Sorry about the short notice, but there is a meeting of the Town Council at the Town Hall TONIGHT AT 6.30 which is of general public interest. It is being held to discuss on- and off-street parking in the town, and in attendance will be officers of ESCC's Highways Department and Rother's Technical Services and Planning Departments (Pother is responsible for car parks, and ESCC for street parking arrangements). This is intended as an opportunity to establish the present position and future prospects, rather than as a meeting which will take decisions; at the end, there will be time for questions and comments, at the discretion of the Mayor. The press are invited, and so are all of you who have been complaining about parking problems since time immemorial!
Joanne Haviland's Rye Dance Centre is proud to announce that the proceeds of the pre-Christmas show, Showbiz III, amounted to £749 when all bills had been paid. This splendid total has been divided between the Community Centre (where the classes take place) and the Multiple Sclerosis Society, both of whom are deeply grateful to Joanne and her young dancers and helpers.
In fact the young dancers themselves have another, very particular, reason to be proud. At the Hastings Festival, the Rye Dance Centre entered for the first time the class for "mini-groups, non-classical, aged under ten"; five of Miss Haviland's smaller pupils put on a cowboys-and-Indians routine - and won the Cup at their very first attempt! Much the same thing happened to Josephine Wiseman, 7, also entering the Festival for the first time; she won her Modern class (Showbiz audiences will remember her as the little cupid). Congratulations, too, to Rachel Street, 11, whose Modern solo was placed third out of 30 entrants in her class. Lots of the Centre's pupils have already won certificates, and there is still plenty of Festival to come.
But despite all this success, Joanne has a problem; her invaluable and dedicated pianist, Myrtle Ball, is having to give up at Easter - and without a pianist, the Centre would be in real trouble. The job is a paid one, and involves playing on Fridays from 4 to 6 and on Saturday mornings, plus some evenings and exam and show times. We feel sure that an equable temperament and the ability to improvise when disaster looms is perhaps more important than international concert-platform standards! Anyway, if you might be interested, phone Joanne.
The exhibition which the TPS PTA is mounting on 28 March is spreading its wings this year to include not just models, but hobbies of all kinds; the organiser, Mrs. Le Roux of Pett Level, hopes that pupils at the school will be encouraged to enter a wide range of handicrafts and other spare-time interests. Adult groups who have offered to mount displays include the East Sussex Model Engineering Club, the Romney Marsh Model Engineering Club, the Hastings Philatelic Society (who occasionally meet over here but have not, as far as we know, "gone public" in Rye before). Tim Ruck from the Harbour, whose model aircraft flights were so much appreciated at the Michaelmas Fair, will be showing his air force again, but only the weather will determine wheth r he can allow them to fly. Mystery entrants are a group from St. Leonards with a battleship game! Any other adult exhibitors who would like to show their work will be welcome to bring it along first thing on the Saturday morning; the show opens to the public from 11 to 3 (entrance 30p for adults, 20p for students), and should be interesting to all and hopefully inspiring to some.
2.
Mr. Ernest Pearson, of Udimore Road, died suddenly at his home on 10 March. He was 73. He leaves his widow, Joan, their son Stewart and daughter Cynthia (Mrs. Sams) and two grand-children. The family came to Rye in 1954, and had two shops in the Landgate for 11 years before Mr. Pearson went back to his original trade of carpentry and joinery, working for a while for Mike Haines in Rock Channel. The funeral takes place today (Wednesday) at Hastings at 3.
The excavations in The Mint have led to sadness, and might have led to tragedy, for one couple in that street. A car apparently unaware of the traffic restrictions came racing down the road late at night, went up on the pavement to dodge the road-works, and hit a dog being walked last thing by its owner. The owner, mercifully, was not touched, and the driver had the grace to stop; but the dog was so badly injured that it had to be put down. We are asked to warn pedestrians using The Mint, particularly after dark, that drivers clearly can't be trusted to read road signs.
Another Mint story, this time with a happier ending, could also have been a disaster for someone who had lived in the street for four years and who had, all that time, noticed an odd smell in her cellar. Several times she had in invited passing gas-men in to have a sniff; sniffing, they had always assured her that the smell was damp, or even drains - but never gas. Last week, someone connected with the current works in The Mint came round knocking on doors, checking which households were on gas and which weren't. "I'm not" our informant told him "and nor is the flat above - but there's always been a funny smell in the cellar". He went down the cellar stairs, came very swiftly up again, and within an hour a gang arrived to cap off the pipe - and then dig up the road outside and remove it. Next day the air in the cellar was sweet as a spring morning. It seems to be a question of getting not just a gas-man, but the right gas-man!
Some months ago we published a list of the local businesses which had contributed to the Rye Promotion Group's appeal to finance a Rye ad in ESCC's brochure, Top Attractions in East Sussex. Ernest Thompson, who was in charge of the project, would like all those who subscribed to know that the brochure is just published, with Rye (and a picture of the Ypres Tower) as no. 10 in the list of 23 tourist attractions. Half a million copies have been printed for distribr tion all round the south-east, including tourist entry points (Dover, Gatwick, and Rye is to be sent 10,000 - so if you want to see where your money went, ask for a copy at the Tourist Office in a day or two.
New chairman of the Rye Promotion Group is John Ciccone (of Spar and the Town Council) - elected nem. con. at a recent meeting.
Leah Mercedes' shop "The Linen Press" in the High Street has now acquired a new department - all in a floor-space rather smaller than most kitchens! Leah's interest is in textiles, but her sister Debbie is fascinated by oriental jewellery. Leah went shopping for Debbie too when she was out east buying her own stock, and somehow they have managed to find room for a capacious show-case full of tempting modern jewellery. "Modern" may be misleading - the designs are traditional and so are the materials, which means that Debbie's prices are really affordable: lightweight bracelets made of woven bamboo strips, water-pearl necklaces (strung while Leah waited!) in silk pouches, jade and lacquer-red cinnabar carved into pendants, and spectacular collars made from shiny tin mined in Thailand. Some pieces are gilt, some ornamented with cloisonne enamel; silver dragons guard the top of the price-range, on rings or twisting round the wrist. Debbie calls her new venture "The Oriental" and its arrival means that the shop will now be open during normal business hours; the exact range will depend on where she or Leah has gone buying lately, and Debbie hopes that Middle Eastern jewellery will be the next thing on her own shopping-list.
3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 18 March 1987
The Sports Centre opens to the public on Monday of next week (23rd) - from 5.30 pm when school use ceases (and it is already a great success with the TPS pupils who have been trying it out this week). Use is free for the first week, and the brochure is not yet available; but the Centre's year will run from 1 April, and a year's membership for an adult will cost £5, for a family (parents and children) and junior membership just £2. Admission on a daily basis (eg. for visitors) will be 25p for adults, 15p for juniors. Hire of the squash court, large hall or fitness room equipment will be extra to this, of course; we didn't ask for all the rates, but the fitness room will cost £1.30 for a half-hour (about as much as anyone wants at a time, says Colin Hudson of Rother!); there will be instruction sessions for those new to this sort of equipment.
Town and Rother Council elections are being held on 7 May. The GAZETTE will be glad to publish brief cvs of all the Rye candidates - about 6 lines for Town Council and 12-15 for Rother is about all we shall be able to find room for, alas, and the sooner we can have them the easier our planning will be.
A Rather election is a certainty. George Shackleton, who keeps his politics to himself, is standing again. John Cawdron is not, because of his new job responsibilities; Roger Breeds is replacing him as one of the Conservative candidates, Pauline Tomich is standing again as the other. Frank Dowdeswell hopes to represent the Alliance. There will be three Labour candidates: Osma Jones, Gerry Fortsch and Martin Smith. Rye has just three Rother seats, at present held by Mr. Shackleton, Mrs. Tomich and Mr. Cawdron.
As for the Town Council, we understand that Hilda Nelson-Barrett, Joan Parkes and James Menhinick are not standing again, and Bill Simpson lives in Bexhill and is no loner eligible. As far as we know, all 12 remaining Councillors hope to retain their seats. Gerry Fortsch and Brian Champion have announced their intention to stand, and we hear unofficially that other candidates are likely to enter the fray nearer the time.
Four years ago there was in fact no election for the Town Council, since 16 candidates appeared for the 16 seats. The same thing happened in 1979, and in 1975 when the old Borough Council was finally disbanded; the last full election was in 1971, though there have been by-elections from time to time since then. This means it is more than 15 years since Rye last had an opportunity to elect all its Councillors. An election comes expensive on the parish rates; but lately we have had two by-elections and they came expensive too. If all those who stand this time stay in good health and do not move out of the area for the next four years, one election in May could settle matters until 1991 - as well as giving voters the chance to choose Councillors who would represent their interests in controlling the Town Hall empire and advising the Rother one.
The Town Council meets in the evenings at the Town Hall, usually on a Monday, with several committee meetings on the same night (and really dedicated councillors sit in on committees other than their own). Full Council usually meets every second month. Its members also take part in various other civic and Cinque Ports events, from the Mayoring onwards and including official services in St. Mary's, when robes are worn. Occasionally a Councillor displays a rooted objection to these ceremonial occasions, but they are generally considered to be an integral part of the job.
One final comment. A Town Councillor must be prepared to contribute his or her time to the affairs of the town - but not, in our view, his or her money. There is no reason why anyone should be put off standing for the Town Council by the cost of printing election leaflets. There are still plenty of duplicators around, and a lot of information can be typed onto a half-sheet of A4 paper (ie. a half-page of the GAZETTE) at very little expense; the time taken in putting the sheets through letter-boxes, of course, is perhaps a measure of the candidate's support from friends and relatives!
4.
The Rotary Christmas tree in Market Road is a regular part of Christmas in the town, and we all admire its "minders" who stand there in all weathers with their collecting tins. This year Rotary decided that the proceeds should go mainly to children's charities, and the money raised was distributed as follows:
£100 to Red Cross Adventure Holidays for handicapped children
100 to Hill House School
£100 to the Rye Branch of Mencap
£100 to Rye's new Action for Epilepsy Group
£250 to Rotary International's children's project, Polio-Plus, which aims to eradicate the scourge of polio world-wide by the year 2005
£25 to Cancer Research.
Vicky Piper tells us that Mencap are extremely grateful for their share, which will go towards the new horticultural project - more about this before long.
Greenpeace supporters, 20 or so of them, collected even more rubbish on the Nature Reserve foreshore on Saturday than they did on the previous occasion: 53 bags, making a total of almost 100 bags of junk which would otherwise still be disfiguring the beach. Much of it this time was stuff blown or washed up polythene sheeting, polystyrene mugs and packaging - no good to man or beast, and particularly to beast (including nesting birds). Indeed, the collection now has to cease in the Reserve until the nesting season is over. The repellent swag was left at Barry Yates's house, to be collected by the dustmen; the rumour, last time, that it was simply dumped on Winchelsea Beach is utterly untrue, say an indignant Greenpeace!
Recent publicity about relaying the cobbles brought us a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Jack Oxenham of King's Avenue. Mr. Oxenham joined the staff of the Borough Council 40 years ago, and Mrs. Oxenham still treasures a photograph from the Evening Argus of March 1950, showing him waiting with a wooden rammer while the late Charlie ("Sparrow") Morphy laid cobbles in Pump Street and Dick Cutting sat at the side of the road watching. She also has a photograph of her husband down on his knees doing the same job in Watchbell Street (taken by a visiting American who sent them a copy). In those days, Mr. Oxenham tells us, the cobbles were laid 100 to the square yard - not bedded in concrete, but in soft loam which they dug out of the bank along past the New Winchelsea Road houses and took up to the top of the town. Hence, of course, the need for the rammer.
Not long after this Mr. Oxenham gave up cobbles in favour of water, and worked at the Cadborough waterworks until Hastings Borough Council (and later, of course, Southern Water) took that over. But he still remembers his first winter with the Borough Council; it was 1947, he was kept busy clearing snow in the streets, and the scene this year in the High Street was very familiar.
So far, we have heard from the BRCS (3 - 9 May), RNIB (22 - 27 June), RNLI (13 - 18 July) and the Spastics throughout May and June. Aren't there any more? It is no good complaining about someone else pinching your week if they don't know it is yours!
Feedback about last week's marina meeting has entirely backed the GAZETTE view as far as individuals are concerned; we shall have a summary of views next week. But we do implore everyone who shares our concern at the proposal for the land across the river from the Salts, to write to the County Planning Officer saying so: we were extremely surprised to hear that one Rye business group (which shall be nameless at present, since the full membership has not yet discussed the issue) thinks it is a super idea! All those pretty boats and nice expensive houses... If the planners are to be defeated, we may well have a fight on our hands.
5.
Because of all the assorted roadworks due to happen here over the next year or so (including of course the re-cobbling), Ra]I1 Olesen at F.SCC Highways has gone to great pains to co-ordinate the plans of the various public utilities so that road excavations should follow a logical sequence. When we wrote about this in GAZETTE no. 210, we quoted Mr. Olesen as saying it was very important they shouldn't inadvertently close both ends of the town at once.
Last week, they very nearly did!
The villains of the piece were Seeboard, who were due to lay a new mains cable to the supermarket site. Knowing this, Mr. Olesen invited them along with the other interested parties to a site meeting on 6 March to discuss the precise order of events. Everyone turned up - gas, water, buses, police - except Seeboard. Everyone (except Seeboard) appreciated the difficulties on the corner, with The Mint closed for the Gas Board and all the High Street traffic coming down Market Road. It was agreed that the trench across Cinque Ports Street (see below) would be shared by all parties, and the position was quite clear to everyone - except Seeboard, whose contractors Murphy started digging up the whole of the pedestrian part of the street between the zebra crossing and the far side of Market Road, on Monday. The work reached its peak on Thursday morning, by which time Highways were desperately trying to contact the Seeboard man in charge of the job. There was no pavement from the Spar side-entrance right round to the side door of the Corner Shop, nor on the corner of Station Approach by the Post Office, and on Friday the showroom side pavement was up too. Murphy's generator was parked so as to block half Market Road, narrowing the junction with Cinque Ports Street; planks led across to Geering & Colyer and to Mr. Patel's shop, and people trying to get from the market to the High Street via the pedestrian crossing had to pick their way between vanished pavement and flimsy ribbons until they reached the corner, and then go right out into the middle of Market Road to pass the generator - with all the High Street traffic coming downhill straight at them!
Seeboard were supposed to have finished on Monday, and certainly by mid-day the generator had departed, but there had been no attempt to restore the pavements and there was still a big hole outside the Seeboard showroom's side window. We hope things will improve by the time you read this.
Next week's work in Cinque Ports Street will, please Heaven, be much better organised. Southern Water are digging the trench across the road, half at a time, and the Gas Board pipe will simply be dropped into it. Traffic will be controlled by lights, and the work is likely to take five days. The pedestrian crossing is to be out of use for the duration (it should be possible to cross by keeping an eye on the lights, but do be careful!). The Mint will still be closed, so High Street traffic will still exit into Market Road, and there are likely to be hold-ups due to the lights at the bottom, anyway for those turning left. But at least the chaos this time will be organised chaos, with everyone warned in advance.
It seems that Seeboard's Eastbourne office failed to pass on the invitation to the 6 March site meeting to the chap in charge here. Their communications do not seem to be very reliable, since the state of the pavement outside the Woolwich arises from emergency work done by them just after the snow, with no notification to Highways at all. Ralph Olesen deduces that having broken a number of slabs Seeboard replaced them with new ones - which come in a metric size and are just that much smaller than ours. Hence the gaps, and the slippage - which brought disaster to one local lady who fell there, and whose claim for compensation Mr. Olesen is now dealing with on her behalf. It may not be the last, unless someone soon sorts out the 11 casually-laid slabs on that bit of pavement! Seeboard is not, as they say, flavour of the month at the Highways office.
Obviously guardian angels were working shifts on the Market Road corner, since no-one was hurt, though one lady had a very near miss; but won't it be lovely when the street is back to normal!
6.
The new-look Rye Players are postponing the production of a full-scale play for the present, in favour of a theatre workshop. Every Monday evening they will be meeting for something - but not always in the same place, so if you want to come, phone Joan Parkes or Anthony James beforehand. There will be play-readings, practice in voice production, movement, diction, improvisation, stage management, poetry reading... all sorts of things, under the direction of professional producer-director Anthony James of Tower Street, whose lone. experience is clearly going to prove invaluable to the group. After a time, they would hope to demonstrate workshop techniques to any club, etc., which would like to invite them, so that they can have the experience of a live audience before embarking on a full production. But to mount a full production they also need more men in the group - Anthony doesn't really see himself producing plays from the legendary WI collection where all the parts are for women! So if you have Monday evenings spare, why not go along? Men or women, all new members will be welcome.
Differences in outlook between the News and Express was very noticeable last week in their coverage of the marina revelations. The News gave a somewhat perfunctory account of the meeting, and followed it up with an editorial which has caused some annoyance in the town. The Express, on the other hand, gave over the entire front page and a large chunk of page 2 to a very full account of the meeting, the proposals, the reactions, a map of the sites and the plan of the proposed layout opposite the Fishmarket. It is a long time since the Express has covered a Rye story so thoroughly, and we beg to congratulate Karen Brodie on her admirable report (and the Lewes sub-editor who included it in full).
Incidentally, readers may be interested to know that Ladbroke's are no longer the majority shareholders in Senews, the newspaper group which owns both the Express and the News. Senews was founded by Robert Breare when he bought the Express along with other Sussex papers in 1984; he added the free papers of the News group later, and then sold a three-quarters interest in Senews to Ladbroke's early in 1986. The price was quoted at the time as being somewhere between .E7m and £9m, probably nearer the latter.
Now Ladbroke's are pulling out of publishing, and the new owners of both our commercial local papers are a Peterborough-based publishing group called EMAP. The price of Ladbroke's holding is reported in The Independent as being £16.6m - so Ladbroke's have had a very successful year's tenure! The report adds that Robert Breare still holds the balance of the shares, and becomes a non-executive director of the company.
At the time of the Ladbroke's takeover we wrote to Mr. Breare and asked whether, with the new money behind the group, he might consider doing better by Rye? He wrote a very nice letter back, saying, in effect, that there were not enough Rye ads to make it worth paying the place much attention - "inevitably we must try and match editorial resources for a particular area with its earning capacity". But this is a chicken-and-egg situation which, just possibly, new owners EMAP might see in a different light - indeed, could the excellent coverage of the marina story be the first hint of such a light, a foretaste of better things to come in the Express?
This is a reminder (see last week for full details) that subscriptions all fall due at the end of this month, and renewals should reach Cyprus Place by Friday week, 27 March, at the latest. Standing-order payers (whose copies are marked ‘S’) do nothing. Those who have already paid us should find their copies ticked once or twice (quarterly or half-yearly renewal). Others owe us £3.60 (in cash only, please) for 12 weeks, or £6.90 (cash or cheque) for 23 weeks; your name, the amount, and your delivery address on the envelope, please. All receipts will go out with the 1 April issue, the first of the new quarter. Now that we don't print spares, those renewing late may well find they have to miss that one!
7.
Rye & District Youth Club, which meets on Monday evenings from 7 to 10 at the Community Centre, is desperately short of adult helpers. Some 90 young people are on the register of members, but usually only around 35 come to a meeting; ages range from 13 to 19. The Club Leader is Stuart Russell, of Peasmarsh (449) and he would like to hear from anyone willing to help. Sporting abilities are useful, and the Club has the use of the TPS minibus from time to time, but even someone to serve coffee would be very welcome. The important thing is that helpers should be in sympathy with teenagers of both sexes and able to relate to them in the informal Club atmosphere.
We sent copies of the "Three Black Spots" piece in GAZETTE no. 215 to the people concerned - and had a nice letter back about ex-Dewhursts from Stiles Horton Ledger at Eastbourne. "After many months of abortive negotiations I am pleased to report that we have exchanged contracts on this unit to a travel agent who will hopefully be occupying it in the near future. We apologise to you and your readers for the time taken and inconvenience caused and hope that our next instruction in Rye will not prove to be as difficult" writes their Mr. Price. Local people will be sorry that it is not going to be a service shop - but at least a travel agent does have a cheerful window.
Ralph Wood of Le Fevre Wood & Royle has passed on our complaint about the disgusting condition of the Dairy Yard to the Eastbourne house-agents (not Stiles Horton Ledger) acting for the late Mrs. Taylor's executors. Nothing has happened yet to improve the look of the yard; might readers be interested to know who the agents are?
Members of the Baptist Church youth club are holding a sponsored famine (no solid food for 24 hours) to raise money for the "Water for the World" project, which attempts to save the lives of the 7m children who die each year from water-related diseases. The event takes place at the Baptist Church from noon on Saturday, 28 March, to noon on the Sunday. Potential sponsors are welcome to visit on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning; at 2, 4 and 6 pm on Saturday Andrew Heather will be giving a fifteen-minute talk, with slides, on Zaire where he worked as a volunteer with the Baptist Missionary Society in 1986.
Today, and again on 1 April, large groups of WI members from all over East Sussex are converging on Rye, to be taken on guided tours in small parties and then given tea (all 75 or so together) by Rye WI members in the Community Centre. Arrangements were announced at the March meeting, when Rye WI members enjoyed an illustrated talk on country houses and raised £18 for Pennies for Friendship to help women in the under-developed countries.
Community Health Council secretary Anthony Wade is retiring as soon as a successor can be appointed; the surprise announcement was made just before last month's CHC meeting. Mr. Wade, who has held the job for more than four years, feels the CHC has not had the support to which it is entitled from the Regional Health Authority (which happens to be based in Bexhill, but covers a far wider area than our own Hastings Health Authority). He has been frustrated by the RHA's inability to appreciate the local viewpoint put forward by the CHC - and this, after all, is what the CHC was set up to do. Both Mr. Wade and his (volunteer) members put a great deal of time and effort into keeping in touch with local health matters, and in passing on the result of their researches to the health authorities. We must hope that an equally dedicated replacement secretary will be found. Mr. Wade lives in Tunbridge Wells, and trusts that his experience may be useful there. Local people who have had the pleasure of working with him here will be very sorry that he is going.
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10 to 4 (and Friday and Saturday)
St. John Ambulance Brigade Charity Shop, Tower Street, 10 to 4 (and Friday and Saturday)
Methodist Ladies Fellowship, "Is God in Control?" (Mrs. Rozel Poole), Methodist Church, 2.45
Thomas Peacocke School Careers Convention, Upper School Hall, 6.30 to 9 (GAZETTE no. 216)
WI Market reopens, CC, 10
Museum Association, "Rye Then and Now" (Frank Palmer), FEC, 7.30 - all welcome
RNLI public dinner, George Hotel (tickets sold out)
Cadborough Jubilee Social Club jumble sale, CC, 2
FRAG event: Basil Dowling reads his own poetry, Stormont Studio, 7.30 - all welcome, entrance El.
Thrift Shop Half-Price Sale, Red Cross, 10 to 4
Arthritis & Rheumatism Council ploughman's lunch, CC, 12 to 2
• Welcome back to Mrs. Hill (Edie Baker), now home again in Wish Street after a week in Rye Hospital.
• Congratulations to our Mayoress, who completed the 13-mile Hastings Half-Marathon on Sunday in 2 hours 34 minutes - finishing, her proud parents Dick and Monica Oliver tell us, none the worse. Mrs. Burgess was one of 2,500 runners in the event.
• Rye Round Table are very pleased to learn that all the work which went into the bone-marrow blood tests last year has borne fruit; two local donors have been identified as "matches" on the original test. Round Table is arranging for a second test to take place at one of the Rye surgeries, and will be keeping in touch with what they hope will ultimately be a very good-news story.
• Friday of next week (27th) is the first of four Open Days at St. Michael's Hospice (plus Saturday, Monday and Tuesday) - each day 10 to 12, 2 to 7.
• Despite red-hot rumours in the town about developments at Strand quay, the only planning application for Rye this week is for a change of colour (black to white) for the window frames and door of 19 East Street.
• The monthly sales of second-hand children's clothing about which we wrote some time ago have now settled down into a regular pattern, and the organ rs are starting to take in summer clothes (they can collect by arrangement, and would be glad if unsold winter clothes could be taken back by their owners). The sale is held on the third Thursday in each month at 67 Udimore Road (phone 224606) - the next one is tomorrow, 19th - and also on the fourth Tuesday in each month at Mary Stanford Green, Rye Harbour.
• British Rail announce overnight engineering work on our line between Monday and Thursday next week. This weekend (21/22 March) trains will be diverted between Ashford and London, with possible delays; if it matters to you, check with Passenger Information before you go.
• If you were thinking about going on the RAFA outing to Mildenhall on 23 May, put the thought behind you; the coach is fully booked already!
• A London lady asks about her uncle, war artist Frank Beresford "who came to live in Rye a few years after the Coronation". She wonders if any of his pictures are still around. We will gladly pass on any information.
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. Deadline is Monday afternoon for Wednesday's delivery. The paper costs subscribers 30p, and spare copies may be available from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)