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We are not competent to review the very varied musical activities of the Festival but we are assured by people who are that they were all, in their different ways, quite super. John Burke talked very amusingly at the Town Hall about turning books into films - and he should know, since he used to be story editor of 20th Century Fox as well as writing his own novels. Henry Kelly's agent rang up on Thursday morning to say sorry, Henry "couldn't get down that evening" - a vague murmur was made about television commitments. The Festival committee are very sorry about this, and ticket money has already been refunded to most people who had booked - anyone who has not yet claimed a refund should present the ticket at the Festival office at Dawes Son & Prentice in the High Street. The following evening Instant Sunshine made hay with our Henry at the start of their own enormously enjoyable show, performing to a very full house and unlimited applause: their mythical monastery at Tenterden should really become part of local history.
At a reception at the Town Hall on Saturday evening given by the Festival Committee, chairman Jim Simpson said that Henry Kelly's was the only cancellation in the Festival's history - it was, he said, perhaps inevitable that something of the kind should happen in its thirteenth year. he thanked all the sponsors, and specially Rother District Council who had been largely responsible for the children's events; he paid a tribute to Daphne Jones who had dealt with all the seating, and to the staff of the North Kent Building Society for acting as box office.
The chairman also thanked the large number of advertisers in the Festival programme - they had had to turn away one or two offers, from lack of space, but he promised that next year's programme would have room for everyone. Finally, he said, it was not possible to thank all the committee by name, but he was specially grateful to Francis Hadfield, and also - "I've been told I'm not to say this" - to his wife Carolyne (applause from the company), the Festival organiser, who was due to start work on next year's programme on Monday!
There is still a difficulty over four of the five Southampton seats which Rotary has kindly presented to the town. The Conservation Society is unhappy about the use of this type of seat at the Strand, and has offered to pay the difference between the original cost and the cost of a more expensive kind with cast-iron ends, to be placed on the cobbles. The Town Council is quite happy with the Southampton seats, and suggests having two on the grass beside Strand Quay, another outside Gibbet Marsh car park and the fourth beside the Mill footpath. Meanwhile Rother has suggested putting one outside the police station instead of the wooden Mary Warren seat (which could then be moved to a more planning-sensitive position), one at the Gibbet Marsh entrance, one outside Badger Gate, and "buying back" one so that the money could go towards a cast-iron version for Strand Quay. A further ingredient in this complicated problem is the Town Council's intention to buy a wooden seat in memory of Maurice Beevers, which they want to put outside the police station alongside Mary Warren's.
Peter Bridges, our man at Rother's Battle office who deals with matters of this kind, is on holiday this week. We shall be very interested to see how he solves the problem when he returns...
2.
Rye Bonfire Night is, we gather, still hanging on to 17 November by the skin of its teeth! Chairman Bob Booth tells us that as a result of publicity in the News and Express he has had several offers of help from individuals, and it is also possible that Rye and District Lions may become involved. What the Bonfire Boys badly need now is an organising secretary - or is mother a better word for this particular job? If anyone feels able to take it on, even just for this year, please get in touch with Mr. Booth.
Some people have been saying that Bonfire Night would get more local support if it reverted to being a local-only event on the proper night - or anyway, on the nearest Saturday. We should not then get the superb costumes of the visiting bonfire societies, who would be engaged elsewhere (equally, of course, we shouldn't get their rowdies!). With the growing move away from back-garden fireworks, some of the villages now have their own celebrations, properly supervised on the playing-field and much enjoyed by those paying a small sum to attend. Could Rye's Bonfire Night perhaps survive on this smaller scale, if its present structure is threatened? Another suggestion is that the Carnival and Bonfire Night should merge; but this would mean a Carnival in November, which is impracticable - or a Bonfire Night in August, which is ridiculous!
When Patrick Osborne arrived at his Regent Motel office two weeks ago, he was extremely surprised to find double yellow lines newly painted along the pavement edge of the layby outside the shop terrace, the lines on the road edge having been obliterated. To the general law-abiding public, double yellow lines mean no parking: why, he asked, was he made to incorporate a layby into the frontage of the shop terrace if no-one was to be allowed to park in it? He told us that the layby was used for delivery lorries to the shops, and often, until then, for a brief "park" by people nipping into the greengrocers for a quick cauliflower, to the Council offices to pay their rates, or perhaps for a bun or two from the Swiss Patisserie. He was a puzzled and far from pleased.
We took the matter to ESCC's Highways man at Bexhill, Ralph Olesen. He assures us that the new lines have no sinister intent at all, and ought really to have been on the inside of the layby all along. Parking is allowed on double yellow lines for loading and unloading, and the layby was intended for this purpose, and for servicing the terrace generally while leaving a clear approach to the carpark across the road. It is not, he adds, always realised that even right inside double yellow lines ordinary parking is illegal, and therefore people parking in the Regent layby for shopping purposes had no business there anyway. The new lines merely make the position clear - and also, if used in the proper spirit, mean that parking is likely to be available there for disabled drivers (who can park on double yellow lines) without congesting Cinque Ports Street.
Thomas Peacocke School will be particularly grateful for fine weather for this year's Michaelmas Fair on 29 September, since there are two aerial attractions planned: the hot-air balloon which was unable to ascend at the Leasam House fete in May, and John Pyke and friends with their microlight aircraft. A new venture for the Fair is a visit from the Jazz Caverners band, and there will also be arena displays by pupils and the usual selection of stalls, etc.
At least, the PTA Committee members hope there will be the usual selection. But they look like being desperately short of helpers, to judge from the tiny number of tear-off slips returned as a result of a letter to all parents. The Fair is the PTA's major fund-raising event of the year, and the money raised honestly does not just pay for things that ACC would pay for otherwise. It makes a lot of difference to the pleasure of the pupils and the efforts of the staff if the PTA can contribute to such things as the minibus, extra classroom space, etc., which ESCC will no longer provide. So please, if you are a new parent, old parent, grandparent, former pupil or any kind of supporter of the school, and if you can spare even half-an-hour on that Saturday afternoon, contact PTA secretary Mrs. Hilary McDonald or call in at Penny Royal in the High Street and have a word with Steve Denny.
3.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 12.9.1984
What a lovely show Rye and District Flower Club mounted at the FEC on Saturday! Called "The Fun of the Fair in Flowers", it included a delightful floral merry-go-round with hanging baskets from a huge striped canopy, along with other fairground attractions. The competition classes were on the same theme - coconut-shy, hoopla, a stick of rock and candyfloss, and "The Band Played"; and the Inter-Club Class entries depicted the fortune-teller. The judge, who had no easy task, was Mrs. Doris Madeley. As well as the flowers in the big room, there were stalls in the middle one, and quite the nicest and freshest ploughman's lunch we have ever enjoyed for 75p in the canteen. Club Chairman Beryl Rixon tells us that the membership is far from being just local they come from well into Kent and as far eastwards as Eastbourne, so it is hardly surprising that we noticed few Rye names among the prize-winners. But the brunt of staging such a super show must have fallen on the resident members, and they certainly made a first-class job of it.
The Club will be sending donations from the afternoon's proceeds to the NSPCC and the Sussex Kidney Trust Fund.
RHSC Commodore Richard Mockett read last week's front-page story about the Club's exciting Bank Holiday visit to France, and rang us to say that it wasn't actually him who was navigating the boat which took him to Dieppe instead of Le Crotoy. In fact it worked out very happily; having overshot the difficult entrance to Le Crotoy they decided to cut out the equally difficult one to Le Treport and go on to Dieppe - where they were greeted with great enthusiasm by the local yacht club. The President (the local vet, who spoke no English) gave them an excellent lunch, and expressed considerable interest in closer links between the two clubs - Dieppe is 25 miles beyond Le Crotoy. They came home overnight, also in fog and of course alone, and entered the river on the midday tide, having had a disconcerting first sight of land as the Hastings cliffs loomed through the fog just a mile away!
The For Sale board which has just gone up in the window of Hamilton Galleries in Cinque Ports Street is no cause for condolence with Caroline Glibbery, but sprints from a very pleasant reason. She and her solicitor husband Peter are expecting a baby in the spring and are moving to Pett where they have found a house with plenty of growing space for a family. The shop is having a closing-down sale, and will be open on Saturday's only for the present (unless you actually see Caroline behind the counter).
Hastings's pearly-man, Reg Langley, is known to Rye people from his visits to the Carnival; will he be wearing his pearly jacket on Saturday this week when he is undertaking a rather longer walk? Sponsored in aid of the Eye Laser Appeal, Mr. Langley is walking from Ore to Rye and back - a fair distance for a man no longer young! - leaving Christ Church, Ore, at 8 am and expecting to reach the Salts between 12.30 and 1. Pauline Tomich, chairman of the Rye appeal committee, hopes very much that people will turn up at the Salts to welcome Mr. Langley, or anyway see him off on his way home after he has refreshed himself at the Ypres Castle pub. She has only just received a supply of sponsor forms, a bit late to seek help of this kind in Rye; but those who would like to sponsor Mr. Langley will find forms at the Ypres Castle and Pipemakers pubs, and also Shades in the High Street.
Chasing up dates for the Town Diary list in this week's issue, we wondered. about the Lions' charity shop. This year's Lions President, Bob Harvey of Hastings, says the problem is to find a suitable shop or warehouse - the trouble with Rye is that such sites don't hang about empty for very long. Anyway, they do hope to open the shop, but the date can't be fixed until they find somewhere - if you can help, lease ring Mr. Harvey at Hastings 435815. It would be a three- or four-day stint only, and a thoroughly welcome contribution to a very good cause.
Monday, 1st Monday Club, Clinic, 2
FRAG talk, "Writing for Children/Writing for Adults" (Joan Aiken), TH, 8
Tuesday, 2nd Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
CND talk, "The Medical Effects of Nuclear War" (Dr. Re Saxton, of the Doctors' Union Against Nuclear War), CC, 7.30
Council of Churches talk, "Unity in Worship" (Rev. John Weller), Methodist Church, 7.30
Thursday, 4th Christian Lunch Club, "Love, Life and Laughter in Leprosy" (Fred Hasted, of the Leprosy Mission), CC, 12 for 12.30
Friday, 5th Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
National Trust talk, "Collecting Silver" (Mrs. Helen Glover), CC, 7.30
Saturday, 6th Tilling Society's annual get-together (details from Martello)
WI Group Home Economics Show, FEC
Tuesday, 9th Council of Churches talk, "Unity in Service to the Community" Jo Farrow, Methodist Church, 7.30
Wednesday, 10th Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Rye WI, "Tapestries", FEC, 7.
Thursday, 11th Bible Society autumn meeting, Methodist Church, 7.45
Friday, 12th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11
Natural History Society, FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 13th Scouts jumble sale, Scout Hut, 1.30
Concert for John Williams Memorial Fund (Leo Halle with a programme of French music), St. Mary's, 7.30
FRHNR talk, "Wildlife of Bharatphur" (John Gooders), Upper Sch., 7.30
Monday, 15th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
TPS Parents Evening (4th year) Upper School, 6.30
Tuesday, 16th Council of Churches talk, "Unity in Evangelism and Witness" (Rev. Edmund Heddle), Methodist Church, 7.30
Thursday, 18th Red Cross Thrift Shop (and Friday and Saturday), 10.30 to 4
Slide show, "Rye in the Past" Laurie Band, repeat, CC, 7.30
Friday, 19th TPS closed for in-service training for staff
Museum Association talk, "An Artist and his Camera in Sussex" (Geoffrey Bagley), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 20th Coffee morning, Blind Association, FEC
National Trust talk, "Some Aspects of the Art and History of
Some Italian Towns" (P. Berrisford), CC, 2.30
Monday, 22nd Half-term week
British Legion (Women's Section) meeting, FEC, 7.30
Tuesday, 23rd Council of Churches talk, "Unity and the Family" (Dr. Ruth Reardon), Methodist Church, 7.30
Wednesday, 24th Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Friday, 26th Natural History Society, FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 27th Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5
RAF Association jumble sale, Upper School, 2
Mayor's cheese-and-wine party and teddy bears' rally (for
Lifeboat House Appeal', TH, 7.30
Monday, 29th WRVS Luncheon Club, CC, 12.30
Wednesday, 31st Cancer Relief Michaelmas Fair, FEC, 10
TPS Parent-Teacher Association AGM, Upper School, 7.30
5.
Friday, 2nd Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale
Saturday, 3rd Playden Church Christmas Fair, FEC, morning
Cancer Relief show by Madrigalia and Rye Players, CC, evening
Monday, 5th Monday Club, Clinic,
Tuesday, 6th Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
Thursday, 8th FRAG talk, "Oast Houses and Hop Growing" (Gwen Jones) TH 8
Red Cross AGM, FEC, afternoon
Friday, 9th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11
Natural History Society, FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 10th RNLI coffee morning, FEC
Sunday, 11th Remembrance Sunday
Tuesday, 13th Arthritis and Rheumatism Council, Ploughman's Lunch, CO, 12 to 2
National Trust talk, "Temples and Holy Places" (WE. Ames Lewis) CC, 7.30
Wednesday, 14th Rye and District MENCAP coffee morning, FEC
Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Rye WI: The County Craft Collection, FEC, 7
Thursday, 15th (and Friday and Saturday) TPS staff play, "A Tomb with a View", comedy-thriller by Norman Robbins
Friday, 16th Museum Association talk, "Some Aspects of Sussex Churches" (Ralph Wood), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 17th Catholic Church Christmas Fair, FEC, 2.30
Rye Bonfire Night
Monday, 19th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
Wednesday, 21st TPS Parents Evening (3rd year), Upper School 6.30
Friday, 23rd TPS PTA Fashion Show, Upper School, evening
Natural History Society, FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 24th Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5
Scouts Christmas Fair, Scout Hut, 10.30 to 12
Monday, 26th WRVS Luncheon Club, CC, 12.30
Community Centre Association AGM, CC, 7.30
Thursday, 29th National Trust AGM, "National Trust" (Alma Fabes), CC, 7.30
Friday, 30th (and Saturday) Rye Dance Centre show, Upper School, 7.30
Saturday, 1st St. John Nursing Cadets Christmas coffee morning, HQ, 10.30
Monday, 3rd Monday Club, Clinic, 2
Tuesday, 4th Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
FRAG talk, "The Other Side of the Picture" (John Doyle, ARWS), TB, 8
Wednesday, 5th NSPCC Christmas coffee morning, George Hotel
Thursday, 6th Christian Lunch Club, CC, 12 for 12.30
Museum Association party, TH, evening
TP Lower School play (and Friday)
Friday, 7th Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale
Saturday, 8th Hill House League of Friends Christmas Bazaar, TH, morning
Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5
National. Trust party, CC, 7.30
Sunday, 9th Attic Sale, Community Centre, 10 to 1
6.
Wednesday, 12th Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Rye WI AGM, FEC, 7
Thursday, 13th Lower School carol concert, evening
Friday, 14th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11 Natural History Society, FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 15th Sea Cadets Christmas Fair, CC, 2
Rye Playgroup Christmas Fair, FEC, afternoon
Ryesingers carol concert, St. Mary's, 7.30
Sunday, 16th Rye Racers party for pensioners (provisional date)
Monday, 17th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
TPS Upper School carol concert, evening
Wednesday, 19th School holidays begin (new term starts on 2 January).
• Mr. Archie Ellis of Udimore Road is in St. Helen's Hospital after a fall at his home. He was "rescued" as the result of good-neighbourly action by a West Undercliff resident who noticed that his house lights were on all night and alerted his family that something might be wrong. It so happens that the same West Undercliff resident, Mrs. Phyllis Smith of Avondale, is now herself in hospital, the East Sussex this time, for an operation to her hip. We wish them both a speedy recovery and understand that they are likely to meet in Rye Memorial Hospital before long, en route for their respective homes.
• A driver travelling regularly, Monday to Friday, from his home in Kennington (the other side of Ashford) to work in Rye wonders if anyone would be glad of a lift in return for help with petrol cost? He has three spare seats and could of course pick up a passenger along the route, which takes him through Ham Street. Mr. Hill, of Burnhams, leaves home at about 7.20, arriving in Rye at 8 and leaving again at 5-ish. If you or anyone in your office/shop/business comes in from the Ashford side and would be interested in car-sharing, please contact Mr. Hill at Burnhams.
• Starting on Saturday and running for a fortnight, St. Mary's is housing something quite out of the ordinary in the way of craftsmanship. Earlier this summer the Guild of Sussex Craftsmen held an exhibition in Chichester Cathedral, showing work, done for churches by Guild members, and it is this exhibition which is now coming to St. Mary's. Included will be work in silver and other metals, and examples of glass-engraving, woodturning, sculpting and carving, calligraphy and embroidery - and also photographs of other commissioned work done by members of the 14-year-old Guild. We shall hope to write about this exhibition in more detail next week; but please don't wait till then to see it, open seven days a week except during services.
• Prompted by the Tilling Society, Rye Town Council has just put up a cast-iron plaque on the Hilder's Cliff lookout which does belated justice to the generosity of a former Mayor. It reads: "This lookout was given in 1935 by E F Benson, then Mayor of Rye. He immortalised this town as 'Tilling' in his Mapp and Lucia novels." (Looking at the plaque, we also noticed the handsome circular bronze direction-indicator near it; this was presented to the town by Rotary to commemorate its Jubilee in 1955.)
• Rye Ramblers enjoyed a particularly interesting walk last month when they toured five of the six Fuller's Follies, near Brightling. These were apparently built by the local squire to relieve unemployment in the area in the early C19, and some of them were designed by his friend, the architect of the Bank of England. The Ramblers meet on Sundays, twice a month except in the depths of winter when they meet monthly. There are usually about 20 walkers, though the groups total membership is larger; if you would like to join them, contact Mrs. Sheila Ungar on Rye 223709.
7.
Although there have been surveyors working in the Goods Yard recently, rumours about the imminence of the supermarket building do seem to be rather premature. Rother has not yet seen any detailed plans for the site, and these of course have to come before the Planning Committee - they would now be too late for the meeting at the end of September, so it would be the October meeting at the earliest which could approve them. Even if all this goes smoothly, there is no question of a 1985 opening date; before work can start on the building itself, the car park has to be re-established on the land between the market and the railway, and a new bus garage built at the back of the fire station, says the developers' agent Mr. Beggs of Butler & Hatch Waterman's Ashford office. The spring of 1986, he tells us, is what they have in mind.
At last week's planning committee meeting, most of the Rye applications were approved (subject as usual to conditions in some cases, and bearing in mind that the minutes are still only in draft form). Approval went to non-illuminated signs and a new shop-front at 41 The Mint, which is to become a tea-room; to a storage building at the Fishmarket; to use of part of the old Farnborough works canteen for upholstery, in addition to the permission already granted for printing there; to commercial use of three more railway arches; to the repainting of Rayners in the High Street; to the division of Point Hill into two dwellings; and to an indoor replacing a disused door at Phipps & Co's offices in Landgate. The application for two bungalows on land at Saltcote Place was deferred for a site inspection; and permission was refused for three signs at 54 The Mint (backing onto Wish Ward), and also for blinds already in place at the Old Vicarage in East Street.
This week's list includes two applications for the Castle Water area; Norman Jones is asking for renewal of temporary permission for a Portakabin as shelter, and for a caravan as temporary residence for the warden. There is also an application for a roof-light in a house in Mermaid Passage, and for alterations to convert a Leasam Lane bungalow into a two-storey house with single-storey extensions.
Miss Roff of Hylands Yard was particularly interested to read last week's piece about Freeman Hardy & Willis. As a very small girl she was, on holiday in Hastings with her family in 1907 or 1908, and they came over to Rye for the day; Miss Roff and her mother came in the train, but her father and brother, then aged perhaps 10, cycled over. We'd have had no story if they had all come in the train - because little Ella, getting tired, was given a ride on her father's crossbar, caught her foot in the wheel, and tore off the top of her shoe. So, the very first visit was to buy her new shoes - at Freeman Hardy & Willis. When Miss Roff returned to Rye in 1967 to live here, she was pleased to find the shop still going; the only other thing she remembered from that first visit were the three golden balls that adorned the pawnshop in Church Square. When she spoke of this, no-one believed her, so she was delighted that a picture in Geoffrey Bagley's "Edwardian Rye" vindicated her memory from all those years ago!
Mr. D. James Martin of Southampton was in Rye recently to pay his respects to the home of his grandparents; they left Rye in 1898 when his mother, now 91, was six. Mr. Martin's grandfather, Mr. Goldsmith, was the Prudential agent in the town at that time, and the family moved away in the furtherance of his career; but Mr. Goldsmith was also a professional-standard photographer, and he treasured a couple of albums which held many pictures of the Rye he left behind him. These albums Mr. Martin thoughtfully brought with him, in case they might be of interest; he called at the Rother offices, and David Cranston arranged for him to meet the Editor, and also to talk to Frank Palmer about the possibility of having transparencies made for slide-show use. We do hope that something will come of this. There were some lovely pictures of Watchbell Street and the top of the town generally, some with the curly-headed little Miss Goldsmith and her brother, and a superb one of the Mayoral funeral procession of Isaac Longley, who died in office, leaving the Congregational Church down Conduit Hill on its way to the cemetery. And lots more.
If only all family photographs of that vintage could be so lovingly preserved!
Friday, 14th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11
Talk, "Radclyffe Hall and her work" (Dr. Claudia Stillman Franks) Mermaid, 7.30 (GAZETTE no. 97)
Saturday, 15th Labour Party coffee morning, FEC, 10.30 to 12.30
Fire Brigade jumble sale, Fire Station, 1.30
Museum Association trip to Tenterden, afternoon (GAZETTE no. 97)
Sunday, 16th Attic Sale, Community Centre, 10 to 1
Monday, 17th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
Tuesday, 18th ARC coffee morning, 26 Cadborough Cliff, 10.30 to 12 TPS Parents Evening (5th year), Upper School, 6.30
Wednesday, 19th Handing-in for Red Cross Thrift Shop, 10.30 to 12.30
• Thursday's coffee morning for the NSPCC raised over £145, and the committee are most grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Graham Watson for allowing the use of their house in Church Square. On Saturday, £60 went to the Poppy Appeal as a result of the Women's British Legion coffee morning at the Red Cross Centre. A recent coffee morning at the Town Hall by the Winchelsea Floral Group raised £30 for the NSPCC and £30 for the Eye Laser Appeal.
• Bowls: Rye played away to Hawkhurst on Wednesday and to Pett on Saturday, and did not win on either occasion.
• British Rail will be working on the line between Appledore and Rye on Wednesday and Thursday nights next week; they apologise for the noise.
• Sunday is Battle of Britain Sunday, and the RAF Association will be parading their standard at St. Mary's at 10.30. A collection for the Wings Appeal will be made in the town on Saturday.
• Rye Racers hope to hold their annual party for the town's old-age pensioners on Sunday, 16 December - once again in the Thomas Peacocke Hall. The £214 raised by the Silly Race last month is not quite as much money as they need for a party of their usual standard, so they will be looking for a way of making another £75 or so during the autumn; suggestions to Gus Gale, Town Hall Cottage.
• Three thefts from Rye business premises: £45-worth of goods from Quayside Service Station, a £17 crash helmet (lettered RICHARD in gold on black) from a motorcycle outside Camiers, and £40 in cash from Fletcher's House during the night of 5/6 September.
• Our report from the Community Centre a fortnight ago was, we are sorry to say, 90% inaccurate in one respect: the repairs to the roof will cost, says Centre treasurer Margaret Leopold, £1000 and not the £100 we mentioned. This unexpected blow will hamper the plans for the wheelchair loo, unless they are able to raise the extra cash, so they will be really glad of support for Laurie Band's slide show on 18 October and for any other fund-raising activities coming up.
• Now that British Telecom and the Post Office are no longer under the same management, we reported some months ago that British Telecom has been asked to shift their Cinque Ports Street phone boxes so that the Post Office could use their site in the promised refurbishment of the Rye building. Work has now started on the move; the new boxes will stand beside the Post Office steps at the top of the Station Approach - very much more visible and convenient for travellers.
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. A few spare copies of the current issue are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street; back numbers can be obtained from 2 Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984)