The Bank Holiday weekend seemed to bring plenty of visitors to the town, many of them doubtless driven off the beach by the appalling weather. The Lions had to cancel their Boot Fair at Salts Farm on Sunday, but the Romney Marsh Footsloggers persevered with their foot point-to-point races in the slightly better weather of the afternoon. There were lots of admirers at the County WI art exhibition at the FE Centre on Friday, though no local artists were among the 20 chosen to go forward for the next selection stage before the big show in London later in the summer.
There were, however, two very happy occasions.
Fifty years ago last Saturday, Winifred and Richard Brown of Cooper Road were married in the parish church at Tonbridge, where they both lived. It was a lovely day, Mrs. Brown remembers, and they had photographs taken out in the garden. The couple came to Rye some forty years ago, and have lived in their present house since it was built in 1958. They have a son and a daughter and three grand-daughters - the family came over on Sunday to join in celebrations at the Mermaid Hotel. At one time Mr. Brown worked as a baker for Webbs at the Mill, but he is probably best known in the town as caretaker for many years at the Further Education Centre. We would like to join the many friends and neighbours of Mr. and Mrs. Brown with congratulations on their Golden Wedding and best wishes for the future.
Saturday also saw an exceptionally pretty wedding. Penny Briggs, the youngest of the "Squirrels" from Cinque Ports Street, knew exactly how she wanted her big day to be; and that's the way it was (bar the weather, of course). Penny made her own Victorian-style dress in pure white silk, all bouffant flounces touched with pink rosebuds and crystals, and also those of her two bridesmaids (and, her mother tells us, on the morning of the wedding proceeded to wash and set the hair of five of the guests!). Like magic a carriage appeared outside the decorated shop entrance to take the wedding party to St. Mary's behind two splendid greys who stood patiently outside the Town Hall throughout the service and the subsequent (brrr!) photographs. The ceremony was followed by a reception at the George Hotel, with dancing till midnight. Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Ramsey are now enjoying a fortnight's honeymoon in Austria before returning to their new home near Sevenoaks - Jimmy's own family live at Waltham Abbey in Essex. Mr. and Mrs. Briggs are most grateful to all their friends in the town who helped to make the occasion such a happy one. Linda King decorated the shop doorway, Susan Manktelow made the unusual fan-cum-bouquet to Penny's specification, and we think that half the town will be bringing photographs of the event into the shop in the next few days!
The total amount raised in Rye and the villages during this year's appeal was £1,886 - £260 up on 1983. Of this, exactly £500 came from Rye: £269 from the house-to-house collection, and £231 from the street collection on a Saturday which was, they were told, a very poor day for trading generally in the town. Last year's figures were £213 and £236. The remaining £1,386 was raised in the villages (a wider-than-average circle for this particular purpose, reaching out to Bodiam and Staplecross), £210 up on 1983.
Today week, 6 June, the Rye Centre will be holding an Open Day. The intention is for local people and visitors to learn something about the various services the Red Cross volunteers provide - a much wider range, we suspect, than many people might suppose. The present members think that this will be the first Open Day at the Centre since the mid-1960s. It will be combined with a coffee morning etc. from 10 to 12, but the Centre will be open to the public from 10 to 4.
2.
The Warden at Badger Gate, Mrs. Lilian Sinden, and the residents are very sorry to be saying goodbye to their relief warden, who came as a temporary stand-in and has held the job with competence and good humour for over a year. Probably the youngest holder of such a job in the area, Alison is leaving for a reason upon which we shall hope to congratulate her and her husband in due course.
Rother are about to advertise nationally the post of Relief Warden, since they have so far been unable to find a local applicant for the job. Until now the accommodation offered has been one of the standard Badger Gate bed-sitters; but by the end of August conversion work will be complete on turning two adjoining rooms into a flat which could conveniently house two people. The job offered is, however, part-time for one person - three days a week, two of them in sole charge and the third working in conjunction with Mrs. Sinden. If there is a local person - man or woman, of course - who would be interested in the job, either now or when the new accommodation is ready, they should get in touch at once with Rother's Personnel Department at Bexhill Town Hall (0424 216321)
Following recent notes about Market Street, Mrs. Joan Yates tells us that in 1958 there was a big event there in aid of the Church of England Children's Society, opened by Mr. Geoffrey Bagley as Mayor. Her daughter Amy, now of course our Mayoress Mrs. Breeds, was one of the helpers - probably her first involvement in public affairs! At that time, Mrs. Yates recalls, there was talk of a similar event in the early 1920s in aid of the same cause and also in Market Street. It seems clear that this was not the street market shown in Mrs. Moore's photograph, which was identified for us by Frank Palmer last week as taking place in 1916 - can anyone tells us more about it? It sounds as if Market Street was regularly used for fund-raising occasions; it would be very interesting to know how much money was raised at one of these events?
It is of course coincidence that the Rye Council for Voluntary Service holds one of its twice-yearly public meetings the day before the Rye Conservation Society has its AGM - on 21 and 22 June respectively, both at the Town Hall at 7.30.
RCVS Chairman Jo Kirkham tells us that there will be a speaker on the work of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council for Research, and reports on the now very flourishing Day Centre set up under the RCVS's auspices and on the progress of the Crime Alert scheme.
The Conservation Society's annual report is now being sent to members, and the GAZETTE would like to express its admiration for Secretary Peter Smith's full and clear statement of the various planning matters concerning our area over the past year. The report alone, to those at all interested in what Rye looks like, is well worth the £2 membership fee (£3 for married couples), and we don't doubt that copies are still available for new members; contact Frank Palmer.
Mr. Smith suspects that in some cases, particularly for life members, his records of members' addresses may not be up to date. He asks that any member who has not received the agenda and report ten days before the meeting (i.e. by 12 June) should get in touch with him at 7 The Strand (Rye 223198).
Hastings & District have produced a handsome set of timetables for the summer bus services which began on Sunday. There are fare reductions for Sunday and evening travel, and. we understand that the charge for dogs is to be dropped. The 414 route (Hastings via Winchelsea Beach) now has a Sunday service - not serving the Harbour - and the Transport Users Group has persuaded the company to run the 7.38 am bus on weekdays throughout the year and not just in term-time as hitherto. The 550 route (Hastings to Dover, via Rye, Camber and Lydd) goes hourly from Monday to Saturday, and now has a service every two hours on Sundays. Copies of the timetables are available from Rather Council offices in Cinque Ports Street.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 30.5.1984
The GAZETTE has received an advance copy of the 13th Rye Festival programme. This year's Festival runs from 1 to 8 September, and really does include something for everyone - no-one could possibly complain that "Instant Sunshine" is too highbrow!
As usual the Festival opens and closes with a concert in St. Mary's - the Arioso Trio of London on the first Saturday, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on the second. Sunday sees the Festival Service, with Ryesingers; the Betteshanger Colliery Band in the Gun Garden; and a production of "Under Milk Wood". Films include "The Go-Between" and "The Servant". The Playden Church concert on the Tuesday is a guitar recital by Michael Conn, and the Folk Night on Wednesday will feature The Yeti and the Telham Tinkers. Before the Instant Sunshine concert on the Friday (they have been asked for a second appearance by public demand, very unusually for Festival policy), there will be a tasting of English wine in the mediaeval cellar of The Old Store House in Church Square. On the Wednesday, John Burke talks about adapting books for film - he calls it "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Odeon". Next day Henry Kelly and Toni Arthur provide poetry, song and humour from Ireland - yes, this is Henry Kelly from "Game for a Laugh", etc., and Toni Arthur is also not unknown to younger television viewers. The Saturday morning spot at the Mermaid is Carmen Lynn's Buster Keaton programme.
Children's events include making banners with Kitty French on the first Saturday morning, a storyteller visiting Tilling Green and Freda Gardham on Friday, and on the final Saturday there will be mimes, clowns, etc., first at Tilling Green and then at the Gun Garden, with buskers at the Town Hall.
Bookings for the general public open on 13 August at the North Kent Building Society; brochures will be available soon throughout the town.
Last week's GAZETTE contained a brief cv of the SDP candidate for the European elections. We now know something about the Labour candidate, Harry Spillman, 36, from Brighton. He is married with three children, an Oxford graduate, and teaches economics at a school in Hove; he is an East Sussex County Councillor. Mr. Spillman was in Rye recently, talking to people in the High Street; he is coming again on Saturday to address a public meeting (see The Week's Events), and Osma Jones tells us that all voters will be most welcome. It is our first local opportunity to find out what this election is all about.
Mr. Raymond Balcomb - in connection with a forthcoming article about Magdala House, more recently the Council Offices in Ferry Road - has sent us a photograph of Rye Church Choir in 1923. We list the names for the benefit of our older readers. Mr. Allen (tenor) eventually managed what later became Horner's Corner Stores in Wish Street (Mr. Balcomb is still in touch with his son Jack).
Mr. Fred Orford, our ex-Postmaster, lives on Cadborough Cliff. Mr. Balcomb himself was 16 at the time, and the assistant organist. Mr. Franks was a solicitor's clerk and the altar server. Mr. Bannister was the gardener at Mountfield, and the father of John Bannister of Playden School "whom I met from time to time in his pram" adds Mr. Balcomb! Mr. Candler was the coachman to the Burras at Springfield, Playden. Mr. Wright was a shipwright. Next comes "a tailor whose name escapes me" - George Cade, possibly? Mr. Balcomb senior is commemorated by a plaque on his stall. Mr. Smith, hairdresser, was the father of Miss Constance Smith of Badger Gate and Mrs. Masters of Udimore Road. Mr. Percy Bowen and Mr. Graham Bowen were the owners of Magdala House. Mr. Gardner came over. from Wittersham each Sunday. Organist and Choirmaster was Mr. Albert Crouch from St. Leonards. The Vicar was the Rev. John Fowler, later a Canon of Chichester, and his curate was the Rev. Kenwood. The Verger was Mr. Albert Price, who wore a silver bell badge on his watch-chain to denote membership of the East Sussex Society of Change Ringers. And that was just a section of the choir - we are sorry we can't reproduce the photograph.
4.
• Playden WI is faintly grieved at the need to hold its May Fair in Rye instead of in its own hall, newly redecorated outside and in and looking very smart; but with no financial support for running the hall other than their own efforts - even though it is for practical purposes the Playden village hall - they need to look to a wider catchment area for their annual fund-raising event than the village alone can offer. Playden and Rye WIs are so inextricably mingled as far as members / residents are concerned - and some stalwarts belong to both - that we make no excuse for giving Playden's event a push this week, having done the same for Rye in our last issue. (And for those who wonder why Rye has a WI rather than a Townswomen's Guild, the answer is that by national standards Rye doesn't quite qualify as a town.) Anyway, please go up Lion Street on Saturday morning, turning both to the right and to the left at the top!
• Vidler & Co are particularly pleased with the high quality of entries for the June sale on Friday (yes, this Friday, 1 June). It is some time since they held one of their special evening sales, but we gather that many of the items to be offered on Friday are well up to that standard. In addition to fine antique furniture there is a large quantity of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian silver; and even the usual collection of household effects of a more mundane kind includes several wind-up gramophones, and a mangle by A & W Stocks of Rye - the ironmongers who were the predecessors of John Dennis at 96 High Street from the 1880s until the period of WW1. Viewing is tomorrow from 1 to 5, or from 9 on Friday morning; the sale starts at 10, and there are nearly 500 lots. The implication seems to be that if you want to be sure of a seat, come early.
• Following our recent report on the Tennis Club, Miss Goldie-Smith sends us the brochure for the five-day tennis coaching holidays which she organises at the Club in conjunction with LTA coach Paul Waroquiers. The courses take place in Rye throughout July and again during the second half of August, and Miss Goldie-Smith will be glad to send brochures (44 Military Road, or phone Rye 222815 between 5 and 7 pm). This is the sixth year of these courses, which include many overseas students. Since 1981 part of the profits have gone to UNICEF towards its Clean Water Project for Uganda. The coaching group has now "built" a well to provide clean drinking water for a hundred families, and this year is embarking on its second well; Miss Goldie-Smith will, we feel sure, pass on donations for this excellent cause whether or not they come from tennis players.
• Because of the Bank Holiday, we have not been able to check whether next Monday (4th) is indeed the date, as originally stated, for the return of LWT to film the summer (ha, ha!) episodes for "Mapp and Lucia". Many people will welcome their return whenever they come, and we shall be looking forward to seeing Geraldine McEwan joining the cast as Lucia - her brief appearances last time were apparently played by a stand-in, suitably clad. Incidentally, the Conservation Society's report records that LWT has very handsomely presented the Society with £200!
• As a result of their recent Spring Concert, Ryesingers have sent £85 to Cancer Relief with the intention that it shall be used to help local sufferers from the disease - readers will remember that the concert was in memory of the late Mrs.Vera Larkin, a member of the group. Ryesingers have a busy summer ahead (even busier, we are told, for the Madrigalia members - who have not yet sung in Rye); they are involved both in the NSPCC concert on 8 June and in the Pamela Nash Memorial Concert on 30 June.
• Results from other recent fund-raising events have been patchy: the Women's British Legion jumble sale made £55; the Bonfire Boys coffee morning £35 (the price of about three fireworks, says Joan Parkes wryly); and Hill House School coffee morning, a very satisfactory £140.
• Pictures by various artists will be on exhibition at The Pig in Paradise, a bar in Hastings (opposite the pier) - all work to be sold in aid of the Pamela Nash Dialysis Memorial Fund. The exhibition opens on Saturday (2nd) at 2 and will be of interest to those who were unable to get to the Camden Arts Centre at Easter.
5.
Regular readers will have realised by now that concerts are not the Editor's favourite thing. But St. Mary's on Friday week (8 June) houses one with a difference. Mrs. Gladys Clarke of Iden has spent months organising it in aid of the NSPCC Centenary Appeal, and to judge from the programme (now on sale at £1) she has enrolled almost all the available local talent!
Musical groups taking part include Ryesingers, Ryefolk and Thomas Peacocke School Wind Group; Nigel Spooner will be at the organ, Mary Densem at the piano, with Judith Fleet and Jackie Broadway (from Peter Allington's cello quartet). Singers are Lesley Brownbill and young Catherine Collison from Iden. That's the list on the front of the programme, but there are many more names inside; and the entertainment is not entirely musical, since it includes the proposal scene from "The Young Visiters" (and please don't blame our spelling, that's Daisy Ashford's!). Ryefolk perform songs by Lennon and McCartney and by Bob Dylan, and Catherine sings the Geoffrey Burgon arrangement of Nunc Dimittis which was so much admired in a recent television series. The programme is intended to span the century since the NSPCC was founded, and the linking narrative is read by Diana James and John Bannister.
Programmes are now available from NSPCC committee members - we had ours from Anne Osborne at Childsplay, rather appropriately. We do hope that Rye will do justice to this unusual and attractive event - the Society is hoping to raise millions of pounds extra this year, and the local Branch is already one of their star performers.
Applications are now being invited for the 1985 Tall Ships Cruise place which is sponsored (for the third year) by the Canon John Williams Youth Adventure Fund. Entry is restricted to those who live in the Rye Group of parishes: Rye, Rye Harbour, Playden, Iden, Camber and East Guldeford. But this year for the first-time boarders at Thomas Peacocke's Leasam House are also eligible to apply. The stipulation that applicants must have lived in the area for five years has been done away with, too; they must just be currently resident here.
Kate Davson says that the selection committee would very much welcome applications from people towards the upper end of the age-range from 16 to 24. So far, all applicants have been still at school, but there is no reason why the place should not go to a young man or woman well past their schooldays and either in a job (the cruise lasts a fortnight) or at college or university or perhaps unemployed.
Application forms can be obtained from Mrs. Davson at 5 Market Road, or from Thomas Peacocke School; they must be returned by 30 June, and the interviews will be held on the following Saturday, 7 July. Soon after that we shall hope to publish the name of the lucky person to follow Andrea Wickenden and Roy Pierce across the gangplank and up the mainmast!
The Editor is very pleased to say that she is now the owner of 2 Cyprus Place, for many years the home of the late Mrs. Lena Pay (née Hatter). The GAZETTE will be moving to this much more convenient base during the second week in July, and we shall be seeking the indulgence of our readers for a couple of rather skimpy issues that month - though there will be no problem if news is as hard to come by then as it seems to be this week... Udimore Road deliveries will continue as usual, though the timing will be different since the round will no longer have to consist of one enormous circle.
It was a particular pleasure to find in the house's dossier the original building plans submitted to Rye Borough Council in August 1905 and approved "as being in accordance with the Bye-Laws with respect to New Streets and Buildings" by H.J. Gasson, the Mayor of the day. The builders were Messrs. Blackman & Baker - Mr. Baker was the father of Mrs. Edith Hill who still lives next door. Modern planning applicants would envy the simplicity of the procedure some 80 years ago: small drawings of the front and back, simple plans of the two floors and the route of the drain - stamped by the Town Hall, and that's it!
8.
Thursday, 31st Sea Cadets coffee morning (stalls, etc.), Red Cross, 10
Friday, 1st Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10 (see page 4)
Saturday, 2nd Rye WI Promotion Fair, TH, 10 to 4 (see GAZETTE no. 34)
Playden WI May Fair, FEC, 10 to 12 (see page 4)
Public meeting to hear the Labour Euro-candidate, Harry Spillman, TH, 7.30 (see page 3)
Sunday, 3rd John Busby (SDP Euro-candidate), Gun Garden, 11.30 (GAZETTE no.84) Songs of Praise, Tilling Green School, 1+.30
Monday, 4th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
WRVS Lunch Club, CC, 12.30 (instead of Bank Holiday Monday)
Tuesday, 5th Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
FRAG talk, "The Meaning of Icons" (Sergei Hackel), TH, 8
Wednesday, 6th Red Cross Open Day, 10 to 4 (see page 1)
• The European Parliament elections will take place on Thursday, 14 June.
• Last week's street collection for Multiple Sclerosis raised the surprisingly large sum of £430 - Mrs. Goldsworthy is particularly grateful to the helpers who rattled their tins in the street so diligently on a really rotten day (it always rains, she adds, for MS street collections!).
• Congratulations to Freda Gardham School on the second issue of "The Freda Guardian" - once again a lively record of school events and a showcase for some excellent writing and drawings by pupils. For 20p it is extremely good value - and probably sold out by now, but you could always ask.
• Planning: just a vehicle access and hard standing for a house in New Road.
• Further to last week's desperate plea for a jumble sale, there is one corning up - on Saturday week (9th) at Rye Harbour Sailing Club. This is for a very desirable if unusual cause: to lay on main drainage to both the Sailing Club and the new lifeboat shed, and it is to be run jointly by both RNLI and Club members. They apparently need about £4,500 altogether: it should be some sale!
• At the Easton Rooms, the current exhibition displays the skills of a large number of print-makers, with pictures ranging from the humorous to the portentous. Some of the artists are already familiar to habitues of the gallery, but it is always interesting to see the work of fresh hands. Alistair Knights has shown there before, but in the upstairs room this time he has an unusual group of - sculptures? Models? - anyway, things reminiscent of fungoid growths in the darker corners of the cellar considerably scaled up and certainly worth investigating.
• Condolences to the proprietor of Whatnots in the High Street, from whom some £2,000-worth of silver and jewellery was stolen during the lunch-hour on 19 May. It is, however, a pleasure to pass on a report in Saturday's Hastings Observer that police have recovered the Westfield lectern, stolen from the church some days ago; following a tip-off to the Observer office, the lectern was found hidden behind a hedge in Crowhurst.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post 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 coats 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 from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984)