The first Rye wedding of 1988 was at the Baptist Church on Saturday, between Michelle Campbell of Cooper Road and Andrew Crow of Ashford. The bride wore a white dress with a tiered skirt, and a single white flower held her veil in place; she carried a ribboned spray of pink and crimson flowers. Her three bridesmaids - Tracy Twine, and Andrew's nieces Rachel and Trudy - were in rose-pink crinolines, with Victorian posies to match the bride's flowers. Andrew's best man was his brother Jim. Wedding party and guests alike shivered as the photographs were taken outside the church, but the George Hotel's reception followed by a disco soon had everyone warmed up again. Andrew and Michelle weren't telling where they were spending their honeymoon, but they will be living in Camber when they return.
Although there have been no further falls above Fishmarket Road, Rother staff are still monitoring the cliff daily. Thanks to the recent dry weather and particularly the good drying wind "the situation seems to have been arrested for the time being", says Dicky Bird, with some emphasis on the last four words. Nobody knows, though, what might happen if there is another prolonged period of heavy rain.
Leading engineers Kenneth Severn & Partners have made an "overview report" on the present situation, which is available to interested parties who ask Rother for it ("interested" in the technical sense, that is - Rother is not proposing to hand it out to the idly curious).
There seem to be two barriers in the way of any concerted action. Although the Council has warned householders in the Fishmarket Road terrace that their properties might become dangerous and that they should think very seriously about moving out, Rother has no power to act unless a further fall makes the houses actually dangerous - which is not the case at present. (Readers will recall that none of the land concerned is publicly owned.)
The insurance position is that normal household insurance covers a house but not its garden. As far as we know, only two of the Fishmarket Road houses show signs of actual damage, and that is only slight; claims for this are a matter -etween the owners and their insurers.
But no-one is insured against threat - the threat of what could happen. And, to put it brutally, the only thing that would finally resolve that threat would be if another landslip were to cause really serious damage to the houses - which no-one would wish to happen. It is a very depressing situation.
The following organisations have been granted permission to hold street-collections during the coming year (we haven't got the dates yet, some are still under negotiation by Rother): British Red Cross Society, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Alexandra Rose Day, Mencap, St. John Ambulance, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Sea Cadets, RAF Association, Rye Lions (Raft Race), Royal British Legion (Poppy Day). This year's unlucky applicants include RNIB, Firemen's National Benevolent Fund, RSPCA and ARC.
Hilda Nelson-Barrett, chairman of the local RNIB branch, acted swiftly once she had ascertained that her charity was not getting a flag-day; the RNIB are to hold a house-to-house collection instead, in Rye, Winchelsea, Icklesham and Brede, during the week beginning Monday, 6 June. Rother has booked this into its list; but if anyone else has planned a house-to-house for the same week, could they please contact Mrs. Nelson-Barrett at once?
2.
Mrs. Edith Mabel Fowle, of Pottingfield Road, died in a nursing home in Hastings on 6 March. She was the widow of Mr. Hector Fowle, who died many years ago, and leaves one sox, George. The funeral takes place at 1.30 on Friday, at Hastings Crematorium.
Mrs. Ethel Gutsell, whose death we reported briefly last week, was a very longstanding member of Rye WI, and WI members attended her funeral on Thursday. Mrs. Gutsell had been a widow for many years (her late husband worked for the East Kent Bus Company), and she is survived by her son Peter, daughter Joan, and grandchildren.
The Scout Hut in The Grove was built some 20 years ago by parents, mostly with their own hands. It is now beginning to show its age. In order to raise the money needed to rehabilitate it, the Scouts and Cubs are holding an Attic Sale there on Easter Monday (4 April) from 10. The Hut will be extended by attaching a big marquee to the back and a smaller one in front, so there will be space for plenty of the 6' pitches (tables supplied) which they hope to let. Rent will be £5 in advance, or £6 at the door - bookings to Mrs. Balcombe, Rye 223257. Refreshments will be available.
There has not been a sale of this kind in the town for many months, and the 40 Scouts and Cubs (Cubs meet on Tuesdays at 6.30, Scouts on Fridays at 7.15) very much hope to do well. Anyone who can't take a stall but would like to support the appeal could send a cheque to 1st Rye Scouts & Cubs, c/o Group Scout Leader John West, 66 Pottingfield Road, Rye.
• We hear of several pleasant social-cum-fund-raising evenings coming up in the next few weeks. The first is on Wednesday next, 16 March, at the FEC at 7.30: the Red Cross is arranging this in aid of the Sussex Branch Hurricane Appeal ("Help us to help again") - with the kind co-operation of Seeboard and the Rye Movie Society. With a glass of wine in their hand, patrons are invited to watch two videos made by Seeboard showing the devastation that their maintenance teams had to cope with after the October storm; and Jeffery Waters of the Movie Society is showing a film of Sheffield Park before the storm, and one of Rye after it. There will also be a raffle. And, of course, a collection...
• The Museum Association talk (admission open to all) on Friday, 18th, is by the Rev. Brian Soper, who will show slides of "The Glory that was Greece" at the FE Centre at 7.30 - what should have been the Association's October event.
• The same evening, the RNLI Branch holds its annual fund-raising dinner at the George (7 for 7.30). A few tickets are still available from Roger Breeds or Joan Parkes, at £11.50 including wine.
• On Tuesday evening, 22 March, from 7 to 9 at the Stormont Studio in Ockman Lane Jeffery Waters and Kenneth Clark are hosting a Rye Players Promotion Evening those interested in joining a revived Rye Players group will be particularly welcome. The hosts' recently-published book on the Players will be on sale - and profits from the evening will go to Rye Hospital.
• A dance to raise money for the Playgroup Building Fund takes place at the Oasis Club on Tuesday, 5 April; tickets from the Playgroup, any weekday morning, and the E2 price includes a buffet. There will also, of course, be a bar.
• Finally, on Friday 8 April the A259 Action Group is arranging an "Evening of Nostalgia" at the FE Centre at 7.30; tickets cost £2.50, from any committee member, and include a hot buffet meal.. The entertainment will include old movies of Rye and slides of the Cinque Ports.
There are also assorted coffee mornings, an afternoon slide show and a ploughman's lunch (details in the Diary in due course):: no excuse for boredom
3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 9 March 1988
• An item in Geering & Colyer's advertisement page in last week's local papers has given rise to considerable interest - and to a certain amount of worry: what is going to happen to the Garden Shop? So first things first. The announcement that the Great Warehouse on the Strand is for sale/lease as a possible redevelopment site certainly does not mean that the Garden Shop won't be there next week for the foreseeable future, Brian Thompson tells us, he expects to be open for business as usual. Relief all round:
As for redevelopment of the site, we need hardly point out that in such a planning sensitive area the preliminary negotiations could go on for months if not years. Two of the Strand warehouses already have permission for redevelopment as shops with housing above, and in each case the architect has paid careful attention to the building's original appearance; it is certain that the same would have to apply to any redevelopment of the Great Warehouse. Anyway, ex-Colebrooke's still stands forlorn, and Dennis Townsend is still potting in the brick warehouse. There is absolutely no chance of anyone slipping in a filling-station or amusement arcade or even a five-star hotel in place of the Great Warehouse while Rye's back is turned.
• Last week's planning list had been pinched from the Council Offices, but as far zs we can make out the only Rye application was from British Telecom, asking _,stonishingly early for temporary permission for two site huts in the grounds of the telephone exchange - from March 1989 to March 1990:
• In October, there was a certain amount of concern about a planning application from LA-UK, the new owners of Lydd Airport. They were anxious to develop the airport to take traffic from Gatwick, and said it was essential that they should build a new runway. People in Lydd and New Romney objected loudly, but on this side of the county boundary it was all something of a mystery (the application was to Shepway Council and not to Rother).
But Rother got wind of it - and so did the Secretary of State for the Environment, who called in the application. At this point everything went quiet. Now, Rother's Planning Officer tells us, the application for the new runway has been withdrawn, and LA-UK are to submit proposals to extend the existing one instead. Rother has asked Shepway for more details about noise, etc., and if it doesn't get this information the Council will continue to object on principle until it is provided. The Planning Committee will then consider the matter.
• Since not everyone (including us) reads Friday Ad - a free advertising sheet available in shops but not delivered - we think it reasonable to give wider ablicity to an advertisement affecting Rye in the 26 February issue. A firm called Voltrans Limited is applying for a licence to use 18 Tower Street as an operating centre for four goods vehicles and four trailers (size not stated). 18 Tower Street is the old Wright & Pankhurst complex which until now has been used by Antiques of Tomorrow; what Voltrans would be using it for is not part of the application. "Owners or occupiers of land (including buildings) in the vicinity of the operating centre who believe the use or the enjoyment of the land will be prejudicially affected" should write to the Licensing Authority at 3 Ivy Terrace, Eastbourne, before 19 March.
Tower Street is not a very wide bit of road - as becomes all too obvious when a van is unloading at Terry's while someone is collecting from the launderette opposite. We do hope that Highways are consulted about an application of this kind, since the prospect of some of the lorries-cum-trailers seen on the roads nowadays turning into the narrow yard entrance from Tower Street is not reassuring.
• Finally, we are authorised by the Manager of the TSB in the High Street to put paid to a ridiculous rumour. There has been no notice in the branch office saying that it was closing "due to subsidence". There has in fact been no notice at all about the closure, since customers are being notified individually. It does seem a pity that this sort of story gets put about, to add to the genuine headaches arising from the problem of the cliff: The TSB made it clear that the closure is for business reasons - we doubt if our contact at Head Office had ever heard of subsidence in this connection…
4.
An unusual honour has come to the town this year. The new President of the Hastings & District Law Society is Ivo Fowle, senior partner of William Dawes & Co. in Watchbell Street. The last purely Rye-based President, some years ago, was Maurice Jones, also of William Dawes (whose daughter Sarah is one of the present partners).
The Society, with 130 members, covers a considerable area - Bexhill as well as Hastings, St. Leonards, Rye and Battle, and the speaker at its recent AGM was the Secretary-General of the Law Society (the national one). Mr. Fowle's first official engagement was to attend the London memorial service for Sir Melford Stevenson, in the Temple Church; but he assures us that there are plenty of less solemn events ahead during his year of office.
One of the lesser effects of the October storm has been a fall in profits for the Rye WI Market Group; although they opened on that memorable Friday morning to sell produce already prepared, many members lost greenhouses or had their gardens wrecked, and this meant that some produce brought in towards the end of the year was not up to the Market's usual high standard - as Mrs. Ingham, the chairman, told members at the AGM on Friday. She urged members to recruit more producers - "They don't have to be WI members", she said, "they don't even have to be women". (So, ladies and gents who would like to make a bit of pocket- money, think about it; one machine-knitter, now moved on, earned £700 in a year selling through the Market!)
The AGM is the opportunity for members to thank those who put in such an enormous amount of time in making a success of the Market, notably Mrs. Ingham, Mrs. Cramp, Mrs. Holmes, Miss Cotton and Mrs. Bennett. The Controller's report and the accounts were adopted - despite the storm, over £9,000 was paid out to producers last year - the VCMO spoke encouragingly, and then the meeting settled down to enjoy a most instructive talk about do's and dont's in the production of craft work for sale, from a speaker who had come all the way from the Lake District. We shall watch with interest, in the course of the summer, to see whether her advice has been taken! The Market reopens on Friday of this week at 10 at the Community Centre, as usual.
Thomas Peacocke School cross-country teams won more than their fair share of the placings when the inter-schools cross-country run was held in the TPS grounds on Saturday morning. The second-year girls, the fourth-year girls and the fifth-year boys all won their classes; the fourth-year boys came second, and the first-year girls third. Overall winner of the girls' race was Emily Portsmouth, fourth year. The TPS runners were competing with those from other state and private schools in the Hastings area.
Mary East tells us that the pretty pair of cottages at the foot of Cadborough Hill were designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield. This seems a little unexpected, since he usually worked on a grander scale (Leasam House, and the handsome residences on Point Hill, are his work); but perhaps he had always wanted to design a pair of cottages. Anyway, they were built for the owners of Mountsfield, says Mrs. East; one was for their gardener, the other for the gamekeeper. When one was killed in the war, the family erected another building at the back so that his widow could earn her living doing hand-laundry.
The owners of Mountsfield from the early years of the century were Dr. Skinner and his wife Isobel (nee Freeman). It sounds very typical of this much-respected family that they should look after their employees so well, and they were doubtless friendly with the Blomfields. The gamekeeper is rather puzzling, but perhaps the Skinners had farmland near the town. If anyone can add to this small piece of local history, we'd be glad to know; are any children of the gardener or the gamekeeper still living round here?
5.
Isaac Wright was an important figure in local business circles at the end of the last century; the landlord of the Crown Inn, he was also the railway's transport contractor, and he and his son William had various other associated businesses doing well. When Isaac died, William went into partnership with his cousin, and the firm of Wright & Pankhurst was born. They decided that it would be worth their while to build a new furniture repository to go with their carrier's business; and in 1907 they took out a £3,000 mortgage to finance the building of an architect-designed five-storey warehouse in Tower Street, specially constructed to be absolutely fireproof (and proudly advertised on that basis).
When the firm closed down in the 1950s, the Tower Street complex of warehouse and stables was taken over by Dean's Rag Books, who adapted it for their own use as a factory; when they in turn departed, Antiques of Tomorrow arrived, but found they didn't really need the big repository - which has stood empty for some years.
How very pleased William Newton Wright and his partner would be to know that their pride and joy is once again to be used for its proper purpose! Anne Lingard of Rope Walk Antiques took a lease of the furniture repository - which still belongs to a Wright descendant - at the beginning of December, and has -low almost finished the work which needed to be done inside to make it usable again (including putting back the lift, though its steam-power machinery has gone for ever). Mrs. Lingard will not be opening the building to the public, but using it simply for the storage of furniture - the original intention of its builders. Incidentally, although her lease includes a right of access to the yard, she tells us that the application (page 3) from Voltrans Limited is nothing whatever to do with her; far from proposing to operate with four lorries and four trailers, she conducts the business of her shop with a very modest-size van.
Local people and visitors alike will welcome the arrival of Waterman's, which opened on Saturday at what used to be Artique, the second-hand bookshop. Mr. and Mrs. Waterman now live in Lydd, but they have come from Tintagel, and the shop they are opening here is similar to the one they ran very successfully there. They specialise in leather goods, mostly in the middle price-range, and are introducing the products of some of their Cornish suppliers. Not all their stock has arrived yet, so they decided to start off low-key rather than have a Grand Opening; but they already have an attractive selection of handbags, and the bits and pieces to go with them (purses, and pretty Italian lipstick-holders with built-in mirrors). Mr. Waterman intends to specialise in belts, and has started off well with some very handsome natural hide ones, with real brass buckles as well as other more ladylike models. He also stocks stout leather bootlaces, and a simple Moroccan sandal which will prove invaluable to tourists unwise enough to attempt the cobbles in stilettos! The shop is open every day except Monday, and will not close for lunch.
The supermarket's roofing contractors have been hard at work during the past couple of weeks, and the building's vast roof is now almost completely tiled. It really begins to look as if the store might be open this summer, as intended.
Tiles were coming off the roof of the old telephone exchange in Eagle Road on Sunday morning - and being stacked neatly on a lorry prior to removal (we assumed that the workmen were acting on behalf of the owners!) This presumably indicates that work is about to start on converting the building into a two-storey block of flats - and since the through road would run immediately under its windows, neighbours are hoping the builders know something the rest of Rye doesn't...
Finally, work has started on stripping the old slates from the north face of the Community Centre roof - fingers crossed for a dry week or two, though the boarding underneath should keep out the worst of any rain.
6.
Two years ago we had hoped to report on an ecclesiastical event without precedent in the history of Rye since the Reformation: the Roman Catholic Bishop of Arundel & Brighton, Bishop Cormac, was due to preach in St. Mary's. In fact it snowed, and the service had to be cancelled; Bishop Cormac did come later, but to the Baptist Church.
On Wednesday of last week Bishop Cormac was in action in St. Mary's (though he didn't, to our regret, preach from the pulpit). There were also Bishops Eric (of Chichester, paying a very rare visit to this corner of his diocese) and Peter (of Lewes, a familiar face here), the Chairman of the London Methodist SE District, and the Baptist Area Superintendent; the United Reform Church representative, who usually joins this very up-market ecclesiastical hit-team, couldn't be with them this time.
The congregations of all the local churches had been invited to St. Mary's for an act of worship followed by group discussions with the church leaders. Local clergy were there in force, and taking part in the service were the president of the Rye Council of Churches (Rev. Ralph Essex), its chairman (Rev. Gilbert Scott), the Rural Dean (Canon Landreth) and Canon Maundrell as host. The congregation, however, was rather sparse. We counted not many more than a hundred people, mostly the over-fifties. The words of the final hymn, in which those taking part were referred to as "the glorious new wine", didn't seem any more appropriate than the WI's beloved "arrows of desire"!
As an observer with no particular religious affiliations, we felt that honours were about even between the different churches. St. Mary's, of course, won the architectural Oscar for the C of E; it was a superb setting for the event (and the heating was much appreciated, except by the group which later sat under the tower in a strong cross-draught...) The Free Church triumphed musically; their gift for picking a good singable tune was enhanced by the Baptist Music Group (though it must be said that in literary terms good old A & M does a better job). But the award for Best Bishop undoubtedly goes to the Catholics; Bishop Cormac was not only audible at the back (Bishop Eric was not), but he told at least two good stories and said, memorably, that if only the storm had demolished all the church buildings then all their congregations could concentrate on God instead of on their Fabric Funds, and this would be no bad thing!
How much the congregation benefited from the group discussions which followed the formal act of worship, we wonder. The buzz of five different conversations all over the church made it difficult to concentrate, or even to hear the more timid speakers; and the twenty minutes or so spent sitting in a big circle while the allocated Leader answered two or three handed-in questions was not really long enough to allow warml-up time plus useful lay feedback - and feedback was supposed to be part of the exercise. (But perhaps other groups were more successful than ours under the tower - or perhaps we shouldn't be impertinent enough to offer an outsider's assessment anyway!) It is proper to add that the Leaders had spent the day in discussion with local clergy and church officers, so they were not entirely dependent on what they gleaned in the evening for their impressions of the area. It would be very interesting to know what they really made of it2
Rye Town Council's Bequests Committee held its annual party for the over-70s and their spouses at the Community Centre recently - and the Town Clerk has had an unusually high number of thank-you letters, so she reckons it was a success! Some 120 people sat down to beef and ham salad and potatoes, followed by cream gateau and cups of tea and enhanced by crackers, mints and a raffle. Joan Gamier and Jeffery Waters of the Movie Society showed films of Rye as it used to be, with the 1966 visit of the Queen and Prince Philip as the highlight. Councillors and their spouses and the Town Clerk were busy backstage to provide a real treat for their guests - and transport was provided both ways. The party was paid for from money left to the town in past years to benefit older residents.
7.
As soon as Vidlers' customers moved into the main saleroom on Friday, it was obvious that something special was likely to happen: the very first downstairs lot, a pair of C18 Dutch marquetry dining chairs, sold for £1,000. Soon after- wards, a pair of Victorian walnut elbow chairs fetched £250, a Victorian mahogany bookcase-cabinet £420, a huge old pine dresser £400, a second pine dresser £210, a brass oil lamp £240, and a 2'4" concrete garden ornament (a dancing couple) £250. Some loose oak panelling went for £500, a C19 mahogany bureau £720, a ditto side table £270 - and then, sensation, a small unattributed oil painting (14" x 22") of Venice by moonlight climbed to the dizzy heights of £2,300. On each side of the lunch break, things were fairly quiet: a pair of pedestal cabinets went for £240, an oval walnut snap-top breakfast table for £400 and an antique oak coffer for £230. But then trade began to hot up again; £2,100 bought someone an early C18 walnut chest-on-stand, a ditto chest sold for £600, an antique pine mule chest for £230, an 1862 bracket clock brought in £1,700 and a C19 mahogany long-case clock did almost as well at £1,500. After all this antique splendour, a modern Continental dining-room suite (table, four chairs and a sideboard/cabinet) went for £400. There were also a number of lots which sold for over £100.
Brian Masters, who now supervises the Rye and Hythe salerooms under the new Prudential management, tells us that some of these valuable antique pieces came from quite modest homes. He now spends much of his time visiting prospective sellers over a wide area, and is always happy to assist someone who is not sure of an item's value but wants to be sure of getting a fair price for it. (Even old kitchen tables, rescued from the woodshed, can sell for £50 or more nowadays - so whatever it is, don't chop it up for sticks!)
There were four burglaries in the villages recently: £2,000-worth of property was stolen in Beckley, £3,000-worth (including some substantial furniture) in Playden, £2,000-worth in Pett, and - perhaps saddest of all - £1,000-worth of video and computer equipment and cameras, stolen from Winchelsea School and doubtless mostly bought in the first place by its hardworking PTA. The school was broken into on the night of 3/4 March; the other burglaries took place between 24 and 27 February. In Rye itself, fishing gear worth £173 was stolen from a car in Pottingfield Road, and there was an unsuccessful attempt to break into the bar area at the Sports Centre.
Readers are already aware that the GAZETTE is closing down; we can now say definitely that the last issue will appear on 29 June.
We are therefore asking subscribers for just one quarter's subscription. This will cover the twelve weeks from 13 April to 29 June inclusive; we are taking two weeks off at Easter, so there will be no GAZETTE on 30 March or 6 April.
From most subscribers, therefore, we will be glad to receive £4.80 in cash; and we would greatly appreciate it if people could pay during the next fortnight rather than during our holiday period, so that we can make an early start on receipts (which will go out on 13 April). Postal subscribers who don't pay by standing order will owe us £6.96 (first-class post) or £6.36 (second-class) - and can of course pay by cheque. Standing-order payers get a choice - we have messed you about enough already! Either you cancel your order now, and send us a quarter's subscription instead (as above) - or you leave the order as it is for now (but make sure you cancel before September) and once it appears on our bank statement we will send you a refund for the 11 issues which you won't be getting. Please do whichever suits you best; but if you are not renewing at all, it would be kind to tell us.There is some hope of a successor to the GAZETTE, under a different name; we will keep you informed, and we should know by April one way or the other.
Children's clothes party for Playgroup Building Fund (new clothes by leading manufacturers), Playgroup, 9.30 to 3.30 Coffee morning to provide an educational trip for mentally handicapped children (raffle, stalls), Mariners, 10 to 12
Thomas Peacocke School play, "Murder at the Vicarage", Upper School, 7.30 (tickets from school or Penny Royal)
Coin Club, talk by C.W. Banks, FEC, 7.30
CSRF: Stan Ford shows slides of City of York, FEC, 11
WI Market reopens, CC, 10
Nat.His.Soc., "Pontresina, Switzerland" (Trudy Side), FEC, 7.30
TPS play (as for Thursday) "What's Cooking" - an entertainment, Stormont Studio, 8 (L2)
National Trust, "Old Maps of Sussex" (D. Kingsley), CC, 2.30 TPS play (as for Thursday)
Town Council Planning Committee (6.30), Leisure & Tourism (7.30)
Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10 to 12
Landgate WI, "Rye - Then and Now" (Frank Palmer), CC, 10.30
Community Lunch Group, Clinic, 12.30
WRVS AGM, FEC (Room 2a), 3.0
Red Cross Hurricane Appeal evening (see page 2), FEC, 7.30
Local History Group, business meeting, Library, 7.30
• Ken Warren, MP, will be in Rye on the afternoon of Friday week (18 March) for a surgery; appointments from the Hastings Conservative Association office, Hastings 423110.
• Congratulations to two Rye couples, both of whom welcomed new grand-daughters in January. Sheila and Patric Dickinson of Church Square now have four grandchildren, and the new arrival (Edith Rosamund) is David and Caroline's third daughter - she was christened at St. Mary's on Sunday. Iris and John Beeching of Lea Avenue are equally delighted with Susan's daughter Victoria Louise - who had the tact to arrive on 23 January, the birthday of her great-grandmother the late Mrs. Woods.
• Tomorrow's "Country Life" (10 March) is expected to include a letter from the A259 Action Group, a follow-up to the earlier article.
• As well as Derek and Jenny Bayntun, Rye has another representative in Sunday's Hastings Half-Marathon - our Mayoress, Mrs. Suzanne Burgess. Some of her sponsorship money will go to Rye Playgroup's building fund, and sponsor forms are being carried round by her mother, the Mayor, and by Mrs. Janet Wood. Accost either, if you would like to sponsor Mrs. Burgess.
• Last month's house-to-house collection in parts of the town for "Help the Aged" was remarkably successful seeing that there is no local branch; one of the collectors tells us that total receipts amounted to £429. The Cancer Help Group are most grateful to the Junior Ryesingers and the TPS Wind Band, whose concert at St. Mary's on 26 February raised over fl20 for the Group's funds.
• The BRCS Hearing Circle held its March coffee morning as a "special", in aid of the Sussex Hurricane Appeal; almost £100 was raised in the course of the morning, and next day someone topped it up to the exact amount.
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 second post on Monday for Wednesday's delivery to subscribers and pick-up points; spare copies (45p) are available from Young Ideas1.7 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1988)