This issue marks the beginning of our second year (48 issues plus four holiday weeks). We started with 57 subscribers and now have over 300. Perhaps those who gave us three months at the outside might like to make a donation to the NSPCC or the RNLI as conscience money!
Three people and their friends have been quietly raising a lot of money over the past couple of years for the Inshore Trust Fund. The intention is to support the Rye Harbour inshore rescue boat, and Jack Taylor of the Union, Humphrey Lestocq and Dickie Gothard have been organising the sale of T-shirts, plates and goblets (with help from the Cinque Ports Pottery); the Fund also received a very generous donation from Mr. J. Aindow in memory of his late wife. In consequence there was a presentation at Rye Harbour on Thursday when 8 dry-suits were handed over for the use of the crew - the RNLI provides the basic four, but it is much more convenient if crew members don't have to pass them on in a hurry, all hot and sweaty, to their replacements on a busy afternoon. The suits cost £1,500, leaving the Fund with just £300 in the bank, so the organisers are looking for ways to raise more money for equipment and, of course, the new lifeboat shed (but that's another story). We are sure that the three instigators of this useful fund will be glad to hear from anyone with a good idea for making money.
Rye's first neighbourhood watch scheme is quietly starting, in a small way, very soon now. The original plan had been to cover the whole of Rye from the start, as Inspector Judge said at the Rye CVS meeting; but this was found to be difficult, since some kind of local residents association in an area is really needed to get such a system going. So it all begins west of the river.
Cadborough Jubilee Social Club suggested the idea in the first place, months ago. There was a certain difficulty in getting it off the ground because of doubts on the police side (not at Rye level, though). But permission has now come through to make a start, and once the Cadborough committee - which met last night - has produced perhaps four or five names of people willing to be contacts, Rye police will invite them to come to the police station and get the feel of things there. Chief Inspector Dyson feels that it is much easier for people to pass on information when they can visualise the set-up at the other end of the phone.
The Cadborough team will then, between them, call at every house in their respective patches, so that householders in their turn know the set-up at the other end of their phone (or, of course, which door to knock at if they prefer); and there will be a letter to each household from the Chief Constable, endorsing the scheme. After that, it is a case of just keeping one's eyes open. There is, we should make clear, absolutely no question of vigilante groups patrolling the streets - that only happens in late-night TV movies!
Chief Inspector Dyson pointed out that this scheme was in no way an alternative to the normal 999 procedure for getting hold of the police in an emergency. It is intended as an extra, and more for minor worries - but minor worries from four or five different households at once can begin to look like trouble viewed as a whole, and trouble is, after all, what the police are for. Cadborough Jubilee Social Club started in the Queen’s Jubilee year, primarily as a social group open to all those living in its area, and this is its most ambitious undertaking so far. Its area runs from the top of Cadborough hill to the Tillingham bridge, including West Undercliff, the Old Brickyard and Ashenden Avenue - but not the Tilling Green Estate, which might well consider setting up its own system?
2.
Mr. Donald Henley, who died very suddenly on 27 August while out driving with a friend, was 53. Mr. Henley worked for Rye Motors, after some time in employment in Udimore and many years before that on the staff of Rye Borough Council; he had trained as a carpenter with Messrs. Burnhams. He lived in Rope Walk with his two sisters, for whom the whole town has every sympathy. The funeral took place on Monday.
As part of its energy-saving drive, the County Council is proposing to reorganise the street lighting in the centre of Rye. This is a three-year project and is still in the consultation state, though apparently the only people who have been consulted are the Town Council and (presumably) the Conservation Society. We think it needs a wider airing than this, and have therefore been making enquiries.
The present lighting fittings are old but by no means antique, in poor order and expensive to repair, and the County Council feels that the time has come for a clean sweep. The energy conservation bit comes with a sting in its tail; instead of the old-fashioned light bulbs (tungsten lighting) we shall find ourselves with sodium lights. But don't panic! There are two sorts of sodium lighting: "low-pressure” which is cheapest to run, yellow in colour and normally nowadays used for street lighting everywhere; and "high-pressure" which is more expensive to run than low-pressure but still a lot cheaper than tungsten and was described to us as being pinky-white. This high-pressure type is what the Council intends to use throughout the Conservation Area, and it can now be studied in the two sample lamps in The Mint which we mentioned last week. It is certainly a lot less horrible than the yellow, in fact really quite pleasant; and the reason we are getting it is that the County Council does appreciate the rather special character of the centre of Rye.
For the benefit of our out-of-town readers, we can best describe the proposed lamps as a more restrained version of the type that appears on Christmas cards – agreeably traditional in shape and made of black aluminium alloy. There is an alternative in copper (soon to appear in The Mint, if not already there) which is similar in shape and would apparently weather down to the normal coppery-green in due course; Lewes has negotiated a good price for this version, and the cost is not a great deal more than for the black lamps. Mr. Ken Shaw, of the Street Lighting Section at Lewes, says that he is aware that the trial lamps are hung too high at present - what is standard height elsewhere is not-right for our small-scale town, and the final height will be about 15 feet from the ground.
Mr. Shaw says that we have, in effect, no choice about the high-pressure sodium lighting - there is no way anyone gets tungsten lights nowadays because of the cost of running them. When we spoke to him last week, he had had no feedback from Rye about the lights. The Mayor tells us that the Town Council has considered the matter and is waiting to study the sample lamps before producing a recommendation; but the Council would definitely prefer to retain the tungsten lighting.
At a preliminary meeting in June between Mr. Shaw and some of the Town Council members, a display board was produced with photographs of what was proposed for the whole area. This appeared briefly at the Conservation Society AGM the following evening, but as far as we know it has not been on general display in the town at all. We think it would be very helpful if it could go on public view for two or three weeks, so that ordinary citizens can have a look at it and send in their comments and suggestions to the Town Council for transmission to Mr. Shaw and his team at Lewes, before anything final is done. After all, individual people know the lighting needs of their own few yards of street in a way that the Town Council can't possibly do, let alone staff at Lewes. If a display can be arranged, we shall of course publicise it in the GAZETTE. We suggest that the window of the old Ferry Road offices would be a possible site, now that they no longer contain Council notices?
(As for the Udimore Road lights, Mr. Shaw says they will be yellow sodium; one of the contractors' men says he is installing tungsten lights. We await the final switch-on with great interest!)
THE RYE GAZETTE, 7.9.83 - page 3
Promptly at 9 am on Monday, Councillor WD Jones, DFC, the Chairman of Rother District Council, turned the key in the door of the new Council Office in Cinque Ports Street and stepped inside. He was followed by two of our Rother Councillors, Mr. Shackleton and Mrs. Tomich; by our County Councillor Mrs. Yates; by the Mayor, Mr. Simpson; by Rother's Chief Executive Mr. Harding, its area representative Mr. Cranston and Mr. Scott of the Technical Services Department; and by Patrick Osborne, who built it. Declaring the office open for business, Councillor Jones pointed out that it was proof of Rother's intention to maintain its Rye presence, which had at one time been in some doubt. Certainly the office will be more conveniently situated for those dealing with Rother's various services, including rent and rates and housing generally, planning, and tourist information (in the end the tourist office moved with the rest because of complications over the phone - so the station kiosk might now be available for use as a bus shelter?).
Downstairs, the office is partitioned into two sections, one (heavily security-treated) for rent and rates, etc., and the other for tourist information. It has a tiny kitchenette, a cloakroom and a back office where the excellent photocopier keeps company with the filing. Upstairs is Mr. Cranston's office, complete with the impressive desk which must, he says, have been in the possession of Rye Borough Council for a very long time. (Does anyone know where it came from in the first place?) There is also a small office for use by the Citizens Advice Bureau, the housing assistant on his regular visits, and various other "surgeries"; and a larger room at the back for meetings, also with an imposing Edwardian table and chairs.
First rent-payer was Mr. Sherwood of Pottingfield Road; and by the time the official party had finished their coffee upstairs, Mrs. Leopold was already busy coping with her regular influx of visitors on the tourists' side. The representatives of Rye looked rather doubtful about the size of this section, though Rother presumably think it is big enough; time will tell.
Mr. Harding tells us that the site of the Ferry Road offices is definitely to be "appropriated" for housing purposes, but he refused to be drawn into giving further details just yet. Mrs. Yates was particularly pleased to be at the opening. Long before the Regent Cinema stood there, she told us, the site had been occupied by the Cinque Ports Assembly Rooms (where Ellen Terry appeared on stage) with the Bijou behind, and this complex had been part of the Cinque Ports Hotel of which her parents had at one time been landlords.
A little while ago Jo Kirkham received an anonymous letter - anonymous in the sense that it was just signed "An Old Ryer" - complaining that there was no longer anywhere to sit at the top of Rope Walk. (We all remember the sunny bench by the pump, a regular meeting-place for some of the older men before it vanished in the rebuilding.) At Jo's suggestion, the Town Clerk rang Rother's Parks and Gardens Department to ask if they had a spare seat - and we are pleased to report that one appeared the very next day and is now in very regular use. Thank you, Old Ryer; thank you, Jo; and thank you, Mr. Hudson, for this swift and obviously much-appreciated action.
Four Rye boys (Anthony Wickenden, Peter Ashbee, Simon Bourne and Adam Nunn) were playing in the Rye and District Under-14 XI which enjoyed three closely contested games in the Sussex Junior Festival competition last month. Eastbourne won by 33 runs at Rye, but Rye won by two wickets at Hastings and by four at Bexhill, which seems a good omen for the Thomas Peacocke School XI in three years' time. The team also beat Hastings Colts by one wicket at the Central Ground in Hastings.
4.
A simple enquiry to Rother at Battle about the flying of the red "no bathing" flag at Camber revealed the existence of a summer-only job which we had not hitherto known of: the Coast Inspector. The Inspector is responsible for the whole stretch of coast from Pett to the Jury's Gap coastguard cottages, but his main problems tend to be at Camber, where there can be some 10,000 people on the beach on a fine day in the high season. An ex-policeman, he has his office in the Central Car Park, and is in charge of Rother's litter-collecting team as well as dealing with car parks, lost children, and calls for the ambulance and the rescue boat. He decides when the red no-bathing flag should be flown; and he also decides when the orange flag should be run up to warn against the use of inflatables (there are people who think it should be up all the times). This orange flag is Rother's own idea, since there are often days when Camber beach is perfectly safe for swimming but an offshore wind or falling tide can have someone heading very swiftly to France, and disaster, on an inflatable.
Ideally either or both flags should be hauled up or taken down whenever the weather shifts; but of course the litter team who actually deal with them are not on duty all the time, which accounts for why there is sometimes a flag flying when there seems no reason for it. Rother has, of course, no statutory obligation to fly flags at all, and the final responsibility must lie with the swimmer - or, of course, with the parents. Mr. Bridges, whose department all this is, tells us that he is horrified at the feckless way some parents will leave quite young children unwatched on the beach for long periods. We heard a story recently (which we hope is exaggerated) about a couple who realised that it was four hours since they had seen their son and his inflatable; the rescue boat tore out, but fortunately the lad was found playing happily further along the beach. At the other end of the scale, of course, is the man who asked the Coast Inspector to send for the rescue boat to pursue his lilo - there was no-one on it, he just wanted it back.
Incidentally, Humphrey Lestocq reports that the lifeboat season has been extended this year until the end of November, as that month often brings trouble.
A sad disappointment for Rye Sea Cadets last weekend: their champion Mirror dinghy crew, after competing successfully in the Area contest at Portsmouth (the regatta held on Castle Water was at District level), were due to take part in the National Championships at Plymouth. Jeremy Gray and Peter Bolton, both aged 14 and living in Rye, went down there with their boat, along with all the other competitors from all over the country; but as we all know, the weather suddenly turned perilous, and the event had to be cancelled. However, both boys will be representing the Southern Area in the canoeing championships at Nottingham on 24 and 25 September, and we do wish them better luck then.
On Sunday, 25 September, Rye Police Station will be holding an Open Day. This is by no means an annual event, so book it in your diary if you would like the opportunity not only to see over the station itself, but also to meet the various specialist teams who can be called on when they are needed - the diving unit, the dog-handlers, the mounted patrol, the finger-print people, the closed-circuit TV... Rye hopes to have all these around on the day, if they are not called away on urgent business elsewhere. Anyway, there will soon be posters round the town giving full details.
There are more rumours going round about the future of the Library (not just ours). Apparently, a document was "leaked" which should have been confidential, though unfortunately not to us! However, Mrs. Yates tells us that it will be a December committee meeting which considers the position, so nothing is likely to happen before the New Year, or more probably the new financial year in April. She would be glad to hear from people with ideas which might help to save money in the library service - or of course make money for it, as we hope the photocopier does.
5.
People who were disappointed to miss Barry Funnell speaking to the National Trust last year on "Romney Marsh Churches" will be pleased to know that he is giving the lecture again on Saturday, 24 September, at 2.30 at the Community Centre. Mr. Funnell is, of course, a well-known speaker locally, and we can be sure of some splendid slides to go with his talk. The National Trust local centre are planning a follow-up to the talk next year when one of their outings will tour as many of the Marsh churches as can conveniently be fitted in.
Another follow-up to a Trust lecture is on Saturday, 15 October, when a coach will be going to the Wallace Collection in London - Peter Hughes is speaking on this at the Community Centre on Friday, 7 October, at 7.30.
A new keep-fit class starts in Rye this week. Frances Candy is running Jane Fonda workouts at the Squash Club in Military Road, on Thursday evenings from 6.30 to 7.30, and Monday afternoons from 2 to 3. Cost is £2 per session, and those who are really keen can attend on both days. The classes, says Miss Candy, are intended to make her students stronger, firmer and more supple, and use all the muscles for overall-keep-fit effect; and they are a help towards losing weight for people already on a diet. Ladies who would like to join the class should ring Miss Candy on Hastings 426235.
Janet Denny told us last week that she wished the GAZETTE would say, on behalf of the Rye shopkeepers, how very helpful Rye police were when shoplifters were caught. Recently, she said, a gang of French students were not only made to return their thefts to the shops involved, but also made to apologise to the shopkeepers in front of the customers!
Much impressed, we went to see Chief Inspector Dyson to check up on this. Yes, he said, some French schoolchildren from one of the language schools further along the coast were caught red-handed; they were escorted back to the rest of their party, contained in two coaches in the Goods Yard car park. Police questioning of the entire 59 students produced 19 who admitted a total of 30 shop-lifting offences. These, with a staff representative, were kept at Rye police station for the best part of the day, missing the trip to Canterbury which was the coaches' destination. They were made to return the property stolen and were then spoken to very severely at the station through their interpreter; the Chief Inspector pointed out that they had brought shame on themselves, their school and their country, and that French children would henceforward be less than welcome in the town. The whole exercise, said the Chief. Inspector, took up a lot of police time; but it certainly sounds pretty terrifying, and one hopes that perhaps it produced an effect on the escorting language school staff as well as on the young thieves.
As for our Rye-based students, we have heard from two households who have both been very happy with their foreign visitors. One family has had boys for some years now, and Mum says firmly that if you treat them like you do your own, even to a clip round the ear when called for, you don't get trouble. She told them to be in for the night half-an-hour before she really expected them; she asked them what they liked to eat, and the answer was chips. The other family had girls: last year a pair of 14-year-olds, and this year two aged 20, one Spanish and one French. Here Mum would have liked more for them to do in the evening, particularly the younger pair; the older ones were much more helpful and thoughtful about the house, but they did have enormous appetites!
Both hostesses said that they learn by experience what is and is not necessary to keep the young visitors contented, and both are obviously looking forward to next year. What is puzzling is that Hastings host families are paid £5 per week more per child than Rye families, who are asked to provide exactly the same service. We had always understood that, for people who could face living in Hastings at all, it was in general cheaper than Rye.
6.
We are glad to report that the Pavement Artist Chalk-In (non-competitive this year) defied the weather, and the results were still there on Saturday afternoon to amuse visitors to the Gun Garden. Obviously it had been a family outing in some cases, to judge from the signatures. Evelyn Underwood had clearly benefited from her Lower School classical studies; Jonathan Williams and Caroline Poole had drawn local scenes, and Rebekah Smith had a really excellent study of the Ypres Tower. Lucy Hadfield had very carefully depicted the ship from the Rye Seal, though Susie Wheeler's fish-tank was rather more domestic. Rebecca and Alex Lee drew a garden, bugs and all, and William Maby had a shocking-pink monster (or perhaps he's not very good at drawing cats?). Chris Elliott appeared to be illustrating a colourful acre of mediaeval strip farming - until one noticed the tractor on the horizon! And all that was only a few of the entries.
Last year they were still there for the band concert on the Sunday afternoon; but that was rained off this time, or rather rained into St. Mary's which offered both band and audience sanctuary.
We understand that the opening concert, with Gemini under Peter Wiegold, Richard Stilgoe narrating Edith Sitwell's words to William Walton's music for "Facade", and Margaret Field singing German cabaret songs of the 1920s with a political slant, had a good audience. One ticket-holder who had gone primarily from a sense of duty told us that she found it a very enjoyable evening; for those who went in the expectation of enjoyment it must have been very rewarding indeed.
At the Festival Service on Sunday morning in St. Mary's, Lesley Brownbill conducted Ryesingers in Kodaly's Missa Brevis, with Charles Proctor at the organ.
Geraldine McEwan's entertainment "Two Inches of Ivory" was pure delight to a packed audience at the Community Centre on Sunday evening. For some 90 minutes she acted all the parts in some half-dozen extracts from Jane Austen's novels, changing her character simply by her tone of voice or a turn of the head. It was interesting to have a selection of the immortal Jane's creations brought into an unusual proximity outside, as it were, their home ground; and interesting, too, to make a comparison with E.F. Benson's characters more than a century later - and indeed with the equivalents of both today! Small-town people don't change much, it seems.
Freda Gardham School is without a lollipop-person for the Fishmarket Road crossing and was on Friday without one for New Road as well. Our traffic warden helps out when she can, but she is 50% understaffed at present. There is apparently no possibility of restoring the one-time pedestrian crossing there - a traffic count in June was under the level required for this. Perhaps there is a case for the pedestrian equivalent of the village car-ferry, with mothers taking turns to escort the children from their area? Or is anyone interested in taking up the lollipop?
"Dawn Rose" is not just a pretty name for a baby shop; it happens to be the Christian names of the aunt and niece from Hastings who are the proprietors of the new shop which completes the Cinque Ports Street terrace. At no. 44 (phone Rye 222294) they aim to cover every need of children up to the age of 18 months and intend to extend the age range to four before long. As well as baby-clothes, Dawn Rose sells cradles and prams and nursery furniture, plus lots of mobiles and other attractive baby presents. A very pretty shop, to match the name; we wish them well.
As well as the new management's first selection of winter clothes, Frank Golden is launching a new line from Denmark: Sodahl's unusual range of table and kitchenware complete with fabric and even wallpaper to match the crockery. It certainly makes a very eye-catching window display.
7.
The Workers Educational Association are this year running four winter lecture courses in Rye. One, on twentieth century poetry by Basil Dowling, does not start until after Christmas, so we shall give details nearer the time; and there is not much information yet on the Music Appreciation course by George Veness and Kathryn Bennetts on Wednesday evenings from 28 September, for 20 weeks.
However, any people who were not actually his students will have heard about Graham Mayhew's lively course on Rye which was so much enjoyed last winter, and this year he is tutor for a follow-up course on Tudor Rye which will "aim to examine what Tudor Rye was actually like - the street environment, living conditions and wage levels, the impact of epidemics and disease, and the ways in which the town responded to the challenges of a shifting coastline and silting harbour". Dr. Mayhew intends the course to be not only for teachers and local historians but for anyone interested in the development of the town in its heyday. There are 20 meetings on Mondays at 7.30 at the FEC, starting on 26 September.
A shorter, ten-week English Literature course has Clifford Gillam talking on T.S. Eliot's Selected Poems, and two novels by Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse (recently a television play). The Thursday afternoon sessions (from 29 September) will include discussion on the writers' techniques and some recordings of the poems. For all the WEA classes, students should simply turn to enrol at the first meeting of their chosen course.
Those who wish to take the Adult Education courses run by the Hastings College of Further Education at the FEC or Thomas Peacocke School should enrol on 19 and 20 September, between 7 and 9 pm at the FEC, or by post (see the booklet obtainable from the FEC or Library). There is on offer, as usual, a full range of courses; whether they will survive the first few weeks of term will depend on how many students have both time, money, transport and inclination not only to enrol but to persist when it is a wet night with something good on the telly! New courses this year include a one-term "Introduction to Computers" by Mr. F. Laferton at Upper School; a four-week study of the Oberammergau passion plays; and an eight-week course on "Energy in the Home" based on an Open University course.
As ever, there are courses on dressmaking, typing (this one, we hear, books up very quickly), various forms of physical activity from yachting to yoga; lapidary and lacemaking and ladies-keep-fit (and in this context, there is also the Jane Fonda course we preview elsewhere in this issue). There are three layers of French course and two of Car Maintenance, and five separate art courses of one kind or another. No excuse for laziness for any of us this winter!
Rye Golf Club (apply to the Secretary) is looking for someone who could make suitable use of the old tram station near the harbour master's house across the river from Rye Harbour. The building has been used as a store by the Southern Water Authority who have now moved out. The Golf Club is anxious that whatever happens to it shall not mean an increase in traffic down the private road to the river, which is only open to people having business with the harbour master or keeping their boats at the Admiralty jetty. They therefore see it as a store used by, perhaps, a group of boat-owners, or fishermen based that side of the river.
The building, which has several rooms, is beginning to look a little weary, and needs minor repairs; but the Golf Club would not want rent for it, only the rates and insurance paid and the place kept in reasonable order. It was, of course, the first station for the Camber tram, started in 1895; the eventual terminus, near the coastguard cottages, vanished long ago, and the Golf Club would be sorry to see this one go the same way. But because of traffic problems they had to turn down an otherwise interesting proposal to use it for a railway museum. Is there anyone who will take pity on this rather pathetic relic of the Camber tram? It is, after all, the last remnant of that much-loved institution.
8.
Thursday, 8th NSPCC coffee morning, Town Hall, 10 to 12
Guided walk, Literary Rye, Basil Dowling, Easton Rooms 2.30
Saturday, 10th Rye and District Flower Club show, FEC, 10 to 4 (see below) Strand Ensemble (buskers for children) Town Hall courtyard, 11
Songs from Ryesingers, Town Hall courtyard, 2
Sunday, 11th St. Mary's Patronal Festival
Tuesday, 13th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship meeting, Red Cross, 10.30
Wednesday, 14th Arthritis and Rheumatism Council coffee morning, 26 Cadboro' Cliff
• For those desperate for a jumble sale or its equivalent, the next one we know of is the Rye Lions charity shop on 29 September and the two days following.
• Welcome to Dr. Jonathan King and his wife Dallas, who have just arrived in Rye from the United States to take over the ministry of Rye Methodist Church for a year. Dr. and Mrs. King come from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Dr. King has been Minister for the past nine years. They have visited England before, but only London, and are looking forward to their year in Rye; they are of course living in the New Winchelsea Road house recently vacated by the Pykes. We hope they will feel most welcome in the town and be very happy here.
• Congratulations to Simon Winkworth, also of New Winchelsea Road, through whose letterbox via Welbeck College came another very nice set of science A-levels: four passes including 2 As and a B. Simon joins the new intake at Sandhurst this month and hopes to go into the Royal Engineers in due course.
• Congratulations, too, to Joy Mathews of Brede and Christopher Spencer of Iden, who were married in Brede Church on Saturday, followed by a reception at the bride's home - in a marquee which must have been gale-proof! Members of Rye Movie Society made a film record of the wedding. The couple will live in Bath, where they are both on post-graduate courses.
• Rye and District Flower Club members are expanding their 1983 show to include stalls (some of particular interest to flower arrangers) and refreshments. This year's show is entitled "From Cottage to Castle in Flowers" and will be open to the public all day on Saturday at the FE Centre. Donations from the proceeds will go to Cancer Relief and the Sussex Kidney Trust.
• The subject for the Movie Society's first meeting of the new season, on Friday was Welcome Back; members showed their holiday films taken at home and abroad.
• Rye Tennis Club is looking for a groundsman or woman to work about 20 hours a week (perhaps rather less in winter and more in summer), with some gardening skill, since as well as mowing and generally tending the grass courts the rest of the Club's ground needs keeping in trim. The Club wants someone capable of working unsupervised, and Jonathan Jempson on Rye 222052 would be glad to hear from anyone, particularly an older person, interested in the job.
• After a successful trial run a couple of years ago, the local branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society is organising another Discover-Read event through Thomas Peacocke Lower School. Pupils will be inviting sponsorship on the basis of the number of books read over the next six weeks, and this year the local committee is being allowed to count the money so the result should get back to the school soon after half-term. Please support this unusual venture.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office. It is published by Mrs. Mary Owen at 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303), and news items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline is Monday afternoon, or 9 am on Tuesday for emergency. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesdays. A few spare copies may be available at Squirrels, Banisters' Corner, Cinque Ports Street.
(Copyright Nary Owen 1983)