Final reminder: if your copy is not ticked or marked 'S', we need a subscription from you by Friday this week if you want to receive next week's GAZETTE: £6.90 (cash or cheque) for 23 weeks, or £3.60 (cash only) for 12 weeks. Full details were given in GAZETTE no. 216, page 7.
In mid-February we reported on a planning application from Alsfords for the South Undercliff bus garage, and added that "rumour was rife" about the future of their (ex-Hinds) timber yard on Strand Quay. John Alsford has not been willing to talk about this rumour - which turned out to be true - so all we could decently do was to wait for official information from some other source (though unofficial information has been circulating all round the town for the past month or more, even down to the sale price of the site!). However, last week the News obligingly front-paged a story which had come to them via the developers, so we felt free to make our own enquiries from the same source.
As most of Rye already knows, the site has been bought by McCarthy & Stone, who specialise in building sheltered housing for older people. A spokesman for the company reassures us that the reported "block" of flats is not what they have in mind for Rye. They have built a big block of flats on the sea-front at Hastings (near the Memorial - and we hear that they are super inside), but their architects' approach to the Hinds site would be quite different and they are very much looking forward to taking up the challenge it presents. What they envisage is a series of inter-connecting buildings forming a street scene in harmony with the area - more like the development they recently built in the centre of Canterbury. (This would not be the first time there have been houses on the site; photographs exist showing several cottages beside the Pipemaker back entrance.) It will be some weeks before a formal planning application goes in, because McCarthy & Stone are anxious to get it right and are already discussing plans with Rother staff. Indeed, before the application is complete they intend to give a full presentation to Rye Town Council, to make sure that it would be acceptable to the town.
The company are not yet ready to talk about the sale price of the units, but their policy is to design to a price affordable by the local community; they certainly don't want to strain welfare services by luring in lots of elderly strangers from away. At present, the only warden-type accommodation in Rye is in Badger Gate (owned by Rother, with 32 flats) and Devonport House (owned by SHAA, with room for 20 residents); there will be a further 14 flats in Rother's new block on the Magdala House site - but the intention is then to reorganise Badger Gate, leaving fewer flats there. Eventual total, somewhere just over 60 "sheltered spaces" in the town, mostly Council-controlled.
McCarthy & Stone are obviously sensitive to the planning aspect of the Hinds site, and it seems probable that what finally goes up there will be a welcome addition to the town's housing stock.
At the end of each four-year term of office, Rother Council presents an Award for Outstanding Design for a building development in the District. Le Fevre Wood & Royle, chosen to receive the current award for the new Community Hall at Westfield, were also the first winners eight years ago. 16 schemes were submitted this time, and writing about the winner the judges (two Councillors and the Planning Officer) say that the Westfield Community Hall "provides a solution to the brief which is full of visual references to the traditional farm buildings in the area. In this way a large building has been successfully integrated into the fabric of the village, and makes a very positive statement where a more ordinary design could have been acceptable." The actual designers of the Hall were Ralph Wood, with Bob Stokes, from the firm's Hastings office.
2.
Mr. Laurie Band, of the Rye Harbour Garage, died in a nursing home on 21 March. He had been ill since September, and leaves a widow and a daughter. He was a member of Rotary, and had also taken a very active part in the work of the Rye Harbour lifeboat station; donations in his memory may be sent to the "RNLI, Rye Harbour Inshore Station Branch" c/o the Lifeboat Secretary, 2 Paines Cottages, Rye Harbour. Lawrie was fascinated by the history of Rye and the Harbour and had a very large collection of slides (taken from old photographs borrowed and returned) from which he was always willing to show selections in aid of charity - the Community Centre in particular benefited from his kindness in this way. One of "Lawrie Band's evenings" was always something keenly looked to by those who packed the hall - the realisation that there will be no more of them adds to the sadness of the town at his death. The funeral takes place tomorrow (Thursday) at 9.30 am at Hastings Crematorium.
Over £120 was collected at the Annual Meeting of the NSPCC on Tuesday last week. Guest speaker was Giles Pegram, the Society's Appeals Director, and also on the platform facing the massed supporters was Alan Willis, the Regional Organiser, paying his first visit to a Rye Annual Meeting. The accounts were handed ro d at the meeting; over £11,000 has been raised during the year (including £2,000 from Camber Sands Leisure Park as a result of Anne Wood's regular Friday night public-relations visits). This is more than any other District in East Sussex or the major part of West Sussex! Peggy Amos has retired from the committee after ten years, seven of them as treasurer; Barbara Andrews succeeds her as treasurer. The committee also loses Anne Osborne, who has left Rye.
Rye Police would be grateful to hear from any ladies aged between 45 and 55, about 5'4" tall and with light brown hair, who would be free to take part in an identity parade at the police station at 2pm on Tuesday, 14 April; it will take less than an hour, and £3 expenses will be paid. If you could help, please let them know as soon as possible (Rye 222112).
Two police warnings this week. Two fake £10 notes have been found in Rye; if you get one you are not happy about, take it to the police or your bank. Also, be wary of £50 notes, since there is a gang - Arabic in appearance! - going round Sussex shops trying to confuse assistants into giving them much too much change for such notes. Be on your guard, say police; if in any doubt, ring 999 with a description of the suspects and if possible of their car - several arrests have been made in other areas in this way.
Firemen had a conservation problem at Camber on Sunday; in a bungalow, badly damaged by fire (with the owners away) they rescued the family pet - a tarantula! Mum is safe and well, but they don't know whether the baby spider has survived or not - it pla be hiding under a rock in its case, but there were no volunteers to make sure...
We hear from Rother's planning department that complaints about the brambles on the parapet of The Old Grammar School (GAZETTE no. 215) are in theory a matter for the Department of the Environment, since the building is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. However, when the brambles started growing again last year Rother did contact Mr. Bennett direct, recommending an application of SBK systemic brushwood killer; he told Rother that the brambles had been sprayed by October last year, but that a further application might be necessary in the spring/early summer of this year when the plants would be in full leaf and the liquid could be fully absorbed into the plants' system. So we shall have to wait and see, and hope that this does the trick.
As for the Dairy Yard, Ralph Wood's pressure on the agents for the site may well have borne fruit by the time you read this; they assured him they were sending in a cleaning team, with some fencing, this week.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 25 March 1987
To be honest, we are not sure whether what follows is a good-news story or not; it depends on how you feel about Rye's need for tourists. But it is certainly a news story, and we are most grateful to the chairman of the Chamber of Trade, Clifford Wall, who pointed it out.
The British Tourist Authority publishes a monthly magazine, "In Britain", which circulates among the classier hotels, travel agents, and people overseas who like to holiday here. A year ago it asked for suggestions for a list of villages, towns and cities which readers considered to be "full of interest and exceptionally welcoming to visitors". From these nominations, a short-list was prepared and voted on, and the results appear in the April issue.
Top city is York, followed by Edinburgh, Bath and Canterbury. Top village is Broadway, followed (oddly) by Hampstead and South Kensington, and then Dedham. Top town is Windsor - and who emerges equal second with Harrogate? Rye does!
It is by no means certain that this flattering recommendation will bring a deluge of overseas visitors to the town this summer - and even if it does, they are likely to be the sort of visitors who are welcome here (we doubt if the Hastings language schools read "In Britain"!). But the general question of whether Rye wants any more visitors is beginning to need airing urgently. Perhaps, when the new management of the Rye Promotion Group has found its feet, someone would like to set out for us how the Group sees the town's future? Those who disagree could then state their views too. At least we would all know where we were, after that.
Nomination papers for the Town Council election on 7 May are now available from the Council Offices or from the Town Clerk. For Rother Council, the forms are only, at the Town Hall, Bexhill (Hastings 216321).
Nominations for both Councils have to reach the Town Hall. Bexhill. by noon on Monday week, 6 April. This deadline is very strictly adhered to - Tuesday morning won't do, and those really keen play safe by delivering their papers personally, or anyway posting them in very good time. Because the GAZETTE is on holiday on 15 April, we would like to list the candidates in our 8 April issue, rather than leaving it until after Easter; so we would be much obliged if anyone who is definitely standing for either Council but whose name was not included in our list last week, would contact us by the 6th at the latest. We also hope to publish on the 8th the brief cvs we mentioned last week. Anyone who doesn't want this (free) publicity, of course, doesn't have to have it - but in fairness to our reputation for impartiality, we would have to say so.
The count will take place for all the Parish/Town and Rother elections on Friday, 8 May. 60 or so tellers will be needed here, all day on the Friday and conceivably on the Saturday as well. Quick wits and nimble fingers are needed; pay is somewhere over £3 an hour. Contact David Cranston at the Council Offices if you are interested and want to know more, as soon as possible please.
The Sports Centre brochure is now available at the Council Offices. Opening hours for the public are 6pm to 10.30 on schooldays, 9am to 10.30 the rest of the time. The list of what's on offer includes squash, badminton, football, martial arts, netball, volleyball, basketball, gymnasium, disabled sports, hockey, aerobics, keep-fit, short mat bowls, table tennis, cricket, roller skating, short tennis and trampolining (and there is a bar - there'd need to be, after that lot!). Equipment (balls, racquets, bats) can be hired, 75p a time.
This week admission is free and sessions are kept short to allow as many people as possible in; membership starts next week, when passport-size photos are required. For next week's paper we hope to go along and see for ourselves; meanwhile, we wish Stuart Lees and his staff a very successful launch for what must be Rye's most exciting present for very many years - thanks, Rother!
4.
We have now heard, by letter or in conversation, from a large number of local people who are not impressed by LRDC's suggestions for a marina village!
It seems clear that yacht-owners (from Rye's point of view) fall into three classes: (A) those who already have boats here and understand the idiosyncracies of the harbour; (B) those who would like to visit Rye by boat but would be unhappy without moorings in which their boats could stay upright at all states of the tide; and (C) those who fancy seeing their boat bobbing prettily at anchor beside a house expensively set in a historic place.
Class A need no comment; and they include the fishermen, whose views on having a marina just opposite their traditional moorings have not been stated (not in public, anyway!).
Class B are welcome; our sailing visitors already add to the summer charms of Strand Quay. They undoubtedly increase the town's trade, and both harbour and town would be glad to see more of them, and to make holidaying here easier for them if it can be done acceptably.
Class C are a very different matter. These are the people able to pay perhaps £90,000 for a (very probably) weekend house, plus mooring fees of £600 p.a. or more on top of the cost of their boat - a boat which, on alternate weekends, they could only take in or out of the river at mid-day or in the middle of the night! The plan produced by the consultants shows 124 houses (North Salts has 70). Are those houses going to be occupied by people who are some use to the town - or are they going to sprawl there with darkened windows Monday-to-Friday and for the whole winter (as already happens in much of North Salts and even, it is whispered, at the top of the town as well)?
There would not, it seems, be any strong local objection to just moorings near the town; perhaps Mr. Elwell might like to revive his plan for moorings (only) in the Jehovah's Witness field, which was turned down by Rother some time ago? It is the houses which we all recognise as the thin end of an enormous suburban wedge. Mr. Gubay already has his planning permission for Harbour Road, and there is no real difficulty in selling houses anywhere round Rye. Let him build a suitable ghetto with a hole in the middle, for the benefit of those who like to come down by car on a sunny Saturday and sit on deck drinking g-and-t and watching television. The sooner he gets started, the less likely it is that anyone else will.
As a matter of public interest, we asked FSCC why they and not Rother had given the original outline permission for the Harbour Road site, since it was after the 1974 local government reorganisation? Very roughly, the situation from 1974 was that County Councils determined "any major proposal that was likely to conflict with Structure Plan policies". District Councils decided which applications came into this category, and it was on this basis that the 1979 outline application for marina development in Rye Harbour Road was decided by ESCC. It came to them with a recommendation from Rother for approval subject to conditions "and the completion of a legal agreement with the landowner relating to the phasing of development and the achievement of highway improvements". This (presumably the Section 52 Agreement) was executed before outline permission was issued in March 1981. Under the then-existing planning arrangements, it would have been ESCC who later considered the detailed scheme; but in the meantime a new Act had laid down that all planning applications (except for minerals and waste disposal) were to become the responsibility of District Councils, and therefore it was Rother which dealt with Mr. Gubay's detailed plans in 1984/5. It will therefore also be Pother which decides on any new planning application arising from the LRDC survey, subject to a general duty to consult ESCC "in respect of an application where strategic issues are involved".
John Collard, who is in a position to write with authority on harbour matters, summarises a long letter to the Planning Officer. Floating moorings are needed here by local and visiting boat owners. If we have to have a marina village, it must be made clear that the marina is completed before house building begins.
(continued...)
5.
As an already excavated basin, continues Mr. Collard, North Point might not need housing to support it; and an off-river yacht basin is something which public funds, or a combination of public and private resources, could well finance. Finally, he considers that public (SWA) money might be even better spent by constructing a navigation lock in the Pother just downstream of the confluence with Rock Channel. This would be a major project, but would provide floating moorings at Strand quay, in the lower Tillingham, Rock Channel and at the Fishmarket. Such schemes operate effectively, he says, in small French harbours across the Channel. (And maybe they could run the bypass across it too? Ed.)
Sir Brian Batsford, writing in a private capacity, deplores te planning implications of the LRDC's two preferred sites; maybe, he writes to the County Planning Officer, the New Road site would be attractive to visitors because it is close to the town - but this closeness would make the town itself less attractive to visitors. "Why the town is of such conservational value is because of its isolation surrounded by marsh and the distant views of it from that marsh" he says. He adds, for good measure, a suggestion that the perfect site for a marina would be the Rock Channel land now occupied by Jempsons and Bournes which could have been developed as such some ten years ago.
Dr. Nicholas Hudd (now of Tenterden, but with Rye connections) refers to the Study's "bare-faced effrontery that the people of Rye and Rye Harbour should be given 'the choice between the two sites'. Or neither, Sir, or none at all!" he adds. The prospect of "between 7,000 and 10,000 more visitor days annually" horrifies him: "nobody wants more visitors except those who can make a profit - the town is already a major disaster area in summer".
Richard Mockett uses New Road at weekends. He points out that at peak times it would be creating a hazard to have any appreciable amount of traffic turning into the proposed access, and virtually impossible to get out. Maybe the weekenders don't much mind whether or not they can get their boats out of the river - but they do like to get their cars out of the drive!
To summarise: the sailing people say we do need some wet moorings. Everyone says that we do need more houses - but housing affordable by young couples on a suitable site (such houses are already beginning to appear in Camber, we are told), not expensive villas which could never even be contemplated round the foot of the town without the excuse of a marina. There is considerable scepticism about the jobs which a marina village might create, and about the extra income generated and whether it would actually benefit the town at all; and, for that matter, whether the L20,000 of public money spent on the Study was not entirely wasted in producing a report so universally unpopular in the place it was intended to benefit.
The big one in this week's planning list comes from Ceramic Consultants (Rye Tiles) for the Old Brewery in Wish Ward. Tarquin Cole tells us that they are not intending to do anything immediately, even if they get permission; but they want to protect their position in view of other development nearby. The application is to convert the building into four two-storey maisonettes, with two pairs of small shops at ground level, each pair sharing one doorway. The firm now has a site in Harbour Road on which, eventually, they hope to build a factory for Rye Tiles and Rye Pottery jointly.
Two of the other applications are retrospective, one from each of our Old Vicarage guest houses! The pink one in Church Square (the Thompsons) seeks permission to sell pictures, as well as teas and bed-and-breakfast; the Tarrants, in East Street, found there was no actual permission for bed-and-breakfast there, so they are applying to regularise the position. Woolworths' application is also retrospective, for non-illuminated lettering and fascia refurbishment which is in fact already in place. Other applications are for a new conservatory for 3 Eagle House in Eagle Square, and for a garage reorganisation and an extension at Leswinton, West Undercliff.
6.
Rumours about poor prospects for some rail travellers in the new May timetable led us to ask David Woodhouse at Ashford for the draft timings. We hope that any mistakes in what follows - a very unskilled interpretation of the implications for Rye - are our mistakes (which we can correct next week) rather than BR's, with which we would be stuck for (in theory) a year.
London commuters are, one of them tells us, OK - the new timetable for the early morning is much the same as it is now, and so are the evening trains. London weekenders will even find an improvement when they go home - the last up train will leave Rye on a Sunday at 20.29 instead of the present 20.14, and still arrive at Charing Cross at 22.15 as now.
London day-trippers are less well served. You will be able to get to Charing Cross on a day-return ticket at 10.14 (instead of 10.40 as now), but the journey will still take almost two hours, leaving Rye at 8.20 with lots of time for a coffee-break at Ashford. Then there is nothing until the 9.31 (Charing Cross 11.14) - followed by the normal middle-of-the-day service leaving Rye at 27 minutes past each hour.
Coming back, the best bet will be the 15.55 (13 minutes at Ashford, Rye 17.30). The next down train from Charing Cross, the 16.30, in theory connects with th 17.48 to Rye (only) - but as only four minutes are allowed for the laborious crossing at Ashford, most people will prefer not to risk it! The 16.55, 17.55 18.55 and 19.55 all have a reasonable ten-minute-plus wait at Ashford (Rye by 18.40, 19.39, 20.32 and 21.29), but the final down train will be the 20.30, which means you sit on Ashford station for almost half-an-hour (Rye 22.29).
Network Card holders will get an even worse deal than they do now. Because the discount card can't be used for weekday journeys starting before 10, they will not be able to leave Rye until 10.27 (London 12.14) instead of the present 10.08 (London 11.40) - hardly worth going, if it's just for the day! There could, however, be a financial compromise. The ordinary day-return costs £9.20 (London by 10.14). The Network day-return costs £6.10 (London by 12.14). Or you lay out £7.35 on an ordinary day-return to Ashford plus a Network day-return from Ashford to London; using both, you leave Rye at 9.31 and Ashford at 10.06, arriving in London at 11.14. (If you choose this option, you must buy both tickets the day before - or the saving on the card may be offset by the strain on your heart as you rush up the stairs to the Ashford booking-office and stand fuming in the queue, or even end up paying full single fare on the London train rather than miss it altogether!)
Going the other way, the prospects are bleak - anyway for commuters. The present 8.03 from Rye (Eastbourne 9.00) vanishes. The 7.18 from Rye will get to Eastbourne at 8.29 (wait 18 minutes at Hastings); the 8.20, at 9.39 (24 minutes at Hastings). Coming home is just as bad. At present you can leave Eastbourne at 17.14 and get here at 18.20; but from May, the same train will get you home at 18.39 (34 minutes at Hastings) - though this is better than the 16.53 or 17.53 from Eastbourne which will have you hanging about Hastings for 50 minutes.
Prospects are bleak, too, for Thomas Peacocke pupils who come by train from Hastings or Three Oaks. They will have to wait around in Rye from 8.16 until school opens (or not arrive at all until after 9.30) - while the new schoolday ending at half-past three will mean even more waiting, until the 16.28 leaves (unless the train pupils are allowed out early every day for the 15.28).
Local people, particularly those wno travel westwards, are not going to be very pleased with British Rail. Theoretically the May timetable lasts a year - but Michael Dearing (Transport Users Group) tells us that minor alterations are sometimes made for the winter timetable. So if you feel aggrieved by the May arrangements, now is not too soon to start making a fuss to the Group, or to the Area Manager - if you aim to get an improvement in -October. (Transport Users Group, 6 Holmhurst Lane, St. Leonards; Area Manager (Harry Holt), BR Ashford.) We will gladly lend the draft timetables to anyone who wants to check for themselves on our reading!
7.
If this week's paper had included a full report of last Wednesday's Town Hall meeting as well as all the rest of the planning reports, we thought readers would probably go on strike! So we are keeping that treat for next week, since there is a long way to go yet. No decisions were taken, and the ESCC officers have gone home to think about some of the more controversial issues raised (should there be no parking in Lion Street? - should Deadman's Lane be one-way, and if so which? - should Landgate become two-way again, or even one-way the other way? - what is the latest position about the Gas Works car park?). Many of the minor points discussed were non-controversial and should ultimately mean improvements to the traffic flow, though some parking-spaces would be lost. Despite the short notice, the meeting was well attended by citizens as well as councillors; these occasional consultation sessions are really helpful to those of us not normally privy to Council business.
A delighted Brian Atkins estimated that 2,000 people had visited the TPS Careers Convention on Thursday: far more - and far more "stallholders" - than ever before in this two-yearly event. The result was, he told us, well worth the very considerable efforts which so many people had put into the evening. Certainly the hall was packed solid at 7.30 (despite the rival attractions of Eastenders!). Local faces were to be seen behind some of the stands, and undoubtedly contacts were made by pupils and parents which will set many of our young people on the track of satisfactory career prospects.
• The Monday Club will be holding its 21st birthday party on 13 April, Mrs. Hacking pointed out to her members at the recent AGM! There was a long list of well-deserved thank-you's to people who have helped the Club over the year, too long for us to print; but we certainly have room to mention the thanks to Mrs. Hacking herself, who has been President and organiser of the Club for nearly all those 21 years.
• Are all art students 7' tall? It felt like it at the preview for "Where are they Now?" last week, when many ex-TPS art students came back to Rye to see their work displayed in the Easton Rooms -positively looming above the rest of us! There were a number of Rye names among the artists, and some extremely attractive and professional work - though prices, we thought, were unnervingly
professional too. The Stormont Studio has an Arts Council exhibition, "Wild Creatures" - a term which also includes Man; we liked the drawing of the loving couple being eyed by what looked rather like a jealous sheep!
• People with housing problems may not be aware that, as well as the Citizens Advice Bureau sessions on Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons at the Council Offices, the Hastings branch of Shelter has a "surgery" in Rye at the Social Services office on the first Thursday morning of each month starting at 10.15. John Humphreys will try to advise on any housing problem - or lack-of-housing problem - whether you are a Council tenant, rent privately, or whatever. The St. Leonards office of Shelter is open during normal office hours (Hastings 438075) if you can't leave it until a first Thursday.
• Monday was a rotten wet day for Alan and Annie Sinden to move house to Somerset - but it is still not too late for Alan's friends to say goodbye to him at the Hope Anchor, since he will be back in Rye over this weekend. We hope to report on his future plans next week.
• Landgate WI much enjoyed a talk at their March meeting last week, by Mr. Thomas about Ellen Terry and the museum at Smallhythe.
• Finally, a tailpiece to the centre-spread story this week. As Frank Palmer's very enjoyable slide show for Museum Association members on Friday drew towards its end, he produced a couple of recent pictures - "just as a record of what the town looks like now, before its green surround is nibbled away" he said, as he showed his audience a view of sheep grazing on the LRDC site. We are sure it was the opinion rather than the specific shot which triggered a spontaneous burst of applause!
Local History Group (war-time project), Library, 7.30 Natural History Society AGM and members' evening, FEC, 7.30
Mencap Spring Sale, Red Cross, 10 to 12
Thomas Peacocke PTA Model Exhibition, The Grove, 11 to 3
Baptist Youth Club "sponsored famine", Baptist Church, noon (to noon on Sunday)
WI Group Craft Show, FEC, 2.30 to 4.30 (results 4.15)
Concert of English and Italian music by Madrigalia and the Kingsland Singers (tickets £1.50), St. Mary's, 7.30
WRVS Lunch Club, CC, 12.30
Town Council, TH, 6 (see below)
RAFA AGM (prospective members, ex-RAF/WRAF, very welcome), George Hotel, 8
Hearing Circle, Red Cross, 10.30
TPS Parents Evening, third year
Playgroup supporters' meeting, TH, 7.30 (see below)
• The annual Craft Show mounted by the Rye Group of WIs is always something v much looked forward to in handicraft circles - but this year's may be special, because of an addition to the usual five awards. This is the Udimore Cup, to be awarded "to the member entering the most perfect and original item in the Show". The decision lies with the five judges; what a responsibility!
• Monday's Town Council meeting - held, as always, in public - will be a full Council session dealing with all the usual business, plus a discussion of the marina study, the ESCC traffic management proposals, and the street lighting on which ESCC is keen to get started. Sounds like a busy evening...
• Playgroup mums are very worried about the future for the ever-changing group of under-5s which meets in the old Civil Defence hut beside the Clinic; the building has a limited life-span - what will happen next? They have enlisted the support of the Mayor, who is to chair a meeting at the Town Hall today week, and they hope that everyone interested will turn up to hear the problems and perhaps suggest possible solutions. Mums, prospective mums, aunties and grans - this means you!
• Tickets for the Thomas Peacocke School musical, "Ulysses", are now on sale at Upper School (just inside the main entrance), Monday to Friday from 12 to 12 .45 (adults £2, children and pensioners £1). Performances are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week.
• A good night out at a very reasonable price is offered by Rye Police on Saturday, 11 April; tickets are now available at the police station for their Buffet Dance at Pontins from 8 to 1. There are two bands, a tombola and a bar - all for £5 a head.
• Rye will be well represented on Radio Sussex's 258 Alternative programme this week. Yesterday Colin Hudson and Stuart Lees were to talk about the Sports Centre; today Andrew Heather describes a "sponsored famine"; and tomorrow Joanne Haviland of the Dance Centre and Eric Money and Kitty French from the Rye Art Gallery are being interviewed - all from 2.30, 258 medium wave only.
• Rye Players' theatre workshop sessions ("It's Monday night at eight o'clock") now have a permanent home: the back bar (curtained off!) at the Ypres Castle, by kind invitation of landlord Dick Pearce - to whom the group are most grateful.
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 occasionally. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)