With exactly these words, just before 6am on Friday, the Radio 4 announcer prefaced the start of the day's programmes - and we knew then that it wasn't only Rye in trouble. A generator was working in the background to keep his power going - just as well, since Radio Sussex was off the air entirely for some time. For as full an account as we could assemble of what the storm meant locally, see pages 3 to 6.
Good news - we were wrong in our report on 7 October about no cheap November travel for OAPs! Either BR suddenly changed its corporate mind or - as seems more likely - its press office is kept poorly informed. Anyway, holders of Senior Citizen railcards will after all be able to buy, all through November, Saver tickets at big discounts: those which normally cost under £25 will cost £5, those normally over £25, £10. They are available for outward travel throughout November, and the return journey can be made the same day or within a month (this presumably extends to just past Christmas for late starters, but check before buying the ticket). They are not available on Fridays, or on trains arriving in London before 10am on weekdays. But of course you can leave Rye at 7.55 via Hastings and arrive in London at 10.07, if you want to make an early start; on Saturdays you can go as normal via Ashford any time you like; and on Sundays you can't get from Rye to London before 10am anyway. The press release adds that the £12 railcard entitles holders (anyone over 60) to buy cheap-day-return tickets at half-price, and to get one-third off Saver and Rail Rover tickets - all the year round, of course.
In the big window of the Ferry Road shop which until recently was Crafty, the new owner Dilys Mayor (a Benson addict, incidentally, who calls the house "Foljambe") has mounted a window display on behalf of the A259 opposition. In her London job Mrs. Mayor has facilities for producing advertisement material, and she has used these to blow up on laminated display boards much of the Action Group's material - including its recent press release, and the two locally-designed posters. So anyone wanting to know what on earth all this is about only has to go along with five minutes to spare, and read all about it. (Try identifying the occasional jig-saw pieces, too.)
By way of light relief Mrs. Mayor has incorporated her own parody of G.K. Chesterton's poem about roads, and allows us to reprint it. She calls it:
THE THROUGH-RYE ROAD
After the Roman came to Rye and out to Severn strode
A looney at the DoT dreamed up the Through-Rye road.
A shocking road, a silly road to cut the town in two
And many people cried aloud "This really will not do.
A proper road, a bypass road is what we're looking for
To bring us ease and take away the heavy traffic's roar.""Let's move the trains (the looney said), 'twill greatly spread the load
And cars that now crawl through the town will have a faster road."
A rushing road, a roaring road with lights that shine all night
And Rye-Divided will become a truly sorry sight.
A peaceful place, a pretty place that people come to see
Is how we want our town to stay, not ruined by the DoT.There's danger for our little ones and for our old folks who
Will have to cross both road and rail for school and shopping too.A dangerous road, a deadly road and one that would bisect
Our ancient town - just has to be a road WE WILL REJECT.
This priceless town, this lovely town deserves a better fate
So RYERS help your ACTION GROUP before it is too late!
2.
Karleigh Robus, aged ten months, only child of Chris and Tracey Robus of the High Street, died suddenly at home in her sleep early on Saturday morning, 10 October. The funeral took place at St. Mary's on Monday and was followed by burial in Rye Cemetery. There is much sadness in the town over this tragedy; both Karleigh's parents are members of well-known local families.
Mrs. Connie Clothier of New Winchelsea Road died on 11 October; she was 75. The funeral has taken place.
Mrs. Florence Tebbutt, formerly of Watchbell Street and later of Saitcote Place, has died in a nursing home at the age of 95; the funeral takes place at Hastings Crematorium at 12 on Tuesday (27th). Mrs. Tebbutt and her late husband Lionel were active members of the Rye Society of Artists in its early days, and she continued tc take an interest in the Society throughout her life.
• The Hastings Health Authority and Hastings Observer are jointly running a competition to find a name for the new District General Hospital on The Ridge. Simply "Hastings DGH" is not a contender - nor is anything incorporating the words "Royal" or "New". They are looking for something short, simple and ea-y to remember; a geographical name should make it clear that the catchment ar. is not just Hastings - or maybe you know of some medical luminary who has a local connection (cf. William Harvey at Ashford)? Entries have to be in by 31 October - phone the Hastings Observer (Hastings 51351) about an entry form if You can't find a copy of last week's issue.
• East Sussex County Council does seem to have some sympathy with the town's A259 protest. They have offered the Town Council £800 towards the 1,1,700 cost of the independent assessment of the Department's traffic figures, to be undertaken by Transport Planning Associates - in return for a copy of the eventual report.
• The closure of Rye Hospital was not among the recommendations passed by the HHA at its meeting last Thursday as a short-term means of reducing its over-spending; indeed, Rye was not mentioned at all, says the Community Health Council Secretary who was at the meeting as an observer. However, the recommendations did include a mention of "the problem of reducing the number of hospital sites", and all the HHA sites are to be reviewed urgently - so we need to be alert for trouble.
• It is not often that four charges of assault are mentioned in the police press book! One follows an incident (not a mugging) in North Salts on 8 October; the other three arise from events at the Oasis just after midnight on 11 Octber, when one man needed 30 stitches in his face after being attacked with a beer glass, another required 6 stitches after being punched and kicked, and a third was head-butted and suffered bruising. (We don't do court reporting, but doubtless there will be full details in the News and/or Express later on.)
• Leslie Bulman of the RDA has regretfully cancelled the course of six adult education classes he had intended to hold at the FEC on Tuesday evenings; there was virtually no support at all for them. A similar course is proving very popular at Wittersham, so he can only conclude that Rye is already well-informed on how to get what from whom by way of grants, etc.
• On Sunday the town very nearly had a soup kitchen. Councillor Frank Dowdeswell was consulted by Rother on what Rye needed most, in the emergency. Roofing tarpaulins, he said, and small camping-gas cookers so that all-electric households could at least heat up the baby's bottle or make a cup of tea. It is not clear what happened about the tarpaulins - in short supply everywhere - but Rother consulted County about the cookers. No cookers, said County, "but we are having to provide hot meals for the old people's homes in Northiam and Peasmarsh, so we will send some along to your Community Centre too!" This idea was really doomed from the start: how were potential customers to be contacted? In fact, although the helpers turned up on time, the meals didn't; but the little cookers would have been a big help for those who hadn't been able to borrow or buy one for themselves. (Incidentally, Mr. Patel at the Corner Shop went all the way to Croydon on Sunday morning to stock up his shop with candles and torch batteries!)
- 3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 21 October 1987
Early last Friday morning for the best part of four hours - from perhaps 3.30 to nearly 7am - storm force winds buffeted Rye along with the rest of southern England. "Force 12" was quoted by the 5.55am shipping forecast, and no-one rash enough to put their head out of doors an hour or two earlier will have queried it. The last storm at this level, in fact, was 300 years ago and killed 8,000 people along the south coast; it seems likely that loss of life this time would have been considerable if most people hadn't been in bed - or sheltering downstairs for fear of a falling tree or chimney-stack through the roof. The streets were perilous with flying slates and broken branches, tiles clattered continuously down onto the pavements (and even at 8am we felt much happier in a crash-helmet as we went round inspecting the damage). One story was of an 8-foot length of iron guttering which flew in through a closed window and impaled itself in the opposite wall!
The lights finally went out soon after 4am. They didn't come on again until mid-morning on Monday - by which time a great many people were looking at freezers and fridges full of unusable food, though those with gas cookers ate astonishingly well all weekend. Torch batteries, paraffin and camping-gas rapidly vanished as people began to realise the implications of such widespread damage. All- electric households were dependent on the kindness of neighbours for hot water and cooking facilities. Devonport House has one gas cooker, in the common-room kitchen, and Margaret Owen took over the catering, preparing communal meals with the contents of the residents' rapidly-defrosting fridges plus gifts from freezer-owners (venison and fillet steak were on her menu). Badger Gate is entirely electric, but Lilian Sinden borrowed a calor burner and made tea and coffee for her residents; their relatives and friends helped out, and Joan Kingham cooked (in her own home) both Sunday and Monday lunch for the tenants. Rye Hospital, with a dozen in-patients, functioned with an emergency generator (which was showing signs of exhaustion by Monday morning); the intercom system didn't work, and there was no hot water, but day patients were welcomed as usual on Monday.
Many of the shops remained closed for the duration, and some only allowed a few customers at a time into their dimly-lit interiors for fear of shop-lifting; those with electric tills simply kept the takings in a box under the counter and hoped they could find the right change by candle-light. However, Adams has its own generator and was a comforting blaze of light in the High Street; Dennis's also managed DIY electric lighting the whole depth of the shop; and in Cinque Ports Street Barry Rivers' generator not only lit the shop but boiled up kettles for the neighbours too. Money was extremely tight all weekend; on Friday, Barclays and the Midland were shut, as were all the building societies - because, with no electricity, all the computers were out of action; and although Lloyds and Natwest were open, they were operating in near-total darkness. The cashpoints, of course, were also closed - though the Post Office was another place which could pay out, cashing cheques with bank cards up to £50 for a fee of 75p on weekdays and £1.50 on Saturdays (as usual).
The phones packed up rather later than the lights; and most of them were not entirely dead even then, with an occasional outside call coming in or a welcome dialling tone appearing suddenly. To everyone's relief, the service was restored within 12 hours except where telephone lines were actually snapped by falling trees or masonry, and worried families living away were able to say "Are you all right, Mum?" at last. Mostly, it seems, Mum was; the Dunkirk spirit dies hard, and we heard with admiration one young man say casually that his business had lost £2,000 in the past two days, but there was nothing he could do about it so why complain!
By Saturday there were occasional trains, between Rye and Hastings only; by Monday the service was two-hourly the whole length of the line, but Radio Sussex warned of unserviceable level-crossing barriers in the Rye area, with train crew members dismounting at each crossing to control the traffic while the train went through (presumably this ceased once the electricity was on?). Buses were able to run again once the roads were cleared of fallen trees, and postal deliveries resumed once the mail could be got here from Hastings.
4.
(continued)
We asked Inspector Legg at Rye Police Station how things had been for his officers. The police station was used as a first-aid post on Friday morning, when the ambulance couldn't have got through; but in fact, as far as he knows, there were no major casualties in Rye and his own staff plus local doctors dealt with minor injuries. From the police point of view, the lack of light (and temptation to crime) was a major worry, but they increased the number of officers patrolling in the town at night and this seems to have been 100% successful. There were some thefts from wrecked caravans on the sites all along the coast, where policing was more difficult - but here too they stepped up patrol-car visits. Rye police station, stoutly built in the 1960s, sustained no damage; the Northiam police house had a tree through the roof, but the occupants were unhurt. Inspector Legg has been very impressed by the public-spirited attitude of the community for instance, people were phoning in on Friday to offer gas heaters for those needing them, and he is particularly grateful to Southern Water employees and local farmers who voluntarily turned out with chain-saws to help clear fallen trees from the roads. All public roads are now basically clear enough to use, though with extreme care in some cases; a few may be closed again briefly while trees and debris are removed. ("Plenty of logs next winter, anyway" we said - but the Inspector pointed out that there would be very few trees due for felling for some years to come thereafter, and wise householders might do well to get in a good supply while they can!)
The Fire Brigade's first call-out on Friday was at 5am, to a car trapped under a fallen tree in Udimore. First they tried the normal route and couldn't get through; they they tried Dumbwoman's Lane, also blocked but by smaller trees; finally they commandeered someone's son with a chain-saw and went up School Lane, doing the last bit on foot - to find that the occupants of the car had, by then, managed to get out; but at least they knew where they could and couldn't take the fire engine. The next call was from well outside their normal patch - Combe Haven caravan park in St. Leonards, where people were trapped in overturned caravans; all the appliances normally covering the area were out on calls already, but go which way they might, Rye couldn't get beyond Fairlight - and the Bexhill brigade finally rescued the caravanners. Loose masonry in Tower Street was the next problem - followed by the house fire which was inevitable sooner or later with so many people using candles: at Ringo's home in Udimore Road, a candle caught the curtains, his CB equipment went up (quite literally) in smoke which filled the house so that the firemen had to wear breathing apparatus to get upstairs and open the windows. The budgie was the only casualty - but all friends of Ringo and his family will sympathise over the damage. Other jobs for Michael Bourne and his men included mending a roof-light at Devonport House (not only dangerous but letting water in to run merrily down the back stairs), and taking down a tottering chimney at The Link; this would normally have been a job for Pother's builders, but they were all occupied already. (We hear that at least one family from The Link are being given sleeping accommodation elsewhere until the chimney is properly repaired - just in case...) Finally the Fire Brigade went off to Camber to pump out someone who had six inches of water under his floorboards and was worried about the electricity - or was going to be once there was any. (Just after the lights went on on Monday, the fire engine was racing along Cinque Forts Street; it did seem possible that someone had omitted to unplug a heater or iron when the lights went out three days before...?)
Down on the Nature reserve, Pat Bonham reported, there was surprisingly little damage. All three hides had survived unscathed, even the unfinished one by the new wader pool - perhaps a testimony to the way they are snugged down into the landscape. But we heard a sad story from the North Point gravel pits. Bernie Fiddimore, down there to check on the wind-surfing arrangements, found dozens of roosting gulls blown up against a wire fence by the storm, their feet and wings hopelessly entangled in its mesh. She was able to rescue some, but cost were already dead or had to be destroyed.
5.
(continued)
Up at Leasam House big trees again came down in quantity - but happily not on the house itself, though the boarders were evacuated into the main house from the annexe as a precaution. Thomas Peacocke may or may not reopen before half-term, but they are sending anyway the younger boarders home early; without electricity or hot water, the weekend was tough, but Stan Jones told us the House staff coped magnificently. At Upper School, the ribbed aluminium strip which had roofed the Hall was blown right off, and on Saturday lay in a forlorn tangle, several hundred yards of it, like a discarded decoration from a giant's Christmas tree. Putting it back is likely to be a specialist job, and until it is back the hall is unusable, with no electricity (the supply has been isolated); events booked in there will have to be transferred to Lower School Hall or elsewhere for the moment.
Walking round to Lower School, we saw with regret how many of the big trees round the playing-field had come down; but even more depressing is the state of the outside classroom used as the library, with the needlework room next door. Here the roof simply folded back on itself, leaving the lobby light pointing skywards; much of the debris ended up in the dyke behind the building, beside a tree which had fortunately fallen the other way. Lower's main roof is tile hung; so many of the tiles are loose that County says the area is unsafe until they have been secured - so it is just as well that half-term week will provide a breathing-space. (All in all, the staff thought TPS was in a pretty bad way until the County architects came over to inspect - and told them that Tideway School at Newhaven, even larger than TPS, has been so badly damaged that it is unlikely to be worth repairing!)
One of the town's saddest sights is the Agricultural Hall. The milkmen were there when it happened - the corner of the roof nearest the station went first, collapsing into Graham Rattenbury's furniture-restoration workshop below. (To add insult to injury, someone later broke into the dairy office and stole the £5 they found there.) Across the road in the Mountsfield swamp a number of trees are down; the cattle there belong to Edward Mills, and when we found Di looking thoughtfully at the broken fence she told us that Rolvendene Farm had lost a chimney and the greenhouse but also one of the barns.
At one point in the storm, the sails (or rather, nowadays, the spars) of the Mill turned! This accounts for why one appears to be broken; as it used to be at the bottom and didn't show. Of Rye's other landmarks, the Ypres Tower seems to have suffered no damage (the scaffolding which has shrouded it for some weeks now is there for Rother to have another go, under DOE supervision, at waterproofing the building). The Landgate arch looks to be OK too. The churchyard has lost its big maple tree, which came down just missing the windows at the end of the north aisle (but breaking a dormer in the Old Vicarage instead); St. Mary's itself is very little damaged, and we have not heard of anything amiss with St. Anthony's or the Baptist or Methodist churches either. Playden Church lost 500 tiles off its (always vulnerable) north roof, and several of the churchyard trees; Iden's fate was crueller, with about a third of the newly-retiled south roof whipped off and an oak louvre in the tower (only replaced the day before the storm) blown in.
The Church Square area has been hard hit, and Watchbell Street was littered with broken tiles on Friday; Church House lost a chimney-stack, and Canon Maundrell found a sheet of copper in his garden which didn't come off his roof! Further down, the Community Centre's need of a new roof was emphasised by the number of slates lying in its car park. But it is noticeable all through the town that some modern or recently re-roofed buildings have been severely damaged, while others which haven't been touched for fifty years came through unscathed. A modern house at Playden is a really horrid sight; and out at the Harbour, Alsfords' recently-built office block survived as a ground floor with a lid, the first floor having been blown in on all four sides (or so we were told).
(continued...)
6.
(concluded)
At Strand Quay there was no major devastation, not even to the Great Warehouse; but the prospective Heritage Centre now leans sideways in a way it didn't before, and is likely to need shoring up. The big showroom window at the Quayside Garage was blown in, and the Monkbretton Bridge garage was also damaged; Skinners was all right - but none of them could sell petrol because modern pumps can't be hand-operated in emergencies.
The neap tides helped and hindered. The Harbour office told us there was comparatively little damage to moored boats (it amounted mostly to and torn sails) - but we hear that dinghies parked at the sailing club were bashed about. A spring high-tide could have meant problems at Strand Quay but a spring low-tide would have gone right out, allowing the Salts to drain into the Rother. As it was, they were an astonishing sight: the Cricket salts were were damp (the pavilion was undamaged, but the football club' s stand were smashed to matchwood), the Fair Salts were wet - and on the other side of the path, the Town Salts were completely inundated. Children and dogs were ecstatic, but grown-ups grieved for the loss and damage among the big trees; if the bowls green is playable next season, it will be little short of a miracle! (One more maritime difficulty: the Harbour navigation lights run off mains electricity).
Events cancelled included the Museum Association lecture, the ATC Barn Dance and the Hospice wine-and-cheese party. The RNIB coffee ruing and WBL teas went ahead, and so did Friday's meals-on-wheels - cooked on the Community Centre's gas cooker, with David Festing transporting everything down by car from the all-electric FEC. The WI Market opened as usual, though without its usual display of flowers. And on Saturday the Old Scholars' Association duly held its annual dinner at the George; numbers were slightly depleted, but nearly 40 people sat down to the meal and (says John Smith) the candle-light not only pretty but very kind to less-than-young faces! Earlier that day the George had also hosted the Tilling Society's annual lunch, with Tom Holt as guest of honour; the meal was followed by a visit to Lamb House, where members made an impromptu collection to repair damage to the garden. Despite the weather,three-quarters of those expected did get here, and some spent a candle-lit evening in the Mermaid (for the Americans, at least, all that was needed for „perfection would have been a ghost...) Lack of electricity meant that the planned organ recital in St. Mary's was postponed until next year; but on Sunday the special Deanery evensong managed very well indeed with the church piano and (yet again) candles.
It would only be boring to attempt to list all the damage caused in the town on Friday: ridge-tiles gone, rafters left bare and ceilings sodden, fences flattened, garden walls toppled, windows blown off their hinges, garage roofs smashed by falling trees or with doors buckled by the gale... There is also the loss to our business community, not only to shops but to services such as petrol stations, the launderette, and offices dependent on electrical and electronic equipment. Hotels and restaurants operated under difficulties. Both Rother and County Councils were running weekend emergency operations for those in real trouble. But compared to what we have heard and read about the effects of the storm in other places - Brighton, for instance, or the Hastings sea-front area, or towns where residents had to be put into emergency accommodation because their homes had literally blown down - Rye has been comparatively fortunate: though it was really galling to find that Winchelsea had electricity when we hadn't!
In the long run, it seems likely that the trees will be the worst loss of all. Houses can be rebuilt, but a big tree takes fifty or even a hundred years to grow, and among those toppled were some in the long avenue leading to Saltcote Place which are particularly mourned. Once the chain-saws have done their work, the bonfires have died to ash, and woodsheds are full to capacity, we shall be able to see the full extent of the damage. But from what we hear - particularly about the approach roads to the town through Udimore and Playden - the area will never look the same again in the lifetime of any of us. Let's hope someone will set up a tree replacement project soon - before we all forget.
7.
• Today sees a change of ownership for a long-established Rye business. Terry's DIY in Tower Street was opened 24 years ago this month, in premises which still belong to the Masonic Lodge above it and were then largely occupied by it. Terry Osborne, son of the Romney Marsh huntsman, decided to stay behind when his parents moved to another job. This was in the early days of DIY, and a shop to serve people working on their own homes was quite a new idea; Terry saw a gap, and moved in to fill it. For some time he has had trouble with his sight, and the business has been on the market - and it was obviously waiting for the new owner, who won't even have to change the name of the shop: He is Terry Grant, from Brede, and although he has not had a shop before, he has been connected with the building trade. We wish him every success in Rye.
Curiously enough, Mr. Grant not only shares his predecessor's Christian name but also has a daughter called Rachel. Perhaps we can mention here that Rachel Osborne is now in business in Rye as a mobile hair-stylist, calling on her customers in their own homes; she calls her business New Locks, and can be reached on Rye 223210. Terry and Sally will, of course, continue in business with their Military Road guest-house, Little Saltcote (also Rye 223210). Since they can sleep 14, they find themselves increasingly booked for groups such as wedding parties - which makes, says Terry, for a very relaxed relationship between hosts and guests.
• It is pleasant to report that John Dennis, the ironmongers in the High Street, is once again a family business. Six weeks ago it changed hands - having been managed for a couple of years from a base in Tunbridge Wells - and the new owners are Mr. and Mrs. Evans, who come from Hastings. They are new to shopkeeping, but Mr. Evans was formerly a sales rep in this line of business and regularly called on Bill Dennis as one of his customers. The third member of the staff is Ray and Janet Wood's daughter, Julie (Stonham). To this team, too, all good wishes!
• Rother's Policy & Resources Committee tonight considers Le Fevre Wood & Royle's suggested plans for the Heritage Centre on Strand Quay, with the Planning Officer's report firmly in favour of the more expensive (over £100,000) scheme which would house the Model in a purpose-built single-storey wing - the plan we described in GAZETTE no. 241. The idea is that the Town Council (which has already exchanged contracts with McCarthy ' Stone for the gift of the building) would transfer the freehold to Rother, leasing it back for 125 years - and Rother would arrange the financing of the project with (they hope) grants from the Development Commission, English Heritage and the Tourist Board, as well as from ESCC and Rother itself. The scheme will, says Le Lie Robinson, be "a valuable addition to the wide range of facilities which already exist for visitors to the town ... and will also focus attention on Stray: quay to encoura7e necessary improvements to some of the other buildings neat-- and a general upgrading in the appearance of the area."
• Next week, as usual, we shall report on the decisions of Rother’s monthly Planning meeting on applications which affect Rye. One which the committee will not be considering is the proposal to erect what would in effect be a four-story block of flats on and behind the old Dairy Yard in Cinque Ports Street. Readers will recall that last month (in response to pressure from the Conservation Society) the DoE listed the present structure in the Yard and the stretch of Town Wall at its back as a Grade 2 building. The owners of the site, the trustees of the late Mrs Dorothy Taylor, have now withdrawn the application.
• Yet another quite extensive planning application is to be dealt with under the "delegated" procedure rather than through traditional channels; this week's list shows a proposal for extensions to Hillhyfields on Rye Hill, to include a kitchen, utility room, study, conservatory, garage, living room and bedroom. Also delegated would be permission for a single-storey lounge extension plus a garage with games room above at 43 Marley Road. Other applications are for a porch at 12 the Strand, and for outline permission for one dwelling with double garage on land SW of Lorelie in Military Road.
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10 to 4 (and Friday and Saturday) Tilling Green School Autumn Sale, 6
Special Mass for the Week of Prayer for Peace, St. Anthony's, 6.30 (pm)
Nat.His.Soc., "Bats" (Tony Hudson), FEC, 7.30
RNLI coffee morning, FEC, 10 to 12 (stalls, etc.) Cadborough Jubilee Social Club jumble sale, CC, 2 Wine-and-finger-buffet party for Playden Church, TH, 7.30 (tickets £3 from River Books, if there are any left)
Half-term week
Town Council: full Council and committees (see TH board)
• Results: The Rye & District RNIB Branch took around £400 at the FE Centre on Saturday - despite a smaller cake-stall than usual, for obvious reasons; the committee are most grateful to all who turned out to support them. Two days earlier at the Stormont Studio, Inner Wheel's coffee morning for the Arts Centre Appeal raised £50, some of it from a group of Kent sixth-form girls who had come to study the Japanese prints there. The house-to-house collection in Rye recently for the National Children's Homes raised £215.
• Mrs. Edith Hill would like to thank the people, mostly unknown to her, who helped her when she caught her foot on the kerb and fell, cutting her head, outside her house on Saturday evening - including the ambulance men who took her over to RESH for stitching up and then delivered her to a friend's home in Icklesham (with electricity restored) rather than to dark and chilly Rye.
• The collapse of the Agricultural Hall roof has left Graham Rattenbury of Phillbury's without a workshop. He is desperate for something of at least double-garage size, preferably in Rye and with an electrical supply. Offers/suggestions please.
• It would be quite unfair to bother BR at Ashford this week about something they mentioned a month or so ago, and we have heard no more about it from Waterloo. But there was going to be a Network event of some kind this coming Saturday, in association with the Ian Allen railway publishing firm and involving our line in some way. Anyone really interested might like to see if Passenger Information (Hastings 429325) knows anything about it - if they can get through (we tried three times without success on Monday).
• A reminder that Barbara Crocker (Mrs. Whelpton) has an exhibition of her paintings at West Watch in Trader's Passage from 24 to 29 October, 10 to 5 daily (closed for lunch, 1 to 2).
• Rye WI members "sat in almost unprecedented silence hanging on every word of Captain Main's delightful talk on badgers, illustrated by superb colour slides of this shyest of Ancient Britons" says Jeanne Freeman, reporting on the October meeting; she adds that there are now about 40 more ardent badger protectors in the county. The Rye Group of WIs are holding a Carol Concert in St. Mary's on 11 December, with tableaux for the seven carols.
• Long notice - since this primarily affects people now living away from Rye that the Old Scholars Association holds its annual London Reunion at the Albert pub near Victoria Station on Monday evening, 2 November. All ex-Rye pupils are welcome; please remind your London-based children.
• Finally, condolences to all those living next to premises with burglar alarms which become hysterical when there is a power cut, and after twelve hours or so, so do the neighbours:
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 through Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. Deadline is Monday morning for Wednesday's delivery; subscriptions are on the basis of 40p a copy, and spares (45p) are now available from "Young Ideas", 7 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)