Rye Town Council meeting on Monday evening was a very long one; the best bit came at the end, revealed in a press release issued afterwards.
Rye Town Council are delighted to say that Messrs. McCarthy & Stone have offered to donate the listed building on the Alsfords site on Strand Quay to the Town Council, to provide a permanent home for the Town Model and a small Heritage Centre. This they will do in consideration of the Town Council relinquishing its tenancy in the present building.
The Town Council is approaching Rother District Council for assistance in the conversion of the building and the drawing together of grant aid necessary for the project - which both Councils feel will be an asset to the town.
Private discussions about the future of the Model have been going on for some time, with greater urgency since the Alsfords move became public knowledge. We feel sure the other papers, as well as ourselves, will be glad that the subject is no longer under wraps - which were becoming increasingly flimsy! The listed building referred to is the one immediately beside the yard, nearest to the Strand Quay pavement - two-storey brick, timber and tile. It is certain- ly a generous replacement for the Model's present much smaller rented home just round the corner in The Deals, and an excellent and prominent site for both Model and Heritage Centre. Much work will have to be done on it, and the timing of the whole move is still under discussion; but the town in general must certainly be very grateful to McCarthy & Stone for this solution to what looked like being a tricky problem.
The developers' plans for the sheltered housing development on the rest of the site are still in the drawings stage, but those who have seen them tell us that they are likely to be acceptable in principle, though there may be room for some amendments before the final plans are submitted to Rother for formal approval.
Mrs. Pauline Tomich announces that she is not after all going to stand again for Rother Council. She is taking on a part-time consultancy with an interior design company - not based in East Sussex, though she hopes to continue living in Playden. In her four years at Rother, Mrs. Tomich has served on the Housing and Planning Committees, and has also been involved in public affairs in the town. She is the chairman of the Sports Centre committee, and a governor at Thomas Peacocke School, Leasam House and Hill House School, and she has also taken an interest in a number of local charities. She is, she tells us, very sad about having to make the decision not to stand - "having fought so many battles for Rye and loved almost every minute of it!".
We reported last week that John Cawdron is also not standing again. His decision, too, is prompted by the demands of his job. Still working for the Southern Water Authority, he has been appointed resident engineer for the reconstruction of the Scaynes Hill sewage treatment works at Haywards Heath. This is a two-year, €4.7m project, headed by John - who has a whole string of professional engineering initials after his name - with a graduate assistant. It started just a week ago, and the work is likely to take up all his time - in summer, until 7pm (contractors work late), so no Planning Committees on Thursday afternoons or site inspections all day Wednesdays, let alone the evening Environmental Health Committee meetings. John is also clearly sad to be leaving Rother after four years; maybe, we said, next time round...? Maybe, he said.
Current runners are now George Shackleton; Roger Breeds (Conservative); Frank Dowdeswell (Alliance); Osma Jones, Gerry Fortsch and Martin Smith (Labour). Final date for nominations, noon on Monday, at Bexhill Town Hall.
2.
Mrs. Daphne Brenchley, of Military Road, died very suddenly at her home on 20 March. There is much sympathy in the town for her husband, so unexpectedly bereaved. The funeral took place on Friday at St. Anthony's Church, followed by burial in Rye Cemetery; donations to the British Heart Foundation may be sent c/o Ellis Bros.
Mr. Stanley Merricks Monk, of Tillingham Avenue, died in hospital on 26 March. He was 87, and leaves a widow and two sons. Mr. Monk, who spent his working life at Thorpe Foreman in Ferry Road, was invalided out of the army in WW1 after being wounded; his life was saved, he used to tell his family, by the Bible he kept in his breast-pocket. The funeral takes place at the Baptist Church at 11 on Friday (3 April) and will be followed by cremation at Hastings; family flowers only, but donations in memory of Mr. Monk may be sent to St. Michael's Hospice at St. Leonards.
Mr. Horace Christopher Chaplin, of Fishmarket Road, died in a nursing home on 28 March. Mr. Chaplin was 88, and leaves a widow - at present a patient in Rye Hospital. The funeral is tomorrow (Thursday) at 1.30 at the Baptist Church.
"Nuts in May" might almost be a better headline, because we hear from Clifford Foster (of Fixtures) that the GAZETTE's interpretation of the new May train timetable was all too accurate; moreover, Clifford tells us, the new timings on our line are carefully arranged to miss the Canterbury connection at Ashford!
John Smith has written to the Chairman of British Rail, with copies to Ken Warren, the Transport Users Group and the press, protesting and asking whether there was any local consultation with travellers: "It appears to me that some person with not the slightest knowledge of this area, or the wishes of local travellers, has merely instructed a computer to prepare timetables to suit only the computer operator. However it was drawn up, it seems to be based on the premise of change purely for the sake of change and is absolutely unnecessary." Clifford, too, can't see why they had to alter what has been quite a useful timetable over the past year.
The PTA Model Exhibition at Upper School on Saturday was full of masculine interest - with a few rather plaintive felt and lego toys entirely surrounded by boats and steam-engines and aircraft. There weren't a great many visitors while we were there - but perhaps it was better attended earlier on.
However, handicrafts certainly drew a largely feminine audience later in the day at the FE Centre, when the members of the Rye Group of WIs showed off their skills at the annual Craft Show. It was a real pleasure to everyone to see the infant Landgate WI doing so well; they won the co-operative class and came second in two others. The Udimore Cup, for the best item in the show, went to Mrs. Gwen Tuck of Peasmarsh for her delightful hessian figure of a gardener at work; Mrs. Tuck tells us that she was drawn into this craft when she made two lambs as part of a group working on a set of crib figures. Now she often designs figures to be given as presents, with the subject chosen to suit the recipient's interests - hopes will doubtless be high among her gardening friends!
Beckley WI won three of the other five awards: for the most Gold Stars (16), for the highest number of Gold Stars in relation to the number of entries (34%), and for the highest average marks in the Art class (19.8). Rye gained the highest average marks in Class 1 (19.6), and Peasmarsh had the most Class 1 marks overall (571). As usual, the co-operative class was keenly enjoyed by visitors; this year's theme was "Awayday". Landgate, who won with 136 points, spent their day at a wildlife museum. Peasmarsh (133) went to the beach, and Beckley (130) to France. Playden (129) had a day at the races, Rye (122) went to Wimbledon, and Iden (122) went up-market - Ladies' Day, no less, at Ascot! In this class, up to 20 points are awarded for staging - and some of the backdrops were really works of art in their own right.
3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 1 April 1987
To include the Gas Works car-park under this heading is rather optimistic - but Peter Bridges tells us that there have been new discussions with the Gas Board and a solution has been produced on which Southern Water's observations are being sought. It may also involve getting planning permission; but he is hopeful that something will happen earlier than the July date which the Gas Board originally offered - fingers crossed!
Bad weather and a broken sewer delayed the Gas Board operation in The Mint. The original estimate of three weeks' work would have meant their departure last weekend; unfortunately, they will not have finished excavating until the end of this week, and there will then have to be restricted traffic until tidying-up is finished, probably the middle of next week.
The joint Southern Water/Gas Board operation outside the Post Office was completed on time, and everyone had departed by Saturday; although Cinque Ports Street was hazardous, the arrangements were well-thought-out and there was a good deal more public confidence in them than there had been the week before. (Even a burst water-main didn't set the workforce appreciably back.)
The reason why Seeboard still have a big hole in the pavement on the showroom side of Market Road is a good one; the work to be done there will mean congesting the road with parked vans, etc., again, so they have agreed to leave it until The Mint is clear.
Down by the station, the new bus garage with its dark boarding and bright red doors looks very handsome, as does the building which will house the new loos. Once the underground diesel storage tank is finished, the bus access can be completed; once the plumbing is in, the loos can be used. Then, presumably, work can begin on demolishing the old garage and loos, on the site of which the supermarket will eventually rise (it is due, we were told some time ago, to open in time for Christmas).
A start on Rother's sheltered-housing block on the Magdala House site has been delayed until 27 April, and the piling work is not likely to begin for a couple of weeks after that - so, with luck, playgroup will be on half-term for one week while it is happening. Pother confirms that it is possible there will be no vehicular access to the whole site for some time - presenting problems to playgroup mums delivering young children as well as to Monday Club drivers delivering old ladies. And we shall all have to be very careful going in and out to vote on 7 May.
Work of a different kind was in progress in Mermaid Street on Thursday, when a Japanese film company was making a television commercial (to be seen, alas, only in Japan); quite a few local people were taken on as extras, and there were also some hens, a cart-horse and a rain-making machine! Mermaid Street was, of course, closed to traffic - including Bournes' van, moving furniture from the house opposite Lamb House. For some time, until the rain-makers moved over, they couldn't get down West Street either; and even when they could, they then couldn't get down The Mint nor round the sharp bend into Market Road! In the end they joined one of the regular convoys of outsize lorries which the traffic wardens marshal outside Woolworths and send back down the High Street - the wrong way. (Please, Gas Board, hurry up in The Mint!)
Thomas Peacocke Lower School have been enjoying the twice-weekly visits of their first-ever Artist in Residence, Jill Hartman. Jill, 29 and married with two small children and a guesthouse in Hastings, trained at the Central School of Art in London and has studied abroad; she had a one-woman show at the Stables a couple of years ago, and has another booked there for 1988. She is sponsored by South East Arts for the TPS sessions, ten days in all over five weeks. As well as helping the children with their own work, she has let them watch her paint - a new experience for many, since she is a traditional (and very talented) painter whose work is far removed from that of the average 12-year-old!
4.
Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Hedger of Cooper Road, who celebrate their Diamond Wedding tomorrow. Bill Hedger's family come from Wittersham; his wife Elizabeth is the daughter of a Rye fishing family, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hollands. Mrs. Hedger is 78, and her husband - who gets around the town in a most impressive way - will be 85 this year. They were married on 2 April 1927, and have two sons and a daughter, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Mr. Hedger worked as a shepherd/stockman on several farms around Rye until he retired in 1968, and has been an invaluable source of information to the GAZETTE on several of our forays into local history. We wish Mr. and Mrs. Hedger a very happy day, and many more to come.
Doubtless there have been many lost roof-tiles and fallen trees after Friday's unforgettable gale; the story that reached us happened up at Leasam House Farm. Bertie Bull had just got one lot of sheep into his lorry and had gone back for another when a very large tree crashed down across the farm drive and across the lorry, which wrapped itself completely round the trunk! Miraculously, the sheep were extracted safely; the lorry is still in the drive - luckily there is another way out. The tree brought down with it all the electricity cables to both farm houses and Leasam House; Seeboard provie emergency lighting that evening, but major work was needed next day to put baL.4
the cables torn out of the houses. Major tree-felling work is also required; another half-dozen trees are obviously unsafe.
The farm lorry is normally serviced at Jempsons, and it was a Jempsons' engineer who had the last word; he came up to have a look at the wreckage with the tree on top of it. He turned to Bertie: "I don't think you ought to drive that lorry", he said - "It's overloaded!".
First, fraternal congratulations to the editor of the RH Boat Owners newsletter, John Sivier - whose irreverent account of the Saltings meeting is a joy to read.
Hilda Nelson-Barrett, who lives in North Salts, takes us mildly to task for saying last week that much of that estate is only occupied at weekends and in the summer. She has been making enquiries, and assures us that there are nowadays only half-a-dozen houses there which are not in full-time occupation. When the estate was built, and houses were cheaper, a good many were bought as second homes; but ownership has changed considerably over the years, and this is not the position now. We are very glad to hear it, and willingly apologise to North Salts residents.
Brian Nettle agrees that Harbour Road would be the best place for a marina ("out of sight, out of mind") - "Fancy the view when standing on Hilder's Cliff and looking east upon 20-footers-plus occupied by the rich and sometimes fat, with a cold G & T at one hand and a hot dolly bird at the other. I like the female form as well as the next man" he adds, "but we don't need this sort of thing in the Salts area". He also points out what many readers will have noticed after the recent rain - that the LRDC site is very liable to flooding, even though the wall protects it from the tide.
John Collard says we should make it clear that our editorial comment about running the bypass over the navigational lock at Rock Channel was not serious. Technically, of course, they would be incompatible; the fact remains that one of the "leaked" routes two years ago did appear to include a crossing of the Rother just about where his lock would be, and in the view of many people (not including Mr. Collard) a southern bypass would solve more of the town's traffic problems than any other route.
There is a rumour that the detailed plans for the Winchelsea bypass are to go on view there on 18/19 May, just before our own public consultation here (21/23 May). A week by the sea for the Dorking D o T - and one which local people will do well to keep free!
5.
Concert time is coming round again; the one in St. Mary's last Sunday was well attended and much enjoyed. There are two more on Saturday week (11th), both at 7.30. In the Methodist Church, the Rye Methodist Choir presents "The Cross of Christ", a devotion for choir and congregation which tells the story of Christ's Passion through hymns, bible readings and anthems. In St. Mary's, simultaneously, East Sussex Chorale and East Sussex Sinfonietta perform Bach's "St. John Passion" under the direction of Roger Durston (11 members of the choir are pupils or staff of Thomas Peacocke School); tickets are £5, £4 and £3, from EMBS or at the door.
86 years ago there was also a Sacred Concert at the Wesleyan Chapel, on Good Friday, 5 April 1901. We have, alas, no room for the full programme, but the soloists were Miss Broomfield, Miss Deacon, Mr. Arthur Hermitage, Miss A. Parkin, Mr. C. Fuller and Miss N. Dunster. Mr. Hermitage played the cornet, and his second solo ("by desire") was that old favourite "The Lost Chord". We do hope it all went well.
The second issue of yet another Bexhill-based free paper, "Free for All", now appearing in Rye contains an article which will surprise Rye readers. It starts off well enough with an interesting account, gleaned from Joy and Ted Harland, of the birth and early days of the Rye Town Model - but moves on to an unusual version of subsequent events which is not going to please anyone now concerned with the Model.
It is certainly not going to please John Alsford, whose great generosity in providing the Model with a home (at a peppercorn rent of £10 p.a.) has been its salvation - but who is represented as doing so to lure "an extra 20,000 visitors a year to his showroom". The stairs up to the Model don't in fact go through the showroom, but merely use the same street entrance; the showroom is by no means always open anyway; and as the indignant Town Clerk points out, how many holidaymakers visiting the Model are likely to be shopping round for doors or windows here?
It does not please Joy Harland; apart from anything else, she tells us it is not true that the Council does not pay her and Ted for work they are asked to do on the Model. Whenever she gets around to sending in a bill, it is (very properly) paid without question.
It does not please the Town Clerk, either. When the Model has to be opened up specially for an out-of-season show, there is a lot of extra work in setting it up and tucking it safely down again afterwards. So if a local hotel asks for a special showing for its winter guests, a set charge of C45 is made (whether or not they actually turn up). When the "Free for All" reporter first contacted the Town Clerk, he was told there was normally this set charge for a full out-of-season presentation; but they had seen the show in the summer, he said, and only wanted to take photographs. This, of course, was free - and then they came back with a cheque for £45 at the ready and said they would like a full show after all. None of this was made clear in the article. (Moreover, equipment which was "ten years ahead of its time" in 1976 can hardly be described as "antique" in 1987! It is in fact still as up-to-date as it can be in performance, only the physical size could be reduced at great expense.)
Finally, the accounts. When the reporter asked the Mayor how much the operators earned, her patience snapped - and we are not surprised! The money made by the Model is recorded in the Town Council accounts, available for public study each year before the audit, and for GAZETTE no. 192 the Town Clerk gave us full details. The 1985/6 (record) profit of £6,459 has been put by to earn interest and be available for a particular project or major future spending on the Model (see this week's front-page story, coincidental but relevant).
"Free for All" is subtitled "To Sussex with love"; it certainly isn't generating much love in Rye this week!
6.
Nineteen specific suggestions for improving traffic management in the town were discussed at the recent meeting at the Town Hall. There is a long way to go before even the most uncontroversial of them could be carried out; we have room now for only a very concentrated report on an admirably detailed ESCC document.
The biggie was Lion Street: should there be no parking at all? Should single yellow lines allow evening and Sunday parking only? Would no parking mean increased speed down the street? Would this be curtailed if the road surface had a different texture - for instance, cobbles? The debate goes on; the ESCC officers have gone home to think about it.
Deadman's Lane: one way, which way? Into the town would encourage more traffic to clog up Rope Walk, and still cause accidents on Rye Hill; out of the town would be largely pointless; either would encourage speeding and be very inconvenient for the two houses in the lane. It seems that the present cautious two-way system is likely to stay.
Landgate/Tower Street two-way again? No, said the officers, because the parking would be lost, more traffic would drift into the High Street, and the top and bottom junctions would become chaotic. Here again, things are likely to stay as they are; a suggestion that it should be one way the other way was not felt to be very fruitful either.
Double yellow lines (no parking at any time, but allowances made for loading)? This was suggested for both sides of Ferry Road from Banister's Corner to the level crossing (the officers were doubtful about this because of the present residents' off-peak parking); for the full length of the High Street on the north side from Landgate Arch to Market Road; for 15m into Military Road; on the inside corner at the top of East Street; for 10m into the bottom of East Street (outside Hamiltons) with a single parking-space beyond; along the Mountsfield side of The Grove; for 15m into Ashenden Avenue; for 15m into Bridge Place; and for a further 24m uphill from the Old Brickyard along Udimore Road (but with the dotted yellow lines beyond that point removed entirely as being unnecessary).
Minor tidy-up operations: double yellow lines across the entrance to Ockman's Lane and to Ryeford Court in Wish Ward (at present, parking is theoretically allowed to block both accesses!); double yellow lines on both sides of the road immediately outside the Hope Anchor, so that garage owners have access; and double yellow lines opposite the entrance to the Old Coach House in the High Street, whose access is usually unusable owing to cars parked across the road from it. The officers proposed a similar marking across the Central Garage frontage, to prevent obstruction of the entrance - but Tim Ledger was reported as being perfectly happy with the present arrangements, thanks.
The officers didn't much care for proposals to alter the sequence of yellow lines in the High Street near Ashby's, or to remove the parking spaces from Strand Quay in the summer (they are so handy for the loos for long-distance drivers using the A259!), or for a further 10m of double yellow lines along The Strand at the junction with the slip road.
Suggestions from the floor included the question of residents-only parking spaces. Ralph Olesen said experience showed that residents were never willing to pay for parking if they could possibly find it free. Whether this applies here, we simply don't know; those who would be prepared to pay should perhaps get together and ask for a meeting with Mr. Olesen to discuss it in detail?
There was a plea to close the Rope Walk exit from the railway car park, since even large coaches can and do turn round inside it; that High Street parking should all be on the north side instead of the south; and that ex-Farnborough should be included in Rother's advance parking signs, even though it is in private hands. There was feeling that the traffic wardens were not always as firm as they might be with lorries parking on the pavement, and it was stated that complaints about this should be made to the police (Ralph Olesen said he could put bollards all along the pavements, but he didn't think he would be very popular!)
7.
We went to see the Sports Centre in action on Saturday morning - and action there certainly was. The squash court was continuously in use, and in the big hall the bridal-white netting was being drawn and re-drawn as the indoor cricketers finished and the netballers and badminton players arrived. Intriguing many people is the fitness room: 11 assorted pieces of machinery, all but one adaptable to different degrees of strength by ingenious redeployment of weights (on the eleventh, you whittle down your waist by holding on to the handles and swivelling back and forth on a little turntable!). Most of them we couldn't shift at all, but an athletic fourteen-year-old was having no trouble; charts explaining how the equipment should be used are going up on the walls imminently, and there will be instruction sessions for ladies (probably Tuesdays) and men (probably Thursdays) starting in a few weeks' time.
Stuart Lees already has 40 paid-up members, with plenty more intending to join once they have managed to get hold of passport-type photos for the identity cards. Bookings, too, have been very good indeed.
After Friday's rain, there was the prospect of a swimming-pool laying outside the hall - the trouble with that playing-field is that there is nowhere much for the water to run away to. (What about a nice fishing lake?) Another problem, now that the contractors have removed their service road, is the access for heavy vehicles. The beer lorry supplying the bar has to go right round by the hard tennis-courts and along the front of the sixth-form block, and the path there is simply not wide enough - so on Saturday there were deep water-filled ruts on both sides. More seriously, the ambulance has the same problem, and actually grounded on its way to a minor accident on Thursday. If it were not for the covered way, access could be from the yard by the kitchens; as things are, the only solution will be to make the path into something more substantial.
The RNLI dinner at the George on 20 March, arranged primarily as a pleasant social occasion, raised over £300 from the sale of tickets, auction and raffle. Roger Breeds and Joan Parkes (chairman and secretary) are very grateful to the manager and staff of the George Hotel for all they did to make the event such a success - a provisional date is already booked in for next year! Thanks also go to Jan Reeve and her accompanist Joyce Marks, whose traditional-type after-dinner entertainment gave the guests much pleasure.
Good luck to Alan Sinden, who would be glad to welcome holidaymaking Ryers at his new fish-and-chip shop at Yatton, a big commuter village some five miles from Weston-super-Mare and 16 from Bristol. Happy frying!
Congratulations to Iden Pottery on the charming extension to the Conduit Hill showroom - a whole new room somehow quarried out of storage space at the back of the premises, adding a further dimension to the domestic-type interior and with a cool white and green decorative scheme just right for Dennis's work.
Condolences to Chandlers in the Landgate, one of whose side windows was broken when a brick was thrown through it late on Saturday night/Sunday morning. A guitar was stolen, extracted through the hole, and there was some damage from broken glass to a piano near the window. Neighbours heard a car drive off, but failed to note the number.
Planning: last Thursday, Rother refused permission for two houses at Hawthorne Dene in Military Road; subject to amended plans, the Planning Officer can grant it to the playgroup at Western Barn; and permission was given for new work at Castle Joinery, a retractable aerial at 63 Ferry Road, change of use for ex-Simmons to an antique shop, and a garage for 24 King's Avenue.
More planning: the current list includes an application for four houses plus parking spaces and new access in Tram Road (land adjoining The Red House); for two bungalows on land downstream of Lorelei House in Military Road (near the tennis club); and change of use from cast-house to dwelling at Leasam Farm (the far end of the right-hand fork of Leasam Lane).
Thursday, 2nd "Ulysses" (TPS school play), Upper School, 7.30 (also Friday and Saturday, tickets from school entrance 12 to 12.45)
Friday, 3rd Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10 Movie Society AGM, FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 4th Action for Epilepsy Group coffee morning, bring-and-buy, etc., Red Cross, 10
Winchelsea Floral Group jumble sale, FEC, 10
Playgroup coffee morning, raffle, cakes and other stalls,
Playgroup building (Ferry Road), 10 to 12.30
Catholic Church jumble sale, CC, 1.30
Sunday, 5th Video films of Rye Racers' "silly races", Ypres Castle, 8
Monday, 6th Camera Club AGM and knock-out competition, FEC, 7.30
Tuesday, 7th St. Mary's Annual Church Meeting, TH, 7.30
FRAG talk, "The Pre-Raphaelites - the local connection" (Victoria Williams of Hastings Museum), Studio, 8
Wednesday, 8th Rye WI: party night, FEC, 7
• Two families with Rye connections announce the arrival of new babies. James William Townsend, brother to Sarah, is the first son for Ian and Vicky, grandson for Bill and Betty; he appeared on his mother's birthday, 17 March. Richard James Parmenter, son of Rosemary and John, also has an elder sister (Jayne) - he is a grandson for the late Dr. Trevor Parkes. Congratulations!
• TPS National Youth Choir members Rebekah Smith and Catherine Collison will be heard on Radio 3 today week at 7pm, when a selection from the repertoire given on the choir's US tour will be played in the programme "Choral Voices" - focal point will be the first British broadcast of Penderecki's Stabat Mater.
• Many thanks to the Hastings branch of Bracketts, who last week organised a very efficient clean-up of the Dairy Yard - now spotless, and locked!
• The ARC Ploughman's Lunch on 24 March made a profit of £231.
• Mrs. BB Atherton, of 58 The Mint (Rye 223048) would be very glad to hear from other adult recorder-players, with a view to joining (or perhaps even starting) a recorder group in the Rye area.
• Unless someone volunteers soon, there will be no summer play-scheme in Rye this year; Julia Thomas leaves us at Easter. The RCVS would be very glae to hear of anyone who would be able to run this - there is a small remuneration, plus expenses. Contact Jean Bull-Marshall.
• There will be a blood donor session at the Baptist Hall on Thursday week, 9 April, 2 to 4 and 5 to 7.45 as usual.
• Leaflets are due to go out in the town this week about a sale of ex-showroom and reconditioned gas appliances, particularly cookers, at the Community Centre from 9.30 to 4.30 on Saturday week, 11th. This is a proper Gas Board event, and the prices include VAT and fitting if there is a suitable point nearby; it is something the Gas Board arrange from time to time in places where there is no regular show-room, and should be very useful.
• Finally, an indignant reader tells us that to get a proper (not just a visitor's) passport in a hurry, you have to go 200 miles to Newport in Gwent; the Passport Office in London is no longer an option for us here! It seems fantastic - but she swears it is true, she had to do it...
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, Monday afternoon for Wednesday delivery; the paper costs subscribers 30p, and a few spare copies may be available from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)