ESCC's street lighting department tells us that the cause of the extensive black¬out in the Military Road area was a mains fault due to water getting in where it shouldn't; this was revealed by an inspection at the weekend, Seeboard were working on it on Monday, and the lights were expected to be back on by Tuesday night. The Hilder's Cliff light failure was also due to a mains fault, now repaired, and it is supposed to be back on already; please tell the GAZETTE if it isn't. The number to phone for street lighting problems is 0273 477666 - people might be more inspired to report faults if it wasn't a long-distance call?
About a year ago the GAZETTE was first with the >news of the suggested Winchelsea bypass routes: no-one in the town had heard about them except some householders in New Winchelsea Road, despite the fact that one route was due to disgorge its traffic into Strand Quay. The Town Council had not been informed, nor had the earm Lane residents who were primarily involved.
Now it has happened again. County Councillors and press heard last Monday about tomorrow's County Council exhibition on the Rye Development Area (see last week's GAZETTE). But nothing came to the Town Hall until Friday - and then the Town Clerk received just one copy of the fat folder of details, which he has to circulate to all 16 Town Councillors before Thursday. Certainly some pretty blue posters (this ambiguous phrase merely refers to their colour!) went up in the town midweek, but in the course of last Wednesday's GAZETTE delivery round we failed to find anyone except Social Services who had actually received one of the 300 individual invitations said to have been sent out.
Incidentally, when the Town Council's package did arrive, it was addressed by name to Mr. Cracknell, who is the Parish Clerk at East Guldeford. His was worded for Mr. Dickinson, who is the Playden Parish Clerk!
On at least two other occasions the GAZETTE has been first with news which should have reached the people concerned before the press got hold of it. We told the bus company about the Monkbretton Bridge restrictions earlier this year - the D o T didn't, though they advertised them in the paper. And readers who went to Rye Station last week to seek further details of the Senior Citizens £2 rail concessions starting on 1 November found that the station staff knew nothing about it. (We took up this latter problem with BR at Ashford, who said it really wasn't Rye's fault, nor indeed Ashford's; BR had sent out the press release before they had prepared the rest of the literature, and we are glad to report that Rye Station now has full details - though no leaflets, on Monday.) It does seem that communications are a very weak link in too many systems!
Anyway, we would remind readers that tomorrow is the day for the information Fair (or Day - ESCC uses both descriptions) - Community Centre, 12 noon to 8 pm.
Mr. Billy Cooke of East Guldeford tells us that a recent traffic survey along New Road has revealed a surprising side-effect of the Monkbretton Bridge restrictions in the early summer. Heavy lorries either delayed by the traffic lights or (briefly) diverted by the width restriction soon discovered that by going inland and bypassing Rye entirely, they could not only avoid the obstruction but actually shorten the journey; and of course they continue to use the better route. The amount of lorry traffic via New Road through the town has, says Mr. Cooke, dropped considerably in consequence.
2.
Dr. John Hartley, who died after a heart attack in his car in Udimore Road on Tuesday evening (16th), was 82. He came to Rye in 1930 as assistant to Dr. Harratt; in those days the practice was based in the High Street, and when Dr. Hartley married Miss Nancy Meek in 1933 he took his family to live at Holloway House nearby. Dr. Harratt died in 1940, and Dr. Hartley remained in Rye during the war. He retired as head of the practice in 1972; shortly before, he and his wife had moved to Udimore, where he farmed until recently. Dr. Hartley, who leaves a widow, three daughters and a son, will be remembered with gratitude and affection by generations of Rye people, both patients and friends; it was a pleasure to see his upright figure and tanned face beneath the white hair as he walked round the town, always with a smile and a friendly greeting. There will be a private cremation in Hastings tomorrow morning, followed by a memorial service at St. Mary's the same afternoon (Thursday) at 2.30.
Mrs. Joyce Bryant, nee Baker, of New Road, died suddenly at her home on Thursday, 18 October. Mrs. Bryant, who was 47, leaves four sons and a brand-new grandchild. A member of a local family, Mrs. Bryant has many relatives living in the area who are deeply shocked by her death. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
Many of Miss Edith Turner's old pupils, who clearly felt as if they had lost a favourite relative, were at St. Mary's on Friday to hear Dr. Alec Vidler speak on "our dear Miss Turner" in his brief address. Miss Turner, who never lost her affection for her native Norfolk, came to Rye Grammar School in 1927 with a repu¬tation as a strict disciplinarian, which she maintained with terrifying effect whenever it was necessary. When it was not, however, she was the kindest of teachers, the most helpful of friends; her marvellous memory remained clear right up to the end of her life, and nothing gave her more pleasure than news of one of her "old girls". She retired from teaching English in the early 1960s, but kept up an international network of correspondence, and her many visitors could rely on her to keep them in touch with the doings of their contemporaries over several generations. Miss Turner's appearance at the Bedford Reunion in May gave a great deal of pleasure; she had played a major part in the original evacuation, acting in loco parentis to all the girls who went with the Grammar School to Bedford from 1940 to 1944. Until she retired, most of her time was taken up with school activities, but she was a faithful worshipper at St. Vary's, and also a member of the Anchorites - a literaty society named after its first meeting-place, the Hope Anchor - which flourished in the town before and after the war. Known irreverently but fondly to her pupils as "Aunt Matt", Miss Turner was one of those rare teachers whose good influence lasts a lifetime; she will be long remembered.
29 October marks the 7th anniversary of the death of Dr. Trevor Parkes, who will always be remembered with love and gratitude.
Thomas Peacocke School library has had, for financial reasons, to cut back its order for periodicals to the bone - or rather, to be specific, to "The Guardian", which is the only newspaper or magazine of any kind which it takes. When the PTA Committee heard about this, they were much concerned and wondered whether, through the GAZETTE, local readers of suitable magazines might be asked if they would be willing to pass them on to the school?
The library has already had the offer of Punch and of an (already twice-read) Spectator. Could anyone help them with, perhaps, History Today, the National Geographic, New Scientist, a computer magazine or perhaps one of the better magazines for women? Steve Denny of the PTA Committee has kindly said that deliveries can be left at Penny Royal in the High Street, so there is no need to take the magazines down to the school.
Offers should go either in writing to Upper School, or to the Library Assistant, Mrs. Alison Cade out of school hours.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 24.10.1984
Congratulations to the Rye and District Committee of the Blind Association, who made just on £500 in two hours at Saturday's FEC coffee morning and sale (the raffle alone took over £100). Mrs. Nelson-Barrett is most grateful to all her helpers, including those who came from Brede and Winchelsea to run two stalls.
There were two burglaries in the town on the night of 11/12 October; silverware was taken from a house in North Salts, and cheques and a credit card from one in Military Road. However, rumours of "a spate of burglaries" in the area seem to be baseless. Later in the week household linen and pictures were stolen from the Borough Arms, and on the night of 15/16 October two rear wheels were removed from an Austin Maxi parked in Gibbet Marsh car park.
There were no serious ill-effects to the people invoItred in a traffic accident on the Camber road at 4.30 pm on Friday (19th), though both the 550 service bus and a Volvo car were substantially damaged as a result of a collision just north of the Golf Club. The bus - driven by Mr. J. Hunt of Rye Harbour and with two Camber passengers - embedded itself in a shingle bank and partially blocked the road, which had to be closed later in the evening while it was removed. The passengers were no more than bruised, but Mr. Hunt and the Hastings driver of the 4olvo were taken to RESH for treatment for cuts and bruises and later released.
Rye and District Lions are delighted to announce that they have at last made arrangements to hold their annual charity shop - for one day only, so they hope for three days' worth of support concentrated into Saturday, 1 December, from 10 to 5 at the Community Centre Conveniently, the St. John Nursing Cadets are holding their Christmas coffee morning just across Conduit Hill at the same time, so people can visit both. Lions will be very glad of gifts of items for sale, including furniture - collection can be arranged by ringing Tony Bryant, or calling at The Ice Box in Cinque Ports Street.
There was some doubt as to whether the Community Centre's own Attic Sale billed for Sunday, 9 December, would be able to take place; Peter Chillingworth asks us to say that this one is now definitely ON, from 10 to I as usual.
An artist with the camera as well as with the brush, Geoffrey Bagley gave great exleasure to Museum Association members and friends on Friday night when he showed selection from his slides taken over the last quarter of a century. Some are already historic, such as a shot taken inside Camber Castle when it apparently contained a small spinney, before the excavations began. Starting in Rye, Mr. Bagley led his audience through Sussex to Chichester, chiefly along the coast but with occasional forays inland. There were some outstandingly lovely pictures of sea and sky - and one or two enjoyable Geoff Bagley jokes, too: We hope very much that he can be persuaded, before too long, to show a second selection.
A lady confined to a wheelchair has on several occasions recently been unable to reach transport provided for her because of cars parked outside her house - in an area where parking is allowed at evenings and weekends. Ralph Olesen at East Sussex Highways is wondering what can be done about this, and wondering too whether other wheelchair users in the town have the same problem. He would be glad to hear from anyone who does; messages can be left with the Council Offices in Cinque Ports Street, or write to him direct at 16 Buckhurst Road, Bexhill.
Hill House School will be holding its carol service at Playden Church on Thursday, 13 December, at 2.15, and all friends are cordially invited to join the staff and pupils on this special occasion. Now half-way through his first term is the school's new headmaster, Barry Samuel; somewhat belatedly, we welcome Mr. Samuel to Rye from his previous school in Crowborough.
4.
One evening last October the Community Centre was packed for Laurie Band's slide show "Rye in the Past". People who couldn't get there then have been asking for a repeat ever since, and on Thursday he obliged, stating clearly in advance that it was a repeat - and the Community Centre was packed all over again! For those who hadn't seen it before, the show was a delight; for those who had, it gave an opportunity to catch up on little gems of history which we had missed first time around. Mr. Band's slides were enhanced by the comments of Mr. Reg Hollands of Winchelsea Road; he is in his mid-70s and was able to relay not only his own memories but in some cases those of a previous generation as well.
Starting with the fine gatehouse which once graced the Hill House entrance, Mr. Band took us on a tour of the town. A magnificent display of carcasses outside a butcher's in Landgate recalled to Mr. Hollands the annual Fatstock Show in the market and agricultural Hall taking place at the very end of November and opening the Christmas season in the town - "Christmas didn't begin in September then!" he added. A picture of 8/9 High Street (now Adams of Rye) led him to speak about John Neve Masters and his vast mail-order empire, expanding from the original shop which faced directly onto the street without the present arcade, into newly-built premises behind and finally into "the Byjoe" - the Bijou Theatre in Cinque >Ports Street behind the old Cinque Ports Hotel, now the police station. Mr. Masters must have been the town's largest employer: he made a practice of going_ to the girls' school (FE Centre), inspecting their hand-writing, and then offering jobs to the neatest, addressing envelopes for his mail-order catalogues. (Does anyone by any chance still have one of these catalogues?)
Across the High Street was the Warden Temperance Hotel (now Hamilton Furnishings), 24 bedrooms and much patronised by local farmers, who could buy prime meat and two veg for 9d or 1/- depending how hungry they were. Later we saw the workhouse donkey-cart collecting two days' worth of bread from the shop which Mr. Hollands referred to as Hubbards; memories are dated by the name of this shop, officially the Tuck Shoppe, which from Hubbards became Wilkins, Rogers and now of course Webbs. Looking at the George Hotel, Mr. Hollands recalled how Burnhams were summone before any sizeable function in the ballroom to put props in the coach-house below in case the floor should give way! Next door, he added, there was a potential bomb: Vennalls, the grocers for whom he worked as a young man, regularly kept two or three hundred gallons of paraffin in their cellar, and Stocks the ironmongers also had a cellar full of paraffin, turpentine and petrol. In those days the High Street was lit by gas, and Mr. Hollands still remembers the great day when WW1 was over, "the pipes were blown out" and the lamps lit again.
A picture of the Bank House (Woolworths) reminded him of an occasion when the th. owner, H.J. Gasson, had pneumonia - the street outside from the corner as far as Rayners was covered in straw to deaden the sound of hoofs and wheels. At the foot of the Mint, the rather puzzling little shop adjoining the Borough Arms was once the Customs office. Further round, we saw the Lucknow Place cottages; after they were demolished, the ground grassed over until the present car park was built, and in dry summers it was possible to see the layout of the rooms marked out on the turf.
Ferry Cottage in Rock Channel once stood immediately beside the river, whose course was altered when the New Cut was built; there was a picture of an enormous vessel >on the slipway beside the tiny house. Where the Strand Cafe is now were the premises of Mr. Standen, the wheelwright. The Queen Adelaide in Ferry Road (whose original entrance was where the recently-moved one now is) was known unofficially as the Gardeners' Arms; allotments stretched right across the present Lower School site as far as Love Lane, and the holders used to have regular competitions for the best carrot or whatever, the winner getting the plateful of tuppences contributed by those taking part. In Crown Fields, behind the pub, the cheap-jacks assembled on Saturday nights and sold their wares by the light of naptha flares. And Needles Passage (once called Vennalls Passage) used to be closed once a year, on Good Friday, to establish its private ownership; does anyone know when this practice ceased? (continued...)
5.
We cannot resist going over the page to add Mr. Hollands' account of the fire which destroyed the Mill in 1928. It had only just been refurbished, with the final coat of paint still to go on, when it caught fire late one night. Thinking that the last train had gone, the firemen laid their hoses across the railway line; it hadn't, and the hose was cut. And the dough which had been set to rise for the next morning's baking was so stimulated by the heat of the fire that when the bakehouse door was opened the firemen were confronted with an enormous loaf of bread!
The familiar names on the "Acknowledgments" page of Cynthia and Tony Reavell's book on E F Benson will give Rye readers a comfortable certainty that they are going to enjoy it. Having fought our way past the rather cumbersome title, "E F Benson: Mr. Benson remembered in Rye, and the world of Tilling", we are on home ground, and the Rye of 1925 to 1940 lies ahead of us. To those who only know Benson as a former Mayor who wrote funny books about his neighbours, his story as researched with much diligence by the Reavells comes as a revelation. They were fortunate to record conversations with the late Charlie Tomlin, EFB's manservant throughout his time in Rye, and also with his widow Rose, Benson's "—kook who died two years ago; and many other people who remember EFB have contri-,uted their own reminiscences.
Son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, EFB came from a brilliant but very peculiar family of which he seems to have been the only member enjoying both physical and mental health (until arthritis overtook him). One of six children, he was a considerable athlete in his youth and wrote two books on skating. He worked for the Greek Red Cross doing relief work in the Turkish troubles in 1898, and in WI was a King's Messenger. Already an established author of both fiction and non- fiction, he came to live in Rye in 1925, though he retained a house in London. He remained here until his death in 1940, having been Mayor three times (though never a member of the Borough Council). His mayoralty saw the celebrations for George V's Silver Jubilee, and also the Coronation of George VI. In 1936 he was the Speaker of the Cinque Ports; in 1938, he became an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge (succeeding Kipling and Hardy). The same year, Rye gave him the Freedom of the Borough. He died of throat cancer, aged 72, in February 191+0 (before the bombing of his beloved Lamb House), and was buried in Rye Cemetery after a funeral service in St. Mary's beneath the windows given in memory of his brother and his parents.
The final section of the Reavells' book deals with the Tilling novels, providing useful campanion to them. The chapter on fellow-inhabitants of Benson's Rye will bring back memories to many people, though the authors make it clear that his main characters were not based on local residents of the period. The book is published by the Martello Bookshop, and of course obtainable from it, price £5.95. We do congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Reavell on their enterprise.
We recently came across a charming little paperback, "Catherine's Ring" by Mary Frewen (Mrs. Molly Parsons), part history and part romance, which deals with the story of Brickwall House at Northiam. Now obtainable from the Rye Bookshop, it will greatly please those who know the house, the village, and the remarkable Frewen family who lived there for so long.
And under wraps until its launch later this week is another book, equally enjoy¬able, equally local, and dealing in part with the same period and people as the Benson volume... See next week's GAZETTE!
The Town Council apologises for the continued inactivity of the Landgate clock. It was "lent on rather heavily" (to quote the Town Clerk) when Rother were doing repairs to the roof of the arch recently, and a part was broken. But restoration is in the capable hands of an ex-Thwaites & Reid employee (the firm which, until it closed, maintained Big Ben and other prestigious timepieces) who hopes to have the clock working again within a fortnight or so.
At Vidler & Co's 66th Annual Special Show and Sale of Romney ram tegs on 15 October, the Championship - and the Alfred Skinner Challenge Cup - was won by Messrs H & M E Brundrett of Charing; the same ram also won the Romney Sheep Breeders' Society prize for the best wooled ram in the show. The Reserve Champion was the property of Messrs Peter Skinner & Son of Brookland, and the third prize went to B J Cole of St Mary-in-the-Marsh, who was showing in Rye for only the second time. Fourth prize went to Swallow Mill Farms of Charing. The prizewinning rams were purchased respectively for £360 (Mrs V Link of Newchurch), £480 (E Prior & Son of New Romney), £260 (White Fox Farms of Udimore) and £320 (J Hills). 148 of the 158 rams entered were sold, at an average price of £186; Messrs Peter Skinner & Son achieved top average of £270 for their 23 rams, and Messrs E & M E Brundrett averaged £256 for their 10. Judges for the Show were Tony Reeve of Peasmarsh and John Coultrip of Faversham.
We heard two stories at the weekend which we would like to pass on.
Miss Kate Fairbanks, who taught Latin and French at Rye Grammar School until she moved on to Eastbourne in 1951, is now retired and living in Eastbourne, and has very little sight. She came to Rye last week for Miss Turner's funeral - and was glad to meet old friends again, though she could only recognise their voices.
Miss Fairbanks told us how very, kind British Rail staff are to her. Eastbourne had telephoned Rye to say she was coming, so that the gates below the footbridge were opened for her; and on a recent rather longer journey involving several changes and crossing London, she was never left without help from BR staff, including once the guard of her train who personally saw her into a taxi!
Mrs. Clarice Hallsworth, born and bred at Rye Harbour but now living in Nottingham, was one of ten Smith children whose father ran Vidlers' office at the Harbour in the days when the firm owned a shipping company. Her sister Matilda, whose lovely soprano voice will be remembered by our older readers, died just after WW2 and was buried in Rye Cemetery. Mrs. Hallsworth has been visiting Rye, as she does from time to time, and was anxious to see her sister's grave; but, forty years after the funeral, she wasn't exactly sure where it was. She had been in touch with Rother's Parks and Gardens Department and they had, after some research, identified the site from their records; but despite three trips up to the cemetery by taxi, the actual grave still proved elusive. In despair, Mrs. Hallsworth called at the Council Offices in Rye; David Cranston was most sympathetic and said he would see what he could do. What he did do was to make his own enquiries - and then he collected Mrs. Hallsworth from her door, took her up to the cemetery, helped her to find the grave, and then drove her home again. We asked Mrs. Hallsworth's >permission to tell this story, which she gladly gave us; she is really most grateful to Mr. Cranston.
Incidentally, Mrs. Hallsworth - who tells us she is 86 though it is difficult to believe her! - is anxious to return to live in Rye, since her husband died earlier this year. The agents have not been able to find her a bungalow or ground-floor flat with two bedrooms (so that she can have the grandchildren to stay); if any reader can help, please write to 67 Gordon Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham.
Last week Mr. Bill Webb, of the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship and Ashenden Avenue, was bitten by a - well, he's not quite sure what it was! His dog was investigating a movement in a garden opposite Badger Gate, and when he went to pull the dog back Mr. Webb received a nasty bite on his hand from a long thin dark-brown animal which made off into the undergrowth. He wonders if it was a mink, or what. Have any other Udimore Road or Ashenden Avenue residents met it?
Mr. Webb wisely took his injury to the doctor for a jab, and we are glad to say that he is none the worse for his disconcerting encounter with wildlife; but he has been unlucky this summer, with a nasty attack of that childish complaint, chicken-pox - caught, he suspects, in a jumble-sale queue where he is a regular seeker after photographic equipment.
7.
The current position about bottle banks is set out in a report to the Environmental Health committee this month. Rother makes very little money from the banks - just over £800 in site rent and "cullet" (broken glass) prices of 80p a tonne - but it all helps, saves space in the dustcarts, and gives us a feeling of doing our bit as our bottles and jars smash inside the bins. Battle, with just one site, has collected rather more glass than Rye's two over the past year, 61.5 tonnes as against our combined 54, while the five Bexhill sites produced a total of over 224 tonnes. Peasmarsh provided 28 tonnes and Burwash 23. Taylors, the contractors, have now found a reliable outlet for the glass and are considering replacing the banks withdrawn last year and providing new ones if required. The two Rye bottle banks are almost level in popularity: the one by the Rope Walk loos yielded 26.4 tonnes over the year, while 27.6 tonnes came from Strand Quay. Rather surprisingly, the best month for both banks was not December or January with the aftermath of Christmas celebrations finding its way to the bins, but August, the only month when the yield exceeded three tonnes from each; in January it fell to less than two tonnes from each, though the average is somewhere between 2 and tonnes a month per bin.
Conservationists who object to the orange bins will be glad to know that Taylors have now adopted the national colour scheme of green and white, and refurbishment -n the Rother District began this month.
A report to Rother's Planning committee lists all the District's licensed caravan sites with more than four pitches, and in view of the Town Council proposals for the Freda Gardham field we thought readers might like to know the position.
The list shows a total in the whole of Rother of 3717 pitches for static vans and 779 for touring ones, contained in 42 sites; the largest is Coghurst Hall, Guestling, which has room for 480 static caravans. Locally, Devonia in Iden has permission for 31 static vans, and the Cock Inn at Peasmarsh 20 static and 5 touring vans. There are a further seven five-caravan certificated sites dotted about between Rye and Iden. Somewhat further afield, 100 tourers can be accommodated at Carters Farm, Pett, and 60 at Old Coghurst Farm, Guestling.
But we were astonished to discover the position down at the seaside. The four Camber sites between them can hold 654 static vans and 165 touring ones (the latter at Silver Sands). Frenchman's Beach at Rye Harbour is licensed for 275 static vans. And at Winchelsea Beach there are 16 sites in all, with room for 944 static caravans plus a further 70 tourers (at Rye Bay Caravans). This means that if all the seaside sites are occupied fully there could easily be a total of well over two thousand caravans in our immediate area during a fine August weekend!
As a result of the weekend seminar for machine-knitters about which we wrote in GAZETTE no. 101, £1000 was raised for charity. The committee has decided to give £500 to the new day centre at Healey House, the home for elderly blind people in St. Leonards, and £500 for the purchase of equipment for a new NHS heart ambulance in the area. In addition, twenty "fun jumpers" which were knitted up during the seminar will go to the children at Glynde Gap School. (Last year's one-da seminar produced £450 which also went to charity.)
The Hastings Machine Knitting Club meets on alternate Thursdays at 7.30 in St. Leonards. It started 14 years ago with five people meeting in each other's houses, and now has some 60 members, some of whom come from the Rye area so anyone wanting to join could perhaps share transport? Enquiries to Mrs. Cicely Robinson who tells us that if there was enough interest in Rye and the villages, she would be willing to start a really local group.
Betty Spencer asks if anyone with a Passap M201 knitting machine would be kind enough to lend her their instruction manual or photocopy it for her; she has been given a second-hand machine, but Passap are unable to supply a manual for this rather elderly model. If you can help Mrs. Spencer, please ring.
Thursday, 25th Rye Development Area Information Fair, CC, noon to 8 pm (GAZETTE no. 103)
Friday, 26th Eye Laser Appeal concert, "Glorious is the Song", St Mary's, 7.30 (GAZETTE no. 102)
Nat.Hiet.Soc. talk, "Spiders" (Michael Tweedie), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 27th Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5
RAF Association jumble sale, TPS, The Grove, 2.15 (see below) Mayor's cheese-and-wine party and teddy-bears' rally for the Lifeboat House Appeal, TB, 7.30 (GAZETTE no. 102)
(...and the office diary says clocks go back one hour at bedtime, but it's been wrong before now!)
Monday, 29th Schools reopen after half-term
WRVS Luncheon Club, CC, 12.30
Wednesday, 31st Cancer Relief Michaelmas Fair, FEC, 10
Thomas Peacocke School PTA AGM, The Grove, 7.30
• Because several RAFA members will be on holiday when the Association has its jumble sale at Upper School on Saturday, the committee would welcome a few offe of help in selling the handsome collection of goods which they have assembled. What they would really like is half-a-dozen strong lads. ATC? Sea Cadets, helping out the junior Service? Ring Gordon Stanbridge.
• Apologies to Mrs. Warner of Playden, whose account of life in the isolation hospital we printed last week; she was little Miss Haffenden (not Jury) when she sat in her red velvet jacket waiting for the fever cab, and the Editor is sorry to have jumped to conclusions without checking properly.
• Readers will be glad to know that the kitten found in South Undercliff has been claimed by its owners from the Tilling Green Estate.
• Proceeds of ticket sales, refreshments and raffle at the Laurie Band slide show on Thursday (see page 4) amounted to e2,180 for the Community Centre's Wheelchair Loo Appeal.
• The reason for the "no parking" bollards occupying the half-dozen spaces opposite the Police Station is security; similar arrangements have been made for all Sussex police stations, and are a consequence of the Brighton bombing. The restriction is likely to continue for some time.
• How nice to see St. Mary's on TVS last Tuesday evening, when Canon Maundrell was interviewed - on top of the church tower! - about the difference that large numbers of visitors make to a church's finances and its security problems.
• The Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve have £180 in hand as a result of the recent lecture on Indian wildlife; they did not even have to pay for the hire of the hall, since one generous member sent a cheque for this as her contribution to the evening.
• We understand from the PTA Committee that there are vacancies at Thomas Peacock School for cleaners and for dinner-ladies. Cleaners of course work outside school hours, but dinner-ladies are employed to supervise the mid-day meal,
at a time suitable for mothers with young children at school. Apply to the Bursar at Upper School for details.
• We are asked to mention a coffee morning in aid of St. Jude's Women's Refuge, at Bosney Farm, Iden, on Tuesday 6 November at 10.30.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, 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: a few spare copies are left at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, and back numbers are available from 2 Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984)