One of Rye's three Rother councillors, Frank Dowdeswell, has resigned his seat. For details, and the implications in election terms, see page 4.
On Monday morning aircraft-spotters in the town were very perplexed by what was going on overhead. Five Spitfires plus a plane which we were assured was a Messerschmit kept flying over the town - too high to see any markings; there was also a single Messerschmit, we could have sworn we saw six Hurricanes, and Bill Webb tells us that the peculiar-looking jets were American Fairchild Thunderbolts, which have been seen around for several weeks. He also commented on the odd assortment of helicopters which appeared from time to time, some of them early French ones.
Lydd airport knew nothing about it. Radio Sussex didn't either. Biggin Hill said, to our surprise, that they had (or are about to have) ten Spitfires, but that these weren't theirs. Finally TVS's Graham Chatfield came up trumps (and the Spitfires were on Coast to Coast on Monday evening). LWT is filming, he told us, for a WW2 drama series called "A Piece of Cake" which will go out in the autumn, and these aeronautical period goodies were using Headcorn airfield. Mr. Chatfield said that the real rarities were not the Spitfires (though five together is still quite something!) but the Messerschmits, which had to come from Spain. Mr. Webb adds that in fact the Spanish Air Force is still using what is basically the same plane, built in the 1950s.
Loud applause from Rye's pedestrians for the work which East Sussex Highways is putting in on the pavements! First they sorted out Ferry Road, which has been notoriously bad; then it was the turn of Cinque Ports Street, which now looks positively glamorous. Tarmac repairs in the High Street are only temporary; permanent repairs were to have been done in May, but Ralph Olesen realised that a very slight slippage in the finishing date would have made his team extremely unpopular with shoppers and sightseers, let alone the Chamber of Trade, so it has been decided to leave this until the autumn. It will be worth waiting for, though - what is planned is an interesting combination of paving bricks and small thick slabs, much more adaptable than the present large slabs.
Sundry holes in the road have been due to Seeboard wiring up the new lamp standards, still short of their lanterns on Monday though the wall-mounted lights are complete. It was a pleasant surprise to notice that the plates covering access to the wiring have, in each case, been specially cast to incorporate the Rye coat-of-arms - half-lions, half-ships.
The cobbling, too, is progressing; so the old place should look very smart indeed for the 1989 celebrations of the first Mayor 700 years ago.
The local Sea Cadets - "T.S. RYE" - have taken a very satisfactory first step towards repeating their outstanding 1986 achievement in the Sea Cadets National Sailing Championships (GAZETTE no. 193). The Sussex competition took place on Castle Water at the weekend, and Rye cadets won the Bosun, Mirror and Topper classes, with other successes in the canoeing and pulling sections. Four boats and crews will be going to Portsmouth early in July for the Area competition, and we wish them the best of luck.
Sea Cadet funds will benefit from the musical evening on Saturday, when Madrigalia are singing at the Community Centre; tickets at £4 (from Adams and Pilkingtons) include wine and cheese, and the intention is to make it a very pleasant social as well as musical evening. The Cadets are also very grateful to Rye & District Rotary Club for the gift of three new canoes - replacing ones which were not just old, says Jean Phillips, but positively ancient!
2.
Mr. Henry Isted, who died in Auckland, New Zealand, on 26 April, left Rye some years ago. At one time he was a valued member of the Dormy Club staff. He used to live in Cyprus Place.
Yvonne Cotterell of Udimore Road tells us that the general meeting of Rye Players at the Stormont Studio on Monday evening is for anyone who is even remotely interested in joining. The Players hope to get moving again and provide some entertainment for the town, says Mrs. Cotterell; "our numbers are severely depleted at present owing to the loss of members who have recently moved away, and new blood is urgently required if we are to become successfully active once more". Any stage production of course needs not only actors but also people to help with costumes, props and stage management generally, plus front-of-house jobs - so even if you don't see yourself learning lines but would still like to be part of a local drama group, you will be very welcome too. If you can't come on Monday, ring Mrs. Cotterell (evenings) and ask to be kept in touch.
The first of the two outings run by Rye Museum Association this summer still hat a few seats left, non-members welcome. It goes to Syon Park on Sunday week (19th). Attractions include Syon House and the gardens, conservatory, rose- garden, butterfly farm, motor museum and garden centre; a restaurant and cafeteria cater for those who don't want to Rother making sandwiches. The journey takes about 24 hours, and the coach leaves Rope Walk at 9 and Syon Park at 5. £6.50 buys a coach seat plus tip for the driver; admission to the house, etc., is extra and you pay for what you want. Ring Margaret Houslander at Le Fevre Wood & Royle (Rye 223152) or Rosemary Bagley to book a seat.
An article in "The Independent" last Wednesday had us totally mystified, and it took a phone call to Peter Marsden at the Museum of London to find out what was happening here in Rye Bay (or, as it turned out, what wasn't). Mr. Marsden is the Director of the Shipwreck Heritage Centre in Hastings, and it was the Centre which recently arranged carbon-dating tests on a big lump of wood which Harbour fisherman Tim Ruck hauled up three miles out in the Bay four years ago. He dumped his catch on Alsfords' Wharf, who were beginning to get a bit bored with it when one of their staff thought to mention it to the Centre - who joyfully came and took it away, since it turns out to be a vast mediaeval ship's rudder, far the largest of only 20 ever found. Now about 22 ft high, it would originally have been 25 ft - and this makes marine archaeologists suspect that the vessel it comes from might have been between 60 and 100 ft long, with a beam of up to 25 ft and 18 ft deep. They think the ship may have been a cog, built around 1200 AD; so the oak rudder came from a tree which would have been a sapling at the time of the Norman Conquest!
When the DoT is not driving motorways through country towns, it is in charge of wrecks - after all, a sunken ship in 1300 was the equivalent of a traffic pileup nearly 700 years later? Archaeologists hope very much to find the rest of the boat, which should lie in 40 ft of water out in the Bay; if they could, it would be a triumph, since the only complete cog which now survives dates from 1380 and is in a museum in Germany. So the DoT is financing an exploratory dive, led by Martin Dean of St. Andrew's University, and this should have begun last Tuesday. However, high winds had stirred up the sea so much that one look was sufficient - it was far too murky to dive to any useful purpose. So, weather permitting, the operation starts this week instead.
Mr. Marsden explained that there was no question of anything being fished up at this stage; the divers are merely investigating the site of Mr. Ruck's rudder, and also that of another found in the Bay. If it looks hopeful that the rest of either boat could be still there, they will get the site registered as historic, and then return later for a full-scale exploration.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 8 June 1988
St. Mary's bells rang out on Saturday for the wedding of Kim Gentry of Bankside and Neville James of King's Avenue. Kim's dress of white satin was caught up over a lace underskirt, with an off-the-shoulder neckline and big puff sleeves; she carried a spray of peach, yellow and cream flowers, and a white flower head-dress held her veil in place. Three of her bridesmaids - Beverley Ham, Jill Barnard and Neville's niece Katie Tarrant - wore peach silk with flower sprays and circlets; two very small girls, Joanne Holland and Natalie Wiggins (also Neville's niece) were in yellow and carried big flower-trimmed hoops to match.
Mrs. James senior wore deep blue, and Mrs. Gentry was in mint-green. Best man was Fred Clark. The rain which had drummed down on the church roof only a few minutes before the end of the service cleared just in time for the photographs to be taken outside. The reception was held at the Community Centre, the honeymoon is to be spent in Portugal, and the couple will live in King's Avenue.
Virginia (Ginny) Fox of Playden Cottage, and Yorkshireman Captain Colin Metcalfe, REME, were married at Playden Church on Saturday. Ginny's attendants were her elder sister Veronica and Molly Parsons' two little grand-daughters Emma and Lucy; Colin's best man was an Army friend, and both were in military "blues" as were several other guests, so crossed swords greeted the couple as they emerged from the church. The bride's dress was of Thai silk, ivory laid over turquoise, and the bridesmaids wore turquoise silk. The service was taken jointly by Stephen Ingham and John Bannister, and the Fox family's 1952 Bentley was dusted down for its second wedding in recent years. The reception was at Playden Cottage, and the weather cleared obligingly for an evening of jazz with the Semi-quavers, a barbecue and dancing in the floodlit garden. The couple are spending their honeymoon camping in Scotland, and then taking up Colin's new posting in Germany - about a hundred miles from where Veronica and her soldier husband live, though Dieter serves in the German army.
Last Tuesday morning at 9 we went for a bus ride. Paying our 25p, we were the only customer aboard the Town Bus (middle bus stop in Station Approach), and watched in admiration as Bernard Wilson of Tillingham Avenue wiggled the vehicle through the High Street past Seeboard's excavations, but finally had to balk at the Market Road turn because of a lorry unloading outside Serendipity. However, he continued down the Mint instead (luckily there was no beer lorry outside the Standard), through the Deals, and then back over the railway bridge and past the hospital, arriving at the Peace & Plenty dead on time at 9.10.
Houghton Green Lane was less of a problem than we would have supposed, but there were no passengers at Poppyfields or from Military Road or North Salts - indeed, the very first genuine user was Mrs. Igglesden of New Road, who was delighted not to have to walk into the town after having been in hospital for a leg operation. We dropped her off in the High Street at the start of the second half of the route (the South Undercliff stretch had been slowed down by the Gas Board's interminable traffic lights, but we were still on time at the station at 9.30) and then set off up to Cadborough Cliff, picking up two more passengers outside the Stores and another on the Estate, for delivery to the High Street.
Bus depot supervisor Mr. Crouch had come along for the ride too, and he told us that they were to look at the 9.30 (etc.) departure time, in view of the arrival of both trains at 9.28 (etc.) - two minutes is just adequate for people arriving on the down platform, but not for those who have to cross the bridge...
Since then, the bus has been very noticeable in the town - but all too often, noticeably empty. H & D can't be expected to run it unless it pays, so even if you can't use it yourself please talk about it and put the word round among those to whom it is likely to be useful. For someone from Cadborough or the Estate, for instance, a lift up to the hospital should be a godsend, whether as patient or visitor.
New H & D timetable booklets for all the Rye area services are now obtainable in the Council Offices, with a nice picture of Rye from the Rother on the front.
4.
Frank Dowdeswell, Rother District Councillor for the past year, has resigned. "I shall shortly be moving to Maidstone" he writes to the Chairman of Rother, "and having given the matter a great deal of thought I feel unable to continue the duties of Councillor from that distance. I feel that I would not be able to represent the people of Rye in the full sense, and that this would not be satisfactory. I therefore resign as from 1 June."
Councillor Dowdeswell was the Alliance candidate in the May 1987 election. He has been particularly interested in housing, and as a member of the Housing Committee was instrumental, he tells us, in sorting out major problems for several local families. Since "Closing-down Sale" notices appeared in the window of The Wool Shop recently, Mr. Dowdeswell's decision may not cause enormous surprise; Zeta is already working in Maidstone, and it was some weeks ago that Frank announced he would have to give up the job of Scout Leader (no successor has yet appeared). He hopes that the family will return to Rye before long, but in the meantime it would obviously be difficult for him to speak for Rye at Bexhill if he were not living here. We hope things will work out well for the Dowdeswells, who intend to continue their support of the A259 Action Group in which they have been playing a major and most useful part.
There are now two Council vacancies, one on Rother and one on the Town Council. If there is more than one candidate for each seat, it would be in everyone's interest - for convenience and economy - if both elections could be held at the same time. The Town Clerk has just gone on holiday, and the Mayor is dealing with the Town Hall post but obviously not spending all day in the office; but the Returning Officer's office at Bexhill is the ultimate authority anyway, and we feel sure it would be helpful to Rother in making election arrangements if anyone thinking of standing for either seat (or both) would contact that office - Bexhill 216321 - as soon as possible, even if they have not definitely made up their minds. Those who failed to gain Rother seats last May were the three Labour candidates (Gerry Fortsch, Osma Jones and Martin Smith). Unsuccessful Town Council candidates were Osma Jones (Labour) and Ron Dellar and Malcolm Parry (Hotel & Caterers Association). Whether any of them will wish to stand again this time remains to be seen. But to judge from last year, the whole election procedure seems to take the best part of two months, so what is certain is that we shan't be reporting the results in the GAZETTE.
Some weeks ago, Rother refused planning permission to the Canterbury Oast Trust to use the Mariners Hotel in the High Street as accommodation for eight mentally-handicapped people, who would be running the ground floor as a tea-room (a similar arrangement in York runs very successfully). In fact the Trust had not been happy over the survey on the hotel anyway, and were thinking of withdrawing; but they have now had a fuller survey which is very reassuring. In consequence, they have exchanged contracts with the owners, and the sale will be completed on 26 July.
The Trust's general manager, Joe Graham, tells us that the intention is to instal three mentally-handicapped residents there straight off - for which they do not need planning permission, since it is too small to count as a "home". They are appealing against Rother's decision, with the help of a London barrister who has offered her services free; and they hope that the DoE will agree to the change of use, over-ruling Rother. Mr. Graham makes the point that this is not a case of "dumping" mentally-handicapped people in the town; the Trust will remain very much in charge, and there will be no calls on local resources other than those which any eight newcomers might make.
The tea-room will open under its new management on Thursday, 28 July; they will serve morning coffee, proper lunches with a special dish each day, and teas (but not an evening meal). Until the appeal decision is announced, helpers from the Trust will come over from Canterbury to make sure everything runs smoothly and the residents can cope with the job.
5.
As well as the two Rye decisions we gave last week, Rother's last Planning meeting more local applications. The plan for two houses on land adjacent to The Orchard House in New England Lane was deferred for a site inspection; the plan for a house adjacent to 6 Mary Stanford Green at the Harbour was refused; and Bournes' plans for their Harbour Road site (to which the Nature Conservancy Council had objected, since the last meeting but still within the statutory time limit) were reconsidered and, subject to confirmation from SWA re the proposed drainage, it was delegated to the Planning Officer to grant permission with various conditions (ten were listed in his committee report).
The current planning list has an application from Alsfords for an assembly unit and store at their wharf site in Harbour Road - 19 ft high maximum, with a grey corrugated asbestos roof, and timber cladding and brick walls; it would be L-shaped, surrounding the existing maintenance building at the Harbour end of the area, and maximum measurements would be 150 ft x 250 ft.
Paul Masters at The Old Vicarage in Church Square is applying to use the garden and dining-room for afternoon teas and the sale of pictures (Mr. and Mrs. Thompson's permission for this was personal to them, and has to be renewed).
There is also an application from Budgens, for an externally illuminated sign over the shop entrance (facing the railway) saying - naturally enough - Budgens. But the plans also show the entire layout of the inside of the store. The entrance, with automatic sliding doors, is on the far left-hand side, as is the exit; there are a further three fire exits, as well as an iron fire-escape from the upstairs staff quarters. The whole of the two-storey end of the building is given over to staff, storage and administration; the shop itself (8,65o square feet) is the single-storey section in the middle; and County, the agents for the two shops facing Station Approach, tell us that one is bespoken already.
As well as the square footage, the application gives the counter space for the various departments. Grocery occupies 480ft, fresh meat 33ft, frozen meat 25ft, dairy products 70ft, produce (greengrocery) 63ft, frozen foods 110ft, ice-cream 20ft, the deli-counter 16ft, and the bakery 8ft; wines and spirits, in an enclave of their own, 62ft. The bakery area shows an oven, but with such a small counter space it seems unlikely that they plan to be Big on Bread; but the size of the ice-cream area will raise the expectations of those with a sweet tooth! Our two local fish-shops will be glad to know that there is no fresh fish counter (we are told that only really enormous supermarkets embark on this nowadays).
Despite initial doubts, the appearance of the supermarket complex is, in general, being well received in the town. From Cinque Ports Street the roof is interesting but not over-dominant; and from Station Apz,roach the building is certainly a great improvement on the old bus garage. The developers told us that the roof took 110,000 tiles! Brick paving is being laid in front where the parking will be, the spaces pleasantly separated by black brick,lines rather than paint.
In the Sussex Express last week ESCC at last advertised its proposals to make no-parking regulations for the station area - Station Approach and "the new unnamed link road between Station Approach and Ferry Road". Allowances are made, of course, for buses, loading, etc. Assuming that there are no objections, work could start on the yellow lines early in July; and once they are down, the closed entrance from Ferry Road can be reopened.
The same ESCC notice also advertises no-parking regulations in Mermaid Passage (from The Mint to the Mermaid Hotel yard); and the following one extends until 6 December the closure as and when necessary for re-cobbling in Mermaid Street, West Street and Church Square.
Any suggestions for a name for ESCC's "new un-named link road"? Budgens' Boulevard doesn't seem quite right, nor does Bus Depot Lane. What about Crown Connection? Or just Station Approach right through, since (unless the DoT gets its wicked way) it is the approach to the station from that side of the town?
6.
Rye & District Lions Club, which is very small but takes on a great deal, is looking for friends - or, to be exact, they are hoping to form a Friends of Lions group who would be entitled to attend the Lions' social functions and presentation evenings, and give help with fund-raising - everything except actually roar, in fact. So the Lions are holding a social evening at the Queen's Head, Landgate, on Wednesday evening next week (15th), 7.30 for 8. There is an open invitation for anyone interested, male or female, but to help with catering it would be appreciated if prospective guests would ring to say they are coming.
In November 1984 we wrote in the GAZETTE about the three lifeboats named "Mary Stanford" - yes, three: two here, and the third at Ballycotton in Southern Ireland, named in 1930 with the full knowledge and consent of her future crew. We were much helped with the story by Sheila Draffin of West Street, who is a friend of Mrs. Sliney (widow of the very distinguished Ballycotton coxswain Patrick Sliney) and who went to visit her on our behalf when she was on holiday in Ballycotton. The third "Mary Stanford", we then reported, had a successful career including the rescue of eight men from the Daunt Rock Lightship in 1936; she was replaced in 1959 and later sold for use as a pilot boat at Shannon.
All this was confirmed - with a graphic account of the Daunt Rock rescue - in an article in the Spring issue of the RNLI magazine, "The Lifeboat", this year. But it also updated our information. The third "Mary Stanford" had a very creditable career as a pilot boat, and even when replaced in 1983 she never entirely retired. But last year Patrick Sliney's grandson Brendan heard about her, bought her from the Harbour Board for £1, and set out to restore her; however, this was likely to cost 020,000, and Brendan Sliney and his committee began to despair of raising the money. Then, in April, the Dublin Nautical Trust came to the rescue. This newly-formed association is dedicated to restoring historic vessels and putting them on display in a floating museum in Dublin. Last weekend Mr. Sliney - who had brought the "Mary Stanford" round to Ballycotton from Shannon last year - was taking her by sea to Dublin; the restoration work is due to begin shortly after her arrival.
Mr. Sliney tells us that the agreement with the Trust is that the restoration committee will continue to own the boat and will be free to bring her back to Ballycotton at any time if they so wish.
The pathetic hulk which was Rye's second "Mary Stanford" was removed from the Harbour (there is a photograph showing its departure on one of Wright & Pankhurst's lorries) and was presumably scrapped after it had been examined for clues to the disaster. The memorial here is to the brave men who crewed her, who all lost their lives and are remembered each year at the Lifeboat Service in the tiny Harbour church. But might it perhaps be fitting that the lifeboat which subsequently did so well at Ballycotton, which bears the name of the boat for ever in our hearts here, and which can now be preserved for posterity - that this Irish boat should have its Rye connection remembered?
Anyone who might like to contribute to the expense which will be incurred in restoring the "Mary Stanford" can send a cheque payable to the Dublin Nautical Trust, c/o Mr. Sliney, Ardnaree, Ballycotton, Co. Cork, Eire. We have suggested to him that if any appreciable sum comes from Rye for the restoration work, it might perhaps be possible - if only in the interest of Anglo-Irish relations for a small notice saying so to be placed near the boat when she goes on display.
Incidentally, Ballycotton's "Mary Stanford" has a very special distinction. For her part in the Daunt Rock rescue, she was awarded the first-ever RNLI gold medal plaque. We hope someone down in Ballycotton has it safe, ready to be put back when the boat is restored to her original glory.
7.
• Hearty congratulations to Sarah and Bill Foster, of The Old Vicarage in East Street, who have just been awarded a fourth English Tourist Board "crown" the first hotel actually in Rye to earn four-crown rating. This indicates a very high level of facilities for overnight guests (it doesn't necessarily indicate a restaurant, though the Fosters also serve dinner and Sunday lunch). Each room - there are four at the Old Vicarage - must have its own bathroom, colour television, radio, alarm clock and direct-dial phone, and of course the overall standard of furnishing and decoration has to be high. There must be a dining-room for breakfast, and an evening lounge service of hot snacks, etc., for residents up to midnight - which means, of course, that someone has to be on duty then as well as throughout the day. When the Fosters took over the hotel less than a year ago, it had no ETB rating; three crowns arrived quite soon, but the fourth is a real triumph and a boost to the town's tourist trade. Crowned with success, one might say!
• New owner of the Cinque Ports Pottery in the Monastery is Jim Elliott, whose exciting plans for turning the pottery into a major tourist attraction we wrote about at the end of last year. The building is owned by the Church, but it was delays at diocesan rather than local level which slowed down the project; there may be something interesting to report before our final issue. And how ex-potter George Gray going to fill his time? "Looking after my dolls- house furniture, of course" he told us with a grin - he still has his shop, The Centre in Market Road, which sells a good many other things as well.
One of Mr. Elliott's first visitors after the changeover was the BBC; his was the pottery visited on Bank Holiday Monday. The programme resulting from that visit, which also covered the Mayoring and the Museum, is said to be going out on Friday, 17 June, at 8; but check for yourself.
• From time to time Ann Lingard's Rope Walk Antiques gets a mention in the furniture-trade and interior-decorating press - but not usually on quite such a lavish scale as in the current issue of Pine News International. As well as a two-page piece about the business, there are photographs of the old Wright & Pankhurst repository inside and out, and of course the original Willow Cottage shop in Rope Walk - which has been hers for nearly 11 years now. Ann has been 17 years in the trade, starting with half a stall once a fortnight in Rye Market; she must now be occupying the largest total floor-space of any business in town!
• When Landgate Pictures closed, there was nowhere in Rye to buy artists' materials. But Terry Grant at Terry's DIY in Tower Street already did picture framing, and - and an area at one side of the shop which could conveniently be enclosed; so he Is now stocking a very wide range of paints, coloured inks, acrylics, papers, mounting boards, brushes - The Lot, from Winsor & Newton and Daler Rowney. What he 'Hasn't got in stock (unusual-coloured mounts, for instance) he can safely promise within a week.
Terry II, if we may call him that, took over from Terry I (Osborne) the week of the storm. Since then, he has more than quadrupled the value of the stock held in the shop, though - amazingly - with no alteration in the actual floor space.
• Welcome to the new manager of the George Hotel - Gary Scott, who comes to Rye from another THE hotel, the Larkfield at Maidstone. He started work last week, and this is his first managerial appointment, so we wish him the best of luck in the High Street.
• Finally (not strictly business news, but as a matter of interest) Mrs. Connolly at Landgate Books has been keeping a tally of where visitors are trying to get to, when they call at the shop for directions. Most want the Post Office. Then come those looking for Mermaid Street, the Ypres Tower and the Tourist Information Centre; loos get fifth priority, perhaps because they are comparatively easy to find anyway from the Landgate Arch.
Mrs. Connolly wonders whether it would be useful to have a signboard at the beginning of Hilder's Cliff, for the benefit of tourists wondering where to go next?
Rye Collectors Fair (postcards, etc.), CC, 11 am to 9pm
Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, with Ken Ellis's slides of Africa, FEC, 11
Rye Hospital League of Friends' Fete, FEC, 10.30 to 12
Rye Dance Centre jumble sale, CC, 2.30
Musical Evening with Madrigalia, for Sea Cadet funds (see front page), CC, 7.30 - tickets £4, Adams and Pilkingtons
Miss Rye Competition (GAZETTE no. 273), Oasis Club, late-ish
Special patronal Mass of Thanksgiving, St. Anthony's, 7.30 General meeting of Rye Players and prospective members, Stormont Studio (Ockman Lane), 7.30 - see page 2
Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10 to 12
Landgate WI: flower arrangements by Beryl Rixon, CC, 10.30 Community lunch group (David Turner of Rother Housing Department - really, this time), Clinic, 12.30 for 1
"Meet the Lions" social evening, Queen's Head, 7.30 for 8 (see page 6)
• The Day Centre AGM now takes place today (Wednesday) - Baptist Hall, 3, as before. Apologies for unavoidable postponement from the previous week.
• On Saturday, Playden WI's Summer Fair at the FEC made £169 profit; Audrey Hatter's coffee morning made £153 for St. Anthony's Church.
• Did anyone at the Mayoral Lunch on Bank Holiday Monday take home an umbrella that wasn't theirs? Roger Breeds left his (gent's, black, full-size, gold band) on the rail in the ballroom and it wasn't there when he came to leave. As we recall happening some time ago with Joan Camier's mac, it seems likely that someone assumed they had brought an umbrella when in fact they hadn't and there are now two in some umbrella-stand which normally only houses one. Mr. Breeds lives at 4 St. Margaret's Terrace.
• Geraldine Hussey of North Salts would like to thank two unknown Good Samaritans. Her sister was staying with her over the Bank Holiday weekend, and on Saturday morning she had a bad fall on the pavement of the railway bridge, at the Military Road end. A kind lady helped her up and stopped a car to ask the driver to take the casualty back to North Salts. Subsequently Mrs. Bussey's sister was taken by ambulance to RESH with cuts, bruises and a broken shoulder - she is now recovering, and is most grateful to those who were so kind.
• The Scouts have a jumble sale at the Scout Hut on Saturday week, 18 June, at 1.30, and will be glad of items for sale in aid of their repairs fund. Marian Buss tells us that the recent "sponsored slim" by Scouts supporters (herself, John West, Janet Harkin, Chris Emson, Diane Hine and Janet Balcombe) resulted in the shedding of a total of 17 kilos of superfluous flesh, and the addition of somewhere about £220 to the Scouts' kitty!
• Finally, we have complained from time to time about the failure of street lights in Rye. But how about this? Residents living just off Abbey Fore- gate in Shrewsbury, where the road is being dug up, have been in the dark for some time. Finally the Borough Council explained why: "We have had specific instructions from the County Council to turn the lights off for safety reasons while the road works are in progress"! (So at least you can't see the hole you have fallen into, presumably?)
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 (until the paper closes at the end of the month) is Monday second post for Wednesday's delivery. Spare copies (45p) are obtainable from Young Ideas (children's wear), 7 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1988)