Today sees a big celebration for May and Jack Whiteman of 25 Cadborough Cliff; sixty years ago they were married in Hastings (and we do hope the weather was better then!) Mr. and Mrs. Whiteman came to Rye ten years ago from Hastings, on the recommendation of their daughter Jacqueline (Kingsmill) also of Cadborough Cliff; they have another daughter, and a grandchild. The Whitemans are regular members of the Monday Club, so doubtless there will be congratulations all round at the next meeting; in the meantime, we are delighted to offer those of the GAZETTE, and to wish Mr. and Mrs. Whiteman many more happy years at the top of the hill.
There can be few businesses with a £10,000 turnover which only function for half an hour, once a week, for nine months in the year. Rye WI Market has just joined that exclusive club; the figures presented to the Annual Meeting at the Community Centre on Friday showed total sales amounting to £10,697, with £9,626 going back to the producers - plus, if the accountants allow, a bonus out of the Market's £1,069 commission from which the various expenses are paid.
Mrs. Cramp, in her Controller's report, said it had been a most successful year, with plenty of outside visitors; there had been some interesting orders under the Gift Boxes scheme, including one from a family in Saudi Arabia for the Peasmarsh half-term hosts of their prep-school son. The pre-Christmas Market had record takings of £528 in its half-hour, though this did include a number of advance orders for Christmas goodies.
Mrs. Britton, VCMO - her arm in a sling, and nursing a doubtful throat - congratulated the members on their splendid results, and said what a pleasure it always was to come to the Rye Market; a happy Market, she said, with a happy Committee and a very good Controller.
Miss Dean is retiring as Market Chairman after several years in the job; she is succeeded by Mrs. Cecily Ingham, who remains Assistant Controller. Mrs. Cramp, Mrs. Holmes and Mrs. Bennett continue as Controller, Treasurer and Secretary respectively.
The first 1986 Market is on 14 March - as usual, at the Community Centre at 10.
The first of the planning projects which we outlined in GAZETTE no. 164 is now virtually a certainty; work started last week on the site for the Sports Centre. Fencing erected in the TPS playing-field in The Grove shows the eventual size of the building, beside the school; also fenced off, and currently under construction, is the approach road to be used by the contractors, William Ellis of Etchingham. Sensibly, instead of all the materials going in through the school gates, the temporary road enters the site beside the Scout Hut, and a hardcore track leads to the building area; whether the track stays after the work is finished (when the normal approach will be via the school and its car park) may depend on whether there is still room for the hockey pitch beside it.
People visiting the fund-raising event at the school on 22 March (for the Equipment Fund - see Anglia's window) will be able to check up for themselves on how the work is progressing.
Our MP, Ken Warren, has a surgery at the Council Offices on Friday of this week from 11.20 to 12.30. Appointments are normally made through the Hastings Conservative Association office (Hastings 423110), but since the notice is so short they tell us that people are welcome to turn up anyway and chance it, if they don't hear about it until too late to phone.
2.
A very cheerful contingent from the Ypres Castle pub spent a recent Sunday at a sports and social centre at New Eltham in North Kent - and brought back £259 for the local branch of the RNLI. Last summer Dick Pearce arranged a fancy- dress cricket match on the Salts with a team from Eltham (a group of their members have a boat here) for the benefit of the RNLI, and this was the return match. As well as fancy-dress football, the teams competed in snooker, welly- throwing, bottle-walking and brick-lifting (Dick Pearce and George Cole from the Wipers shared the record of 7 bricks). The Wipers team won overall, with 9 points to New Eltham's 8; Mr. Pearce is going to offer the opportunity for revenge at a similar event on the Salts in the course of the summer, also for the Rye branch of the RNLI.
What about Wee Nestie, we asked Mr. Pearce? The frost hasn't done the cliff any good, he told us; building work has stopped completely while a firm of civil engineers, Mackley from Brighton, erect some complex steel-work which is expected to make everything stable again.
Rother's draft Village Policy for Winchelsea Beach goes before the Planning Committee tomorrow. Icklesham Parish Council, which covers the Beach, is to be invited to "publicise and comment upon the draft Policy by 1 May 1986". But for those who would like to look at the draft for themselves, it will be available in the Cinque Ports Street Council offices from tomorrow (Agenda Item no. 7 in the plump green-and-yellow Planning Committee agenda); presumably comments from individuals should go to the Parish Council rather than to Rother direct. The Beach is not part of the GAZETTE'S patch, so we are not attempting to report on the document here; but it is interesting to note that whereas the permanent population is estimated at 650, it is thought to reach 6,800 at the height of summer:
• Apologies to those who rang the Eastbourne number we gave last week to report dud street lights; there will be a street lighting desk there, but not yet. In the meantime, the number to ring is Lewes 477666 - if you can get through. The backlog is apparently enormous, so even when you have reported something it may not be done for some time.
• Nothing has been done for some time about the Conduit Hill lights. There are three, one by the phone box and two more on the way up, and - unless they have recently been mended? - none of them works. The light in the High Street is just too far along to shine down the hill, and those in Cinque Ports Street are blocked by Devonport House and the surgery from shining up it. So you descend into pitch darkness - and a disconcerting encounter with the litter-bin which Rother so thoughtfully fastened, months ago, to the footpath side of the handrail!
• Work on the new gas main is getting along very well indeed; Mermaid Street is finished, the High Street is being tidied up, and today the team expects to move into Lion Street - the pipe is half-way up it already, having been threaded under the road through the old one. (They couldn't do this in the High Street, because the old main was laid too shallow - but traffic is less heavy in Lion Street.) If all continues to go well, says Segas's Mr. Baker who is the engineer in charge of the Rye job, they should have finished the major part of the work in about a fortnight, and even allowing for joining up the individual properties they hope to be done and departed in time for Easter.
• More urgent and less premeditated roadworks were taking place at the bottom of Rope Walk on Monday, when a JCB was summoned to deal with a major water-main break, first reported before mid-day. It was a real gusher,'just beside the level crossing, with water in neighbouring gardens, in full spate over the pavement and bubbling up expensively the breadth of the crossing and through cracks in the road surface. Households in The Grove, Eagle Road and part of Rope Walk were still without water on Monday evening, but the supply to the school was not affected.
3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 26 February 1986
The Town Council is most grateful to Mr. John Alsford, of J. Alsford Ltd., for renewing the lease of his premises in The Deals to the Rye Town Model, on the same generous terms as before. A peppercorn rent was what he charged the Council when the Model was first installed upstairs in one of the Alsfords buidlings, and he has now given the Council a lease for a further five years - and we gather that the equivalent of five peppercorns really is all he gets out of it! (Another version of these token rents is "one red rose" - perhaps it would be a courteous gesture if he were to be presented with this on Mayoring Day, to show the Council's appreciation?)
Until the lease was renewed, the Council was wary of spending the money made by the Model in case it should be required for new premises; its accounts are kept separately from the other Council spending. This may no alter, and we shall look forward to reporting further developments. But, money apart, the Model draws a great many visitors to the town, and it seems unlikely that they then promptly drive away again without having a meal or even a look round the shops, so it can be assumed that it brings trade generally; enquiries about visits come from abroad as well as from all over the country.
Brownies, Guides and Rangers in the Rye District now have a new Commissioner, Mrs. Heather Howard of The Grove. Mrs. Howard (nee Hall) was herself a Brownie and Guide, and became involved with the movement once more when her own daughters grew into it. She tells us that she is still "on probation", but we feel sure that the 1st Rye Brownies, whose Tawny Owl she has been, will give her an excellent reference. The District also has a new Secretary, Janice Gill of The Old Brick- yard; Janice started her first teaching job at Guestling in September, so she has useful contacts at both ends of the District.
Local Guiders met for an enjoyable dinner in Iden just before Christmas to make goodbye-and-thank-you presentations to the outgoing Commissioner, Mrs. Marion Rose of Pett, who is giving up after nine years, and to the Secretary, Miss Hilda Martin of The Mint.
About 90 Guides and Brownies enjoyed a Thinking Day party at the Community Centre on Saturday afternoon; part of the entertainment was a video recording of the Guide Movement's big birthday event at the Albert Hall, at which the TPS Guide choir were among the singers.
We shall in future be using this phrase to refer to the whole of the area once occupied by Magdala House and its grounds, which later became the Council offices and the clinic and the Civil Defence hut, and is owned partly by Rother and partly by the Health Authority. Playgroup mothers have been trying to find out for two years what Rother's plans were for the ageing Civil Defence hut where they meet every morning and most afternoons; so the committee was interested, to say the least, to read last week's item about the Housing Committee report. But there need be neither alarm nor despondency. If Rother does build a hall instead, it will be available for playgroup (and other) use; and nothing is likely to happen yet - "a report will be submitted to the relevant committees in due course". Playgroup chairman Mrs. Paine tells us that children are often put on the waiting-list at a few months old; parents of children who should be on the list and aren't should call round during a session and talk to Carol Igglesden.
Our report on the sheltered housing plans will have to wait until next week. But we did notice that in Mr. Catt's report, in the section dealing with the Day Centre (to be funded by ESCC), there is mention not only of a kitchen but of a medical/ hairdressing room and a bathroom. Will this leave enough room for the actual Day Centre on this cramped site? To our surprise, Barbara Wild tells us that the Day Centre team has not yet been invited to look at the plans - so she felt unable to comment. More lack of liaison?
4.
The Thomas Peacocke School production of "Pygmalion" now has tickets on sale at the school. The play is being presented on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 13-15 March, at 7.30 in the Upper School Hall, and tickets cost £1.25 for adults, 60p for children and old age pensioners. We would like to be able to say that tickets are also on sale elsewhere in the town, because it is not always easy for people to get down to the school between 12.30 and 1 on weekdays when the booking office sets up in the entrance hall; if anything is arranged, we will let you know next week. This is the production which the pupils are putting on without staff help (GAZETTE no. 161); please support them.
Rother Council meets tonight to decide on the rates for the coming year. The agenda includes a list of the rates applicable to every parish in the district, and we were sad to see that whereas most parishes (including Bexhill) are to pay less than 200p in the pound, Rye will be paying more than 202-p. The standard Rother rate is just over 197p, plus whatever additional items are chargeable to the particular parish. Our special expenses include money spent on "recreation grounds, gardens, open spaces, playgrounds, public seats, allotments, war memorial and closed churchyard", and on ancient monuments, and total £60,350 (1.9p). -The Bexhill special expenses total £801,770 net - but of course they are dividea among infinitely more ratepayers, which makes them work out at 2.7p on the Bexhill rate. Battle's special expenses come out at 3.5p, but their total rate is 2p less than Rye's.
What makes the difference for Rye is the 3.6p for "Town Council requirements", and it seemed only fair to ask the Town Clerk about this. Mrs. Scammell is responsible for preparing the estimates which have to be approved by the Town Council, and she had hoped to keep the increase over last year down to the 5% allowed for inflation. But as it turned out, this would have been cutting it very fine if there were any unexpected major expenses in the course of the coming year; she is, for instance, trying to build up a contingency fund for repairs to the Town Hall roof which will soon be necessary. So the Town Council is in fact asking for an extra 84% over last year - an extra penny on the rates.
Unexpected expenses come in all shapes and sizes. One of the reasons for this year's increase is that the Council has had to pay for the two by-elections held during 1985/6 - between them costing £1,792, nearly one-tenth of the entire local precept. Another thing affecting the rates even at Town Council level is any closure of a large business in the town - recently, Weslakes. When the super- market does come, the rates on that will help Town Council spending (though people are increasingly saying that it is looking like "if" rather than "when" for the work in the Goods Yard; it really is time that the developers issued a proper statement on the subject!)
Something else which arose during the year was the appointment of our present Town Clerk. Until Mr. Baker's accident, Mrs. Scammell had been employed as his part-time assistant; he had other business interests, and declined to take the full salary to which he was entitled. Mrs. Scammell is now paid an appropriate salary for a responsible and complicated job, involving not only office hours but evening meetings and outside events as well. The press certainly finds the appointment a great improvement, and we know that other people do to.
Louis Turpin eventually took 46 paintings to his one-man show at the Beaux Arts in Bath (GAZETTE no. 165). By the end of the three-hour private view, 26 of those paintings were sold - including the big one on view at the Easton Rooms in November which was reserved for the Bath show. Louis tells us that Beaux Arts is in effect a London gallery which just happens to be in Bath – patrons drove down from London for the private view. Such a success is a tremendous boost to his career; the Rye Society of Artists have cause to be proud of him! The exhibition continues for several more weeks, and it seems likely that not a lot of pictures will be lying about his Udimore Road studio when it ends.
5.
First, welcome to a new bookshop - a new new bookshop, that is. David Street, at the top of Market Road, has (if all has gone according to plan) spent a few hectic days shifting the second-hand books from the ground floor of his little shop to the shelves upstairs, so that he can set out downstairs 2,000 books due to come in yesterday. This is a first instalment, and there are more to come, so the town's readers will be delighted; but even better news follows. Starting in about a week's time, Mr. and Mrs. Street will be offering a full ordering service for any book in print (including text-books and specialised reference books); if it is among the million or so on the shelves of their wholesaler, it will arrive in a couple of days (less in a real emergency) – if not, it could take up to three weeks. The second-hand book business will continue as usual upstairs (and here, too, Mr. Street can enquire within the trade for particular books which he doesn't have). Welcome, indeed!
Two readers have suggested shops they would like to see in Rye. A local girl who is expecting a baby complains that she has had to go outside Rye to buy her own maternity clothes, and most of the things for the baby. She would like to see a shop catering right through from pregnancy to primary school, which could offer a choice to suit every pocket; she reckons that too many of the town's shops sell mainly in the higher price ranges.
Peter Chillingworth puts in a plea on behalf of the town's photographers. Both Tenterden and Heathfield, he tells us, have long-established photographic dealers; Rye now has none, and people in search of specialist film, paper and chemicals, let along photographic equipment generally, have to go to Hastings - which is expensive and time-consuming. Also, he suggests, such a shop could include a dark-room and a studio available for hire by amateurs, not many of whom have room for both in a normal small house. A studio in particular is expensive to set up for use by just one person. We wonder, too, if a shop of this kind might double as the photo-gallery which Rye has lacked for so long? There is nowhere here for the artist-photographer to show and sell work, except very occasionally at the Easton Rooms, and a gallery-cum-shop could also allow those with good photographs of local events the chance to solicit orders.
There are two full-time professional photographers with commercial premises in the town; perhaps one of them might consider this suggestion?
This week we have done a small survey on behalf of large ladies, whose need for a special dress-shop we mentioned last week. In fact, there are opportunities to buy large-sized clothes in the town. Rose-Anne stocks ladies' wear up to size 26. Worths, Golden Fleece and Frank Golden normally stock up to size 20, but Frank Golden will soon have dresses from the Norman Linton range which go up to size 26 and can be ordered individually for customers if they are not in stock (catalogues available). Sylvia's tiny shop caters for even more Ruben-esque figures: she has garments up to a 60" hip (which is a size 36), and also larger sizes in underwear. No-Vens has a range of flowing Indian dresses and concealing tweed wraps which are kind to the more ample figure. (Concoction, of course, tempts primarily the young and slim, as does Touchstone which stops at size 16.) But we still think wistfully about an outsize-only establishment; the slim women who run dress-shops don't realise how grieving it is for size-18 customers to go hopefully after something pretty in the window, to discover that it is only available in size 8!
Incidentally, there are lots of good hand-knitters in the town, much of their work on sale through the Wool Shop and Crafty; Wendy Masters at Tramp, Studio has made-to-measure machine-knits in delightful designs of her own invention; but does Rye have an experienced dressmaker willing to make up garments from paper patterns on a per-hour basis? If so, would she like a little publicity?
Finally, a moan: why don't banks stick to just one language? Lloyds Bank statements indicate an overdraft with OD beside the balance. Perfectly clear. But the same balance comes up on the cashpoint marked DR, which could mean anything. Natwest's computer says OD when it means OD. Why can't Lloyds'?
6.
What has Rother Council got against the RAF Association?
As in 1985, the RAFA has been refused a flag-day in any of the four areas (Bexhill, Battle, Rye and the Rural Areas) for which a sub-committee of the staff & General Purposes Committee considers applications. Normally this meets at the end of January; this year, doubtless for excellent reasons, it met only five days before Monday's S & GP committee, which will certainly approve the list - in fact, it has to, since some organisations heard the results of their application's in Saturday's post (and we are glad to say here that the Red Cross is reinstated). The full list for Rye is as follows (1984 and 1985 flag-days as indicated):
1984 1985 1986 * - Red Cross * * Alexandra Rose Day * * RNLI - - Guide Dogs for the Blind * * Multiple Sclerosis Society * * Arthritis & Rheumatism Council * * Rye & District Sea Cadets Bonfire Night * * Poppy Day
(Pancake Day had already passed by the date of the sub-committee meeting.) Rye refusals were Aber Rag, National Children's Home, RNIB, Mencap, St. Michael's Hospice, Dr. Barnardo's, Mental Health, the Firemen's National Benevolent Fund, the Army Benevolent Fund, the British Polio Fellowship, Greenpeace - and the RAFA. The traditional RNIB flag-day has presumably been traded in for the Guide Dogs; Mencap - so strong locally - has been turned down for the second year running; the Hospice and the firemen were applying for the first time anyway; and the remainder (apart from the RAFA) are not, as far as we know, strongly supported here.
Is this a deliberate slap in the face for the RAFA? Wings Week, their national appeal, always precedes Battle of Britain Sunday, and their flag-day would have been on 20 September. In Battle, there is no street collection between 19 July and 1 November; in Bexhill, nothing between 16 August and 8 November. In Rye the September date is blank; the week before has gone to the Sea Cadets, who would, we understand, have preferred 23 August anyway (also blank).
Logically, the Sea Cadets could be transferred to August and the RAFA inserted into the list in all three towns on 20 September, without inconveniencing anyone. If not, the RAFA will undoubtedly adopt last year's very successful tactic and collect on that day from private forecourts, etc„ on the main streets - making it very clear why they are doing so and getting plenty of public sympathy again. Mencap may well do the same in June, when they had hoped for a flag-day on the 28th to coincide with the end of Mental Health Week and their big Town Hall event. But why should they have to? We have written to Mr. Powell, Rother's Chief Executive, asking if he would set out for us the guidelines used by the Street Collections sub-committee, so that in future everyone will know what the position is.
When we reported on this situation last year (GAZETTE no. 118) we refrained from listing the members of the sub-committee. This time we are doing so. The chairman in 1986 as well as 1985 was Mrs. Megan Traice of Bexhill; three other members were also on in 1985 (Mr. Guilmant and Mr. Morgan of Bexhill, and our own George Shackleton); new members in 1986 are Mr. Cheese (Battle) and Mr. Rashbrook, another Bexhill councillor. Since, as it happens, they all represent places with an active and indignant RAFA branch, they may well have some explaining to do to their constituents!
But PS: thanks indeed to Rother's Parks Department, who have now filled in the scar left by the old air-raid shelter on the Salts, all ready for grassing when the weather improves, so that the sweep of turf will be unblemished.
7.
Just starting in East Sussex is a trial scheme financed by the DHSS and intended to help people who spend much of their lives looking after dependent relatives. The consortium which runs it is looking for voluntary organisations, or groups set up for the purpose, who may have schemes to make life easier for these carers. We haven't room here to give the full details of the press release; those who are interested in helping (as opposed, at this stage, to being helped) should contact Paul Endersby, Care for the Carers, 143 High Street, Lewes BN7 1XT (0273 476819).
As Town Clerk, Lesley Scammell is supposed to wear a barrister's wig. The Council does possess one, but it was so decayed that the specialist cleaners to whom it was sent for an estimate say that they can do nothing with it. In its absence, Mrs. Scammell was lent one from someone who used it for amateur theatricals, but this also was not in its first youth and dropped "dandruff" on to her black gown! A new wig would cost the Town Council £180, which they are reluctant to spend. Does any generous resident or friend of the town possess a barrister's horsehair wig in good condition, which they would consider giving to the Town Council for the use of our Clerk?
The GAZETTE started with 57 subscribers. Now that we have over 400, the system devised at the beginning is becoming increasingly unwieldy - complicated for our office and expensive for our bank, because processing a cheque for £3.50 costs them as much, as processing one for £3,500.
Now the Midland's manager, Tim Bourne, has suggested a different approach which we hope will commend itself to half-yearly subscribers: the standing order. We supply a form on which you instruct your bank to pay your subscription direct into the GAZETTE account twice a year. You return it to us - just once, not every time - and we note the details and send it on to your bank. You won't get a receipt any more, but you will be able to tell from your bank statement that payments are being made. As the amount has to be the same each time, you pay half the total year's subscription on 31 March and the other half on 3 0September. At present this amounts to £7 each half-year (£7.05, actually, but we are knocking off the 5p in gratitude!)
If you don't want to renew when your subscription is due, you simply cartel you order (as well as telling us, please). If the price goes up, you would have to alter the order, but we would let you know in good time (this is not the direct-debit system, where the amount can be altered by the payee). If we were to miss an occasional issue, we would return the money in postage stamps at the end of the quarter. And the arrangement described in October, whereby all outstanding subscription money would go to the RNLI if the GAZETTE were suddenly to cease publication permanently, for whatever reason, will continue as before.
The standing-order system costs the bank very much less to administer, since it works entirely through their computer - so with luck they can continue to keep our bank charges at their present generously low level. It also cuts down the increasingly arduous job of writing receipts. And for the subscriber, there is no longer the hassle about remembering to renew in time.
Obviously there will be those of you whom this system doesn't suit, whether you pay half-yearly or quarterly at the moment. For you the present arrangements, and the receipts, will continue as before. But from now on we would ask quarterly subscribers to pay in cash if possible; the whole object is to reduce the number of small cheques going through our account. Postal subscriptions will now only be taken on a half-yearly basis (except in special circumstances), and the standing order should include the appropriate sum for postage.
The usual subscription details, plus a copy of the standing-order form, will be in the 12 March issue; now we are merely explaining why we are altering the options, to give you time to think about it.
The week's eventsLocal History Group (Geoffrey Bagley on the Museum's reserve collection), Library, 7.30
Nat.His.Soc. "Wildlife Around Us" (Ian Deans), FEC, 7.30
Labour Party jumble sale, CC, 10.30
Camera Club (competition with Hastings), FEC, 7.30
TPS PTA Committee open meeting, Upper School, 7.30 (G.no. 165) Inaugural meeting, Rye Branch, Multiple Sclerosis Society, CC, 7.30
Friends of Rye Art Gallery AGM, TH, 8
Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30 to 12 (and the first Wednesday of every month from now on)
Crime Prevention Panel, Police Station, 7.30
• Congratulations to Paul Chillingworth of Lea Avenue, half-way through his degree course in Maths at Cambridge: Paul is now Station Manager of the University Radio Service. His father tells us that this works like a hospital radio service, and gives Paul the chance to air (literally!) his taste for pop music - but Paul doesn't want to make a career in broadcasting. His aim is to teach Maths at higher education level, which means a further university course after he takes his degree in 1987.
• We referred recently to Mrs. Ellis, once of The Stocking Parlour, and are sorry we got her Christian name wrong: she is Mildred, not Mabel. But this gives US the opportunity to say with much pleasure that Mrs. Ellis, who is in her 90s, is making a quite remarkable recovery from her recent stroke, and expects to be coming home soon.
• Planning: this week, two extensions, both in New Road, one for a kitchen and the other for a diningroom and workshop with two bedrooms above.
• Mrs. Frances Avery, SRN, of the Postern Gate surgery (and still, we don't doubt, thought of locally as Frances Brodrick of The Hooks) will be the speaker at the Women's World Day of Prayer on Friday next week (7 March) at St. Anthony's Church at 2.30. Refreshments will be available after the service.
• The Chamber of Trade inadvertently left one contributor to the Christmas lights off last week's list, and are very sorry. Derek Bayntun of The Old Forge restaurant in Wish Street was another businessman who generously helped with the expenses despite being outside the lit area.
• Thanks all round, to and from the Lions, the King Pins and the Guide Dogs for the Blind, who will be benefiting to the extent of £280 from the Variety Night in the Grove on Saturday.
• Rye WI's party at the FEC on 12 February included a much-appreciated meal complete with home-made wine and an entertainment by the Brookland Belles. On the 19th, Landgate WI members watched a demonstration of cookery - and enjoyed eating the results; since it was half-term week, Mrs. Joan Beech ran a creche for members' children - a big help.
• Community Lunch Group members who were kept away by the weather from last Wednesday's meeting will be glad to know that Lynda Pembleton's talk about Rye Hospital has been postponed until the April session. The March talk will be dealing with the work of Alcoholics Anonymous.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye, TN31 7DR (Rye 222303), and printed by Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon (Tuesday 9 am at latest and only for real emergencies). The GAZETTE costs 30p 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 1986)