The Rye & District Branch of MS had a Christmas party with a difference this year. After the usual jollifications at the Community Centre, the Mayor handed over to the group's transport manager, Kath Elworthy, a gift-wrapped parcel. It proved to contain the log-book of the Branch's new ambulance, parked immediately outside!
The W-reg. Mercedes was bought second-hand and fitted out to Branch requirements by specialists at Newhaven. It has been sprayed in the Society's white, yellow and black colours, with the Rye & District Branch logo. Sixteen people - four in firmly-anchored wheelchairs - can be transported in it, either on boring but necessary trips to hospital, or on outings. The Branch plans to take members for frequent outings, now they no longer need to rent an ambulance, and they have some very ambitious ideas. The ambulance will make a world of difference to some members, who are literally housebound in the winter: it is too cold to go out in the street in a wheelchair, and they can't squeeze themselves into a private car. The Branch is grateful for the services of several drivers, including two ex-ambulancemen - and grateful, too, for all the local support which has enabled them to achieve their aim in such a short time.
The MSS advent calendar, designed by Eileen Jenkins, sold out completely; people were squabbling over the last few copies! The printers produced "a generous thousand", and the Branch has made a profit of well over £800 after deducting production costs.
The fourteen members of Rye & District Lions proudly handed out their money at the George Hotel last Tuesday. In 1987, for the first time, the Lions ran the Raft Race; administratively it was very successful, cutting out the trouble which had sometimes arisen at the Harbour end - and it is now clear that it was very successful financially too. Lions president Peter Chantry handed over to NSPCC chairman Beryl Rixon a cheque for £1,000, an increase on the 1986 proceeds - and a great deal more than the local branch had dared to expect.
Mr. Chantry then turned to George Cumming, chairman of the Rye Branch of MSS --and himself a great fund-raiser for the cause. This cheque was the proceeds of the Lions' summer draw tickets, sold at events throughout the area during the summer with some very handsome prizes, and it added a healthy £500 to Branch funds - money greatly needed to run the new ambulance.
Finally Margaret Farthing, St. John Ambulance Divisional Superintendent, took delivery of another £500 cheque - money raised, this time, by carol-singing in the villages. Alan Webb voiced the Brigade's thanks, since Mrs. Farthing was suffering from a bad throat; the money would be used, he said, to provide equipment for the second ambulance so that both vehicles were identically equipped making things much easier for those who staff them (and who give up over a thousand hours of their time during the year for the purpose).
Congratulations to the Lions - and their wives - on this great achievement!
The exhibition currently at the Stormont Studio in Ockman Lane - but not for much longer, so hurry! - has been hung by Eric Money using blutak and work sent in by the art departments of Freda Gardham School and Thomas Peacocke (an age-range of, say, 8 to 18). A delightful display it makes - a wide variety of pictures and assorted three-dimensional work, occupying the upper gallery as well as the main rooms and so allowing much more work to be shown than in previous years in the smaller Easton Rooms. No-one could fail to enjoy it - and there has been very little publicity, so please tell your friends. Admission is free.
2.
General Sir Charles Jones, CBE, GCB, died on 4 January. He was 81. Members of the Rye Branch of the Royal British Legion attended the funeral at Amesbury in Wiltshire on Monday, when the Rev. Stephen Ingham gave the address. Sir Charles was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1925, and had a military career which was not only distinguished but also extremely varied. His last appointment was as Governor of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea - where he and Lady Jones returned to celebrate their Golden Wedding. Sir Charles retired in the early 19708 and he and his wife came to live permanently on Point Hill, where they had had a house for some years; he was Captain of Rye Golf Club in 1977. But he still had considerable London commitments, as the national president of the Royal British Legion. As was fitting, he was also president of the Rye Branch - and when he finally gave up the national presidency, he and Lady Jones took an active and interested part in Rye affairs. But his increasing frailty was noted here with sadness, and he spoke the time-honoured words at the War Memorial for the last time on Remembrance Sunday 1985. Early in 1986, he and his wife moved to Amesbury, to sheltered accommodation in easy reach of their two sons. Many eyes were moist when, at a reception at the Legion Club just before they left, Sir Charles bravely struggled to his feet to make his farewell speech; it was sadly obvious that Rye was seeing him for the last time. The town has lost not only a distinguished Legion president, but also a much-loved friend, and it will wish to offer its sympathy to Lady Jones and her family.
Miss Joan Galbraith, who died peacefully on 28 December, was 85. She came to Rye in the early 1950s as secretary to Dr. Mannington, living in the flat over the surgery at the top of The Mint. Later she bought a house in Mermaid Street (but continued to tend the surgery garden for some time afterwards). Miss Galbraith, known to her friends as "Poe,joined the WRVS in its early days in the town, and for many years was responsible for keeping all the meals-on-wheels records as well as helping in other ways. After some thirty years of service to others, her own health began to fail, and she was for a time a resident of Devonport House before going into the nursing-home in St. Leonards where she died. The funeral took place in Hastings on Monday.
Mr. George Henry Coppard, of Udimore Road, died peacefully in hospital on New Year's Day. A widower, Mr. Coppard is survived by his two sons.
Now that Rye is no longer a police sub-division, our crime statistics are normally lumped in with those of the whole Bexhill "patch". However, Inspector Peters kindly picked out for us a couple of figures which relate to the Rye area (not the town alone). In 1987, the area had 804 crimes, of which 40.63% were detected. 308 of these were burglaries, and for these the detection rate was a particularly healthy 56.28% - well over half, in fact! (Incidentally, of those 308 burglaries, very few were in Rye itself; we don't cover the reports in the press book which relate to the villages, but people there are undoubtedly a great deal more vulnerable. This week, for instance, there was no recorded crime in the town at all - but the Pett area suffered the attentions of several unwelcome visitors.)
Speaking at the Crime Prevention Panel meeting last week, Inspector Peters said that Rye was surprisingly clear of crime. But, he said, thieves who are defeated by the increasing use of good-quality door and window locks are now turning to garages. "Have you thought" he asked his audience "exactly what the stuff you keep in your garage is worth?" We thought, hastily, and it seems likely that some people went straight out and bought padlocks next day! Ladders, of course, should never be kept in unlocked sheds or garages, handy for the enterprising burglar... Although drink-driving cases throughout the area are up on last year, Inspector Peters pointed out that there had lately been a concentrated police blitz; the percentage of local people charged was lower than last year, and he did not feel that the figures reflected deteriorating local standards.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 13 January.1988
Good news for residents on the Estate and in Udimore Road! Starting next Tuesday (19th) the mobile library van will be stationed on the Estate from 2.30 to 4 every other Tuesday (ie. the next visit will be on 2 February, then on 16 February, 1 March, etc. - incidentally, 1988 is a Leap Year). Bryon Purdy of the Area Library Service has been prospecting for a suitable site, and tells us that the van will be "as close to the shops as possible" - there are parking spaces right in front, but he says cynically that they are certain to be full just when the van arrives. The two Estate shops close on Wednesday afternoons instead of the usual Tuesday, so this seems an admirable arrangement for those who have difficulty getting out of the house - having managed it at all, they can kill two birds with one stone.
The new arrangement results from a suggestion made some time ago by Mrs. Cope of Ferry Road. A former Councillor, Mrs. Cope is well aware of the difficulty which some older people from her end of the town find in climbing the hill to the Library; and she wondered whether the Estate might count as a village and get its own visit from the van. We passed on her idea to Mr. Purdy, who had to wait for a suitable moment to reorganise the existing timetable. But the moment has now come, and Mr. Purdy very much hopes that people will take advantage of the new service. In winter, of course, it saves the walk into the town, and there any many people who may prefer not to face the hassle of the town-centre pavements in the summer.
Job-seekers will be interested to know that the van will normally have on board the same Prestel equipment as is available in the Library and at TPS. This scheme is sponsored by the Rural Development Area, and the mobile version is the first in the entire country! However, there have been initial problems over the phone connection (also mobile, of course), so perhaps it would be wiser for those looking seriously to go up to the Library just for the present.
Clifford Bloomfield, ex-SWA, arrived with a twinkle in his eye to ask whether it was really a house in Military Road for which Rother had insisted on emergency exit arrangements from the roof; if so, he felt, they were carrying caution too far! He was, of course, quite right; the application was for a bungalow - and Mr. Bloomfield tells us that this stipulation is common practice for any single-storey dwelling on low-lying land round here, particularly at Camber and the Winchelsea Beach area - though he would find it extremely difficult to envisage the problem actually arising on the bank of the Rother.
The only Rye planning application this week happens to be from Southern Water, for renewal of the existing permission for moorings and storage of boats, plus landing stages, etc., on the bank of the Rother between Pollard's Wharf and the bridge. Carl Bagwell tells us that the SWA would very much like to have this project operating (it would allow for 20-25 moorings) - so if anyone is interested in developing it, contact him at the Harbour office (Rye 225225). It has been advertised, he tells us, several times recently without success.
We have been looking at back numbers of the GAZETTE to see when the snow usually arrives. In fact, there seems to be no "usually" about it. In 1985 the first snowfall was on 7 January, with a second instalment just a week later. In 1986, nothing happened until 8 February. Last year, there was a 6" fall on 12 January followed two days later by the major fall which we can all clearly remember and which lingered for days (it was not until the evening of the 19th that ESCC staff were clearing the High Street, dumping the stuff on Strand Quay to be pushed into the river next day). A problem we noted last year was that while Council staff shovelled snow to the side of the road, they left no gaps giving access to the pavement - so the Alpine ridges meant that some people had to walk in the road because they couldn't stride across to safety.. If it happens again, could big strong householders kindly make cuttings opposite their doors for the benefit of little old ladies and pram-pushers?
4.
1988 sees two anniversaries for Rye, both of which call for commemoration.
ACC John Dibley, writing from Lewes, tells us that the Rye Borough Police force was founded in 1838, 150 years ago. He has written to the Mayor hoping that some way may be found to have a small exhibition to draw attention to this, and the Town Council's Policy & Resources committee was due to consider his letter on Monday. It seems possible that such an exhibition could be incorporated in the display mounted during Rye Festival in the Town Hall by the Conservation Society and the Local History Group - unless, of course, the Council can find room for a longer-running show? ACC Dibley has a strong personal interest in the history of the Rye Borough force, and his research formed the basis of an article in the Sussex Police magazine some time ago, so we may hope for help from high places with whatever can be arranged. But if you have anything by way of pictures or documents, do please look them out. We are not only talking about the 1800s, of course; did your father keep the summons he got for riding his bike without lights when he was a lad, perhaps? Even items as minor as that would be of great interest if they relate to the years between the wars, let alone earlier.
The other anniversary is really a triple one. Rye Grammar School was founded by the will of Thomas Peacocke in 1638 (and celebrated its tercentenary just before the war). It moved down from Peacocke's High Street building to the present site - and took in its first girl pupils - in 1908; and although the process of "going comprehensive" was a long-drawn-out one, the official date for the formation of Thomas Peacocke School is 1968. So 1988 sees a 350th anniversary, an 80th and a 20th. (Is there also a 50th, we wonder - in which year did the boys from Mermaid Street and the girls from Lion Street move down to the new joint premises over Monkbretton Bridge?) These celebrations are something for the school rather than the Council, but we don't doubt that anyway its excellent local history group will consider looking back in one form or another.
Nearly a year ago we complained about three black spots in the town. One was the old Dewhursts shop in the High Street, empty since July 1985. It is still empty, the window is still masked by flaking whitewash, the old newspapers still lie about on the floor. The only change is the appearance of a board bearing the name of Braxtons. We all know that - but when, for goodness' sake?
The old Dairy Yard was spruced up considerably not long after our complaint appeared. But rubbish has begun to accumulate again, the gate is tied up with string (did someone pinch the padlock and chain?), and the yard could do with further attention from a broom if it is not to become an unsightly dump once more.
Much better news about our third black spot, the Old Grammar School. Whatever was eventually used to kill the brambles growing out of the parapet has been extremely effective; there has been no new growth during the summer, and even the waving briars have now vanished. Many thanks, Clive Bennett.
A fourth black spot, of major dimensions, is also receiving attention; last week surveyors were working for two days at Banister's Corner, checking levels (or whatever surveyors do) at the traffic island with its 13" fall to the edge of the road. We wait with interest. The lamp standard planted nearby, incidentally, is still there. A smallish twin push-chair measures 29" across, not allowing for the plump little elbows on each side; the gap is 32", and recently a coach-built pram had to go right out into the road because it couldn't get past:
Finally, we have been asked to repeat the telephone number at County Hall to which faults in street lighting should be reported, if the complainant feels strongly enough to pay for the long-distance phone call: 0273 475400 gets you County Hall, and the extension number is 12/236. Even then, it may take a couple of calls before anything is actually done...
Last August, on a very wet Wednesday morning, groups of people were to be seen on the perimeter of Rye noting down all the traffic which entered or left the town - the time, the type of vehicle, and (as far as possible) the registration number. They were Action Group members, extremely suspicious of the DoT traffic figures and bent on seeing how their own count would work out, or indeed whether they could conduct one at all. Indeed, that was the prime objective; the actual traffic flow on that particular day was a secondary consideration. The process was complicated by the rain, by a road accident near the survey point in Winchelsea Road, and by a very large load moving slowly through the town in the middle of the morning, causing tailbacks on three of the six exit roads.
The report on this operation has just been issued, and it is a most impressive document. The author is John Silver of Udimore Road, but he acknowledges gratefully the assistance given by the survey teams, and also by Richard Hannigan and Zeta and Frank Dowdeswell who helped type the data onto computer disc, and to Peter Bayliss and Margo Shepherd "who gave unlimited hours to typing data onto disc, checking the data manually, and helping with the analysis" - to say nothing of "my long-suffering, overworked wife" (both Mr. and Mrs. Silver have full-time jobs outside Rye).
The section on "Method of Analysis" is confusing to someone ignorant of computers. But, very roughly, the computer matched up the registration numbers of vehicles as they first entered and then left the town; those taking less than twenty minutes were regarded as "through traffic", those taking longer as "stopping" though this calculation was hampered by the delays caused by the mid-morning slow load. Vehicles were divided into "private" (cars, motorbikes and cycles) and "commercial". Two appendixes to the report give the details.
Mr. Silver bases his results on the data recorded between 8 and 11.30 am (the final half-hour's records were unusable because of the road accident). Of all the vehicles recorded, more than one-third (34.7%) passed straight through Rye. Sub-divided, 31% of private vehicles and 47% of commercial vehicles passed straight through. 22.6% of the traffic was commercial; and out of 471 commercial vehicles an hour on Rye's roads, 221 an hour do not wish to stop here. The commercial traffic, Mr. Silver adds, will obviously increase if improvements to the A259 take place.
He concludes that it is possible to measure traffic flows and to separate through traffic from stopping traffic without using roadside interviews; and that the group has identified a workable system for recording vehicle numbers (quite apart from discovering that biro does not work on wet paper, and that pencil smudges in the drying process:). Having discovered a method which works, he says that a 12-hour survey period could be tackled; whether this is a serious proposal will doubtless be announced after the Group's next meeting on 19 January.
The Action Group's party last Friday was much enjoyed; the tasting set up by Devonshire Royal Cream Liqueur (from Tesco and other supermarkets) mellowed everyone, the food was delicious, the proceedings were honoured by the presence of the Chairman of Rother and Mrs. Pulford and by the Mayor, and it was very nice to see Ringo there too. Ken Clark spoke with feeling about the A259 threat, "an engineering dream and human nightmare"; he called for a united and determined front to fight it.
We had intended to write in detail this week about the analysis carried out by Transport Planing Associates, of the DoT traffic figures and their implications. However, to be honest, the more we looked at it, the less we understood it; and last week's summary is probably as near as we shall get. It may be clearer, however, after yesterday evening's meeting at the Town Hall, when the Council discussed future strategy with ESCC and Rother representatives (the tenses sound rather odd here, but you know what we mean - the paper goes to print, of course, on Tuesday morning…)
6.
An amusing variation on the usual "thermometer" marking the progress of an appeal is mounted on the foyer wall at St. Anthony's. Ron Peters constructed a tower with a long staircase tacking to and fro up it. A cut-out Friar mounts another step each time the money raised increases by £1,000; when he reaches the top, at £20,000, he can ring the golden bell - but he still has eight steps to climb before the full amount of 028,000 is raised.
On Monday morning he was standing on the eleventh step. But Fr. David was just about to move him up; the latest total is £13,067. So the St. Anthony's congregation - who can expect no help from the Diocese - are nearly half-way there. But the money is not sitting in the bank accumulating interest; work has been going on for some time. The most urgent job was the retaining wall, which has been rebuilt very cautiously with special bricks and steel reinforcing rods keyed into the cliff; the next problem is the roof, for which special tiles originally made in Belgium are now being sought in this country.
Supporters are already thinking about the 1988 Christmas Fair, and the current parish letter asks for odd balls of wool and pieces of material which could be used for making items for sale. We wonder, too, if people might have never-to- be-finished craft work which others could complete - tapestries and embroideries which could then be made into cushions, for instance?
• Frank Dowdeswell, of the Wool Shop and Rother Council, served a four-year apprenticeship with a firm making orthopaedic shoes. So shoemaking is something he really knows about. We have been complaining in the GAZETTE for years about the lack of a heel-bar in the town - and now Mr. Dowdeswell has decided to use the back room of the shop as a workshop, doing a 24-hour heel service plus stick-on soles. The equipment for anything more complicated is extremely expensive, more than he wants to embark on at present; but in the meantime, Mrs. Dowdeswell goes over daily to a job in Maidstone and he has come to an arrangement with the heel-bar there that enables her to take over in the morning anything handed in the previous day, bringing it back in the evening. So he can offer a 48-hour service on virtually anything. At present, he is continuing with his own decorating business, doing the shoe repairs in the evening; and the shop occupies the front of the premises. But, if the demand was there, he might well consider expanding... Anyway, he tells us that his prices are very competitive with anywhere else in the town - and no-one else offers such quick service. We wish this new venture every success.
• Early in December, Julie Munns took on the lease of the big ground floor at Eagle House in the Landgate (she lives just along the road from it). We reported some weeks ago on her application to start an employment agency - a thing the town badly needs, but for which you have to have a licence (she hopes this will come through in the next few weeks). But we didn't realise that she was also operating another badly-needed business there - a full secretarial service. Julie has her own word-processor and audio machine, backed by ten years' secretarial experience, and she suspects—to judge by what has come her way so far - there is enormous scope in the town. She can collect and deliver work (or there is parking space outside the office for those who prefer to come to her). Confidentiality is guaranteed, and her leaflet has a long list of the jobs she can undertake, ranging from legal documents to labels. CVs, for instance, which really need to look professional, are no problem to her - nor does she blench at those dreadful columns of figures which require the use of the tabulator. She can offer extra-quick delivery for someone in a real hurry; and she also offers a mailbox (accommodation address) service. Julie calls her business "Eagle House Bureau". At present she is established snugly in the little office on the right of the door, though once the weather gets warmer she intends to make full use of the big main room. As far as we know, she is now the only person, to offer a full-time secretarial service in the town, and overworked offices as well as private individuals will welcome her.
7.
The Sports Centre, open again after its Christmas break, offers a wide range of leisure activities, all costing between £l and £1.50 for adults and 80p for juniors. Daily membership charges are 25p for adults, 15p for juniors - or of course long-term membership is also available, details from Rye 224676.
On Mondays there is trampolining for different age-groups, plus men's circuit/fitness training. Tuesdays has soccer coaching for under-13s, and fitness room tuition. Wednesdays is aerobics night. Squash coaching (£2.40) can be booked on Thursdays, when badminton coaching and netball are also available. More badminton on Fridays.
On Saturday mornings from 9 to 10 there is nursery gym (for pre-school children) as well as other children's activities with the opportunity to learn the whole range of sports. Judo is in the afternoon, with Family Night (£2.50 for the entire family) from 7 to 9 - also with many activities on offer.
Indoor cricket league takes place on Sunday mornings, with roller disco in the afternoons and soccer league from 8 to 10.30 at night. The leaflet says that spectators are always welcome for the cricket and soccer.
Courts can also be booked for individual games, whether or not they are on the timetable, if there is room. Members also have the use of the bar in opening hours (no children allowed), from which there is an excellent view of the main hall, and a rather restricted view of the squash court (proceedings in the fitness room are conducted in privacy!).
A plaintive new-format letter from the South London regional blood transfusion service says that only 4.5% of the population give blood; they ask existing donors to persuade "other generous kindly people" to do so too.
However, other generous kindly people should first study the back of the letter, a full page of very small print consisting largely of reasons why you can't give blood. For instance, they don't want you if you have been tattooed or had your ears pierced in the last six months, or been to the dentist in the previous two days, or are in the early stages of a cold; if you have been in close contact with measles, mumps, chicken pox, German measles or glandular fever during the previous month (never mind if you have had the disease anyway); if you are taking antibiotics; or if you have travelled through a tropical area - which includes Russia in the summer! - within the past six months. They also won't have you if you have ever had cancer, a heart attack, a stroke, heart surgery, gastrectomy or diabetes; or brucellosis (obviously not nowadays a disease confined to cows); or venereal disease. (This last disqualification might cause some embarrassment for an invited "generous kindly person" who had perhaps been a little too generous and kindly at some time in their life!) Moreover, they aren't interested in you if you weigh less than 7½ stone.
All that is only about half the total list. Doubtless there are excellent reasons for all the disqualifications, and we are certainly not complaining about them. But consider the 95.5% of the population who are not blood donors: after studying the full list, we wonder how many of them would be eligible anyway - quite apart from the healthy cowards who just can't face it?
Prospective donors might also like to be warned of our experience at a Rye session about a year ago (things may be different now). After the usual preliminary drop-of-blood test, the interrogator behind the desk asked "Have you been to your doctor lately?" We had. "What for?" she demanded. We were sorely tempted to describe some really spectacular symptoms for the edification of those in the front row of the stalls just behind us, but refrained and publicly admitted the very unexciting truth. But what has happened to normal confidentiality between doctor and patient, if donors are expected to announce their recently-treated ailments to half the town waiting in the queue behind them?
Movie Society: demonstration on use of video camera, FEC, 7.30
National Trust, "18th Century English Porcelain" (P. Morrell), CC, 2.30
Wine-and-cheese party for St. Michael's Hospice Appeal (with raffle and hospice stall), £1.20 at door, TH, 7.30
First in series of 8 lectures on first aid, St. John Ambulance Brigade (fee of £20 for course), Conduit Hill HQ1 7.30 Camera Club, The Grainmakers, Tonbridge CC, FEC, 7.30
A259 Action Group meeting, FEC, 7.30
Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10 to 12
Landgate WI, "Farmhouse making of cheese and yoghurt" (Mrs. M. Willcock), CC, 10.30
Community Lunch Group (Sue Powick on Age Concern), Clinic, 12.30
Local History Group, informal business meeting, Library, 7.30
• As usual at this time of year, Geoffrey Bateman has analysed the entries in the St. Mary's visitors book for 1987. His formidable pages of figures are too complicated for us, but there were 22,959 signatures in all, from 147 countries. This is 2,000 more than last year - and then a good many visitors don't bother to sign the book at all.
• Rye Golf Club's internationally-famous competition, the President's Putter (contended for by members of the Oxford & Cambridge Golfing Society) took place last weekend, in unusually clement weather by Putter standards. Condolences to cricketer Ted Dexter, beaten into second place by the first American to win the trophy, Guy Woollett.
• A slip of our typewriter last week advanced by 200 years the date of the storm which shifted the Bother; it took place in 1287, as several readers have pointed out. (Radio Sussex, you could need this correction.)
• The electric train at The Centre in Market Road collected just over £20 for the RNIB over Christmas. This is included in the 1987 total of £365 which John Bates has sent up to HQ from the various boxes in the town.
• A somewhat alarming press cutting from an unknown paper shown to us recently describes EEC proposals which could wreck Britain's careful anti-rabies laws and abolish quarantine. The changes are being suggested, apparently, by West Germany, which wants to push ahead with a programme of free trade in animals within the next six months. We would like to suggest that readers worried about this threat should write to our Euro-MP about it; but unfortunately we can't remember his name, let alone how to reach him! Could someone better informed please enlighten us?
• As from this month, Rye WI has decided to hold its meetings in the afternoon from October to March, since many members dislike turning out in the evening in winter. The branch will continue to meet at the FE Centre, but from 2 to 4.30. From April to September, meetings will revert to 7pm. The 1988 programme is due to be issued very shortly.
• Peter Ewart sends us, with some amusement, a cutting from The Times datelined Rye, New York - where a boy of 5 took his baby sister for a ride in the family car, driving quite safely for miles until unbelieving police waved him to the side of the road. He pulled up without even bumping the curb!
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, Monday second post for Wednesday's delivery. Subscriptions are calculated on the basis of 40p a copy; spares are obtainable from Young Ideas, 7 Cinque Ports Street, and cost 45p. (Copyright Mary Owen 1988)