SUBSCRIPTIONS for the next quarter are due at the end of the month.Since we shall print only on alternate Wednesdays during August, there will be 11 issues in the 13 weeks.If you paid half-yearly in March, or pro rata later, your copy should be ticked beside your name and you need do nothing further.(If it is not ticked and you think it should be, please ring Rye 222303 as soon as possible so that we can check - your receipt would help.)
If your copy is not ticked, please send £2.75, either by cheque (payable to THE RYE GAZETTE) or in cash (in an envelope with your name and address/pick-up point on it) to 2 Cyprus Place by Sunday, 30 June, to make sure of receiving the 3 July issue. Receipts will go out with that issue.
The NSPCC Summer Fair at the FE Centre on Saturday took over £1,000 - and made a profit of £948, £100 up on last year. One anonymous donor handed over a £50 note. Beryl Rixon, Anne Wood and their committee are most grateful to all helpers and supporters (including Mrs. Ruby Barling who embroidered the delightful tiny cross-stitch name badges for each member of the large committee).
The same day, the Multiple Sclerosis Society raised the remarkable sum of 2616 from its street collection in the town (most flag-days produce £200-£300, but MS didn't also have a house-to-house collection). The ten-strong Rye contingent was reinforced by members from the Hastings end; 36 people were involved in the collection, and three of them offered their tins from wheelchairs - Kath Elworthy with the enthusiastic assistance of two very young helpers from the Swiss Patisserie! Elizabeth Goldsworthy tells us that although Rye is part of the Hastings Branch they can usually arrange that money raised in the Rye area is used for the benefit of our local MS sufferers - and this includes the use of the Society's specially-adapted minibus for outings, etc. If this is not full, the group is sometimes able to offer seats to other local disabled people - some of whom on Saturday paid back the Society's kindness by helping with the flag-day.
Many months ago Rye WRVS was invited to produce an entrant for the WRVS national "unsung heroine" search: HQ was seeking to honour the pick of those who had given service beyond the call of duty to their local branches. Sheila Barton showed the letter without comment to her helpers.Every one of them reacted in the same way - "Louie Cotton, of course!".
A slightly reluctant Miss Cotton worked out the hours she spends over a year on WRVS business: 312 on Meals on Wheels, 104 at the Welfare Clinic, and well over 200 shopping for neighbours under the domiciliary care scheme. Mrs. Barton added it up, and reckoned a total of 625 hours a year - for almost 16 years. (And this doesn't include Miss Cotton's work as cashier for the WI Market, which is not of course the business of the WRVS.)
They sent off the form, and nothing happened. In fact they had all forgotten about it when a letter came last week. Miss Cotton, who lives in Ferry Road, is one of just four WRVS members in all East Sussex who are to be awarded certificates. We are proud to offer her the congratulations of the town.
The presentation will be made on 3 July in Hastings by the national Chairman of the WRVS, who is visiting East Sussex that day. Sussex Express/East Sussex News, kindly note - we'd all like to see a photograph, please.
Miss Mabel Bourne, of Pottingfield Road, died in her sleep in St. Helen's Hospital on 13 June after a very brief illness; she was 87. Miss Bourne was one of a family of 13, brought up in Winchelsea Road, the daughter of a fisherman who had earlier worked on paddle-steamers. She lived most of her life in the town, employed as housekeeper by various Rye people over the years, including the Radclyffe Hall/Lady Troubridge household, but for a time she worked at St. Margaret's Bay when Mrs. Aldington of the Mermaid had a hotel there. Miss Bourne leaves six brothers and sisters younger - but not much younger - than herself. The funeral takes place tomorrow at Hastings ,drematorium at 3.
The Town Council by-election
We would remind readers that voting takes place on Thursday week, 27 June, at the Ferry Road and FE Centre polling stations as usual (depending, of course, on where you live). The count will take place the same evening in the Town Hall. Because there are so many candidates, the election will be quite expensive to run; so do please make an effort to turn out and vote, to justify this expenditure on democracy! A really high poll would not only astonish Rather Council, which conducts the election, but also be a good omen for 1987 when the full Council is due for re-election.
The nine candidates for the single seat are (in alphabetical order): "Ringo" Chapman, John Ciccone, Bob Deacon, Simon Earl, Gerry Fortsch, Jean Freeman, Colin Marsh, Bill Nelhams and Victor Watts. See GAZETTE no. 133 for details.
Now that British Rail has sorted out our evening train service from London so effectively by the introduction of the 18.16 from Ashford, connecting so tidily th the 16.55 fast down from Charing Cross, and the retiming of the later trains, we wonder if they can do something about the mornings for next year's timetable?
We are not talking about the early-morning commuter trains, but the first train eligible for a day-return fare, the 8.1+5. This gets to Ashford at 9.09, and if there were a decent connection travellers would be in London not long after 10.00. As it is, everyone has to twiddle their thumbs for half-an-hour until 9.35, and they don't reach London until 10.37. The 8.45 replaced the excellent 8.35 plus the 9.15 (which would now be the 9.06) last May, and is a very bad bargain. Agreed, the Thomas Peacocke children from Hastings and Three Oaks come on it, but they don't have to be at school by 8.45, and there aren't very many of them anyway. Couldn't we have a compromise of, say, an 8.55 train to Ashford - which would at least be comparable with driving there direct to get the 9.35?
You go into Rye Goldsmiths. There is a fluffy black bundle asleep on a towel in one corner. "Aaah, what a dear little kitten" you say, and bend to stroke it; whereupon it arises to its full height of ten inches - and flaps its wings at you!
Sally Todd likes ducks, and Sir Francis Drake (now a month old) came from East Indies breeders at Wittersham - though he may have to be renamed Lady Frances if his teenage tail turns out not to have a manly curl to it. In the best tradition of "King Solomon's Ring" he regards Sally as mum, and follows her about the place; he has a washing-up bowl in the sunny yard at the back, but once Sally goes indoors he abandons his waterborne pursuit of one foot and hastily waddles after her, chirruping. At night he has a proper swim, in the big bath... Like all small creatures, he has a passion for putting things in his mouth - every fallen flower-petal or passing ant is investigated, and there was an occasion when Sally and Mrs. Smith waited with bated breath lest he would find a purloined cufflink sufficiently palatable to swallow. (Wisely, he didn't.)
Unkind remarks about including plenty of oranges in Sir Francis's diet "to improve the flavour" are treated with the scorn they deserve; he is, says Sally firmly, a friend and not an embryo Christmas dinner!
3.
Peter Hall, on behalf of the London Weekend Television cast and crew, says farewell and thank-you to Rye - or rather, au reservoir, since most of them were so taken with the place that they intend coming back here as private people before long. He himself expects to be back within the month. He tells us that the first "Mapp and Lucia" series has already been sold to New Zealand, Canada and Holland (and Ireland, who had it before we did), and that the USA sale is merely a question of which network gets it. He has even heard of a set of home video tapes taken out to Uganda by a private resident, which is doing the rounds of the expatriate community there.
Nearer home, he has left two VHS tapes, one with the first three episodes and one with the remaining two, with Alan Sinden at the Hope Anchor Hotel, so that Rye people who missed an episode and have access to a video can catch up; just ask Alan at the hotel. The new series is likely to go out early next year.
Mr. Hall hopes within the next fortnight to have tidied up all the loose ends left in Rye by the filming, but if anyone has a problem still unresolved they can either ring him in London or leave a message at the Hope Anchor, which will be passed on to him.
We spoke recently to the Secretary of the E F Benson Society, some of whose members came to Rye to watch the filming at the end of last month. This Society was formed last November for "the furtherance of the knowledge and appreciation of the Benson family and in particular E F Benson and his works" - it will be seen that this implies a wider interest than that of the Tilling Society, which is primarily concerned with the novels set in Rye.
Allan Downend tells us that his members all came to Benson via the Mapp and Lucia books, but then wanted to find out more about the author and his unusual family. They hope to hold at least one event each quarter to bring members together for a talk, etc., on some aspect of Benson's life and work, and to organise outings to places of Benson interest. Their first 1985 event was a talk by prod=er Michael Dunlop on the problems of filming "Mapp and Lucia", and they were very grieved to learn of his death a few days later. Next month there is a picnic and visit to Marlborough College, where Benson was at school from 1881 to 1887; in October Gwen Watkins talks to members about the relationship between Benson and his mother. Fringe activities include a Benson cook-book; a Benson library at Lamb House; and "Benson afternoons" at members' houses, perhaps leading to e'-he production of a journal.
At present the Society's membership is mostly based in London and Bath, so its events (whichmay include a fancy dress party early in the New Year) tend to be based there too. But we hope that perhaps they will be tempted down to Rye in strength before long, when we shall of course report further. In the meantime, they would welcome new members: the annual £5 membership fee includes a newsletter, and cheques payable to the E F Benson Society should be sent to Allan Downend at 88 Tollington Park, London N.4.
Back in April we referred to the search conducted by Geoffrey Baxter of Hastings, who is trying to map all the plane crashes in Kent and Sussex during WW2. He has had a good response to the various media airings of this daunting project, including a very useful one from Rye. He tells us now that he and fellow-enthusiasts have founded the Sussex Aviation Historical Research Society, twinning with a similar one already established in Kent. It aims to record all aspects of aviation in the county - at this end to begin with, though perhaps expanding westwards as the membership grows - and Mr. Baxter asks us to say that if anyone has any documents on the subject the Society would be glad either to give them safe keeping, or to photocopy them for its archive. The Secretary is Mr. G. Collins, 28 Ashford Road, Hastings, and the membership fee is £5 p.a. If you have relevant papers, or would like to join the Society, do please contact him.
Two public notices in the Sussex Express last week highlight a remarkable situation at one end of the High Street.
Two cafes will be applying on 3 July for a Justices' Licence to sell drink for consumption on the premises, the Black Boy at no. 4 and Shades at no. 7. We thaght it would be interesting to survey this stretch of road. Shades is on the Conduit Hill corner, with the Customs House offices between it and the Monastery Hotel and Restaurant. Next door comes the Rye Tandoori Indian restaurant, then Butler & Hatch Waterman's office, the Black Boy, two small shops, the Mayflower Chinese Restaurant and finally the Ironmongers Extraordinary. (In the cellar of the Ironmongers is yet another restaurant, the Bistro, but they are
shortly moving to the Landgate anyway.) Of these ten properties, five house catering establishments at one level or another, and three already have licences to sell drink with meals.
Then we noticed something else.
The Monastery, Tandoori and Mayflower all of course display their names and menus. But we were startled to observe that Shades and the Black Boy between them have outside, during the day, a totaled fourteen advertising signs and symbols of various descriptions! Since readers will probably not believe us, we list what -, we saw on Saturday afternoon.
Shades has had for some time two plastic milk churns advertising ice-cream, now attached to its facade clear of the pavement beside the door. But it now obstructs the pavement with two free-standing signs set sideways to the wall, one advertising ice-cream and one displaying its menu; and on its Conduit Hill wall there has recently been erected a hanging sign advertising the sale of tea, coffee, ice-cream and snacks. (It also has a normal fascia board, and lettered windows.)
The Black Boy, with a much smaller frontage, chooses to decorate its originally attractive facade with the following: one ordinary hanging sign with its name; one large framed menu attached to the wall; an ice-cream banner jutting out from the wall, and an appendage to this which says "Open" and fails to clear the heads of tall pedestrians; a small plastic sign, also saying "Open", beside the (open) door; a second small plastic sign saying "Morning Coffee"; and a third plastic sign, particularly striking, indicating that "Cold Drinks and Ices" were being sold from the window below it. In addition there was an old brown enamel teapot slung under the original hanging sign. (Perhaps it isn't really fair to include in this list the Radclyffe Hall plaque, which is not their fault.) They also have a free-standing ice-cream advertisement obstructing the narrow pavement.
Is all this really necessary, in the Conservation Area? It would be fine down at Camber, but does Rye really want it in the High Street?
Two Rye applications this week, both involving words rather than bricks and mortar. Bob Deacon is asking permission to have "Dental Surgery's lettered on the first- floor windows of his High Street premises. The National Trust would like to erect a commemorative plaque to the Benson brothers, EF and AC, on the garden wall of Lamb House (they are loth to put it on the house itself.They suggest a slate plaque 19" x 16i" to read - in elegantly-spaced lettering carved by Michael Renton - "In Lamb House lived E F BENSON from 1919 to 1940 and A C BENSON from 1922 to 1925. Brothers and writers."
Not clashing with anything this year, as far as we know, is the annual opera production at the Community Centre given on Sunday 30 June at 2.45 by Blackheath Opera. For several years now this group has met at Springfield Court to give a final polish to its show, culminating in a performance which is a preliminary to the main event back home in Blackheath. It is the only chance ever to see a full costume production of an opera in Rye. This year the work chosen is Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" - a long-established favourite. Tickets at the door or from The Mint Gallery, £2 or £1.50 concessionary. Don't miss it.
5.
In percentage terms, attendance at the Annual Town Meeting rose dramatically from last year; on Tuesday night there were 15 members of the public at the Town Hall, whereas there had been just two in 1984. Five of the election candidates turned up: Ringo Chapman, John Ciccone, Jean Freeman, Colin Marsh and Bill Nelhams. We have no space to record in full the reports of the Mayor and the chairman of the various committees - anyway, many of the things they referred to have already been dealt with in the GAZETTE; but it was interesting to have a year of the town's history summarised into an hour or so. Joan Yates had a meeting at Lewes, and sent a written report as County Councillor; George Shackleton, the only Rother Councillor present, picked out some Rye items from the year's work at Bexhill; his care for the interests of the ratepayer is well known, and he told the meeting that he has been referred to as "Mr. Nyet of Rother's eastern bloc"!
Then it was the turn of the general public. Questions were asked and points made for the Council's consideration on the possibility of a better layout for the Gun Garden car park; the maintenance of the cobbles; advertising boards cluttering up the pavements (see page 4 in this context) - the Mayor suggested that the proper way of dealing with this was to give it a good kick and then complain to the police about the obstruction! Street lighting was mentioned, a state of the garden behind the Town Hall, the shortage of seats on Hilder's Cliff, the need for a displayed list of Town Council members. There was strong feeling about the dangers of crossing New Road, where residents want a pedestrian crossing; the Mayor produced a police leaflet inviting suggestions to 'increase safety on the roads - this would clearly be one way of doing so.
Perhaps the last word goes to Mrs. Bromley: "Let us make it our aim to see that no visitor leaves Rye without an earnest desire to return here as soon as he can!"
What looked briefly like high drama in Tiilingham Avenue early on Sunday morning turned out to be the pursuit of the driver of a stolen car, who had left it in the Market and made off across the railway. The police - four cars and a dog van were there - searched the undergrowth beside the footpath, but were unable to find the man.
Other crime is almost entirely nautical this week. £251-worth of damage was done to a boat near Star Lock on the night of 7/8 June, when someone cut through the canvas cover and damaged the door fastening; the same night, a £230 radio oms stolen from a fishing-boat at the Salts by a thief who forced open the wheel-use. Also missing is a 12' fibreglass dinghy worth £250 with the words
"Tender to RX 130 Our Jen" on the transom. Forged large-denomination notes are thought to be in the area; watch for £50s numbered 528526346, and for 20s numbered H 35375282 and H 35875292.
The peak season for thefts from cars approaches; please, say the police, don't leave valuables lying in your vehicle for all to see.
The new exhibition in the High Street gallery brings together three artists whose work has been admired in Rye before: Wendy Jones, Mick Petts and Patrick Crouch. Mick Petts, the furniture-maker, was not able to provide as much material as had been hoped, but two of his black-and-white coffee tables in the downstairs gallery were chosen to match Wendy Jones's geometrically-patterned rugs in newsprint colours, while the black is repeated again in some of Patrick Crouch's sculptures in both wood and clay. Patrick Crouch is very concerned with hands at present - large and small, they figure in semi-abstract form both in his drawings and his three-dimensional work in the Craft Gallery. Another of Mick Petts's coffee, in lighter wood and at two levels, accompanies Wendy Jones's rugs shown upstairs, this time in more cheerful colours and a variety of squared and oblong patterns. Each of her rugs is individually designed, and made up in linen and worsted, super-thick and obviously intended as an investment.
6.
The first year - £3,500 and a minibus!
In the George Hotel ballroom last Wednesday, a jubilant Vickie Piper reported on the "very satisfactory" first year's work of the Rye & District Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults - shortly to be known more conveniently as the Rye Branch of Mencap. At the AGM she spoke of the holiday play-scheme, which allows 7 children aged between 5 and 16 to use Hill House School premises during the holidays; brothers and sisters come along to help, but they do need a playgroup leader (this would be a paid job). The six committee members and their friends organised four fund-raising events in Rye, plus last summer's charity shop (they would like another one this summer, but can't find suitable premises - any offers?). In 1984/5, up to the date of the audited accounts at the end of April, they had raised 21,200, with a further £1,000-plus in donations; including money raised since then, they have now achieved a net total of 22,949 since the group was set up in July of last year.
A Christmas party held by Leasam House pupils for the children was a great success and they have hopes of a repeat; and Mrs. Piper acknowledged the support her group had received from Social Services, and also from Thomas Peacocke School.
The big news was, of course, the minibus (GAZETTE no. 155), due to be handed over tomorrow in Hastings. As well as this, they had just received a cheque from the BBC's Children in Need appeal for 2500, which would be spent on taking the children for outings - in the new minibus, of course.
Mrs. Piper said that the Society must now get out into the villages, and they would want the help of members living outside Rye. She also spoke of the need to do something for mentally handicapped young people, those who leave school at 19. There was a need for a training and employment centre in Rye, and she proposed the organisation of a simple gardening service which would prove useful to the high elderly population of the area, working under the supervision of a team leader. This had been tried in other areas and found to work well; indeed, some of the customers had formed real friendships with their young employees. She wondered if part of the Hill House site could be used for such a scheme, and kept on even when the hospital finally closed? The meeting thoroughly endorsed the idea, and enquiries will be pursued.
There will be no local playscheme in the summer, but the new minibus will take over to Hastings those who would like to join in a scheme arranged there for two weeks in August.
A discussion about the coffee morning at the Town Hall on 29 June, to be held jointly by the Mencap group, Hill House School and Hill House Hospital, was enlivened by the Mayor, who as President was in the chair. All this talk about hanging rails, he said, reminded him that there was a gibbet in the Town Hall attic just waiting for anyone who dared to stick things to the newly-painted walls...
Thanks were expressed in the course of the meeting to Mrs. Piper; to Mrs. Sheila Beeton of Iden, the secretary, and to Mr. Harold Pearce" of Udimore Road, the treasurer, and the rest of the committee, who must all be congratulated most heartily on a remarkable first year. The group's membership is just 54 - and look what they have achieved so far!
A great many people in the town are by nat aware of the strong - and, we would think, welcome - rumour which is circulating about the identity of the new supermarket's proprietors. It is tempting to offer the name simply as rumour; but we are a respectable newspaper, and we won't. The Editor has been in touch with the developers' agent and with a director of the firm concerned, and they both say the same thing: until the day the documents are actually signed, there is nothing which can properly be printed. (And that day, we gather, in fact still depends on a third party.) Sorry to be so mysterious; but at least you now know we are doing our best.
• Rye Fire Brigade zoomed down Rye Harbour Road at lunch-time on Monday to deal with a spillage from a tanker offloading a solvent (Xylene) at Long Products. Between two and four hundred litres was spilt - fortunately in the open air, since the chemical can be a real danger indoors - and had to be mopped up with sand before it was loaded into drums and removed to a chemical disposal site elsewhere. Firemen wore breathing apparatus, and were there from 12.30 to 3. The special chemical unit from Eastbourne had been automatically dispatched, but Rye firemen had the problem under control so fast that when the Fire Officer from Hastings arrived he took one look and radioed the Eastbourne unit to go home again.
• Down on the Salts on Saturday the Rye Ambulance Social Club had a very successful Boot Fair, with 43 cars turning up, mostly lured by the good weather. The final arithmetic had not been done when we asked, since there were expenses to be deducted, but the Club reckons to have made a profit of somewhere between £200 and E250 - as well as providing an entertaining port of call for Saturday visitors and locals.
• The Eastbourne Mutual Building Society office now has copies of the new issue of "Sussex Scene", the Radio Sussex newspaper, which contains a lot of material of .10°.
Eastbourne/Brighton interest but does have a "Fact File" with various addresses, phone numbers, wavelengths and timings, plus a guide to the current weekly programme layout. There are also forms for putting events in the Events Diary, broadcast at 7.25 and 8.25 Monday to Friday (medium wave), and for getting a record request played.
• Rye WI members went away feeling extra creative after the June talk from Mrs. Croker on plants to grow for flower arranging; she brought samples with her, and provided lots of new ideas.The meeting got double vlaue, since Mrs. Croker's talk was followed by the postponed one from Mrs. Oliver, "Monica's Cures from the Nineteenth Century", dealing with medicine before the days of antibiotics and innoculations.
• The Tourist Office recently received an enquiry from Birmingham about a beer festival, said to have been advertised in that region as taking place at Salts Farm, near Rye, at the end of June.News to them; news to us; and also news to Alan Catt of Salts Farm, who says there could be some very disappointed beer-drinkers! The police have heard nothing about it; we even bothered Mrs. Winter at Saltbarn Farm, who was equally puzzled. She suggested it might be something hpening on the Salts - but Rother knows nothing. Can anyone throw any light?
• The official opening of the Rye Harbour Lifeboat House takes place on Saturday, 6 July. Joan Parkes has spent the past week typing out a thousand invitations and their envelopes - one a minute, she says. We asked what happened if they all accepted; she just shuddered, and went on typing!
We have two more babies to add to the very short list of those born actually in the town in recent years (GAZETTE no. 132). Abigail Simpson was born in Mermaid Street in 1975, and Carol Turner in Lea Avenue in 1980. The grand total so far is four in eleven years.
• "Health's Fun in Rye and Battle" says a press release from the Health Promotion Unit in Hastings, reporting on something called the Great British Fun Run. This is a Round Britain Relay, and by the time the runners get to Hastings they will have completed more than 2,000 miles of their journey from one Health Fair to another in a whole series of towns. The Hastings Fair is on the Central Cricket Ground tomorrow. Next day they continue on into Kent, with the Strand Garage at Winchelsea as a relay changeover stage; if you see them going through Rye on Friday, "why not give them a cheer, some of them have been running for a month!" says the handout. We wish them luck; but some of us have other things to do...
• Just room for a reminder about renewing your GAZETTE subscription - see the top of page 1 for details.
Choir of First Congregational Church, Palo Alto, California, sings evensong at St. Mary's, 6
Local History Group - Barry Funnell's slides oZ Rye Harbour, Library, 7.30
Rye Conservation Society AGM (members only) - speaker, Kenneth Warren MP - Town Hall, 7.30
Catholic Church coffee morning and sale, FEC, 10.30 to 12
riends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve guided walk, RB car park$ 10 (on a Saturday instead of Sunday by request)
Open gardens (National Gardens Scheme) - Lamb House and 18 Church Square, afternoon
• The editorial typewriter saw fit to assume the mantle of prophecy last week in our congratulations to Anne and Paul Davies of East Street on the arrival of their son; Dominic was of course born on 4 June.Apologies!
• The Social Services lunch-time group tomorrow will see a video on "Caring for the Carers", about helping those looking after dependent relatives.
• Bowls: Rye played away twice last week, and lost both matches: to the Alexandra Park team, and to the Civil Service at the White Rock.
• On Friday week, 28 June, Rye Young Farmers hold their Annual Strawberry Ball at Thomas Peacocke Upper School from 8 to 1. There will be dancing to a live group, Misty, and the ticket includes strawberries and cream. Tickets @ 22.50 are available from Patrick Channon (Beckley 458) or Brian Todd (Beckley 461).
• Dancers may also like long notice of the VJ-Day Dance which the Women's British Legion will be organising at Thomas Peacocke on 10 August - tickets from Camiers.
• Even wearing her strongest glasses, the Editor failed to find any local names in the Birthday Honours list published at the weekend. If anyone with Rye connections has been honoured, we hope someone will tell us so that we can offer congratulations next week.
• Travel on Sunday (23rd) is complicated by engineering work outside Ashford Station. The press release from BR isn't very clear, but we would recommend anyone travelling in either direction from Rye that day to check journey tim- in advance (Hastings 429325). BR also apologises for noise at night along the line between Ashford and Rye next Wednesday (26th).
• "A star cast at the Old Vic", we were told; in fact it was the Old Vic-arage in East Street, where Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales and her husband Timothy West, and Nigel Hawthorn dined just before tilming in the tow• n ended.
• Finding itself with some extra money in a particular pocket during the current financial year, Rother hopes to advance its plans and provide a "disabled loo" at the Strand before next April rather than during the following year. The loo for wheelchair users at the Community Centre is now open, and very commodious it is (unlike, it must be said, the others there - anyway, the Ladies!) Two tourists were studying the ward boundary paving slab at the corner of Cinque Ports Street and Wish Street. She wondered what it was. He knew it all: "The boundary between East and West Sussex", he assured her!
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 costa 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)