There will be no Rye Bonfire Night this year. Jimper Sutton, who has warned repeatedly that the tiny group of Bonfire Boys would not be able to cope with running it again unless they were offered more help, told us this with great regret. However, the Rye Bonfire Boys will remain in existence, showing the town's flag as they march in other bonfire processions in the county, so perhaps we may still hope to see torches in Rye's streets again another year.
And if anyone is thinking of organising a community bonfire this year, either on 4 October - the date allocated to Rye in the Bonfire Societies' calendar or nearer the traditional night, the GAZETTE would be glad to hear about it.
British Rail is having another cheap day out on Saturday week, 13 September anywhere on Network South-East for EA+ this time, but with accompanied children travelling for just £1. The ticket includes free travel on the London underground. Leaflets should be available at Rye Station today. Keep your souvenir ticket; it will be worth £4 off the price of the new railcard to be introduced at the end of this month (details nearer the time).
The JCB arrived on Monday to start clearing the site for the new car park between the market and the railway line - the first stage in the supermarket development. The name of the tenant is still not public until everything is signed - John Walker of Ward Construction tells us that everything is agreed, but people have a tiresome way of being on holiday just when their signatures are needed!
However, the "slippage" on the supermarket start date has benefited the car park situation; a June start would have meant the goods yard car park being full of bulldozers by now. As it is, the gasworks park is still closed, with the Gas Board's analyses of the various soil samples sent off for "interpretation"; Peter Bridges hopes to have something firm to report to the Environmental Health Committee on 9 September. Gibbet Marsh, he says, has coped pretty well with the August traffic, with the help of the two young attendants and the new layout. Once the school terms start, the worst should be over.
The Sports Centre is getting on well, with the roof panels now fastened in place; Rother expects to have it finished by the end of the year, though work has been a little slower than expected. Rye's other new development, the Fire Station, is also making progress, though only on paper still; Michael Bourn says that the Rye firemen have been invited to study the detailed plans and make suggestions. Clearance work going on this week at the back of the Drill Hall does not imply an immediate start; the furniture business installed inside expects to stay until the end of the year (and, we are glad to say, has somewhere else to go when the time comes).
David Woodhouse at Ashford tells us that the British Rail network manager is "carrying out an evaluation" of the Hastings-Ashford line with a view to electrification. This does not, of course, mean that it will be electrified, but BR are looking very hard at the possibility. Martin Gill of the Transport Users Consultative Committee (Southern) confirmed that electrification is "under very active consideration"; apart from anything else, he says, it is inconvenient and expensive for BR to keep diesel maintenance facilities and diesel-trained staff for just the two units which serve our line. Matters will be helped along, Mr. Gill added, if BR can manage to carry out electrification work relatively cheaply; for work above a certain cost, they have to obtain permission from the Secretary of State. The next firm electrification project is a line at East Grinstead, due for conversion at the end of 1987; then, perhaps...?
2.
Mrs. Betty Ashenden, formerly of Cooper Road and before that for 38 years a resident of Cyprus Place, died in a rest-home in Hastings last week; she was 71. Mrs. Ashenden had been in poor health recently, but she used to be a keen member of Playden WI, and was a past President; she took an active part in the superb carnival and bonfire floats for which the Institute was famous, and was also a valued performer in its concerts. A widow, Mrs. Ashenden leaves two daughters, two sons, ten grandchildren,and two great-grandchildren in Australia. The funeral takes place at Hastings Crematorium at 3 tomorrow (Thursday).
Mr. Sam Coveney of Eagle Road died very suddenly on 21 August; he was 66, and is survived by his widow Jane. The funeral has taken place.
Playden's local historians excelled themselves at the weekend with the Domesday exhibition in the church. As well as artefacts and copies of documents going back 900 years or more, the exhibition included more recent records - the headmaster's day-books and one of the registers from Playden School, a detailed list of the local flora made by Breda Burt, and early material from Playden WI. There was a charming display of domestic items going back beyond the turn of the century, and an interesting selection of poor-law records. A perpetual slide- show reminded visitors of people and places now vanished, as well as giving tantalising problems of identification before the slides moved on. Literature for sale included Eric Wetherill's ingenious reconstruction of "A Journey Through the Village of Playden (Pleidenam) in the year 1086"; he dedicates it to Tetbald, the vicar at the time. Kenneth Clark has provided a short note about the Manor of Rameslie, which is listed in Domesday (spelt Hrammeslegel) - Rye is thought to have been part of this, but the town is not mentioned at all, and certainly the rocky island outcrop could not have had land for 35 plough-teams within its present acreage, most of which was then still under water.
This exhibition was a fringe event for Rye Festival, and so is a rather similar one relating to Rye which takes place on Friday afternoon (only) in the Town Hall. Arranged jointly by Rye Conservation Society and the Local History Group (most of the organisers in fact belong to both, and Eric Wetherill and Alan Dickinson have also been much involved with the Playden exhibition), this offers something for everyone. There is, for instance, a model of the Camber tram which will certainly bring back memories, as will Frank Palmer's slides of Rye past and present. John Underwood's amusing photographic quiz, first offered to the Conservation Society's annual get-together last year and teasing its viewer to identify odd and unexpected bits and pieces of Rye's architecture, will once more be on show (with a small prize for the best guesser); and there will be local archives and other material to be studied. The bookstall will include several papers by local historians and a dozen or so published books on local topics whose authors have generously agreed to give their profits to the Society. Since the exhibition is so appropriately housed in the Town Hall (kindly lent free by the Mayor), visitors will also have a chance to see this in all its glory; the final touches have just been put to the lettered boards, including Mrs. Oliver's name on the list of Mayors.
Prodded by a reader, we asked Ralph Olesen of ESCC Highways what the position is about the new footbridge at the Rye end of Harbour Road. Readers will remember that it was inspected by the Chairman of the Development Commission when he came to Rye on 22 April, but since then it has sat in isolated splendour with neither footpath nor even approach ramps to enable it to be used. Mr. Olesen says that these represent two separate negotiations, with SWA for the land on which the ramps will go, and with Peter Chantry of the Tollgate for the site of the foot-path to the A259 junction. The SWA part is likely to be complete by the end of the year; the footpath may take longer, but Mr. Chantry's plans for housing development on the garage site mean that it can probably be set a little further in from the road than originally expected. Anyway, contrary to our reader's suspicions, ESCC hasn't simply forgotten about the whole thing!
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 3 September 1986
When Sarah Jackson of Camber, aged 19, went to a party at the Camber Castle pub last April, the last thing she expected was to find herself saving someone's life! But last Thursday evening Sarah and her family were at Rye Town Hall in the august company of the High Sheriff of the County of East Sussex, attended by the Mayor and Inspector Legg of Rye Police, to celebrate just that. Also present was David Little, son of the landlord of the Camber Castle and in charge of the upper floor which is let for private parties.
This particular party had been going on for some time, and it was gone midnight when one guest arrived rather the worse for wear; he retired almost at once to the gents, and was there for so long that Mr. Little went to investigate and found him collapsed on the floor, barely conscious and murmuring something about a drug. By the time they had brought him out, he had no pulse and had stopped breathing. Sarah, with no formal first-aid training except what she had picked up on trips to local swimming-pools, immediately applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and continued to look after him until the ambulance arrived some ten minutes later. He was kept in hospital overnight and sent home, presumably much chastened, next day.
However, Sarah's courage and sense of responsibility did not go unnoticed. Rye Police sent the report of the incident to the Royal Humane Society, and it was the Society's Certificate which the High Sheriff, Mr. John Cyster, presented on Thursday. Sarah could, he said, have looked the other way and done nothing; he hoped that her example would give courage to others faced with an emergency. The Mayor added that there is a great deal of good in today's young people which is not always appreciated. Sarah, looking very elegant in yellow and grey, told us that she didn't stop to think whether or not she knew what to do – she just went ahead and did it. It seems pretty clear that if she hadn't, her fellow-guest might not be alive today.
On 9 August, Katy McKenzie, daughter of Barbara and Don Mackenzie (late of Military Road), was married at Balerno Church, near Edinburgh; her husband is Alan Sneddon, son of Dr. and Mrs. Sneddon of Balerno. Katy's dress was made by her sister Jane - white lawn with pink rosebuds, with pink and white roses in her hair. The five-year-old bridesmaid, Katy's cousin Victoria Pope from Hythe, also wore a dress made by Jane - white with pink frills, flowers in her plait and a basket of flowers to carry. We don't usually describe the groom's outfit, but Alan's was special: he wore the kilt, in the Crawford tartan, and most of the male Scots guests were similarly dressed. Katy made her own cake; the weather changed just in time for the reception, which was held in the Sneddon's garden, with Scottish dancing. The honeymoon was spent touring Scottish golf links - Katy and Alan both play. They will be living in Edinburgh, where Katy is a research assistant at the College of Agriculture, and Alan, a botanist by training, also has a job. (Things have suddenly gone very quiet for the McKenzies; Jane went to Australia last week.)
On 12 August, Vivian Mathews, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Bill Townsend, was married to Peter Bathurst; she wore blue beaded chiffon, and the service in Hastings was followed by a reception at the Flushing. The honeymoon was spent in Jersey. Peter, a solicitor, has been a friend of the Townsend family for many years; he is a well-known golfer and has written a history of the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society (of which he has been Captain) as well as a history of the President's Putter, the Society's famous trophy competed for at Rye every year in January. His father was Philip Bathurst (Bathie), who spent his last years at the Dormy Club after a career teaching classics at Tonbridge School. He has four children by his late wife, and a house at Alton, near Farnham in Surrey, big enough for the combined family - Vivian's two sons and their collection of animals from horses to guinea-pigs, which was finally packed off, Betty tells us, to Alton last week.
4.
• Rye Racers had a very successful day on 17 August, when twenty teams (two people racing three-legged pushing a third on wheels of some kind) visited 18 bars in the town before returning to the Ypres garden. We ventured to doubt the 18, but Gus Gale proved us wrong; in fact the town has four hotels with public bars (though the Mermaid doesn't take part), 13 pubs and three licensed clubs (the Rye Club is shut on Sundays, but the Granary and British Legion Clubs were counted in). The winners were the girls from the Union, followed by the men from the Conqueror at Rye Harbour. The Amy Wood Cup went to the Union as the pub which raised the most money - £113; but Dick Pearce donated £160 as being 10% of his takings at the Ypres in the course of the afternoon. In all, a very handsome £513 will go towards a Christmas party for the town's older residents. The team from French's Wine Bar in Hastings (who raised £86) are already planning their outfits for next year, they told Gus!
• As well as the Rye Society of Artists exhibition which we wrote about in GAZETTE no. 190, this month saw the Tuesday Painters Club celebrating its 25th birthday with a jubilee opening by John Ward, RA, who had hung the very first show for the Club. It is no good our recommending readers to see this exhibition, since it closed on Saturday; but it was a very enjoyable show, packed with pictures at all levels of achievement. They included some convincing portraits, many local views, studies of animals and flowers and two ingenious "cases" of buttes flies, an entertaining (man's) birdseye view of a jumble sale, plenty of boat pictures of all kinds, a quite remarkable still-life treatment of brass and glass, two delightful tiny fabric-collage views of Church Square... and so on, and so on. There were more than 350 pictures altogether, and although the object of the Club is primarily to show rather than to sell, there were over 80 red spots in evidence by the end of the exhibition. This year's judge was CJ Bayley, RWS, five of whose watercolours were on view in the porch, as were four paintings by the late Greta Walter who will be very greatly missed by the Club.
• The Raft Race was lucky to have picked the only really fine day over the Bank Holiday weekend. At least twenty rafts were launched - history doesn't relate how many actually finished, or even got as far as the start at the end of Rock Channel! - and Rye Young Farmers came in first with a record time of 22 minutes; second, three minutes later, was the George Hotel's entry. The Royal Armaments Research and Development Establishment raft came all the way from Chertsey in Surrey to win the cup for the best constructed raft - not really a surprise, particularly as there is no longer a Weslake's entry to incorporate the latest in technology. Winchesters, the Hastings builders' merchants, sent over four of their girls dressed as clowns to win the fancy dress prize; and the wooden spoon for coming in last went to a family effort by Mrs. Humphries of Rye Harbour and a party of visiting relatives. The amount of money raised will not be known until all the sponsors have paid up; the presentation of the cheque to the NSPCC by Mrs. Dianne James of Rye Harbour (whose ninth Raft Race this is) will take place in the autumn.
• Those who visited the St. Mary's Flower Festival over the Bank Holiday tell us that the church has never looked lovelier; even on the Tuesday when we looked in, many of the elaborate arrangements retained their splendour. The brunt of the work had clearly fallen on the Church Flower Guild, who not only made a tremendous effort in their own right but also undertook to provide arrangements for organisations which wished to be involved but preferred to make a donation. However, many groups did manage to arrange their own displays, from Inner Wheel's nine-foot creamy gold pillar to the Society of Friends' tiny pink posy in an alcove; the flower clubs from Rye and Winchelsea played a major part and were responsible for the formal arrangements in the chancel. Particularly charming was the life-size figure of St. Clare of Assisi, seated in her green-and-white garden in the Clare Chapel. Beryl Rixon tells us that the Flower Festival was a real team effort, involving not only the arrangers (who started work three days beforehand) but also the various musicians, those in charge of the refreshments, and other helpers.. They should all be feeling very well satisfied with their labours, which will have given tremendous pleasure to a great many people.
5.
• Rye Wholefoods has moved house. Jill Stevens spent the Bank Holiday weekend moving her health-food stock from Landgate to Cinque Ports Street, where the shop is now in much more commodious quarters opposite Stocks, in half the ground floor of The Decorator's Warehouse (ex-Gassons). She stocks the same ranges as before, plus some interesting additions. In the cold cabinet, she now has the locally-made Norgem yoghurt which had ceased to be obtainable elsewhere in Rye, as well as various ewe's milk products, and vegetarian burgers in long-life packs. Her freezer also has vegetarian products, including ready-meal packs sized for one person and with interesting-sounding ingredients. One-person households will also be glad to welcome the tempting selection of takeaway delicacies, savoury and sweet; Jill gets these from a firm near London, but they are made by a number of cooks who supply the wholesaler from their own kitchens - and they certainly look and taste home-made. Another introduction is a range of biodegradable cleaning and washing powders, which won't pollute the rivers/sea into which the drains run. The shop is open every day (except Sunday) from 9 to 5.15, or to 1 on Tuesdays; the notice on the door says it closes for lunch, but in fact they don't because of the demand for takeaway food then.
• Welcome to the new owner of the Tower Launderette, Anthony James, and to his son (and assistant) Sebastian. Mr. James has already introduced a welcome change - of particular interest, he says, to churchgoers and those who like a pre-lunch drink in the town on a Sunday: the launderette is now open on Sundays from 8 to 2.30. But, he adds, no personal service on a Sunday (the bell is neatly labelled "Never on a Sunday" as a reminders), so it is even more important than usual that customers arrive provided with a supply of 50p or 10p coins. Mr. James is, however, looking into the possibility of installing a change-machine which will take £1 coins. And a coffee machine, we asked? Probably not, he said; an experienced launderette proprietor of his acquaintance has warned him off them as being liable to make more mess than they are worth, if used improperly.
• The new proprietors of the Old Vicarage in East Street are Stephen and Jacqui Tarrant, of Wish House and of course the Kettle o' Fish at Strand Quay. The guest-house continues open as usual; the restaurant has been closed for several months, and Mrs. Tarrant says they will think about reopening it once the tourist pressure on the Kettle o' Fish subsides. At present, she has got all she can cope with, she tells us!
Carl Bagwell's two young deputies have now returned to pick up the threads of their education, and a full-time permanent appointment has been made to the retitled job of Assistant Harbourmaster. In mid-September Colin Marsh's old house will be occupied by Nigel Allen and his wife Kate. Nigel, who is 34, had been for 15 years with the Bank Line, a British shipping company, before joining Sealink Ferries 18 months ago. A big-ship man, he has got some surprises coming, says Carl - like the Albarquel, who came back into Strand Quay last weekend unexpectedly and found herself more or less stuck by the slipway, blocking the exit of several slimmer visitors.
Rye also has a new independent pilot (appointed by Trinity House, not the SWA). John Thatcher has moved away to Colchester, and on Monday his successor started work. He is John Heyes, generally known as Cass, who lives in the coastguard cottages at Fairlight and after training with Seacon has served ten years in the coastguard service. He should be busy; trade at the Harbour is picking up again, and a recent consignment of rape seed was the first shipped through Rye that Carl can remember.
Finally, Mary Lestocq tells us that the dedication of the new lifeboat is to take place at the Harbour on Saturday, 27 September, at 5; members of the Lewes Branch of the RNLI, who gave the boat, will of course be there, and local people are welcome.
6.
... to Inspector Bev Legg and PC Keith Joyce, both of Rye Police Station, each of whom was presented with a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal by the Chief Constable at a ceremony gleaming with top brass at Lewes recently. (Long service, by police standards, is 22 years - Inspector Legg has no idea why this slightly odd period is commemorated, as opposed to the more usual 20 or 25 years.)
... to Rebecca Street of King's Avenue, daughter of David and Pauline of the Market Road bookshop, who has gained a 2.1 degree in English and Philosophy at London University. She is now starting a one-year course at the Watford College of Advertising.
... to Ronald de Vlam, of Udimore Road, on his 2.1 degree from Coventry in Industrial Design. He is delighted to have been accepted by the Royal College of Art in London for a one-year business course. (Ronald's younger brother Edmond still has a year to go for his BA course in music at East London Poly.)
On Monday evening, Rother's Housing Committee considered a report from the Chief Technical Services Officer about the warden-care flatlets scheme for the Magdala House site in Ferry Road. Readers will remember that there was a problem over the foundations (GAZETTE nos. 184 and 185), and Rother invited structural engineers Douglas Rose & Partners of Tunbridge Wells to investigate.
The original plans showed foundations with 50 piles 5 metres deep. However, the engineers saw things very differently: their recommendation is for 40 piles 30 metres deep - almost 100 ft. This was the depth to which Le Fevre Wood & Royle were piling for a Tilling Green development in 1974, just when Rother took over housing responsibility from the Rye Borough Council; Eric Le Fevre convinced the new masters then that such a depth was necessary - so they might have guessed that the same difficulty would arise on the other bank of the river. (John Underwood, of the firm's Hastings office, who is in charge of the Rock Channel development, tells us that they have been piling to a depth of 17-to-22m for his two-storey building - the ground, he said, differs quite surprisingly from place to place on the site.)
The 30-metre piling will cost Rother an extra C65,000-plus, making the total estimated capital cost of the development C661,750. (The County Council is paying for the attached Day Centre, and will bear the cost of any extra underpinning found to be necessary beneath its single-storey building.)
If the Housing Committee gives the go-ahead for the development despite the increased cost, the per-unit price will of course rise - by Mr. Clarke's calculations, from £36,900 to C41,360. But this figure comes from dividing the capital cost by 16 - the total number of flats in the block. However, two of these are for the warden and deputy warden, and should surely count as part of the community facilities, since they are there simply to service the remaining 14? As well as warden care, the flats have a communal lounge, central heating, and various fittings - but even so, one-fourteenth of C661,750 is over 047,250. Although the flats are sized to house single people or couples, it seems likely that most of them will have only one occupant. £47,250 seems rather a lot of money for a one-person flatlet, when renovated two- and even three-bedroomed houses round the bottom of the town are currently selling for under £40,000.
However, as John Cawdron pointed out to us, Rother is anxious to get this block built to enable them to rehouse some of the Badger Gate tenants so that work can then start on refurbishment there. If, as seems possible, the committee turns the plan down as now being too expensive, work on Badger Gate will have to be delayed; but if the committee approves the plan, there could well be a rumpus from ratepayers. In any case, the problem with the foundations is likely to have set the start of any work back by several months.
STOP PRESS (Tuesday morning): the Housing Committee last night decided to go ahead with the building of the warden-care block as planned.
7.
• The Rye & District Flower Club is this year adopting a different approach to its always enjoyable Open Day at the FE Centre this Saturday - to be opened by the Mayor at 10 (until 4.30). There will be a smaller exhibition, more stalls - cakes and delicatessen, ready-dried and glycerined flowers and leaves, plants, and a stall specialising in flower-arranging equipment - but no refreshments. A donation will be made to the St. Michael's Hospice Appeal.
• The meeting of Rye Town Council on Monday (8th) marks the start of a new system. From now on, at the start of every full Council meeting, members of the public will have the opportunity to state their views on anything which appears in the agenda for that meeting - and the agenda always includes consideration of the reports from the Council's various committees. So if there is something you want to raise, you first study the minutes of the committees (which are available in the Library, the Council Offices and the board in the Town Hall foyer), and if your problem has been discussed by any committee since the previous Council meeting it will automatically count as being on the agenda for full Council. If so, you turn up at the Town Hall at 6 on Monday and put your view, so that Councillors can bear it in mind when they consider that particular matter later in the meeting. The Council really will welcome this sort of public interest; don't hesitate to go along.
• Rye Lions will be holding their usual autumn Charity Shop at the Community Centre on Saturday and Sunday, 20 and 21 September. Regular patrons will want to book the date, since this is always a fascinating treasure-trove of furniture and household equipment as well as the more usual nearly-new and bric-a-brac and similar goods. The Lions can arrange collection for larger items (and, with luck, may be prepared to deliver such purchases as well).
Only four Rye applications appear in the lists for the past three weeks. R & E Engineers, of Rock Channel, seek permanent change of use from lock-up garages to light industrial use; and there are proposals to replace existing windows by French doors at 6 Meryon Court, to build a two-storey "granny annexe" extension to 80 King's Avenue, and to erect a double garage at 4 Love Lane.
After an astonishingly long delay, the Department of the Environment has dismissed the appeal by the owners of The Old Vicarage in East Street against Rother's refusal of planning permission for the canopy blinds over the ground-floor windows. The blinds must be taken down within two months (in fact - see page 5 - the premises have just changed hands, and the blinds will be removed at once). The report refers to them as "an obtrusive, alien element on an otherwise plain uncluttered facade and detrimental to the character of the listed building and to that of the Conservation Area". As with the metal-framed windows next door (now replaced by wooden ones), Rother hopes that the instruction to remove the blinds will also act as a deterrent; one day$ says the Deputy Planning Officer wistfully, perhaps Rye will know by instinct what will and what won't be suitable for the Conservation Area, which will save his department a great deal of time!
Last Saturday, members of the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum dug up a Spitfire. It had crashed at Road End Farm in Udimore on 24 April 1942 on the way home from a photographic mission over the French coast, killing the young pilot - whose identity is known, and next-of-kin have been contacted (the Coroner has also been informed). The remains of the plane have been taken back to Tangmere for future display there.
£6,000-worth of nautical equipment was stolen from Sea Cruisers between 11 and 13 August - an inflatable dinghy, an outboard engine and a boat trailer. Other local thefts are very minor; £100-worth of damage was done to a window at the Tollgate Garage on 27 August when someone saw fit to throw a spanner through it.
Two items of local police news which are modestly not entered in the press book appear on page 6.
RF: Oliver Reynolds reads his own poetry, TH, 6 (change of programme)
RF: Hokum Hotshots (a cheerful sort of concert), CC, 8
Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
RF: Local history exhibition, TH, 2.30 to 5.30 (see page 2)
RF: Instant Sunshine, CC, 7.45 (sold out)
Rye Flower Club Open Day, FEC, 10 to 4.30 (see page 7)
RF: Busker entertainment, Town Hall steps, 11
RF: Quick Brew, entertainment for all ages, Tilling Green, 11
Last day, Rye Society of Artists exhibition, Mermaid Street
RF: City of London Sinfonia Orchestra, St. Mary's, 7.45
Rye Town Council (and committees, see TH board), 6, see page 7
St. Mary's Tuesday Club, Colin Page's slides (postponed talk), 2 East Street, 7.30
Rye WI, "Church Kneelers" (Joan Field), and produce show, FEC,7 (Salvation Army Band visit cancelled)
It's good to be back after three weeks, but consequent pressure on space has meant that some reports are being held over until next week - sorry!
• The Town Council accounts are open for public inspection, prior to the audit on 29 September, at the Town Hall every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning between 10 and 1 from now until 26 September. Anyone wishing to study them who cannot come in the morning should ring the Town Clerk (Rye 223902) for an appointment.
• The RAFA had hoped that their newest member, an Air Marshal who has recently moved into the area, would be at their wine-and-cheese party at the Town Hall on Friday week (12th) - but he is giving a talk elsewhere that night. The Branch does look forward to seeing a great many other people there to support this fund-raising event (6.30 to 8.30).
• There will again be a Jobcentre presence at the Community Centre at the end of this month, when the quarterly signing-on session for unemployment benefit comes round; the staff will be glad to see anyone in search of a new job, unemployed or not. The dates are Thursday and Friday, 25 and 26 September.
• Bowls: Rye lost to St. Leonards away on 27 August, and to Westfield at home on the 31st; but on the 28th the Rye Ladies won against Ham Street Ladies.
• Winners in the Lions draw, tickets for which have been sold at events in the area during the summer, are: Mr. DL Brown, Northiam (250); "Rosebud" from the Ice Box (portable Colour TV); and a Mr. Martin from Canning Town (radio-cassette recorder).
• Rother Council seeks a Rye-based street cleaner "to maintain the cleanliness of streets, footpaths and public areas, including the use of the Scarab" (the little yellow street-sweeper, so a driving licence is essential). Full-time, all the year round, the job pays C89-plus weekly; for more details, call at the Council Offices in Cinque Ports Street.
• Rye Festival has had a very satisfactory start; next week's GAZETTE will carry accounts of some of the events.
• Overheard by a gratified reader in the High Street, a French visitor telling her companion that "C'est ici, la rue des belles magasins".
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7DR (0797 222303), and printed by Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. News items for inclusion are always welcome - normal deadline Monday afternoon. The GAZETTE costs 30p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday. A few spare copies and back numbers may be available at Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1986)