging?
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, 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 (see full details on page 5 this week).
(Copyright Mary Owen 1984)