National Tree Week has, of course, a particular poignancy this year. Rother always marks it by holding tree-planting ceremonies, but this year they chose St. Mary's churchyard as one of the two favoured sites. Earlier, the staff had made an impressively neat job of removing the corpse of the big acer which came down in the storm, and on Tuesday last week the surrounding grass was raked clear of leaves and the scars on the turf were covered with "undertaker's grass" to spare the shoes of the two distinguished gardeners. Needless to say, the hole had been dug beforehand, the tree set in it and staked, the roots covered against the cold wind - but there was a heap of beautifully sifted soil awaiting the attention of Rother chairman Councillor Roy Pulford and our own Mayor. Between them they made a very thorough job of tucking down the acer cappadocicum aureum (a variety of golden maple), which now looks very comfortable in its new home.
Elsewhere in the churchyard we peered suspiciously at Rother staff doing things with a saw - but they were only removing the smaller bay tree, which last winter really had killed off. Astonishingly, the decrepit big cedar survived the storm; but Canon Maundrell thinks it can't last much longer, and intends to plant a younger version nearby so that there is a replacement ready.
On Friday, 27 November, members of the Rye & Rother Valley Round Table formed themselves into seven teams and between them visited every pub in their area - collecting for the BBC's Children in Need Appeal. Miss Rye and her husband joined the group covering the town. Altogether they collected £730 in their boxes - part of the Sussex Area total of £40,000 brought in by Round Tablers. Alan Deeprose, chairman of the local Table and also Community Service Liaison Officer for Sussex, co-ordinated this most successful operation - and was seen on television very early on Saturday morning handing over the Sussex cheque. (The Rye total was over £200 more than last year - and in fact was further boosted later by various side-bets - or so we understand - about what Alan would or wouldn't do on screen!)
By now all the shops have their Christmas decorations in place, and the whole commercial area of the town looks delightful, particularly after dark when the coloured lights run all the way from Hilder's Cliff into The Mint, and up Lion Street to the church. It would be invidious to mention individual shops, when all look so attractive; but we do worry about that pink teddy clasping its baby, all alone and cold in the midst of Ian Foster's snowy waste at Adams!
This year the town has two model train layouts. Claude Auberson at the Swiss Patisserie has re-styled his, so that the energetic Thomas the Tank Engine runs round on the level instead of facing the hill-climb which occasionally defeated him last year; but there is still a fine tunnel through the mountain, so that small faces pressed to the tea-shop window can watch him go in and emerge again, time after time after time... For those who have enjoyed themselves, there is a collecting box for Mencap inside the shop.
The second train is a newcomer, a refugee from Tenterden. For many years the Hornby-built layout used to amuse children at a toyshop there. But then it was no longer needed, and now George Gray and his friend Mr. Hoad (of Corkers sausage fame) have bought it, and installed it in Mr. Gray's Market Road shop, The Centre. They set it up at the weekend, rubbed down the rails and stood up the trees, and now 5p in the slot will not only benefit the Blind Association but will send two trains, running in different directions and at different levels, round and round for a full minute. This railway is not a snow-scene like Claude's; but it has various other trimmings which will amuse the young (to say nothing of amusing Messrs. Gray and load!).
2.
All rail fares go up on Sunday, 10 January. The press release says that full details will be available at stations early in December, but this is usually over-optimistic in local terms; Baldwins Travel have been promised the information "straight after Christmas", and we hope to give details in our 6 January issue.
Season-ticket holders, however, need to think ahead. If your ticket expires just before 10 January, make sure that you order, collect and pay for your new one by Saturday, 9 January; then you get it at the old rate. If it still has some time to run, you will need to know what the new rate will be before you can decide whether or not to renew it prematurely on the 9th. By 4 January, Baldwins should be in a position to give you their usual excellent advice as well as selling you the ticket; or you can get it at the station - but we don't recommend leaving that until the 9th. It has been known for the booking office to be shut - or for an enquirer to be told that they haven't worked out the price yet!
Also going up are the railcards for Young Persons and Senior Citizens. These have cost £12 for nearly five years, and are rising to £15 - here again, buy yours before the 10th to get the old price. The £7 railcard is being withdrawn entirely, but holders will be able to buy a £15 railcard for £10 when theirs expire. (The reason for withdrawal is because the £5 Network Cards are proving more popular - but they aren't very useful here, because you can't leave Rye until after 10 am, which bites into your day-out something remarkable!)
We heard a glowing account of the Ryesingers' performance of "Elijah" at St. Mary's on Saturday evening, conducted by Lesley Brownbill. David Maundrell says it is such a pity that they can't put it on again, in Rye or elsewhere, for the benefit of those who were not able to come on what turned out to be a rather busy night. Jason Howard (baritone) made a magnificent Elijah, and the other (excellent) soloists were Emma MacKnight (soprano), Sally Eade (contralto) and James Alexander (tenor). Jean Taverner, from Winchelsea Beach, was the talented accompanist.
Because this production was so late in the year, it has taken the place of the usual Ryesingers Christmas concert. However, there is still plenty of choice for carollers. The WI Group carol service (with tableaux, and a collection for Friary Gardeners) is at St. Mary's on Friday evening of this week. On Monday (14th) the Methodist Church offers Carols with the Choir ("Come and choose your favourite Christmas carols and sing them with the choir - followed by coffee and hot mince pies in the lower hall.") The TPS Upper School holds its carol concert on Tuesday (15th); if the night is fine it will be in the storm-tossed Upper School hall, but there are still problems with the roof and if it rains the venue may have to be changed. On Sunday week (20th) the Methodist Church has its carol service in the morning, with the St. Mary's service in the evening. (We have no details for the Catholic and Baptist Church services yet.)
Finally, welcome again to the Salvation Army Band, playing carols in the High Street on Saturday morning - and again, with luck, on the next two Saturdays...
Did you take a good photograph of storm damage in the town? If so, Jean Greenhalf at Rye Library would be most grateful if you would contribute a print to the Local History Collection. It need not be a great big enlargement; if the Library should put on a display later, they can afford to blow up the pictures they need. But it is really important to have a pictorial record of what happened here as a result of that fearful morning - though Jean isn't all that interested in the shot of your buckled TV aerial taken for the insurance company. (Etchings made by Edward Evans, ARA, under similar circumstances show that the problem with trees was very much the same after his storm - on 15 October 17801 Four of the pictures are currently on show in the British Library, and two were reproduced in the Independent last Friday)
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 9 December 1987
• Playgroup's new hall suddenly looks a lot less remote, after two Council decisions last week. George Shackleton, who promised at the Town Hall meeting back in the spring that he would see what he would do for Playgroup, has been heavily involved, wearing both his Councillor's hats - Rother and Rye.
You can't have a hall without a site; and the present site is owned by Rother, who inherited it along with the rest of the Magdala House land from the Rye Borough Council. Last week's Policy & Resources Committee at Bexhill accepted the Chief Executive's recommendation that Rother should lease the site of the old Civil Defence hut to the Playgroup, so that they could put their new building on it - the actual ground-plan may be very slightly different, but it would be the same size and would (George Shackleton made sure) include the outdoor playing area. The Council may decide to charge "a reasonable ground rent" - but Mr. Shackleton was assured that if necessary Rother could make an equivalent grant to the Playgroup in return.
Two days earlier, Rye Town Council held its budget meeting for 1988/9. Among the items agreed was a one-off amount of £9,603, which represents lip in the 1½p on the rates. This will be charged for one year only, and will be a grant to the Playgroup towards the cost of their building (expected to be in the region of £20,000); it will not actually be handed over until the committee has accumulated the rest of the money, so in the meantime it will be earning interest for the town.
We need hardly say how delighted the Playgroup committee are at this boost to their fortunes; they already have around E4,000 saved up, and fund-raising events are already planned for the early part of 1988. But with £6,000 still to be found, they are hoping that Councillor Mrs. Yates will be able to wring something out of ESCC, now that Rother and Rye have done them well. (The sooner they get a proper building, the better - last week someone tried to set fire to jumble stored in their little play-house in the garden, for the second time, using a candle which looked as if it had come from a church!)
• The Town Council's budget meeting on 1 December considered other spending needs as well as the playgroup grant - though nothing else on quite that scale. Hall salaries are up - apparently by £2,500, but not in fact as much as that since the calculation for last year was an under-estimate; both Town Clerk and Town Sergeant are paid on the normal scale for such posts, and although her hours are sometimes unusually arranged the Town Clerk in fact works almost a full-time week. Last year £500 was put aside for professional services in respect of a possible riverside walk which would improve and attract visitors to the Gibbet Marsh car park; this money was not in fact spent, and like the playgroup money will sit in the bank earning interest until it is needed, or until Council decides to divert it to some other cause. The figure of 6.58p quoted in the press is actually that required by the Town Hall from the parish rate; but Rother also extracts Special Expenses, and the final parish rate will be more like 9p in the £.
Mrs. Scammell is looking ahead to 1990, when the Poll Tax will have a considerable impact on the way the parish rate is made up; she is anxious to show in the Council's accounts the full cost of providing its servicesc(as opposed to setting off income against outgoings and noting the difference). This way, she feels, the Council will be able to make its position quite clear and its needs obvious, when the new system becomes law.
Readers may have noticed that the GAZETTE is not attempting to deal with any aspect of the new Poll Tax - primarily because it is well covered by the national newspapers, and it has no special or particular effect on Rye. Also, the Editor doesn't understand it - and two identical press releases in three days from the London-based Association of County Councils are no help at all: People who are not happy about the system might try writing to Ken Warren, as our MP; send the letter to him at the House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1 (not to the office of the Hastings Conservative Association).
4.
In Ferry Road, the hutted encampment visible from Mill Lane and the footpath is in fact two hutted camps; one belongs to the builders of the new fire station, Eldridge & Cruttenden of Hastings, and the other to the builders of the Magdala House sheltered units, Hemsley Builders of Wadhurst. The latter have now got to first-floor level, and are making a sad and gloomy alteration to the outlook of the houses across the road. The ground-floor window-sills appear to be at pavement level as you approach, but in fact the ground drops away just inside the hoarding and the rooms are quite reasonable in height when you look carefully. The building is due to be finished by October. The Day Centre building at the back is also taking shape; it is easy to see why the organisers fear it will be too small for their purposes.
Round the corner on the old Drill Hall site, the concrete flooring is now laid for the fire station, and shuttering in one corner marks the site of the training tower. But there was not much else to see on Saturday except polythene-wrapped stacks of bricks, and odd bits of pipe sticking up.
In Station Approach, it is all beginning to happen after a long period when everything looked much the same for weeks on end. The concrete floors were poured several weeks ago, and the pattern emerged: two small shops facing on to Station Approach, and the main supermarket facing towards the railway, with a large space for car-parking in front between the building and the new pavement. Last week a blood-red skeleton of girders started to rise, assisted by a huge crane - so it seems reasonable to assume that we really are going to get a supermarket one day. The date we heard some time ago was Easter, but it may have slipped again. There is a drawing of the finished development over the fireplace in the station booking hall. Ferry Road householders will be glad to see the end of the mountain of earth and rubble dumped at their end of the site and now being taken away - the dust, we hear, was dreadful.
On Strand Quay, demolition on the old Hinds Yard site is now complete; the Heritage-Centre-to-be leans like an old drunk propped up by timber supports. When the wall alongside The Deals was being demolished, we were glad to see that trouble had been taken to extract the stone dated 1822 which had been built into it. The modern wall along the front of the site has also gone now, and very odd it all looks; for instance, Camiers is suddenly visible from the A259! Bert Camier looked across one morning and thought it must have snowed: an enormous white sheet covered the far end of the site from side to side. This has now been covered with crushed stone, as if for a car-park; but the same operation went on in Station Yard, where they told us that the membrane lets water soak away but stops mud and earth seeping up through the stone to clog up the heavy machinery. Piling, drainage trenches, etc., are simply cut through the stone and the membrane, regardless.
Finally, out along Rock Channel we still have two parallel terraces of houses set at right-angles to the river, with a central row of garages - the whole set-up a good deal tidier than it was when we last reported, and with a show-house open. At present the builders are engaged on putting the sheet piling into the river bed, at the extreme edge of the bank or perhaps even a little beyond. It seemed to us that there was remarkably little space left for boat to moor endways-on to the bank, as shown in the brochure, and still allow free passage along Rock Channel, so we consulted George Roberts at Southern Water. There would in fact be no room at all, he said, and the Harbour authority has no intention of allowing Rock Channel to be impeded; the developers have been told that moorings will have to be sideways to the bank - meaning, of course, that there won't be nearly so many of them.
The brochure for this housing estate really is worth studying, particularly for those familiar with the area. The pictures, of course, show the completed development - and depict the two terraces already built as having white weather-boarding at first-floor level, an immense improvement. The boats are moored endways-on to the bank, in a vast expense of swirling blue water and with what looks like (but is doubtless not intended to represent) a stretch of golden sand at one end. Behind it is a spinney of large trees. (continued...)
5.
(continued)
In fact the "beach" is the boatyard and the "trees" grow on top of the Phillips' house, which virtually adjoins the back gardens of the terrace, with only a narrow dustbin-path between. (The view of the development from what can really only be regarded as "the sea" is even more spectacular!) Prices of the houses vary from £115,000 for "The Hawkhurst" (2 bed, 2 bath, at the end nearest Shipyard Lane) to £145,000 for "The Wadhurst" (3 bed, 2 bath - the show-house opposite it); price details are not given for the as yet unbuilt houses facing the river. The pictures also show the clubhouse, etc., at the industrial units end of the estate.
Two further points about this site. The brochure says "we are including in our plans a large all-weather swimming pool for use of club members and residents at Rock Channel Quay". Not recalling anything about this in the planning application, we asked John Underwood about it; he told us that he would be applying for planning permission in due course. In the brochure picture, an area behind the clubhouse does look rather like a swimming-pool, but it would hardly be all-weather!
There is also a problem about the footpath. This used to run from the Rock Channel lane right through to Strand Quay, and was a popular summer walk. Last winter there were complaints that it was unusable, and the builders eventually did a good job of resurfacing it. However, the whole of the area between the approach road to the houses and the dyke has now been turfed. This means that
people arriving from the Lochin end have to choose, once the new concrete path beside the first house ceases: either they go down a bump into the roadway itself, where there is no pavement; or they continue along the grass, with an even bigger drop at the far end - and getting their feet wet. People with pushchairs will find this an awkward choice. What is needed is a proper hard footpath put back where it used to be, with a slope down at the other end instead of the present high curb.
One thing is certain: our local architects didn't write the brochure. They would never have referred to themselves as having close links with "the Rye Preservation Society"!
The Women's British Legion Christmas Fair raised £346 - roughly one-third from the raffle, one-third from DMI goods, and the remainder from sale items made or given locally, particularly some very attractive knitteds. They would like to have served refreshments, but there just wasn't room in the Red Cross Centre!
The Greenpeace party at Ma Beeton's went extremely well, and raised £300. The Rye branch was only founded just over a year ago, and members were delighted to learn recently that they were second only to Guildford out of the 27 branches in the south-east in the extent of their fund-raising. They will again be carol-singing round the town's pubs before Christmas - probably on 23 December.
The Cancer Help Group raised £68 (less hire of hall) from their jumble sale at the FE Centre. The Group meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, at the St. John HQ on Conduit Hill at 7.30. It was formed to offer help and support to cancer sufferers and their friends and families, and has now settled down with a permanent name (having been "Living with Cancer" and Cancer Support Group in its earlier stages). Sometimes the meetings have speakers on appropriate topics - but the main object is to reassure sufferers that they don't have to cope on their own, and to help them adopt a positive attitude to the disease. The organisers stress that they are all in favour of regular medical treatment, and hope doctors will send patients along to join the group; but those who want to try a complementary therapy can be put in touch with the right people. For more information, see Jill Stevens (the group's chairman) at Rye Wholefoods. Or, of course, just come along to one of the fortnightly meetings, and see if you like what you find there. Anyone can join the group, ill or not.
6.
Hill House's dear donkeys are no longer with us; they moved over to the Blue Cross Centre at Northiam on 4 December. Maudie came to live at the hospital (does anyone know how or why?) 19 years ago, and her daughter Ruby was born not long afterwards, and ever since then they have lived in the field beside the school and were much loved both by hospital patients and school pupils. They were cared for by the hospital staff (who were there, of course, in the school holidays), particularly Terry Gilbert, Ruby Stoodley and Mrs. Handley. Mrs. Maureen Baker used to get them hay and straw, Channon's and Foreman's provided hoof oil, and Mr. Gregory came over from St. Leonards to see to their feet.
But recently their shed has sprung a leak, and their fence is becoming unreliable, and the storm didn't help; since the hospital (though not the school, which still has a five year lease of its site) is due to close in 1989, it was felt best to install Maudie and Ruby at Northiam now. Donkeys live 30 years or so, so it seems likely that they will have a long as well as a happy retirement.
Mother and daughter have, however, worked for their keep. Child visitors to the League of Friends summer fetes used to enjoy donkey-rides; and in the early 1970s, Kathleen Goldie-Smith of Military Road started a riding group for Hill House patients, using the donkeys. This was later taken over as a pony project as part of the Riding for the Disabled Association, with helpers bringing in their own ponies - and in 1978 the donkeys obligingly took to pulling a cart instead, specially made for them at Hellingly using the RDA blueprint. The harness also came from the RDA, on permanent loan. Many patients who were too handicapped to ride could go for drives in the cart, and although it was sometimes a struggle to find helpers, these outings continued as long as the weather allowed, only closing down in the bleakest months of the year.
Although clearly disappointed that the driving can't continue for just one more season (until the hospital finally closes) Miss Goldie-Smith quite appreciates the management problems for hospital staff not primarily hired as donkey-keepers. She writes:
"From now on it will seem bleak to pass by their field without receiving a welcoming 'honk'. I was never quite sure whether Ruby, who was born at the hospital, was named after Ruby Stoodley the nurse or Ruby Dean the head-mistress; I used to call her 'Ruby 4-legs' to distinguish her. In the old days, the donkeys used to exercise the kind of humour for which donkeys are renowned, by trotting off to the patch of nettles at the very bottom of the field when we went to catch them; latterly there was no need to catch them, for they came right up to the gate and put their noses voluntarily into the head collars."
In fact it seems unlikely that Ruby was named for Miss Dean, since the Education Committee only took over the school from the Health Authority in 1971. Anne Wood has been a Governor ever since then, and she is well aware how much the children enjoyed having the donkeys in the field, let alone being allowed to ride or later drive with them. Miss Goldie-Smith has done a wonderful job for both pupils and patients over the last 15 years, Anne says, and she too is sad that the scheme has had to end so suddenly. The Headmaster of Hill House School, Barry Samuel, also wishes to put on record his gratitude to Miss Goldie-Smith and her helpers for the pleasure they have given his pupils.
The money in the Driving Group's bank account is to go to the Blue Cross, as a small dowry for Maudie and Ruby; the harness goes back to the RDA - and so will the cart, if the Association can find a group who could use it.
Finally, Miss Goldie-Smith asks us to stretch a point and mention the Blue Peter Rags Appeal this year, since a previous Rags appeal provided some equipment for the Hill House Riding Group. They want a thousand tons of old wool and cotton, in any condition as long as it is clean; bundles can be sent post free to Blue Peter Rags Appeal, FREEPOST, Bradford, BD12 ORA. As she says,and she is sure the donkeys would agree, "The show must go on!" - and the pony riding at Hill House is to continue.
7.
Quarterly subscribers are reminded that their subscriptions expire next week. If you wish to continue when we start up again on 6 January 9 we shall need £4.80 in cash, please, by New Year's Day at latest (for the coming 12 weeks). Better still, do it now before you forget! Those who have paid half-yearly will find a tick beside their name; they are covered until the end of March, and don't pay anything now.
• Over-70s living in Rye (and couples where one member qualifies) are invited to the Rye Town Council Bequest Committee party and entertainment - held not in the middle of a crowded Christmas season but on Saturday, 27 February. A notice in Fixtures includes a tear-off slip to be returned to the Town Hall by 31 January - but for anyone without a copy, a letter will of course do. Transport will be arranged, and guests will be notified of the details nearer the time. This is always a very enjoyable occasion; why not put your name down now?
• Cora Woolley of Rye Foreign has solved the problem of one of the names which appeared on the Cinque Ports Volunteers plaque (GAZETTE no. 250) but were not on the churchyard War Memorial. Bob Griffin came from Winchelsea, and was killed in his early 20s; she never knew him, of course, but her mother spoke of him as "a lovely lad". His sister married Mrs. Woolley's uncle.
Bob Bowler still has no news of the missing plaque; it begins to look as if it is lost for ever. Can anyone remember seeing it in place in the Drill Hall - ever?
• Rye Havana, the tobacconist's shop in the High Street, closed down on Saturday. The reason is the unexpected and serious illness of the owner, who lives in Kent; but we are glad to say that his health is improving. Jane Jenkinson, who has been manageress since the shop opened early in the summer, has found herself a new job as a tele-ads girl with the News Group over in Hastings; she made her mark, in her short time as a Rye shopkeeper, by helping the police lay hands on a group of young (non-Rye) shoplifters who were also using a stolen cheque book.
• Museum Association members and their friends very much enjoyed the party arranged by the committee in the beautifully decorated Town Hall on Thursday of last week.
• Everyone able to stay up late enough last Wednesday night will have been pleased to see Dr. Alec Vidler in his own home, in happy conversation with his old friends Malcolm and Kitty Muggeridge and Sydney Carter, just before Messrs. Muggeridge and Carter set off for their tour of the Romney Marsh churches. The film was made last May or June, and started somewhere out on the Marsh, moving back here for a shot of the Muggeridges and Mr. Carter, arms linked, coming along Church Square in search of Dr. Vidler's house. The photography of the Marsh was lovely (but we did get a bit tired of "Lord of the Dance" over and over again...).
Incidentally, Paddy Aiken and Sir John Winnifrith have revised the Marsh churches which Paddy had photographed for their book, to record storm damage there: damage not so much to the buildings, she found, as to the trees round them, so that the settings of some are dramatically altered. It is likely that these pictures will be seen in Rye some time - perhaps next year, at the annual Playden Church party in the Town Hall, if not sooner?
• Bert Camier tells us proudly that David Robus (front page last week) started as an apprentice with him, moving on to Weslakes later. At that time Weslakes had a branch in Germany, and it was they who sent David out there.
• Finally, a reminder (see top of page) that the GAZETTE will not appear for a fortnight over Christmas; next week's issue (16 December) will be the last until 6 January. Anything that needs publicity in those three weeks should reach us by this coming weekend without fail, please. (Not that there is likely to be much - which is why we take a fortnight off at Christmas!) We shall be open for business again from Saturday, 2 January.
Thursday, 10th Sea Cadets Christmas coffee morning, Red Cross, 10
Coin Club, "Seaby Slides" (E. Wheeler), FEC, 7
Confirmation Service, St. Mary's, 7.30
Lower School presents "Wacky and his Fuddlejig" and musical items, Lower School Hall, 7.30
Friday, 11th Last WI Market of the season, CC, 10
CSRF Christmas Lunch, Queen's Head, 12 for 12.30
National Trust Christmas supper (members), CC, 7 for 7.30
WI Group Carol Concert (with tableaux), St. Mary's, 7.30
Nat.His.Soc., "A Garden for growing birds" (Ian Rumley-Dawson), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 12th Rye Nursing Cadets Christmas coffee morning (Father Christmas, raffle, tombola, cakes, fancy goods, crafts, cards and decorations), St. John HQ, Conduit Hill, 10 to 12
Action for Epilepsy Christmas Bazaar, stalls and teas, Red Cross
2 to 4 (gifts to Freight Express, Market Street)
FRAG Christmas party - £2 at the door, non-members welcome (and always a very enjoyable evening), Stormont Studio, from 8
Monday, 14th Town Council - full Council and committees (see TH board) Carols with the Choir, Methodist Church, 7.30 (see page 2)
Tuesday, 15th Coffee morning for St. Anthony's Appeal (bring-and-buy stall and Ann Hamilton really does mean bring, please - plus cakes, etc.), River Books, Lion Street, 10.15 (just to be different!)
Upper School Carol Concert, Upper School (hall if fine, look for signs if not), 7.30
Wednesday, 16th Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10 to 12
Landgate WI Christmas party, with short play by committee drama group, CC, 10.30
Community Lunch Group meets informally at Soc. Services office in Cinque Ports Street, c. 1.0.
Local History Group social evening (venue undecided!), 7.30
• On Christmas morning Father Christmas will be seen in Rye, Winchelsea, the Beach, the Harbour, Playden and Iden delivering parcels to local children (and grown-ups, of course). He will be assisted by Rye Fire Brigade. Parcels can be handed in at the Fire Station from 2 to 6 on Tuesday, 22nd; from 6 to 9 on Wednesday, 23rd; and from 2 to 6 on Christmas Eve. The labels cost 50p, the Firemen's National Benevolent Fund. People taking in parcels, and others, may like to buy a 25p raffle ticket for a great big speaking teddy-bear which the firemen have been given; they very much hope that he will be won by a local person, so that Father Christmas can deliver him in person on the 25th.
• Two coffee mornings on Thursday week, 17th: one for "Kids at Risk" at the Woolwich office in the High Street from 10 to 12, and the other for the Conservative Association at the George at 10.30.
• Just one local planning application - for a single-storey extension at 52 King's Avenue. A notice in the Council Offices window refers to a licence application coming up, for permission to open a private employment agency at Eagle House - which many of us still think of as the Labour Exchange anyway!
• Congratulations to Barclays Bank - whose new door canopies look as if they had always been there. (And we mean this as a compliment.)
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 second post Monday for each Wednesday's issue (not 23 or 30 December); spare copies (45P) are available at Young Ideas, 7 Cinque Ports Street. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)