The new Rye A259 Action Group is already in action. As the first job after the protest meeting, members stood outside the town's two polling stations throughout Election Day, inviting voters to sign a petition against the route. The Ferry Road station, with two entrances and many voters arriving in cars, did present a problem, since the group were not supposed to canvass for signatures inside the clinic grounds; at the FE Centre, some signatures came from well-meaning passers-by. Anyway, 1,601 people signed the petition in the course of the day; there is no way of telling just how many of the town's 3,493 voters were actually asked to sign, but certainly very few people refused. Of those who did, some simply liked the proposed route, which was fair enough; the most defeatist attitude wag that of the lady who told "T think a dreadful route, but I shan't bother to sign - there's nothing we can do about it"! The petition (and members are still canvassing in the town this week) will be presented to the Town Council on Thursday at the meeting at Upper School at 7.
The Group is now planning to deliver copies of the DoT form to every house in the town, together with a list of objections. It is important that people don't simply copy out this list, but take the trouble to pick out those things which particularly concern them or, of course, add others which do. The forms will be collected the following weekend (27/28 June), and taken up to Dorking on 1 July to be handed in personally - just to make sure they get there.
The Group's chairman is Kenneth Clark, vice-chairman and publicity officer, Bryan Atkins, secretary, Mrs. Lesley Taylor, treasurer, Mrs. Zeta Dowdeswell, and research officer, John Silver . Now that they are properly constituted, they are in a position to open a fighting fund - at this stage, simply to cover printing expenses, etc., but possibly on a much bigger scale later. Cheques should be made out to "Rye Action Group"; receipts will be sent, so please put your own name and address in the envelope, which should be sealed and addressed to the Group. The dona- tions may be left at 1 Eagle Road or at 2 Cyprus Place (rather than at the Wool Shop where they might get lost in the knitting patterns!) and will be very gratefully received. Also gratefully received will be offers of help from new members - please contact any of the people listed above, or simply turn up at the next meeting: Monday at Ma Beeton's in Cinque Ports Street, 7.30.
The Group is opposing any suggested road which cuts through the middle of our community - its slogan is "Round Rye, not through". As to the best alternative, Mr. Clark hopes that an acceptable suggestion will emerge on Thursday - if so, it will receive their wholehearted backing. He makes the point that the Group intends to work through the Town Council and to give the Council maximum support in the campaign. (It is obviously very important that the town should present the DoT with a united front - since, equally obviously, the DoT will hope for disunity!)
Until 6 July the Easton Rooms has an exhibition of recent work by John Bratby, RA (whose pictures in this year's Academy have already sold, so Bratby-seekers should hasten to the High Street). The pictures, many of them Italian town- scapes, fill both downstairs rooms with a shout of colour which is a little overwhelming by Rye standards (as are the prices, only to be expected from a painter of Bratby's stature). Upstairs, a modest £30 or so will buy something to take home and hang on the wall - not a painting, but a ceramic mask or wall-plaque with a bird or fish design, by Sue Edwards Hutchinson; larger freestanding pieces include a delightful walrus, and a cockerel quite as vivid as the Bratbys below.
2.
Mr. Douglas Ades, of New Winchelsea Road, died peacefully in St. Michael's Hospice on 2 June. Rye-born, Mr. Ades lost his father in WW1. At one time he worked for the Kent River Board. The funeral has taken place.
Mrs. Ivy Bourn, of New Winchelsea Road, died on 11 June. She leaves a son and a daughter and five grandchildren. Mrs. Bourn was the widow of Mr. Ernie Bourn, who died last September; they had been married for 58 years, and had moved into their home in New Winchelsea Road when it was one of the first houses to be completed there. The funeral takes place at St. Mary's on Monday at 11.
Mrs. Gwen Bligh, of The Mint, died at her home on Thursday last week after more than a year of illness. She leaves two sons and a daughter and two grandchildren. Mrs. Bligh was the daughter of the then owner of the Mermaid, a QC who was also responsible for a great deal of property restoration work in Rye between the wars; she married a Canadian, and after some years in Canada came back to London. She spent the last years of her life in the family home in The Mint, where her daughter Mrs. Taylor ran a very successful playgroup, Miss B's; this closed when the Taylors went to live abroad, but Mrs. Bligh was generous in lending the rooms to the local Mencap group for a charity shop on several occasions in the last few years. The funeral will take place tomorrow (Thursday) at 10.30 at St. Anthony's.
Mencap's flag-day in Rye on Saturday, 6 June, raised a total of £378, and the committee are very grateful to all who contributed their time or money towards this excellent result. Their next event is on Saturday, 27 June, when a coffee morning at the Town Hall (jointly for Mencap and Hill House School) marks the last day of National Mentally Handicapped Week.
The Election Night benefit concert at the Oasis, organised by Martyn Gasson in aid of the local "Living with Cancer" group, provided a most enjoyable evening for some 200 people and brought in £480 - there were no outgoings, since all the musicians and the Oasis staff gave their services free, and Linda Porter, the group organiser, is most grateful to Martyn and all those who helped.
Mrs. Marjorie Twine, of Pottingfield Road, held an outstandingly successful coffee morning at her home last Saturday. "With the help of all my friends" she says, £252 was raised for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The four Sunday-afternoon brass band concerts at the Mermaid together brought in a very welcome £311 for Rye Hospital; James Gunn tells us that on the whole, the better the band the more money was in the tins (but it wouldn't be manners to say which raised most, as all four concerts gave great pleasure).
Once again the NSPCC Summer Fair raised a most impressive sum on Saturday at the FE Centre - £913, a little down on last year, says Anne Wood, but it was a quiet day in the town generally. Also, they had no banner across the High Street to advertise the Fair this year; last August, Hurricane Charlie played so noisily with the one suspended there that the couple under whose bedroom window it is traditionally attached said (not unreasonably) "Never again!" So if anyone with store-rooms rather than sleeping-quarters above their shop can get together with an opposite neithbour to offer the use of two fixing-points, the NSPCC (and other organisations) would be really very grateful?
Saturday in the town was also enlivened with a group of Morris-dancers, this time a splinter group from a folk festival at Appledore who decided to come over to Rye for lunch. We found them dancing in the Ypres Castle garden, after a pause for refreshment at the pub. It was a delightful performance, and included (unusually) a female eightsome in very pretty costumes and some matching tiny children. The only pity was that there was no local audience at all. Please, if any landlord has an event of this kind in prospect, let the GAZETTE know so that we can put word round beforehand for everyone's pleasure.
3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 17 June 1987
Election Day in Rye passed with the utmost respectability (one reader recalled with a certain regret the days of his youth, when the lads paraded round and round the town chanting "Vote for - " and supporting each candidate in turn!). All Rye got this year was an occasional loudspeaker van, shouting loud enough to irritate passers-by but moving too fast for them to catch what it was saying. The polling station at the FE Centre functioned with its usual decorum, but things were rather livelier at times on the building site in Ferry Road, where half the town had to pick a precarious way past diggers and tipper-lorries, and there was no access at all from the Magdala Terrace side. This is not really a very convenient polling station at the best of times, since many of the voters arrive by car and there has to be a good deal of to-ing and fro-ing at the narrow entrance; but with traffic lights immediately outside, the situation was much worse on Thursday, and it was only due to the combined good sense of pedestrians, drivers and builders that no-one got hurt.
RESULT: Ken Warren (Conservative) 26,163
David Amies (Liberal Alliance) 18,816
Joy Hurcombe (Labour) 6,825
Joke parties (jointly) 436.
We looked back at 1983. The total poll was up by 4,161 (almost 72% of the electorate voted this time as against almost 69% in 1983). The Conservative vote was up by just over 500, the Labour vote down by just under 500, the joke vote remained much the same. It was the Liberal vote which reduced the Conser- vative majority from almost 11,000 in 1983 to 7,347 this time - and we were startled to find that the Liberal increase was 4,170, just nine votes more than the number of extra voters since 1983. Certainly the Liberals had been making a big effort this time, and historically speaking it was very pleasant to see a revival of Rye's old Liberal tradition; the late George Ellis, who came nearest to toppling Conservative representation for Rye, would have been proud of the diligence of his son Phil and the rest of the team with the gold rosettes. But had voters changed their opinions since 1983, or did the Liberals really succeed in ferretting out an extra 4,000 supporters who otherwise wouldn't have bothered to vote? Alas, we shall never know.
Yvonne Metcalf tells us that it is a measured mile from the start of the path to the Castle, along a fairly rough track. The pull-in beside the Brede bridge holds eight cars at most. Since local people would certainly not want to find a newly-restored Gas Works (or a brand-new Coal Yard) car park full up with Castle visitors, the nearest likely parking place would be Gibbet Marsh, with its footpath back to Strand quay (unless of course ex-Farnborough could be used?). How many casual collectors of castles, we wondered, would be prepared to walk two miles or more? We rang English Heritage, the owners, to talk about it.
Alas, they said, it is not really very likely that the Castle will be open to the general public this summer; every time they think they have caught up with the consolidation work, trouble starts somewhere else - and they can't risk bits dropping off onto paying customers. Even if it were reopened this summer at all, it would not be advertised at all widely. However, they are prepared to consider requests from organised groups, aware of the walking involved and prepared to sign a disclaimer in case of accident. Write to:
Mrs. Christine Morgan,
Head of Administration for Properties in Care, Southern Region,
Room 224, 25 Savile Row,
LONDON W1X 2BT.
Those who have not been inside the building since excavations finished (let alon began) will be very surprised indeed at what it looks like. Paddy Aiken's photos, taken a couple of years ago just as the excavation work finished and sometimes on display in the Library, are the only local record at present.
4.
A complicated roundabout system at Strand Quay and a new road across the quay, taking out a number of moorings; a T-junction at Ferry Road, preceded by a level crossing and offering no direct route into the town without having to turn into the trunk road first; another roundabout at Station Approach, with the loss of parking space and the stacking entrance for the cattle lorries; Rope Walk becoming a slip road into the town for trunk road traffic, instead of just the present A268 "escape" cars; all A268 traffic going down the hill, over a level crossing and then a light-controlled road crossing complicated by a pedestrian crossing and the always-perilous Military Road junction. Traffic on Rye Hill - remember those icy mornings? - would be further complicated by a two-way flow in and out of Deadman's Lane, serving an area (school, sports centre, farm and houses) left with no other exit for vehicles.
As well as the six (probably seven) houses due to be demolished, the following would be unpleasant to live in, virtually uninhabitable while construction work was going on, and probably unsaleable until a year after it was completed (which is when compensation payments are assessed): Gateborough Cottage and Gateborough Farm; a detached house and nine+cen in two terraces at the start of Winchelsea Road; four flats at the start of Wish Street; the Mill and the houses nearest the railway in Ferry Road and Cyprus Place; the first house in The Grove; 1 8 Eagle Road, plus whatever happens on the telephone exchange site; at least three houses in Landgate Square; the Mountsfield lodge; the houses at the start of Military Road and the corner of North Salts; the remains of Bridge Place; the corner of Kings Avenue; and (for all we know) houses in East Guldeford.
Businesses likely to be affected, for various reasons, would include The Kettle o' Fish, The Service Bay, the Windmill guest-house, Foreman's, the Queen Adelaide, Mills, the fishing tackle shop, ex-Crafty, Budgens (if they really are taking the supermarket), British Rail, possibly Burnhams who have storage buildings vesicle the railway, the Cattle Market Company, and whatever goes on under the railway arches. Farmers over whose land the road would run (particularly Clive Hacking at Gateborough) have been told they won't get farm crossings - they'll just have to drive their sheep across the trunk road: (Doubtless Dorking doesn't come across a lot of sheep.)
Parking space, so crucial to the town's commercial life, will be lost. The Gas Works car park will go, so will some spaces from the market area and from the railway car park, and the garages under the railway arches. There would be no possibility of a car-park in the area between the Mill lane and the railway, as the access would be too near the junction; much of the area between the school and the railway, also potential parking-space, would be taken up by the shifted railway, and the same access problem could apply to what was left. Mr. Mills's summer-Thursday car nark would he useless except to A268 traffic, and there would be no access from The Grove to the market, which is where most of his customers head for; and if the trunk road cut straight across the end of the Strand Quay footpath to Gibbet Marsh, it would not be very popular with visitors whom Bother would like to use the grass park in summer.
One of the DoT men at the Community Centre told an enquirer, somewhat tartly, that their job was to improve the A259, not to improve life for Rye people. Many of us came away with the impression that the DoT was not really prepared to acknowledge that there were any Rye people! In fact, 2,000 adults live on the far side of the railway and 1,500 on the town side - which is why we call the route a bisection, a cutting-in-half (the figures come from the electoral register and therefore don't include children). On the far side is a school for 1,200 pupils (half of whom come from outside Rye and therefore arrive on wheels of one kind or another) plus a large number of staff with their own cars; the new Sports Centre; a total of 44 old people's flatlets (when the Magdala House building is finished) and a number of elderly people on the Estate who have no cars; more elderly people on Cadborough Hill, who do need cars to get into the town but would not wish to cope with fast traffic on a trunk road (once they used to be able to park conveniently in the Goods Yard, without encountering any traffic problems to speak of).
(continued...)
5.
(continued)
Tilling Green infants' school is unlikely to be affected, since its small pupils Come from the area immediately round it. But the playgroup draws children from all over the town, and frequently mum arrives on foot with a pram as well. The Clinic also caters for young families from the town and villages alike, as well as for older people. Both the new fire station and the ambulance station lie beyond the railway line; we gave Michael Bourn's views last week, and Harold Law tells us that most of the ambulance work means the driver has to start off down Rye Hill. Also beyond the railway is the hospital, with its walking out-patients as well as visitors for the in-patients.
On the near side of the railway route is the centre of the town - churches, shops, the junior school, various medical facilities, buses and trains, the Library, the vet - and 1,500 people, only 356 of whom at present have to cross a trunk road to reach all the town's facilities.
In the middle of the railway, reached only by a footbridge, would be the new railway station - inaccessible to anyone incapable of climbing up and then down 20', the equivalent of over two flights of stairs in a normal house, with a pram, pushchair, bike, shopping-trolley, suitcases, wheelchair... Doubtless the DoT would like to see the railway close, so that they could get their hands on the track; indeed, there is a strong suspicion that the whole route, including the Winchelsea one, has simply been dusted off from a time, some years back now, when the railway's future did look precarious.
There is also a great deal of suspicion in the town about the traffic-flow figures; they just do not tally, many people tell us, with what is perfectly obvious to those who live beside the through roads. They also do not tally with the sort of traffic flow which is leading to the building of dual-carriageways to the west of us (including a second bypass for Arundel); at Peter Carmichael's end of the county there will very soon be dual-carriageway roads as far as this side of Brighton. What, he asks, makes the DoT think that the traffic stops there? For that matter, many people wonder what makes them think it stops in Rye - where, for instance, does it park, this huge percentage of the traffic that told them it had business here? Increasingly, lately, we hear horror stories of people driving round and round and round the town on a fine Saturday, hoping that eventually they will spot a vacant space at the critical moment.
The Hotel & Caterers Association has now come down against the A259 proposals. "It believes that this scheme fails to address the central problem which is the increasing volume of heavy goods vehicles passing through Rye", and calls on the DoT to investigate thoroughly a new southerly route combining a Rye and Winchelsea bypass proceeding from a point near Winchelsea Station to Guldeford Lane Corner east of Rye. The objections given in the press release to the proposed route are those now familiar to us all; the choice of a southerly route is so that "the beauty of Rye and Winchelsea would be visible to those using the route, and the Rye Harbour Industrial Park would derive benefit by having better access".
The problem of lorries concerns many people. The trade lobby is now trying to persuade the Government to go continental and allow 40-ton juggernauts into the country (the weight limit was raised from 32i to 38 tons in 1983 after fierce opposition). A long letter in the Sussex Express from someone in Peasmarsh concludes "There is therefore a very good chance that the A259/A27 route will become increasingly popular for long-distance traffic between the Channel ports and the towns and cities of the south coast. A fair proportion of this increase will consist of some of the biggest and heaviest lorries that Rye has ever seen." The writer goes on to say that therefore we should settle gratefully for the DoT proposals; some of us may think that, on the contrary, he strengthens the case against them!
The new route would improve two areas: South Undercliff and Banister's Corner. In many people's view it would be a total disaster for the rest of the town. Whichever side you are on, please come to the Town Meeting tomorrow - and make quite sure you send your form back before 3 July.
6.
This Sunday afternoon (21st) two private gardens in the middle of Re are to be open to the public as part of the National Gardens Scheme (the proceeds are shared between various good causes). The gardens are open from 2 to 6, a 75p ticket (25p for children) covers admission to both, and tea will be available.
Robert Banks's garden at 18 Church Square has more packed into a small space than any gardener has a right to expect; twisting paths lead past twisted fruit trees (doubtless dating back to the days when the house was the Police Station) and unusual shrubs planted much more recently, to the top of the cliff and the view across the Marsh. Mr. Banks has generously opened his garden for some years now, and regular visitors will be keenly looking forward to Sunday; newcomers have a pleasant surprise in store.
The garden at 11 High Street runs down almost as far as the Town Wall; the big lawn and pretty pond are a complete contrast to the Church Square garden. Here too the owners, Rae and Conrad Festing, have welcomed visitors in aid of various good causes in the past couple of years. However, this time there will be a display of photographs relating to a piece of restoration work which didn't work out quite as planned - and could have lost Rye its Deputy Mayor, its ancient-buildings specialist and its only Territorial officer, if their guardian angels hadn't been working overtime! We tempt you in with this taster to the full story; come and find out for yourself while you drink your tea (under cover ii the weather is unhelpful).
Just in time for the National Gardens Scheme opening, the Festings have been able to hang the new wrought-iron gates which now give a degree of privacy to the three houses which share the old stable drive. Made by Mr. Mosley at Appledore, they are hung from the iron gateposts which have been patiently waiting for many years for a replacement for the original wooden gates; the new ones were specially designed for the site, and are a welcome addition to the charm of the High Street.
The pavements in Station Approach are now receiving the attentions of the contractors. The corner near the new loos has been rounded into a much shallower curve than before, to allow easier access to the car-park; but beside the Post Office the pavement is being extended into the roadway for what looks like about six feet. This will, one of the chaps drawing the marks on the road told us, still leave a perfectly adequate entrance to Station Approach and will make it easier for pedestrians who at present have to skedaddle across the wide roadway between the Post Office and the pub. This will certainly be a big help - so long as it doesn't create a bottleneck for buses, cars and coaches with business at the far end and so give rise to a tailback over the zebra crossing.
Topsoil has been laid on the ground behind the bus stops - whatever is eventually to grow in it will need to be tough, to withstand the feet of the Thomas Peacocke pupils who crowd the pavement beside it at 3.30, as there is no fence to protect it. The lime tree survives happily; the oak tree looks less happy after being heavily lopped, but it wasn't in very good order to start with.
Across the road, the demolition of the old bus garage proceeds slowly - indeed, on Monday it looked no different from the week before, with the kiosk roof off but everything else still standing. The big moment is going to be when the bus garage vanishes and - briefly - the area will look startlingly different.
A problem caused by cars parked outside the station and blocking the only access to the old Goods Yard footpath has, hopefully, been solved by a bit white "NO" painted in the appropriate parking space!
Finally, Ward Holdings (the supermarket developers - Hardens are the contractors) have now considered the A259 proposals. Readers may be surprised to learn that "having considered the various plans in relation to our development we have no particular strong views on the matter in so far as it might affect the scheme". It is not clear whether this is also Budgens' view, in which case it would be even more surprising; but time will tell.
7.
Next week's GAZETTE (24 June) is the last in the present subscription quarter. The new quarter begins with the 1 July issue, and runs for 11 weeks, allowing for our two holiday weeks in August - we shall not print on the 12th or the 26th. (The summer quarter is always 11 weeks, and subscriptions have been calculated on this basis for four years now - so why, in 1987, 11 weeks only takes us to 21 and not 28 September we simply can't fathom; next summer, when the problem will apparently arise again, we may well solve it by taking three weeks off!) Anyway, for the 11 weeks from 1 July to 23 September the subscription will be £3.30 - in cash only, please, with your name and pick-up point or delivery address on the envelope - left at 2 Cyprus Place by Saturday 27 June at the latest. If your copy is ticked by your name, you need do nothing; you pay half-yearly, and none of this concerns you.
• Prospects, the dress agency next to the Crown at Bannister's Corner, is by now well-established for the sale of ladies' nearly-new clothing. But upstairs there is an entirely new venture, New to You. Here Mrs. Woolley of Fairlight has started an agency selling good-quality children's clothing (outgrown rather than outworn) from birth to teens, boys and girls. She already has a good selection, and will be glad to take in more, including school uniform; she normally sells on commission, but would be interested in buying outright for larger quantities. She also has a few items of small baby equipment in stock, and would be willing to advertise larger things for which there is no room in the shop. New to You is open all week, Monday to Saturday, 9.30-12.30 and 1.30-3.30.
• Twice in the past few weeks Rye Harbour Lifeboat Station has been the victim of crime. On 18 or 19 May someone broke open the collecting box on the wall and stole, as far as they can estimate, about £50 - and last week someone forced the padlock on the electricity meter and took not only the £2 in it but also the container for the cash, which they would very much like to have back, please. (This is not the meter for the actual lifeboat house, but a separate one which the local committee had installed on the outside, for the use of people wanting a supply when working on a boat on the slipway - provided purely as a goodwill gesture and not at the expense of the RNLI.) The lifeboatmen are getting rather fed up, and anyone they catch tinkering with either box in future is likely to get short shrift!
• There was a nasty accident at the Peace & Plenty corner on Saturday afternoon, --when four people were taken to RESH after a collision between two cars. One driver came from Crowborough, one from London, and each had a woman passenger. The police list of injuries to all four sounds fairly horrific - we do hope that some were less serious than was at first feared.
• Early on Saturday morning Patsy Navan, aged 25, from Northiam, was arrested for a drink-driving offence, dealt with at Rye Police Station, and released on bail to appear before Rye Magistrates in due course. Half an hour later he was seen driving the same vehicle! He was arrested again, charged and kept in custody until later in the day, when he appeared before Hastings Magistrates. He was found guilty of both offences, fined £150 and disqualified for 12 months for the first, and fined £200 and disqualified for two years for the second, the two disqualifications to run concurrently.
• This week's planning list has a revised layout for part of the Coastguard Square site at Rye Harbour, to provide a terrace of five houses with one garage instead of a terrace of four houses with two garages. There is an application to resurface the old Corralls' coal-yard in Winchelsea Road for use as a car park, and to construct a compound for pre-packed coal at the back of the existing office; the plan shows space for 60 cars and an improvement to the road access. Abbey Autos seek permission for change of use of part of the Fishmarket Road premises as a manager's flat; and at Rolvendene Farmhouse Mr. Mills would like to put up a double garage with an office.
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10 to 4 (and FRIDAY and SATURDAY) Town Council Open Meeting about the proposed A259 route, Thomas Peacocke Upper School, The Grove, 7
Alexandra Rose Day
Rye Hospital League of Friends, Summer Fete, FEC, 10.30 to 12
Museum Association outing to Hever Castle, leave Rope Walk 10
Open gardens, 18 Church Square and 11 High Street, 2 to 6 (see page 6) - for National Gardens Scheme
RNIB house-to-house collection (flag-day on 27th) Town Council meeting, TH, 6
• Congratulations to Andrew and Moira Polley of Ashenden Avenue on the birth of their daughter Lucy on 1 June. Andrew, a part-time fireman, works at Accura in Winchelsea Road, and until a few weeks ago Moira's was the smile that greeted visitors to Vidlers' office; little Lucy is the first grandchild for Mr. and Mrs. Bert Polley of Mill Road.
• Congratulations, too, to Alan Dickinson of Playden and Le Fevre Wood & Royle, who heard on Saturday that he had passed Part II of the examination in building surveying of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
• Burnhams are looking for a receptionist-typist for their office at 3 Landgate. This is a permanent job (salary negotiable) in pleasant surroundings with a busy but small company atmosphere - Monday to Friday. Experience of routine bookwork, says John Whiddett, would be an advantage. Write to Mr. Whiddett.
• An interesting new development in the High Street is foreshadowed by a job advertised this week. Spare space at the back of Tony Wills's food department at Serendipity is to become a National Trust shop-within-a-shop, to sell the very attractive range of goods and souvenirs which are normally only obtainable at a NT property. Mr. Wills was approached by the Trust some time ago, and is very happy with the arrangement. The job is for someone to take charge of the new mini-shop, and Mr. Wills is making a short-list from which the Trust will make the final appointment. If you are interested, call in at Serendipity and ask for details.
• The men's hairdressers in Needles Passage - appropriately called Alley Barber - will soon be closing for a fortnight's holiday, from Thursday 25 June to Friday 10 July. Gentlemen, you have been warned!
• We are asked to pass on another bouquet to British Rail. Deslys Turner, coming down from London, realised once she was on the Rye train that her glasses were still on the London one. She lamented her loss when she got to Rye: where might they have got to, she asked? Since it was possible that a helpful passenger could have handed them into any intermediate station between Ashford and Dover, Tony Roots phoned along the line. They had in fact gone through to Dover, but were returned to a very grateful Mrs. Turner at Rye next day!
• Noticeable lack of bouquet for BR on Tuesday morning, however, from those who had intended to get the 7.20 to Ashford or the 8.20 to Hastings. Neither train ran; the guard for the return trip hadn't turned up. (Incidentally, some BR Savers fares go up on Sunday, but not those for Network South-East.)
• After a successful RAFA coach trip to the USAF Air Show, Gordon Stanbridge now wonders how many people (he would need 50) would be interested in an outing on a Saturday or Sunday later this summer to the RHS Gardens at Wisley? Ring him if you might be.
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 (see page 7 this week for full details). (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)