Strand Quay on Friday morning was a brave sight indeed. More than 35 visiting French yachts were moored there, tied up five abreast in places, having slipped in on Thursday night's tide to visit their colleagues at the Rye Harbour Sailing Club - due to return the compliment in a fortnight's time. Clubs from St.Valery-sur- Somme and Le Crotoy were represented, and there were a few extras from a Le Havre club who had come over for a separate race and were not really connected with the rally. Sailing Club members arranged a coach trip for their guests on Friday, to Herstmonceaux Castle and Eastbourne, and on Saturday there was a party at the club house, with the startled catering team working overtime (only 16 boats had been expected). The Club had planned a race for Sunday, but the French yachtsmen wanted to go back on Saturday night's tide; a number of Sailing Club members were at the Harbour to see them off - and so was the inshore lifeboat, putting on an impee*.ssive if coincidental display as darkness fell, to guide in a boat which had los its bearings in the Bay.
Dredging operations started this week at Strand Quay; the work is expected to take about six weeks, and is done every four years. The quay does not have to be closed; the team does a small area at a time, moving the boats out of the way, then putting them back and moving on to the next patch - they aim to work when the state of the tide means no traffic along the channel. The mud which the crane removes will be dumped in the Nature Reserve's "scrape" at the Harbour, providing a welcome and salubrious base for the new wader pool.
Ryesingers went west at the weekend, and came home with a challenge cup. 25 singers, all women (our correspondent said that the men fought shy!) went to the Cheltenham Music Festival, competing in three classes. Their successful entry for the Grace Knowles Challenge Cup was described by the adjudicator as "a superb example of the art of folk singing", and they came third in each of the other two classes they entered - "completely convincing, tone and choral techniques excellent, a very fine choir indeed" were among the judges' comments. Some classes had as many as ten entrants, and since this was Ryesingers' first visit to the Festival Les y Brownbill was particularly pleased at the consistently high marks awarded to her choir throughout the competition.
The Rye group were interested to meet a member of a choir from Cornwall, Mrs. Thomas, whose daughter Sue had been a teacher at Tilling Green. Small world!
When the D o T booked the Community Centre for 18 to 20 June to house the public consultation stage of the bypass planning, Mrs. Cuthbert put herself out to rearrange her bookings so that they could have the three full days they needed. 'The committee was therefore not very pleased when, with no explanation, the booking was simply cancelled last week.
We rang the D o T's press officer to ask whether it was the date or the venue which the Department had decided to alter? She told us that it is their practice to book a hall in good time and then cancel if other aspects of the exercise are not ready, though she was not able to say whether this was so in our case.
However, it clearly was, since Mrs. Cuthbert had a phone call yesterday (which they have promised to confirm in writing) booking the Centre for Thursday to Saturday, 10, 11 and 12 October. The big jump may be partly accounted for by the fact that they try not to hord these consultations during the holiday period.
Anyway, with more than three months in hand they shouldn't need to cancel again - so please note the new dates in your diary and cross out the earlier ones.
Miss Doris May Spinks, of Rye Foreign, died peacefully in hospital on 18 May. She was in her eighties. Miss Spinks, a retired Queen's Nursing Sister, was responsible for the safe arrival in this world of a great many local people; she was District Nurse for Playden, Iden and Peasmarsh from 1938 to 1946, and in that time delivered 145 babies (her nursing career, which began in London and took her to various places in the south-east, covered a total of 807 deliveries!). In 1958 she retired and returned to Rye, where she shared a house with Miss Ashby of Tilling Green School - with whom there will be much sympathy for the loss of an old friend. The funeral took place at Playden Church on Monday. Donations in Miss Spinksts memory may be sent to the East Sussex County Nursing Association Trust Fund, c/o Messrs. Blackman & Son, Wish Street, Rye.
Mr. Frederick MacManus of Church Square, whose death we reported briefly last week, had a long and distinguished career in the world of architecture. Born in Dublin in 1903, he knew from his earliest youth what he wanted to do with his life, and was articled at the age of 16 to a Dublin firm of architects. By 1924 he was a third-year student at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, and then worked with Clough Williams Ellis and later in New York. Back in London by 1927, he was designing private houses and schools - among them the house in Hampstead Garden Suburb where he and his wife Norah lived until they finally decided to relinquish it in favour of full-time residence in Rye many years late During the war, he was at the Ministry of Works, and was responsible for the design of the standard windows to be produced by the English Joinery Manufacturers Association for use in the post-war building boom. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1944, he first had his own practice in 1953 when his senior partner, Edward Armstrong, retired to New Zealand. He was very much involved in the redevelopment of London in the 1960s, and was on the executive committee of the Georgian Group from 1960 to 1968. Joint architect of the Danish Segments Church and Mission in Commercial Road (which won a Civic Trust Award), in 1973 he was made a Knight of the First Class of the Order of Danneborg; his OBE had come five years earlier, in 1968. But as well as all this very serious professional work, life had its lighter side. For a memorable two years he was honorary editor of what had been the flagging Journal of the Architectural Association; in his hands, and subsequently, it flagged no longer. In 1967 he published "Tenterden Explored" - he did much to help in the preservation of that charming town, and only recently finished a piece of work for the Tenterden Trust. He was also planning consultant to Winchelsea Borough Council. Mr. MacManus had a keen interest in photography, and had been glad to return to it only a short time before his death, after months of illness. He had a real genius for "making people comfortable" in their own homes, by suggesting sometimes quite simple but effective improvements, as many of his friends can happily testify; and to his three younger partners he was a father figure - "a great and memorable man", as one of them wrote to Mrs. MacManus.
Mr. George Cumming and the Hastings and Rye Multiple Sclerosis Society send "a great big thank you" to everyone who soonsored him on his recent London Marathon run. Including generous donations from Rye Lions, Round Table and Rotary, the total amount raised was £1,395, which will more than cover the cost of the three Aid-Call units supplied to Rye MS sufferers. Mr. Cumming is quite overwhelmed by the support and encouragement he has received from so many people.
Now the small Rye MS group is asking for help of a different and rather less strenuous kind. They were lucky enough to get a Rye flag-day this year, and are concentrating all their fairly limited energies on it without attempting to hold a house-to-house collection as well. If you could possibly spare an hour or two on Saturday, 15 June, any time between 9 and 4, to stand in the road with a tin on behalf of this cause - which does a lot of work for local sufferers from the disease - please contact Kath Elworthy or Elizabeth Goldsworthy as soon as possible.
3. THE RYE GAZETTE, 22 May 1985
Some forty people, many from the villages, were at the Town Hall on Tuesday last week to hear about the County Council proposals for the start of an ESCORT rural transport system. We dealt with this in some detail in GAZETTE no. 124 - so readers will be aware that the idea is to co-ordinate the entire transport arrangements for the area, both public-service buses, ESCORT's own transport in the shape of mini- and midi-buses, and other vehicles already in use in the community for such things as social services and hospital transport.
Many of those present had not been at the earlier meeting which we reported in March, and staff from Lewes set out the position as it is now and as they would like it to be. Vast sums of money were spoken about, but it was made clear that this is not a cost-cutting exercise, more a redeployment of public funds to give greater benefit to the community generally. At present, public money goes on the ambulance service - which is used 90% of the time for such things as non-emergency hospital visits for people who are not flat on their backs at all; on school transport in all its forms - bus and train passes, contract coaches and sometimes even taxis; and on social services needs - getting people to and from Day Centres, and so forth. At the heart of the new scheme would be a "broker" responsible for co-ordinating all the transport operations in the area; and there were plans mentioned by which, for instance, disabled people could be picked up at their homes they couldn't walk to the nearest bus stop.
It all sounds perfectly splendid, if it comes off.
Fears were raised from the flnor about the viability of the service buses if the school-children get separate transport; about the unions' reactions (but the new buses would be contracted out to the bus companies, whose staff would drive and maintain them); and about fares, increasingly a deterrent to people in the villages. There was a possibility of a Sunday afternoon bus run for those wishing to visit people in hospital in Hastings.
The County Hall team asked all the organisations represented to nominate a member as a liaison officer, so that there would be a contact in each village and each interested group with whom they could get in touch as matters develop. We shall be keeping readers informed of the scheme's progress.
Knitters who have been looking in a worried way at the Sold board outside The Wool Shop in Cinque Ports Street will be relieved to know that at least the change of proprietor will not mean a change of business. Anne Quinton is retiring; the owners, who take over at the end of this month, are Mr. and Mrs. Dowdeswell, who are coming to Rye from Dover with their three school-age daughters. The Wool Shop was started by Miss Quinton's sister further along Cinque Ports Street, but Anne has been running it for 25 years, first in the shop next door to her family's grocery business and then, when the grocery closed some 12 years ago, in the present shop - in partnership with her niece Carol, and also with invaluable help and support over many years from Mrs. Ruby Blackhall, who will be retiring at the change of ownership. Miss Quinton has been begged to stay around for a while until the Dowdeswells are settled in; then, she tells us, her home in SouthUndercliff is in need of redecoration from top to bottom. But she will miss her daily contact with her customers, and would not mind finding herself behind a Rye counter for a couple of days a week, or to help out in emergency.
Mr. and Mrs. Dowdeswell will be continuing the tradition of friendly attention to the individual needs of each customer which Miss Quinton has established over the years. They will also continue to sell hand-knitted sweaters, since most of the shop's back-up army of knitters are staying with them - their work goes far afield, Miss Quinton recently posted off a lot of parcels to America.
Miss Quinton tells us that summer is a quiet time for wool-shops, so the Dowdeswells have time to get themselves sorted out before the rush starts in September; she herself looks forward to relaning and enjoying the autumn tints for the first time for a quarter of a century!
4.
Thomas Peacocke School is greatly indebted to Mr. Edward Clarke, of Castle Joinery, Harbour Road, who has recently presented the computer studies department with new computer equipment consisting of a BBC micro-computer, disc drive, colour monitor and line printer. His daughter Jane is in her fourth year at the school, and talking recently with the head of computer studies Mr. Clive King, Mr. Clarke was appalled to discover the lack of computer equipment at the school. Instead of complaining, he very handsomely decided to do something about it personally.
(Lewes have now promised the school a further three computer systems; and although in theory this has nothing to do with Mr. Clarke's generosity, one does wonder if word got back...?)
A statement from the Head welcomes this contact between school and industry, and hoped it will be the first of many, working to the advantage of both. Mr. King intends to make contacts with local firms who use computers - perhaps they might like to get in touch with him?
The Editor has received a letter from Sarah Webb, of Freda Gardham School, asking readers for help. The 56 third-year pupils at the school, under the guidance as Mr. Moses and Mr. Collins, are taking part in the National Domesday Project (you may have heard about it through the press or radio). "We are interested" writes Sarah "in social life, land cover and how life has changed in the past 25 years in our area" - which includes Rye Harbour, Camber Castle, the Nature Reserve andcthe River Rother. Sarah would be very glad to hear from anyone who would like to help the two classes with information, reminiscences, etc.; letters should go to her c/o Freda Gardham School, New Road.
They have certainly chosen an interesting area to study, with plenty of changes over the past 25 years. In 1960 the interior of Camber Castle looked much as it had done for the past 300 years - and not a bit like it does now. The Nature Reserve was little more than a fledgling. The Harbour had no lifeboat, and Mary Stanford Green was not yet build. The River Rother, of course, was there; but Aisfords' wharf was not and timber ships unloaded regularly at Strand quay, while the old Scots Float Sluice had a quarter of a century's work still to do.
Good luck to Sarah and her colleagues; the result of their project has to go in - in the form of 20 computer pages - at the end of this term, but we look forward to reporting on the work before then, when it goes on display first in the school.
The coffee morning at the Ferry Road Clinic tomorrow (Thursday) is in aid of an appeal for equipment at the special baby-care unit at the Buchanan Hospital - apnoea monitors. What monitors, you may well ask? We did, and the answer is that these machines, which cost well over £200 each, are for use with premature babies and others considered to be at special risk from cot death; wired to the cot, they bleep an alarm if the baby stops breathing. A group of young mothers in Rye is trying to help the appeal, started by a Pett mother who lost her own baby in this way; they all have small children of their own, which makes running fundraising events rather a problem, so if anyone has any good ideas for raising money which can be combined with raising a family, please let them know! If you can't get to tomorrow's coffee morning but would like to help, leave a note at the Clinic for Mrs. Mills.
We now have the detailed results of the Red Cross Week appeal in Rye and District. The house-to-house collection in Rye raised £358, and in the villages (16 in all, stretching right out to Bodiam) E1,485. The 1984 figures were £269 and £1,386 respectively. The 1984 flag-day figure of £231 was comfortably topped by the £270 proceeds of the two events at the Red Cross Centre arranged to replace it this year. (Which makes one wonder whether flag-days are really worth the hassle?)
5.
The town's 1985 Carnitval Queen, chosen at the Oasis on Saturday evening, is Rachel Abbott, 18, whose home is in New England Lane. At one time a receptionist at the George Hotel, Rachel now works as a printer (yes, really!) in Tunbridge Wells, but is all set to represent Rye at Hastings Carnival on 20 July, Bexhill Carnival the following week, and then of course at Rye Carnival on 3 August. Rachel's maids of honour- are Danielle Reed, reprographics assistant, of Hastings, and Litisha Whited, shop supervisor, of Northiam.
Hearty congratulations to Guy Simpson, of Mermaid Street, a member of the team of six catering students: from Brighton Technical College which came top against keen competition in the recent "Taste of Britain" contest. This was for student caterers from all over the country, and was sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board and the "Caterer andHotel Keeper"; one of the judges was a real live Earl (of Arundel). Unfortunately Guy's mother can't remember the names of the dishes the team cooked (the competition took place before Easter), but it was a four-course meal of mediaeval dishes. Last week the team went to London to celebrate - tea at the Ritz was followed by dinner at Langan's Brasserie, and next day Akunch at the Dorchester included an introduction to the head chef. Each member 2 the team also received a handsome set of kitchen knives, and the College received, says Carolyn, "a fat cheque".
If, when he has finiahed his college course, Guy comes back to one of Rye's hotels or restaurants to continue his career, we hope we may be allowed to tell readers - particularly if he is inspired to produce mediaeval dishes for our delectation.
Rye Library's local history collection has acquired a large number of photographs covering some 70 years of life in the town. They were accumulated by Jim Hollands in the days when he started "Rye's Own", passed on to Chris Dayson who took over from him in the early 1970s, and have now come to rest in their proper home. Naturally they include some of "Rye's Own" press photographs of current events - and a lot of our prominent citizens looked very different 20 years ago! But there are also much older photographs which were presumably given to Mr. Hollands for use in the magazine - group photographs and views which are now of historical interest. - For instance, three pictures show the north side of Cinque Ports Street; one has thestaff of Walter Stocks outside the old shop, roughly where rediffusion is now; one shows the adjoining terrace of cottages; and the third L,ne same terrace made over into the present shop, then very new and shiny. When?
As well as a preview of the photographs, the local history group heard from Alan Dickinson about developments at Millers/Anglia, and also about the work on the corner of Market Road - the party wall between Doodle and the bookshop turns out to be 1920s brickwork, and the earlier plaster ceiling continues straight across above it, as it did when Milsoms had one large shop there. Building work in a private house at the top of the town had revealed an unsuspected 14th-century floor, with traces of a jettied frontage on both sides of the corner site.
Members of the group were all set to mount watch over the supermarket excavations, but it is apparently to be built on piles, so excavation will be minimal; the contractors have, however, agreed to allow the group to keep an eye on things as the work progresses.
Copies of the new summer bus timetable, which comes into effect on Sunday, should be obtainable from the Council Offices (and other agents) tomorrow. We mentioned in GAZETTE no. 128 the changes which affect Rye, but obviously bus users would do well to get a timetable and check for themselves.
The new train timetable came into effect on 13 May - and no complaints at all have reached the GAZETTE so far!
6.
This exercise, prompted by the reprint of "The War in East Sussex" is turning into a fascinating rag-bag of reminiscence, which we are anxious to record. It is becoming clear that since so many of the town's under-35s were not here in 1939/45 either away at school, in the Forces, or evacuated with their own small children the people who are able to tell us what Rye was like during the war are those who were then approaching middle-age and are now, of course... (well, let's not go into that!) This may account for why the local history group has had a very poor response for reminiscences from the Great War, 25 years earlier - though of course the clearance of the young from the town was nowhere near as thorough then.
Anyway, we have had more light thrown on National Savings collecting. Miss Hunt Jordan, who lived in Fishmarket Road, taught at the Ferry Road school, and she made it her responsibility to deal with all the school savings as well as those of adults - and in those wartime days people took a real pride in saving their spare cash rather than spending it, so there must have been quite a lot of money involved. Miss Jordan, like Mrs. Ashbee, had a framed certificate thanking her for her work; it seems likely that she ran the group covering the middle of the town.
A letter in last week's Sussex Express gives a vivid account of the bomb which demolished the Rye cinema. Mr. B. Funnell, of Cottars Ash, South Heighton, was driving past at the moment the bomb fell, on 18 September 1942 (six days after he got married, which is why he remembers). He and his mates helped to dig people out of the wreckage (it was fortunate that the cinema was not open at the time); he was lucky, a despatch-rider on a motorbike who was following the van was killed.
As well as running the Forces canteen, the WVS ladies were expected to be responsible for an emergency field kitchen. The cooking-stove for this lived in the Ferry Road playground, and on one memorable day there was an exercise down there, with various top brass present, at which the cooks were called on to demonstrate their skill. All went well to begin with; pans on top of the stove simmered away merrily. But when the time came to put the pastry in the oven, disaster loomed; something was wrong with the flue, and that oven just would not heat up. In the end the shamefaced cooks had to sneak in to Mrs. Bennett, who was preparing the school dinners in comfort indoors, and beg the hospitality of her oven for their pie! Perhaps it was just as well that the field kitchen was never actually needed for a real emergency...
The mystery of the canteen for civilians is a mystery no longer, thanks to Mrs. Monk of Tillingham Avenue. Then May Hatter, she had been doing her stint at Miss Warren's canteen in Whitefriars, when she was persuaded - with no previous large-scale experience - into cooking for a new canteen just across the road in the Monastery, then a public hall. This was the canteen for civilians, and though Mrs. Monk says that the figure of a thousand meals a day quoted in the booklet is ludicrous, they were kept busy producing a mid-day meal only for the people left on their own in the town, including some of the High Street shopkeepers. Mrs. Monk has preserved two issues of a leaflet entitled "Bachelor's Budget" which at some (undated) period appeared weekly and was apparently distributed to a close-knit circle of friends, all of whom used the canteen regularly. It was "published by the Order of the Celibates under the Direction of the Prior, Brother Hiram, Edited by Brother Benedict" - and it is very entertaining reading, full of elaborate in-jokes about absent wives, the perils of housekeeping, and Food. We quote: "Will the Brothers who partook of Baked Jam Roll on Friday of last week exercise the utmost precaution during the next few days particularly when indulging in a bath!" ... and so on. The Brothers are referred to only by their Christian names - Arthur, Oswald, George, Eddy, Hubert, David, Frank and Hiram. Frank was surnamed Smith, and wrote a verse (too long to reproduce) concealing the surnames of the others. It would be interesting to know who they were, and in particular Benedict, the author of this cheerful and appealing nonsense, who gave up the editorial chair when "the co-signatory of the Editor's marriage lines" was due home and he could lock forward to "a nice fire waiting for me at the end of the day, the slippers aired, and my shoes locked away so that I can't break loose with the Prior". Happy days, sometimes…
7.
• The Royal School of Needlework, in Princes Gate, London, has a training scheme for for apprentices and YTS students. This is to be featured on Sunday evening (26th) in the BBC2 programme "Debut" at 7.50, and Rye people may specially like to watch since at least one Rye girl is a student at the school - Virginia Festing, of the High Street - though she tells us she is not, as far as she knows, appearing in the programme.
• We are very pleased to report that Mrs. June Homard, late of Lower School office, and her husband Ted have emigrated most successfully to Wales. June's mother Mrs. Paine tells us that they have a bungalow at Tregarnon, Dyfedd (near Aberystwyth), and are finding it very much to their liking; everyone round them speaks Welsh, but the Homards have received nothing but kindness from their new neighbours, who all come to visit them and are making them feel very welcome indeed.
• Mrs. Eileen Bennett, group chairman of Rye WI Group, has sent us a report on the Spring Meeting at Rye Harbour last week. Over 80 members heard about the Group's successful and interesting activities during the past months, which of course include the WI Market. Mrs. Houghton, VCO, told of the delights to come at the WI County Event at Herstmonceaux Castle in September; she was followed by Mr. Downs, a senior driving examiner whose account of his experiences had members in tears - of laughter, we are glad to say. Rye Harbour members served a delicious supper, and the Group cookery competition was won Beckley WI, which has joyed a particularly successful year.
• In the 1940 Rye Directory, Cyprus Place is listed as "Old Foundry"; the present street name is given merely as one of the four terraces which make up the road. Can anyone tells us more about this? Presumably there was once a foundry there; but when? - and where?
• Crime: a ripsaw and claw hammer, together with the padlock, were stolen from a work-site caravan on the Nature Reserve on the night of 7/8 May. On 11/12 May, the two front wheels of a Datsun pick-up parked near the Tollgate Garage were stolen, the truck being left up on wooden blocks. Next day an electric fencing unit was stolen from East Guldeford. A radio and recording equipment has been taken from a locked car in the Ambulance Station car park.
The press book also contains a warning directed to anyone with the surname PEARCE. It seems that a con-man using a Hammersmith address is writing to people of this name offering to research their claim to money under a will, for a fee of 212.50. Hammersmith police are investigating; but if you get a letter of this kind, please take it to the police station. (Presumably the same applies to any other letters, whoever they are addressed to, asking for money under these highly suspicious circumstamces.)
• More nature notes. The trees in the churchyard are at their best just now The two copper beeches are in pale terra-cotta leaf; the big fir tree seems to have got over its nasty experience two winters ago when the top blew off, and now looks very healthy; the early cherry-tree has finished its spectacular flowering, but others were at their peak last week and the gutters at the top of the town were full of pink blossom on a windy day. Only the big clumps of evergreens (bays?) are looking rather miserable - but not half as miserable as the Badger Gate yuccas, which seem to have given up entirely (unless perhaps Rather has secret information about their viability?). The two pink cherry-trees in Lower School, planted when it was a primary school, are better than ever this year; but the most remarkable tree in the town at the moment is another cherry, in the corner of the Baptists' Burying Ground. Most of its branches are smothered in double pink flowers; but one (emerging from some distance up the trunk) has single white ones!
• About this time of year, we remind our readers who collect their GAZETTE from a pickup point that if they are going on holiday and let us know in advance, we will gladly keep their copies here and del;iver the whole batch on their return - rather than have them lying about for several weeks cluttering up the pick-up points storage arragements, or possibly even getting mislaid.
Coffee morning (cakes, raffle, etc.) in aid of baby-monitor equipment for the Buchanan, Clinic, 10 to 11.30 (see page 4)
Ken Warren, MP, speaks at meeting arranged by TPS PTA, Upper School, 7.30 (GAZETTE no. 130)
Exhibition of Ethiopian Crosses, Playden Church, 10 to 5 (also on Sunday, 2 to 5, and Monday, 10 to 5) - GAZETTE no. 130 Women's British Legion coffee morning for Poppy Appeal (cup-and- saucer stall, nearly new, and cakes, etc.), Red Cross, 10.30 Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5
Romney Marsh Footsloggers "Fun Run" races, Gateborough Farm (off Winchelsea Road), first race 3 pm
Rye St. John Ambulance members run tea-shop at Norton's Farm, near Sedlescombe (farm walk, museum, etc.)
Pentecost birthday party for the Church as a whole, St. Mary's, 3 to 5.30
Bishop Cormac, RC Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, preaches at United Service at Baptist Church, 6.30
Bank Holiday - but no local events at all, apparently, except for the Ethiopian Crosses exhibition at Playden Church (see Saturday).
The WRVS lunch club will not meet.
• Congratulations to Mary and Pat Bonham, of Winchelsea Road, whose son Peter Ralph was born on 19 May - a brother to Anna, Clare and James.
• The League of Friends of Rye Memorial Hospital acknowledge with gratitude the gift of £300 collected by the Rye Harbour Social Club.
• The recent coffee morning for SSAFA raised £45.
• Bowls: on Saturday Rye won at home against Peasmarsh, and on Sunday they lost away to Tenterden.
• Has anyone a dropside cot which they no longer require? If so, the NSPCC inspector who covers our area would be very glad of it. Ring Anne Wood.
• Tickets for the Mencap Spring Draw (GAZETTE no. 129) are selling fast, and the remaining few will be on sale at Rye Market tomorrow. All supporters are invited to the George Hotel on Bank Holiday Monday at 11 am when the draw will be made.
• LWT arrive in Rye on Tuesday to film location scenes for the second "Mapp and Lucia" series. That afternoon they will be out at Camber on the beach, and then for three days in Watchbell Street. For the next fortnight (not weekends) they will be working at the top of the town, except for Thursday 13th when they go out to "Grebe" (Point Farm, Camber Road), and the-previous Friday (7th) when startled motorists may encounter them filming 1930s cyclists around Rye and Winchelsea!
• Planning: the current list shows a change of colour to dark green for the doors at Tower Forge House, and alterations to a house at the top of Udimore Road. We would like to congratulate Banisters, ironmongers, on their smart new paint, and Rother's Parks staff on the turfing and steps at the new slide on the Salts.
• Al]. the sponsorship money for the Pancake Race in February is now in, and the Community Centre expects to have made a profit of about £450 - a big increase on last year.
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 are available from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, and back numbers from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1985)