We wish a very happy Christmas to all our readers, and more particularly to our subscribers, especially those who have been kind enough to act as unofficial advertisers for the paper. We are very grateful to all those - including Rother Council staff - who have helped us with news items or sent in advance notice of future events; to our seven pick-up points, who are kind enough to house increasing numbers of GAZETTES while getting remarkably little out of the deal; to our bankers, the Midland; and, since July, to Geerings of Ashford and the staff of their copier division who keep the presses running. The next issue will be on 4 January (NO ISSUE ON 28 DECEMBER), and we look forward to another year of reporting the good news from Rye as well as its less happy events. We now print 350 copies of each issue.
If your copy is not ticked beside your name, it means that your next quarter's subscription had not reached the Editor by Tuesday evening. Copies of the 4 January issue will only be delivered to those who have paid their £3.25 by New Year's Day - and please put your name on any envelope containing cash, or we shan't be able to credit it to you!
After discussions lasting more than an hour at the full Rother Council meeting on Monday evening, the proposal to go ahead with the Bexhill pool was defeated by 22 votes to 18; Mr. Shackleton and Mr. Cawdron voted against the pool, while Mrs. Tomich was one of three abstainers. Mr. Shackleton tells us that although the matter is not entirely closed - several Bexhill councillors voted against the proposal because they felt that the suggested site was not suitable - it cannot come before the Council again for six months. Sighs of relief in Rother's rural areas!
Congratulations to our MP, Mr. Kenneth Warren, who has just been elected Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade and Industry; this is an appointment he has very much wanted, and we are glad that he has received such a welcome Christmas present.
Mr. Warren has written again to Mrs. Lynda Chalker, Minister of Transport, asking her to reconsider the Rye-Winchelsea bypass timing; although he spoke with her on the subject during her recent visit to Sussex, she still has not answered his original letter.
Clients for Mr. Warren's surgery at the beginning of this month includes people concerned about the bypass, and also about the hospital (see page 3), as well as those on private errands. But his surgery at the end of October, as we reported at the time, produced a suggestion from a constituent which he promised to take to Ministerial level. He did; the Minister investigated; and we are delighted to report that the Unemployment Benefit Office in London Road, at St. Leonards - so inconveniently sited for Rye people - will shortly open a temporary office in Rye for two days each quarter. This will mean that instead of taking the bus over to St. Leonards, checking in for a five-minute interview, and then waiting two hours for the bus back, unemployed people in the Rye area will attend their obligatory quarterly interviews here in the town (they will, of course, be told just where when the time comes). Quite apart from any question of convenience, the Department should be saving money over this, since it repays travelling expenses for such interviews after the first £1. With her permission, we congratulate Mrs. Betty Spencer of Cooper Road on her enterprise in raising this matter with Mr. Warren; it would be impertinent of us to congratulate Mr. Warren, but nonetheless his successful intervention is much appreciated.
2.
Mrs. Dorothy Webb, of Ashenden Avenue, died very suddenly at her home on Friday evening, 16 December. Mrs. Webb, who would have been 68 on 3 January, was the wife of Mr. Bill Webb, and was Secretary of the local Civil Service Retirement Fellowship branch which Mr. Webb had started in Rye when he himself retired in 1982. Before her marriage, Mrs. Webb had worked in the Fire Department of the Friends Provident Insurance Company, and during the war had also undertaken part-time nursing at a children's hospital. She was a member of the United Reform Church. Mr. and Mrs. Webb came to live in Rye in 1977, having spent their holidays in the area since the early 1960s. Mrs. Webb's death is yet another tragedy for the small community of Ashenden Avenue, and there will be much sympathy for her husband in his sad loss; the couple were to have celebrated their Silver Wedding yesterday. The funeral service will be held at Rye Methodist Church at 1.0 pm on Friday (23rd), followed by cremation at Charing.
Mrs. Irene Woodward, of Udimore Road, died in hospital on 14 December; she was 79. The funeral took place yesterday in Hastings.
Although Mr. George Cade was a Londoner by birth, he was very much a part of Rye's story from his arrival at 106 High Street in 1929 until his death at the age of 85 on 7 December. But not all those who knew him as the town's tailor for some fifty years will also know that as an under-age volunteer in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, he fought in some of the worst WW1 actions on the European front and was badly gassed at Passchendaele, where he was among only seven survivors in his battalion. He then went with the BEF to Murmansk at the
height of the Russian Revolution, where the dreadful scenes he witnessed had a profound effect upon him. On leaving the army he took a course in tailoring and met his wife Sylvia when he was a partner in a Reigate firm; they were married five years before the move to Rye. Mr. Cade was a keen cricketer, and an active member of the Rye Players throughout the Thirties; he was elected to the Town Council in 1937 ("a controversial figure, always a character and forthright in
his views" says his son David). But at the outbreak of WW2, he hastened to enlist again, in the Royal Sussex Regiment, having previously served with the 5th (Cinque Ports) battalion in the Corps of Drums. Soon invalided out, he helped to form the local LDV (later the Home Guard); he was commissioned and remained as Quartermaster throughout the war. He then ran the Army Cadet Force at the Drill Hall for many years, with a particularly successful boxing team. The High Street premises were sold in 1974, but he continued working from the house he had built in 1935 in the Old Brickyard. After the death of his wife three years ago, he moved to Bognor to be near his daughter Cynthia and had only recently returned to live with David in the Rye he loved.
Mrs. Margaret Cobbold of Camber took the Chair for the first time at Rye WI's ACM on 14 December; Secretary is Mrs. T. Hodgson of Rye, and Treasurer Mrs. J. Freeman. A presentation was made to the retiring VCO Miss Thomas; and carols were led by Miss Wickersham and honorary WI member Mr. Bill Southerden.
The staff of Greyfriars are very pleased to report that their fete at the home on Saturday made a profit of £660, and this has been increased to over £700 by subsequent donations. The 21 staff, all part-timers, have put a tremendous amount of work into this event, and much appreciate the support they have received.
The home's League of Friends is now well-established, and its members are particularly helpful to the residents over transport - some of them 'adopting' one person for outings, etc., while Mrs. Kay Jury of Pett is always able to find transport from somewhere when it is needed. We hear that it was 87-year-old Mrs. Loeffler who was the only Greyfriars resident to brave the weather and do her Christmas shopping at the recent Woolworths late opening.
The League of Friends invite Rye supporters of the home to a coffee morning on Thursday, 19 January, from 10.30 to 12 in the Social Services offices in Cinque Ports Street.
3.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 21.12.1983
In response to concern expressed by Rye Memorial Hospital's League of Friends at rumours of falling in-patient use, Ken Warren extracted from the Hastings Health Authority details of the number of patients using the hospital over the four years from 1979 to 1982.
Out-patient use has not varied greatly over this period - at least half-a-dozen Hastings consultants hold regular clinics at the hospital, and there is also the casualty department and the physiotherapy unit, plus arrangements for elderly people who come to the day-room and for baths. However, the in-patient bed occupancy rate has dropped from 83% in 1979 to 59% in 1982. Figures for 1983 are, naturally, not available yet, though we hear that they are looking a bit more cheerful just lately. Of course, percentage figures based on a total of only fifteen beds altogether are not as meaningful as they would be for a larger hospital, but it is easy to see why the Friends are concerned.
The District Administrator of the Hastings Health Authority explained to us that Rye is a general-practitioner hospital, staffed (medically speaking) solely by the local doctors - obviously he was not referring here to the out-patient clinics. The decision lies with a patient's GP as to whether the patient can be admitted or transferred to Rye, since the GP is responsible for treating the patient there. It is clear that patients requiring surgical or specialised medical care must be
seated elsewhere, and most patients at Rye are those who have been having treatment in one of the Hastings hospitals and are now nearly but not quite fit to go home - particularly if they are living on their own. Medical ethics are so delicate that we hesitate to ask any of the local doctors for their views on the situation - though if anyone would like to tell us, we will be very glad to pass the information on to readers.
Just three claimants with special Rye Town Lottery tickets met at the Town Hall on Thursday evening to take part in the draw for the top prize of £1,000. It could have been nail-biting; but before making the draw, the Mayor, Mr. Simpson, offered the alternative of dividing the prize three ways, and this was agreed to be the best plan. So Paul Osborne of Iden, Mrs. Ivy Choate of The Close and Mrs. Jennifer Tollett of Cyprus Place each took home a very warming £333.33.
If, as the Council had intended, all the special tickets had been sold there would have been ten contenders for the top prize and perhaps less agreement about splitting it. But support for the Town Lottery has flagged very much lately, and at a recent meeting the Council decided to discontinue it at the end of 1983.
Those who enjoy scratching foil off bits of cardboard may still do so, since there are various lotteries selling tickets in the town, mostly connected with Sussex sports clubs. But those who are prepared to gamble a little money to support a local cause might like to turn their attention to the Peacocke Club, where a £12 annual payment (which can be paid as a monthly £1) buys into a monthly draw - readers will have seen the results postered about in the town. Half the money received by the Club goes back as prizes, and half is used by the Thomas Peacocke School PTA for various school projects. The Club is still run by Bob Huxstep - details from him (Rye 222465) or from Upper or Lower School.
TVS cameras failed to turn up at East Guldeford on Sunday afternoon, but the large number of people who did (the church was full) very much enjoyed Ryesingers' music. Vera Larkin's piano duly arrived in a horsebox, and as the church has no electricity light for the musicians was provided by David Cade's 30-candle-power fitment round the altar. Ryesingers sang for the Monday Club next day, and on Tuesday were due to perform for TVS again - whether there will be anything going out from them on Friday depends, of course, if the cameras really arrive this time. Ryesingers will also be singing in the town on Christmas Eve (Saturday), starting at 10.30 am round the Rotary tree in Market Road, and moving up to the Town Hall tree about half-an-hour later. Madrigalia are singing at the Ypres Castle pub this evening at 9; and see the back page for church carol-singing.
4.
• The sixteen Rye Lions and their ladies had a party for 80 people in the Iden Hall on Saturday. The guests - elderly and disabled people from Rye and the villages - enjoyed tea, and later sherry, cake and mince pies in the gaily decorated hall, complete with balloons, Christmas tree and fairy lights. There was a musical entertainment, and also a group of songs and sketches by Rye Players. Guest of honour was Santa Claus, who gave away parcels of food to everyone and was happy to be photographed with a fellow-guest or two sitting on his knee! Transport was provided by the Lions, with help from Rotary.
• Rye Movie Society members once again welcomed their friends to watch the cream of their year's work at the FE Centre on Friday. Refreshments were provided in the interval, and there were plenty of prizes in the raffle. Films included a visit to the Welsh mountains; a glance "Over the Garden Wall" in New Winchelsea Road; and the winner of the Catt Trophy for an outdoor film, a record of a journey from Rye to New Romney by an Indonesian taxi known as a Betja tricycle in which the passenger rides uneasily in front while the rider pedals and steers from the back - featuring the Ste Croix family startling innocent traffic on the Marsh lanes. This was followed by a visit to Regent's Park in London, making the most of autumn colours and resident waterfowl; and "The Heart of Rye", a look round St. Mary's Church, which won the Horner Torch trophy, given in memory of the late Alfred Horner who was one of the Society's founders 26 years ago. We then travelled Europe's waterways after a slow drift round Bruges, watching wistfully as their HGV loads sped down the Rhine instead of cluttering up their bypass beleaguered villages - and marking the contrast between the domesticated German slopes and the wild Welsh scenery earlier on. Finally, we all enjoyed the Society's film of the splendid British Legion event in September, when the new standards were dedicated; despite the weather, the colour and pageantry of the occasion came over in a fashion well worth preserving.
• Rye Racers entertained a record number of guests at their Christmas party for the elderly people of the area - 178, to be exact, who were transported to the Upper School Hall in The Grove by courtesy of Graham's Coaches, Rye Service Station's minibus, and various private cars. Full use was made of the school's facilities - not only the large hall, but (briefly) the medical room, classroom tables, and Mrs. Nunn's cookery room where serving and washing-up were done. The food was cooked in the Masonic Hall in Turkeycock Lane, and taken down to the school in a heated trolley: turkey and all the trimmings (grateful acknowledgements to John Sperring), Christmas pudding and cream, followed by mince pies. Long Bros gave an enormous Christmas cake, which was cut into some 200 slices and given to guests to take home. They also took home prizes and presents, something for everyone - thanks to the kindness of traders and private individuals in the town. Entertainment was provided by the 1st Rye Brownies, who performed a nativity play, and by Rye Players who kept their audience very happy with songs and sketches and community singing.
Gus Gale tells us that Rye Racers have had the most tremendous support from people right through the town who helped in various ways with this dauntingly vast tea-party; but we rather think that there is a hard core of committee members who save up not only the whole of their Sunday but also a good deal of time in advance towards making this a memorable evening. The party was financed by the annual summer race - this year, a sack race which participants will not easily forget - and the generosity of sponsors has been much appreciated. Next year, says Gus, they are thinking about a wheelbarrow race: anyone got a spare wheelbarrow or two?
• Thomas Peacocke Sixth Form presented their annual "concert" to a school audience on Tuesday. Sketches tended to be television oriented, and though the Editor must admit to prejudice in favour of the "Blockbusters" parody, perhaps the prime attraction was Nigel Hacking's sheepdog Ben, star of a "One Man and his Dog" sketch, which drew coos of affection from the female part of the audience. Among the mainstays of the cast were Simon Briggs, Simon Benn, Ian Harris and Edwin Donald; Sarah Jenkinson read the news; Ma Wing Chan played the guitar, and there were a couple of "bands"; and Mr. Brian Creese vainly declaimed gems of English literature above the tumult of the final carols. Great fun!
5.
• Rye's new police sergeant Tony Prout - who has brought his family from Hove to Peasmarsh - presented the prizes to Rye Boys Club members on Thursday at their end-of-the-year party. We have no room for all the details, but among the sporting winners were Paul Ray-Gain, Julian Rolstone, Colin Robinson, Kevin Bourne, Wayne Sherwood and Jonathan Wall for the seniors, and Daron Douche, William Kirkham, Julian Alsten, Colin Bennett and Stephen Polley for the juniors. Martin Doyle as a mummy (bandages, etc., provided by Mr. William Russell) was the senior fancy dress winner, with Bernard Carter as runner-up; junior winner was Michael Peatfield. Pamela and Charlie Terry were the judges, and Mr. Terry was a popular raffle winner when he distributed his prize of sweeties among the 60 boys present. Steven Hewitt's team won the custard-tart game; Club Leader Stewart Doyle reckons that everyone had a sample on them to take home!
Club activities start up again in Mermaid Street on Monday, 9 January, for the juniors and Tuesday, 10th for the seniors (6.30 on both days). Although the Club now has 120 members, more are always welcome to take part in the many activities - just go along, or ring Stewart Doyle on Rye 2232XX for more information.
• Readers at the Lower School carol concert last week were Fiona Ramus, Glenda Simmons, Trevor Hogben, Evelyn Underwood, Rachel Glisson, Bernard Le Roux, Becket McGrath and Sarah Scambler. Instrumental soloists were Clare Summers (flute), Teresa Barnes and Graham Slack (piano), Fiona Ramus and Hannah Willard (violin), Angharad Bowman (clarinet), Helen Menzies Sacher (flute) and Becket McGrath and Richard Webb as part of an Upper School brass ensemble. Choir and audience joined in the carols and the 15-strong orchestra (all girls, as it happens) played their part. Mr. Spooner was at the piano, and Canon Maundrell took the closing prayers. The collection, £35, has been sent to Hill House.
• The Upper School choir and orchestra once again delighted their audience for the carol concert on Thursday. Readers were Johanna Shephard, Andrew Heather and Mr.Gil Wright. Two original carols were sung, one from the fourth-year music group and one by sixth-formers. Jason Lamb performed a piano solo, and Isabelle Haumont and David Dee a duet for brass. "We three kings" were David Dee, Benedict Lovell and James Cruttenden. There was plenty of opportunity for the audience to join in the familiar carols, spurred on by Mr. Nigel Spooner's exuberant performance on the newly restored Wurlitzer, complete with bell effect (we are sorry we omitted to report on Mr. Spooner's much-enjoyed organ recital in The Grove earlier this month). As usual, the programme was arranged and conducted by Miss Lois Benton, who was presented with a bouquet at the end of the evening. The £70 collection goes to school music funds, with an eye on work still to be done on the organ.
• The whole of Freda Gardham School, infants and all, filled the centre pews of St. Mary's on Friday for the school's carol service; a supporters' club of grans and grandads, and also representatives of the rising generation sitting nuzzled on mum's knee or adventuring along the backs of the pews, filled the side aisles. All the carols, old and new, were well known to the children, who sang with great spirit and charm to a piano accompaniment. But the children were played out on the organ by Mr. Gramman, who suited his music to his congregation and was finally discovered by the GAZETTE playing "Baa baa black sheep" to an enthralled audience of one!
Also tucked away, but in a different corner of the church, was Mr. Peg Hollands, who was peacefully varnishing Burnhams' new staircase to the Upper Room throughout the singing. Mr. Hollands has had plenty to do with the young of Rye for some 36 years, since until his retirement he was in charge of the St. John Ambulance Cadets, and eventually Cadet Officer for the whole area. He started as a cadet himself at the age of 15, and one of his first duties as a senior was at the scene of the Rye Harbour lifeboat tragedy.
• Anne Wood of the NSPCC is most grateful to Freda Gardham School for a donation of £100, the proceeds of their extremely successful Christmas entertainment earlier this month.
• Rye Sea Cadets' Christmas Fair on 17 December raised a much appreciated £318 - thanks to those who sold and those who bought.
6.
As well as our MP, both our County and our District Councillors have been pushing hard in their respective fields of influence for the Rye and Winchelsea bypasses to be designed as one. We reported last week that Rother's planning committee had been recommended to support this view; our Rother councillors had, we are told, been busy here, and the recommendation was adopted at last Thursday's meeting.
Mrs. Yates and Mr. Bromley have been pressing at County level for a similar decision, to equally good effect. The matter was discussed by the County Highways and Transportation Committee on 13 December; and next day by the Environment Committee; fortunately Mr. Bromley is a member of both and Vice-Chairman of the latter. Both Committees considered a joint report by the County Engineer and the County Planning Officer, which preferred the "brown" route (one of the two running beside the railway) and hoped that the Rye consultations would follow shortly. However, Mr. Bromley addressed both Committees and was able to stiffen up the latter phrasing to throw the County Council's weight more fully behind the one-route campaign.
Mr. Bromley tells us that the County Engineer gave some very rough estimates of possible costs for Rye routes. He apparently quoted £l0m for the southerly route involving a bridge over the Rother below the town; £8m for the northerly route (where it is suspected that some of the ground may be unstable); and the £5m we all know about for the throughway alongside the railway. Mr. Bromley adds - to our relief - that this is not necessarily a clinching argument for a railway route.
Freight Express-Seacon have now moved from the High Street to their new offices opposite the Town Hall and, as they promised, are creating a maritime atmosphere in the former shop windows. Ship models, lent by the firm's head office, include three beautifully detailed clippers, and also a modern model of the firm's own "Sea Humber" - the right length and draught for Alsfords' wharf, we are told, but too broad to negotiate the bend of the river. But perhaps the most interesting exhibit is an aerial map of Rye. Although it is in black-and-white, the patch- work of coloured fields at the back of the town is very clear, as are the sweeping lines of shingle to the south. For those interested in the bypass, it also shows in detail the tentacles of road, rail and river which spread out from the town.
The vaults under the spacious office area are now in use as a reception room for clients, with the cellar and its well open to the view but guarded by an antique iron cannon - acquired by Don Bentley from the previous owner of the shop, who was reluctant to employ six men to remove it when he moved out!
When Rother's planning committee met on Thursday, some of the Rye applications on the list were still within the statutory period for objections. Subject to this, the following applications were granted:
Work on Freeman Hardy Willis's High Street shop (if the applicants produce satisfactorily amended plans for alterations at the back of the building); conversion of the Iden Pottery warehouse on Strand (to shops and maisonettes (see GAZETTE no. 62); change of use for 11 High Street to guest house and restaurant (Mr. and Mrs. Simmons tell us that this would be instead of their present restaurant in The Mint); and the manager's flat for the glassblowing studio in the former Colebrooke's factory in South Undercliff (Mr. McEntee points out to us that this road begins at the Green Steps).
Permission was also given for signs for Mary Lestocq's Studio, and for an extension in New Road. A decision on rebuilding plans for the Tower was deferred.
The D o E has dismissed Mr. Norman Jones's appeal over his plan for a four-bedroom house on the Castle Water estate, on the grounds that such a house is unsuitable both in scale and siting and not at present necessary for the leisure complex.
There have been no Rye applications at all on the last two weekly planning lists.
7.
Visitors to Brighton's Gardner Centre over the next four weeks will be able to see the work of one of Rye's new generation of artists on exhibition in the Foyer. Claire Farley, whose parents have the Peasmarsh garage and who is in the Lower VIth at Thomas Peacocke School, has won first prize in an Art and Design competition organised by Standard Telephones and Cables to celebrate the company's centenary year. STC's local division opened the competition to sixth- formers throughout East Sussex; the theme, naturally enough, was "Communication". Claire entered a terra-cotta statuette of two elderly men in conversation, and this won her the first prize in the Lower VIth class - £50 for herself and £300 for the school's Art Department. Her runner-up, and the Upper VIth prize-winners, came from the other end of the county.
Claire hopes to go to art school at Eastbourne, specialising in three-dimensional work - sculpture and modelling - when she leaves Thomas Peacocke. In the meantime, more of her work will be on view in the exhibition by pupils of the school which opens in the Easton Rooms in the High Street on 4 January (till 15 January).
Two pictures from the Rye area are now on view at the Girl Guide HQ in Buckingham Palace Road in London and can be seen there until 14 January. The Guides' London and S.E. Region has recently held a painting and drawing competition, the idea being for Guides of all ages to depict their home town or village for an exhibition to show something of the background of Guiding in the region. There were seven classes, each with a winner and a runner-up: two for Brownies) two for Guides, one for Rangers, one for Guiders and one for members of the Trefoil Guild (ex-Guiders). And we are very pleased to report that the Ranger class was won by Samantha Finch of Guestling, a pupil at Thomas Peacocke and a member of the school Guide Company; while the Guider class was won by our own - our very own - Miss Lois Benton, normally better known as Head of the school's Music Department! Samantha entered a view of Hastings from the cliffs; Miss Benton's Pencil drawing shows Church Square, where she used to live. Hearty congratulations to Claire, to Samantha, and perhaps especially to our Head of Music!
Does Rye have a film-star in the telephone exchange? Recently BBC TV came to Rye, not exactly to find out but to film part of a programme on telecommunications in a "Going to Work" series for schools. Julian Jowitt of Battle, a second-year British Telecom technical trainee, was being filmed at the new Ferry Road electronic exchange under instruction from the man in charge of it, Dennis Kemp of New Road. Mr. Kemp tells us that the scene was sketched out at a preliminary interview, but although he has had plenty of experience on stage with Rye and Icklesham Players, just ad-libbing was rather unnerving; and the whole morning was spent on what will be only a few minutes of film. Julian, too, found an acting career rather more exhausting than he had expected! But the footage is said to have come out well, and those at home on a Monday or Friday morning can see the results for themselves on 23 January at 9.38 or on 27 January at 11.44, on BBC 2.
The daughter of one of our readers, recently moved to the snowbound limbo of Shropshire, was seized with a mad desire to paint her children's playroom walls glowing red. Woolworths own-brand paint had just the shade she wanted; but four small tins exhausted the total stocks of this particular colour at all three Woolworths branches in her local shopping towns. "We can probably order you some more next time the rep calls" they told her - which, for all she knew, might have next Easter! However, Rye Woolworths is more enterprising. Within a week the Tenterden and Ashford branches had yielded up their supplies to add to those at Rye, and a total of 16 litre tins was delivered - by Rye's manager Mr. Ernest Wren to our reader, for collection over the Christmas holiday by a very grateful daughter. We think the car-hire firm's motto should be transferred to the High Street fascia!
8.
Saturday, 24th Ryesingers, Market Road and Town Hall, from 10.30 a Midnight eucharist (preacher, Canon Peter Harvey), St. Mary's, 11.30
Sunday, 25th Holy Communion, St. Mary's, 8
Mass, St. Anthony's, 9 and 11
United Service for all Churches, St. Mary's (preacher, Dr. Jonathan King), 10.30
Tuesday, 27th Old Scholars Association get-together, Queen's Head, evening
Saturday, 31st Watchnight Service, Baptist Church, 11.30
Sunday, 1st Covenant Service (with United Reform Church), Methodist Church, 11
• Two new staff members at Thomas Peacocke next term: Mrs. Jo Kirkham, for some years a part-time and supply teacher at the school, goes full-time in January to replace Miss LaPorte, while Mr. Pearce's successor will be Mrs. Ruth Davies.
• A Christmas present from Rother was being erected on the Salts on Monday. Described as an adventure log (!), "The Escapade" looks like a stout and unusual climbing frame and platform in natural timber, a pleasant novelty for our own children now and for those of our visitors later in the year.
• Rother Council Office in Cinque Ports Street is closing for the holiday at 3.30 on 23 December and reopening on Tuesday morning, 3 January.
• The WI Market at the Community Centre has now closed for the winter; the AGM is on 24 February, and the market will reopen in March.
• Congratulations to Miss Linda Lee, the young manageress of Baxters, butchers, in the High Street, who has recently been presented with a silver tankard "for consistent management" at district level in the company. Linda, who lives in Wish Street, is the only manageress is the Baxters chain; she has been working for the firm for nine years and took over the Rye branch three years ago - about the time that her smiling-faced eggs first cheered up our shopping chores!
• Police are investigating a pointless outburst of vandalism early last Tuesday morning, when £130-worth of damage was done to building work just begun at Paygate Cottage in Ferry Road.
• The press book shows a series of minor traffic accidents this week - and a warning from Sussex Police to be alert for mysterious strangers, suspiciously parked cars, unattended bags, etc., issued last Wednesday well before the Harrods bomb attack. It is difficult to regard IRA activity as a major threat in Rye, but we virtuously pass on the warning; anyway, such observation is all good practice for the new Crime Alert schemes.
• Condolences to the staff of the George Hotel, likely to have a rather trying time in the New Year when the whole front of the building is to be taken down! The wall is not really built of brick but mathematical tiles, and manager Richard Marriott tells us that until they are removed it will not be possible to see exactly what work needs doing behind them or to say whether it will be practicable to rebuild with tiles in due course. The East Sussex Historic Buildings Officer is advising Trust House Forte, the owners, so we can be sure that Rye's traditions will be respected. We are glad to say that the hotel will not be closing, so the GAZETTE's Monday-morning editorial conferences can continue undisturbed.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the ost Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303). News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon, Tuesday 9 am for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday; extra copies and back numbers can be ordered from 94 Udimore Road, while a few spares are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye.
(Copyright Mary Owen 1983)