On 29 January 1986, we wrote about a cliff fall the previous weekend, just above the Wee Nestie site. Two years later to the day, last Friday afternoon, there was movement in the cliff a little further along Fishmarket Road, and a concrete-block retaining wall developed a sinister crack, while several back gardens which normally climb up the cliff suddenly climbed down it. Bother, ESCC and the police were all called in, and on Monday a Hastings firm was busy shoring up the wall. As far as they could tell, nothing more was coming down, they said; but the people who have houses along the top, in Pump Street, are keeping a nervous eye on the far ends of their gardens, wondering what could happen if...
Three or four of the terraced cottages in Fishmarket Road are affected by the fall. Not all their owners live there permanently, but two are the homes of Joan Hollowell and a very senior Old Ryer, Carrie Philpott. Miss Philpott was interviewed on Coast to Coast on Monday evening; her family has rented that little house since it was built, well over a hundred years ago, and it was clear that she has absolutely no intention of being evacuated - and, as her friends know, she is a very strong-minded old lady. Equally strong-minded is Mrs. Hollowell, who said on Radio Sussex on Monday that she had met much worse in the war and was not unduly worried now; she also does not intend to move out, or anyway not at this stage. She told us she had been out all day on Friday, getting back after dark, and only realised there was trouble when she saw a policeman calling on Miss Philpott early on Saturday morning, and hastened along to see whether her neighbour needed any help.
As for Wee Nestie, the cliff at the back of the site has now been very thoroughly reinforced with a great concrete retaining wall (and there are indications that building will start before long). But it would be virtually impossible to do the same further along, since there is no access to the cliff either from above or below for any kind of machinery.
The winter of 1985/6 was also very wet (though that was not the only cause of the Wee Nestie debacle). It seems likely that this year's unrelenting rain is again the root of the trouble; reports have also reached us of minor falls further along South Undercliff and in Military Road, while Playden Cottage's cliff-face back garden is giving cause for concern.
Twenty-four aggrieved and apprehensive teddies - or associate members of that noble order - were launched into rain-sodden space on Thursday evening. Twenty- four small girls waited anxiously below, twenty-four wet faces (was it only rain on their cheeks?) looked up into the dark night. Floodlit at the top of the fire station training tower, Alec Tiltman and Bob Rogers flung the victims one by one out of two enormous sacks - and supported by multi-coloured balloons and other life-saving devices prepared by their young owners, the parachutists floated or simply plumped back to earth. Mostly they landed on the big white plastic sheet held by 48 small hands and the rather larger ones of Michael Bourn and Bill Page; some, alas, missed, but nobody actually came down in the gap between the fire-station fence and the bus garage, though it was a near thing once or twice.
At last the job was done, the firemen descended - only to be sent up again for an action replay, at the request of photographer Alan Jones. There was one dreadful moment when two teddies were apparently lost in space; but they turned up safely. When all were restored to their owners, everyone went home to snuggle down by warm firesides and administer very small teddy-mugs of comforting cocoa.
The little girls were the 1st Rye Brownies. Rye Firemen promised them this exciting event to attract sponsorship, and the money raised will go to a cause chosen by the Brownies.
2.
Mr. Jack Fletcher died in hospital on 25 January; he would have been 87 in April. He was born into a local family (his mother came from Wittersham), and was never very far from a boat. As a young man he joined the Merchant Navy; later he and his family had a small farm at Iden, but in WW2 he was back at sea, serving in the fishery protection vessel based at the Harbour. After the war, he became an excavator driver for what was then the Kent River Board; he retired at 65, but they weren't going to let his knowledge of the river and harbour go to waste, and for a good many years thereafter he assisted the Harbourmaster, Colin Marsh, in various ways in and around the harbour precincts. A few years ago, we are told, he took part in a radio programme about Rye. For the past 30 years or so, his home was the flat over Martins in the High Street (and he would certainly have known the late Bill Sands who carved its beautiful barge-boards in 1926); less than a year ago he moved to a nursing-home in Brede, and his death followed a short illness. Mr. Fletcher is survived by his wife and their sons Robert and Simon. The funeral took place in St. Mary's on Monday, and was followed by burial in Rye Cemetery.
The widow and family of the late Mr. Phil Ellis would like to thank all friends for their sympathy and support at this sad time. Mrs. Ellis has had over a hundred letters, whose writers will understand that she cannot possibly answer them all at present.
On Conduit Hill on Friday evening, a party was going on each side of the street.
At the St. John HQ, the Nursing Cadets were enjoying their annual fancy-dress rave-up. This year the theme was country-and-western, including farming, and there had been much ingenuity exercised (and much straw shed on the carpet!). The staff had also entered into the spirit of the evening, leaving the ladies of the press feeling distinctly under-dressed... A spectacular cockerel costume was an obvious winner, but there were also scarecrows and dairymaids, Aunt Sally and Worzel Gummidge in person, a shepherd, several cowboys and cowgirls, a plump white bunny, at least two gipsy maidens, a market wife with a basket and a farmer's wife with a bloody knife and three mouse-tails! Full marks, too, for the simplest costume of all, a blue fertilizer bag with three holes cut in it: what was she?
A bag of fertilizer, of course.
Across the cobbles at the Community Centre, St. Mary's was giving a party for those who had helped the church, one way or another, during the year. Barbara Lloyd's mulled wine was much appreciated, and Betty Ellwood and her helpers had done wonders with the refreshments. Ernest Spiers entertained the guests with a slide show, the result of his visit to Malaysia.
Leah Mercedes has brought a new look to the menus at the Peacock Wine Bar in Lion Street (we mentioned last week that it had reopened, but in fact dinners are being served on Friday and Saturday nights only, while the town is so quiet - lunch every day except Tuesday). Vegetarians will particularly welcome the new management, since there is always a good choice for them - but carnivores will also find plenty to tempt them. Leah's blackboards allow her to change the menu from day to day (though we hope she keeps the delicious passion-fruit sorbet on permanent offer!). She also intends to change the wines, offering a "guest wine" from time to time; the house wine at present is the delightfully-named Breaky Bottom, made near Pulborough. Alterations still to be done include the reorganisation of the bar area - and it really is a bar, since Leah's licence allows her to sell just a drink, not necessarily with a meal. We feel that local people as well as visitors will welcome the chance to have an interesting but inexpensive midday meal in the centre of the town. There has also been a need for somewhere where a woman on her own, or with a female friend, can enjoy a glass of wine without feeling out of place (the young will doubtless not believe this, but there are still middle-aged women who just don't like going into pubs). Leah is also glad to take group bookings; ring her on Rye 223161.
3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 3 February 1988
This week's planning list contains good news for Rye: the application for the Heritage Centre. These are the plans which were commissioned by Rother from Le Fevre Wood & Royle for the feasibility study into the project; they are the joint work of Eric and Joanna Le Fevre. The firm's partners and Rother Council have kindly given the Town Council (the applicants, since McCarthy & Stone gave them the building) permission to use the plans for the official application. But Eric Le Fevre tells us that there is still a great deal more work to be done on them (not necessarily by his firm) before building could actually start. Having got planning permission - which is not likely to be a problem - the next step is to find the money, and Rother are working hard on this already; Eric reckons that from start to finish, the preliminary work and construction would take about a year - which means that Rye could still have a Heritage Centre in time for the 1289 Mayoralty celebrations next year, though it would be a rather near thing. (We were amused by the plaintive little note which Alan Dickinson put on his plan of the present building, which forms part of the application: "The building was surveyed in July 1987 and is now out of plumb following storm damage" - and how!)
Anyway, the plans show an L-shaped building. The present two-storey structure would be renovated using timber, brick and old clay tiles, and preserving the original look of the warehouse inside and out. Opening out of it would be the new single-storey auditorium (roughly 26' x 29') for the Town Model, built of brick, with storage space above it in a double-pitched tiled roof. On the ground floor of the original building would be a ticket-office-cum-shop, a waiting area for Model visitors, a staff loo and storage; upstairs (which could be closed off if necessary) would be a large exhibition and display space. Two staff would be employed, one operating the Model and one in the shop. The main
entrance would be in the angle, with wheelchair access to the ground floor; an outside staircase on the end facing the river would provide a fire escape for the upper floor. The height of the auditorium would be 9', but even to give a 7' ceiling height in the older building will mean lowering the floor level.
There are interesting possibilities here for local craftsmen. Obviously the shop will be selling Rye souvenirs. Wouldn't it be good if it could stock souvenirs specially made for the Heritage Centre - not just pottery, but (say) kits for Rye sweaters or Cinque Ports rugs (already put together in Harbour Road), or engraved glass from Winchelsea, or Peter Farrow's jewellery? Souvenirs don't have to be cheap; they don't have to be nasty, either.
Apart from the problem with the cliff (front page), Rye seems to have got off lightly so far as regards flooding, compared to what has been happening inland. This is largely because of the present short (neap) tides, which mean that what comes down the rivers is able to F:et out to sea without undue hindrance from incoming salt water; George Roberts told us on Friday that the big Scots Float sluice has been able to stay permanently open. There were problems with the drains last week in some Estate houses, but this was said to be a failure of the pumping equipment which is now sorted out. Everywhere is undoubtedly lying very wet (even the Gungarden was briefly flooded:), but the Salts are no worse than anywhere else, and the land behind the Sports Centre is well served by its new drainage. (However, we write this in a thunderstorm on Monday night; by the time you read it, things could be different...)
People who use the New England Lane steps have been complaining for some time about the water running down them; ESCC staff recently arrived to unblock the drain at the top, but the neighbours are not convinced that the problem is solved. Residents and walkers alike find the steps a useful short cut - but in rain they are risky, in frost fearful, and after dusk a torch is essential to keep your footing, since the water has worn away the mortar and made a trench in the tarmac path at the bottom. Several people have asked the Town Council to look into the matter, and doubtless the Town Clerk will be consulting Ralph Olesen at Highways about what can best be done.
4.
As far as office technology is concerned, TPS is now one of the best-equipped schools in East Sussex, Ed Wiseman told us on Friday. We had gone to the ROSLA block, which houses the Information Technology Department, to see the new L600+ colour printer, the very kind gift of Philip Elwell of Harbour Road (and he not even a TPS parent:). This is a machine which prints out in colour what is set out on a computer screen (also in colour, of course); black-and-white printers are one thing, this is different, as Philip Chaimbault was kind enough to demonstrate for us.
Mr. Wiseman's department caters for pupils wanting to go on to read Computer Studies at college, or who want to take the general business course at the school; they can work for two GCSEs or half-a-dozen Pitman's exams in word-processing and/or typing (though dear old Pitman's shorthand is no longer taught at TPS but at Hastings Tech). We were glad to hear that it is nowadays not only girls who take this course - just as there are plenty of boys nowadays doing Home Economics.
Mr. Wiseman explained that, bought through the school, it is possible to avoid VAT and get an educational discount on expensive equipment; anyone else thinking of being as generous as Mr. Elwell should therefore contact Mr. Wiseman at TPS rather than go shopping on their own.
Researching last week's obituary notice for Phil Ellis, we turned to the June 1968 issue of Rye's Own, which contained an interview with Rye's new Mayor. It is quite interesting to see what else concerned Rye just under 20 years ago.
The main topic for discussion, believe it or not, was the new road! It was then a matter for the County Council rather than the DoT, and the proposed route was to run just where the proposed route does now, south of the railway. The Rye Borough Council, however, had put forward a route north of the railway as being less disruptive. FACC's plan included a flyover, to link the London road near the foot of Rye Hill with New Road at Monkbretton Bridge, spanning the Cricket Salts; the Borough Council opposed this, and was suggesting building a new railway bridge and widening Bridge Place instead. However, "the flyover is considered by the County Council as of the utmost and immediate importance, already the money to build it has been allocated and if local opposition is overcome it will be built in the period 1971-78 ... The through route is not high on the priority list and even if the south-of-the-rail route is finally decided upon, it will not come about for at least a decade and probably much longer." (The prophet who wrote this added that the Strand Quay alterations, completed in 1967, were first mooted in 1946.) But it was obviously a possibility then that the railway could be about to close, in which case the new road would run in place of the track - exactly what the Department was clearly hoping for this time too:
There had just been a Borough Council election. Dr. Alec Vidler was a candidate for the first time, and topped the poll (not long afterwards he became Mayor, as his father had been before him); at 69, he had recently retired, and was hoping to spend more time in Rye than his working life had allowed hitherto.
As always, the police were recommending the use of door chains for elderly people and warning against confidence tricksters posing as gas-men, Council officials, etc. Bryans' Toy Shop in the Landgate had changed hands the previous month (Mr. Robins, who bought it, is still there now). Steven Williams of Pottingfield Road, then 16, was chosen to play for Great Britain in the Youth International Tournament in Germany.
Of the advertisements, more than two-thirds recall businesses which still flourish here (though sometimes with a change of name). We were interested to see that Carriers then dealt in Reliant cars; the Central Garage were the agents for Morris. Businesses no longer with us include the Camera Centre in Cinque Ports Street from which the magazine was run, and the nearby Hollands TV business and Roma's Hair Fayre; Henshaw's coaches; Williams, saddlers; Gassons of Cinque Ports Street; and the men's outfitters in the High Street, Rivers.
5.
Most of William Holloway's "History of Rye" is concerned with serious matters. But he calls his final chapter "Miscellaneous" - and it includes the occasional weather report. Last winter we quoted his account of the Christmas 1836 snow- storm (which was in fact widespread and led to an avalanche in Lewes in which eight people died, as Frank Palmer discovered from another account). Frank has now sent us another reference he came across in Holloway, which describes graphically exactly what happened again last October.
"Nov. 29th 1836. On this day occurred one of the most tremendous gales of wind I ever remember. We had had stormy weather for a week or ten days before; but on this morning it raged with great violence, particularly from 11 am to 2 pm. Chimneys were blown down all over the town, tiles flew in all directions, and the wreck was very great. It seemed dangerousv>within doors, and still more without." (Sheila Brown, who had a lot of trouble with Holloway's chimney-stack in October, will know what he meant!) "In the country many mills, barns and outhouses were blown down, and others unroofed. Wheatstacks were uncovered, and sheaves scattered. Trees innumerable were uprooted. At Mountfield, near the town, fourteen or fifteen large trees were destroyed."
Ten years later...
"The winter quarter of 1845-6 has been remarkably mild; no frost, no snow; the thermometer pretty generally ranging from 46 to 50°, sometimes rising as high as 52°• Vegetation is very forward. The crocus and anemone hepatica are out of bloom; the blackthorn, which usually blows in the second week in April, was fully out in the middle of March; the peach, apricot and nectarine are in full blossom; the plums and pears ready to burst. And this was the state of vef,etation when the sun crossed the equator, on March 19th, and commenced the spring quarter, and on that very day a considerable fall of snow took place, a frost ensued, and on the 21st day of March 1846, while I am writing the closing words of this history6 patches of snow are still lying about ... the thermometer has sunk to 42."
Gardeners have been warned!
Towards the end of this month, we hope to bring together all those prepared to take an active part in producing a community newspaper; please let us know if you want to be included. It seems to us that the following points arise: To enable the team to find its feet, the paper could either come out fortnightly for starters, or consist of four pages only (as the GAZETTE did at first) - the price could then be dropped considerably as well.
The team might consist of an editor, a reporter and a typist (ideally, two people sharing the three jobs); a production/distribution manager; a subscriptions manager (possibly also responsible for advertising); a town diarist; a planning correspondent (very important) and various other regular correspondents; and a near-enough Old Ryer to write obituary notices. No-one would then be unduly overworked!
Before anybody gets excited, we ought to add that last year's accounts showed a net profit of about £16 a week - so, for practical purposes, the staff would be paid expenses only. Apart from typing and some gentle arithmetic, experience is not necessary (at least, it wasn't five years ago); enthusiasm and a fair amount of local knowledge are. So is discretion; in a small close community like ours, some things are better left unrecorded, since (as the editor of the Lake Wobegon Herald-Star used to say) "I have to live here, too, you know".
The Editor will be talking about the GAZETTE to David Arscott of Radio Sussex tomorrow (Thursday) at 8.30 am or soon afterwards, on "The 258 Alternative" - 258m, medium wave only. She intends to implore editors of other community newspapers to contact her, so that their experience can be used here.
6.
Having last week printed the bookings diary, we thought secretaries might find it helpful if this week we set out the hiring rates, etc., for the town's various halls. Much the largest, of course, is the Sports Centre, but Colin Hudson says Rother would not normally hire that out - regular customer wouldn't be pleased, and anyway the specially treated floor is only suitable for soft shoes.
Next in terms of size is the Upper School Hall in The Grove, with its stage, balcony and excellent car parking (and possibly sweet-talked TPS pupils lending a hand with stage lighting for a good cause?). The hourly hiring charge for this (set by ESCC, not the school) is £8.05 plus £4.05 for heating - £12.10 during the chilly months. (Use of kitchen is no longer an option at Upper School - but the school's catering service is available for functions such as weddings.) The same rate, rather surprisingly, applies to the much smaller Lower School Hall in Ferry Road, with a stage and good parking. Contact the Bursar at Thomas Peacocke Upper School, Rye 222545, for all TPS lettings.
Also with a stage (but very limited parking) is the large hall at the Community Centre on Conduit Hill. This costs £4.20 an hour plus £1.50 for heating. The Centre's upper hall costs £2.80 an hour plus 75p for heating, and £2 an hour for use of kitchen includes the cooker and crockery, etc. (Badminton players get the large hall for £3 an hour.) Contact Mrs. Metcalf on Monday and Friday mornings from 9 to 12 and on Friday evenings from 5 to 7.
The rates for the beautiful Town Hall council chamber have just gone up; by day it costs £10 an hour, £12 in the evening - with a £4 surcharge on each let to cover caretaker's time. The downstairs Buttermarket and the kitchen each cost £3 an hour. Street parking only. Contact the Town Clerk on Rye 223902, but not on a Tuesday.
Just across Lion Street at the FE Centre there are five rooms available for hire (but no stage, and very limited car parking). The Hall (Room 1) costs £3.45 an hour; the small committee room (2), £2; the lounge (2a), canteen (3) or studio (4), £2.25; and use of the kitchen adds an extra £2.10 an hour. Fund-raising events pay an extra 10%; junior organisations pay half the normal price. On Saturdays there is an extra £2.95 for the caretaker. Contact Mrs. Swaine on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 2 and 5.
Much the smallest of the town's regular venues is also the only one in the High Street (parking improbable) - the Red Cross Centre. For a morning or afternoon session here, the all-in rate is a, or £6 for an evening; if you want it all day, it will cost you £12. Contact Mrs. James.
So - to give just a couple of examples, excluding catering facilities in both cases - a two-hour event on a Thursday morning in summer would cost £16.10 in Upper School, £24 in the Town Hall, £8.40 in the Community Centre hall, £6.90 in the FEC Hall, or L8 at the Red Cross. A Saturday-evening fund-raising event in winter would cost £24.20 at Upper School, £28 at the Town Hall, £11.40 at the Community Centre, £10.54 at the FE Centre, and £6 at the Red Cross.
It seems fair to add that secretaries and caretakers are usually very generous over turning blind eyes to setting-out and clearing-up, so that charging tends to be somewhat less than the actual time spent. Organisers with a specific date in mind may have to shop around: the school halls are, of course, only available out of school hours, the Town Hall is often in use by the Town Council or magistrates' court, the FE Centre is heavily booked up for adult education classes, and the Community Centre and Red Cross also have various regular bookings (WI Market, Thrift Shop, Hearing Circle, etc.).
The hall at Freda Gardham School (with stage, and ample parking) is occasionally let for outside events, but has no fixed tariff; contact the school (Rye 222372). Other halls in the town are used for their owners' own public events, but are not normally available for hire; these include the Clinic, St. John HQ, Tilling Green School hall, the big room at Social Services, and the Baptist and Methodist Church halls.
PLEASE LET US KNOW AT ONCE IF ANY OF THIS INFORMATION IS NOT ACCURATE.
7.
• Is there anyone in the town or nearby who has had experience of running, or helping to run, a Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme? Staff at Thomas Peacocke would like to start such a scheme at the school, and they have expertise and facilities which would be useful - but they really need a co-ordinator who would be interested in guiding young people. Such activities usually take place at the school on Wednesday afternoons - and Steve Walker at Upper School would be delighted to hear from anyone who might be able to help, and to discuss the possibilities in more detail.
• ESCC Highways have various resurfacing works to be done on roads at this end of the county, and will be advertising a "blanket" Temporary Road Closure Order from 29 February for nine months, to allow for closures as necessary. The work includes cobble restoration in Mermaid Street, West Street and Church Square but Mr. Brooke at Bexhill assures us that there is no question of closure for the whole nine months! The programme will be much the same as last year's, with one street at a time closed while the work progresses. Pedestrian access will be unaffected, and one way or another it should be possible for all houses to be reached by car. This is just as well, since the National Trust is advertising the lease of Lamb House - there was apparently an article in the Sunday Times at the weekend - and it seems likely that a new tenant could be moving in before long.
• Sad to say, the Boys' Club is closed for the present - it needs a new roof. Storm damage in October didn't seem to be affecting the inside of the building until, last week, one of the lining panels fell off! Jim Cavill, the club's secretary and treasurer, obviously couldn't have that, in a building full of other people's children, so he had to shut the place down. Negotiations with the insurance company are proceeding, but this is a job which could cost well over £20,000. Everyone - including the Rye Society of Artists, whose summer exhibition is held there - will hope that the work can be done before too long. (The building was, of course, originally the Mermaid Street boys' school.)
• The bookstall at St. Mary's is due to reopen in April, and Elizabeth Goldsworthy would be very glad to hear from anyone who could spare a regular 11-hour shift a week to help mind it. Mrs. Goldsworthy says that the godless with time on their hands will be very welcome, and it is an interesting job - because you are dealing with such an extraordinary assortment of visitors.
• The new owners of Rye Havana in the High Street are Mr. and Mrs. Bonnefoy, who come from Ham Street. They plan to open it again in April, and will certainly be changing the name - since, as local philatelists will be delighted to know, it is to be a stamp shop.
• Nice to hear, from Julie Fuggle, that the Milgates - the young Australian couple who sailed into Rye last summer looking for their roots - are now well on their way home; Mr. and Mrs. Fuggle have had a postcard from Antigua, in the Caribbean - they intend to go through the Panama Canal and home to Australia that way.
• Rye will be sorry to say goodbye to Harold and Brenda Pearce, who are about to leave Udimore Road to live nearer their children in the west of England. Mrs. Pearce was for many years on the staff of Woolworths; Mr. Pearce, of course, has taught half the town, first at the New Road School and then for nearly 20 years at Thomas Peacocke until his retirement a couple of years ago. He will be particularly missed by the Rye Branch of Mencap, whose treasurer he was and which he nursed from its infancy to its present flourishing state. We hope that Mr. and Mrs. Pearce will not entirely forget Rye - because Rye will certainly not forget them.
• Peter Praegar, Head of Science at TPS, is looking at the weather with his Upper Vlth physics students. Depressing? Not the way they are doing it - tracking weather satellites in a form that can deliver a photograph onto a screen.Watch out for this interesting diversion next time there is an Open Day in The Grove.
Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
Movie Society guest night (by invitation), FEC, 7.30
Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve guided walk (about 5 miles), RH car park, 2
Town Council (see Town Hall board for details)
Rye WI, "History of dolls and their costumes" (Mrs. Janet Payne), FEC, 2
• Congratulations to Mr. Sydney Clutterbuck, of Udimore Road, who was 92 on Monday - and who regularly walks into the town over the bridge to do his shopping. He spent Christmas with his daughter, and had the very great pleasure of seeing his grand-daughter dance the leading role in "La Fille Mal Garde" at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.
• Congratulations, too, to John Dawson of Vidlers, who recently appeared on the BBC panel game "Blankety Blank"; the programme was filmed back in April:
• Greenpeace are holding their house-to-house collection from next Monday, for a fortnight. If anyone would like to help, Gilly Clarke would be glad to hear from them. The group are holding a jumble sale on 2 February, and Jan Drury can arrange for goods to be collected.
• Condolences to the proprietors of "Shoot-a-line" in Ferry Road, who had £73 worth of fishing tackle paid for by a cheque which turned out to be stolen (drawn on Natwest, Tonbridge, in the name of Percy). The "purchasers", both men, sound unhelpfully ordinary: one was about 30, medium height and build, light hair, wearing a beige wind-cheater, the other was in his late teens, 519", medium build, dark hair, in a patterned woollen pullover.
• On Friday, during the school lunch-break (11.55 to 12.45) a group of TPS Vlth-formers are out to raise money for Comic Relief (more of a good cause than it may sound). "God's Worst Experiment" is a three-man band (Simon Collins, Ashley Marlow and John Humphreys), and they will be playing in the Upper School Hall; admission is a modest 10p. There will also be a mile-of-pennies line round the edge of the hall. The event is organised by Sarah Talbot; outsiders are welcome.
• There will be another die-stamping session for cycles, this time in the Police Station yard, on Saturday, 20 February. Rae Bark points out that children given new bikes for Christmas would be particularly wise to take advantage of it, since the bike is then permanently identified with the own post-code. Details nearer the time.
• Hastings & District have cut the regular Thursday coach outing to Folkestone and Dover from their current programme; the Canterbury trip on Wednesday and Eastbourne/Brighton on Friday remain.
• The Arthritis & Rheumatism Council coffee morning at the FE Centre on 27 January raised a very gratifying £205. The group's next event is a ploughman's lunch on 22 March.
John Aiken of Ferry Road was unnerved to notice, last Friday morning, that his barometer indicated "Stormy" - the lowest he has ever seen it, even lower than it was at the time of the October storm:
• Sad to realise that the Cycling Club we mentioned some weeks ago was in fact flourishing before the war, a reader asks if anyone feels like starting one up again? There would be at least two keen members, she says.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7DR (0797 222303), and printed through Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. Deadline is second post on Monday for each Wednesday's delivery; spare copies (45p) are available from Young Ideas, 7 Cinque Ports Street. (Copyright Mary Owen 1988)