SUBSCRIPTIONS If you will be away for Christmas you might like to ensure delivery of your GAZETTE on 4 January by paying your next quarter's subscription in good time. Everyone has paid up to 21 December, and we are not printing on 28 December. Six-monthly subscribers have already paid until 28 March and their copies are ticked (half-yearly subscriptions are only available in March and September). The subscription for the 13 weeks from 4 January to 28 March 1984 is £3.25 - cheques should be made payable to THE RYE GAZETTE, please.
... anyway for the moment, says Mrs. Joan Yates. She was, of course, talking about the County Library Committee meeting on Friday at which the leaked report about cutting out fiction from library shelves was discussed. This particular" proposal was part of a series of alternatives contained in a report to the Committee, and Mrs. Yates tells us that they not only turned the whole lot down but also produced a workable solution to tide matters over for the present. The member for Wadhurst suggested that if a building in Hove which at present houses records, and has a flat on top, were sold, the records could be kept in another library building in the town; and the sale proceeds would go to Library funds.
Some cuts will still have to be made from current expenditure, and the Committee agreed reluctantly that here the book purchasing fund would have to suffer. In this connection, Mrs. Yates asks us to remind readers that the library is always glad to be offered modern books in good condition for its shelves, since books are now becoming so expensive that donations of this kind are a real help to the book fund. But if the Committee's recommendations are approved by the full Council in February, it will mean that library services are rescued yet again - though, as Mrs. Yates says, the situation is reminiscent of the old movies where week after week the heroine was snatched from disaster only just in time!
We thought we had a bad-news story this week, but it has now, happily, turned into really good-news one.
Some time ago we referred to Post Office plans for reorganisation in Cinque Ports Street, to incorporate the old Sussex Express office; these will also incorporate the site of the present phone boxes. As readers will be aware, the Post Office and British Telecom are now separate enterprises, so the Post Office gave British Telecom notice to put their phone boxes somewhere else. The bad-news story surfaced when British Telecom asked Rother for permission to put the three boxes in the Town Wall car park. Rother had no objection, but it did seem a disastrously inconvenient site for people using the phones, particularly those arriving in the town by bus or train.
However, British Telecom tell us that they are now reconsidering the position, and the boxes are likely to be sited - much more conveniently than at present - somewhere in the station approach, subject to negotiations with British Rail.
This sounds like a happy outcome for everyone and recalls the days before the new Post Office was built when there used to be a phone box by the entrance to the market. Moreover, the Post Office at Hastings assure us that they don't want to inconvenience the public and will not insist on the old boxes being removed until British Telecom are able to instal the new ones.
PS from the Post Office: Tuesday saw both Rye and Cadborough offices with new supplies of the cheap-offer stamp books we mentioned last week, but supplies are definitely limited and could well have run out again by the time you read this.
2.
There has been nothing about this in the press book, but we hear of three recent cases where people did - or, fortunately for one lady, didn't - lose handbags in the town. In one case, now sub judice so we can't give details, an onlooker trailed the villains to their car and passed the number to the police with, we gather, a happy conclusion on the outskirts of Hastings! This is obviously the time of year when a very careful watch, not to say clutch, should be kept on handbags and purses by those shopping in the town.
The police have now set up a Crime Alert scheme for the middle of the town; the community co-ordinator can be reached on Rye 223125, and residents in the area have received their instructions. Chief Inspector Dyson would now like to extend the scheme to outlying areas, and will be glad to hear from those who would be willing to act as co-ordinators in New Winchelsea Road, The Grove, New Road/King's Avenue, Military Road/North Salts, and the Tilling Green Estate.
One day last summer a customer gave Mrs. Pauline Meyer at The Decorator's Warehouse a £20 note for a small purchase. She wondered; she fingered the note and wondered even more. Making an excuse about change to summon her husband Tony, she passed the problem to him; and he suggested that perhaps they could change the note at the bank - or maybe the police station? The purchaser made off; Pauline rang the police; Tony chased him to the car park and took the number of his car, and the police stopped it soon afterwards. The sequel to all this came up at Rye Magistrates Court on Wednesday, when the magistrates commended Mr. and Mrs. Meyer for their actions. They had also been thanked by the police at the time - and Pauline was gratified to learn that it had been rather a good forgery, as these things go!
The Museum Association held its Christmas party at the Town Hall on Friday, and the National Trust (Rye and Winchelsea Centre) followed with its own event at the Community Centre on Saturday; both occasions were very much enjoyed.
Tickets are available at the Easton Rooms or from Friends of the Rye Art Gallery committee members for the Christmas Ball at the George Hotel on Saturday, 17 December. This is a repeat of last year's very successful event, the only full-dress occasion in Rye over the Christmas season as far as we know; tickets are £5 each and include refreshments. The band is also the same as last year, Dr. Jazz, and dancing continues from 8.30 to midnight; and the organisers invite revellers of all ages to put on their best clothes and join the party.
(We have only just learnt that those who buy party wine at the Spar shop in Cinque Ports Street can borrow glasses free (though don't leave the booking too late). John Ciccone tells us that wine is supplied on a sale-or-return basis, with payment after the event. Both Roberts and Victoria Wine in the High Street make similar arrangements for party-givers.)
A coach-full of National Trust members went to London recently - though they got off at Harrods, some members much enjoyed a look at the new Costume Gallery recently reopened at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then went on to Apsley House. A similar trip run by Cadborough Jubilee Social Club enabled some passengers to visit relatives in London, as well as the Christmas shopping which was the object of the journey.
Shopping is not the object of a coach trip which the RAF Association is taking to the RAF Museum at Hendon on Saturday, 28 January - though some wives may have realised that the Brent Cross Centre is not far away! The coach leaves Rope Walk at 8.30, back in Rye between 7 and 8, and the trip costs £2.50 (this does not include entry to those parts of the Museum for which a charge is made, but the main section is free). Seats are filling fast, so contact Gordon Stanbridge (0424 882589) or Graham Trill (225548).
Graham's Coaches are also offering an excursion to the London Sales on 3 January (£3.25) and to the Brighton Ice Revue on 8 January (£7.50 for seat and coach fare). And Davies have a trip to London next Wednesday (14th) to include a tour of the lights (Rye 222329).
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 7.12.1983
On Saturday evening, the station approach was full of expectant children and their parents, and even grandparents with no real excuse at all, admiring the remnants of a superb sunset, enjoying the music of the pipes, and waiting for Father Christmas's train to arrive. People who did not know what the Chamber of Trade had arranged, and who arrived for the Hastings train, must have wondered what on earth was going on - were the commuters of Rye picketing British Rail?
By the time the train with its very special passenger drew in, there must have been several hundred people waiting.
It was a little sad, therefore, that the red-cloaked figure was almost immediately lost in the crowd, invisible to many of his smaller admirers. The balloons had already been distributed at the station, and the procession moved at an extremely brisk pace up Market Road, past the George - turning on the Rotary tree (which promptly started smoking!) and the very pretty town lights - and ending up in the courtyard of the Town Hall. Here members of St. Mary's choir stood round the lit tree and sang a couple of carols - and it was all over. We hear of some disappointed small children who never managed to catch up with Father Christmas at all! But the pipers certainly gave a great deal of pleasure, playing and marching and playing again for the crowd waiting at the station, while their audience worried about their poor cold knees. Thank you very much, Pipe-Major Pat Trimby of Bexhill and Piper John Campbell of Hastings!
The Chamber of Trade is to be congratulated on its enterprise in arranging the event; next year, perhaps, better visibility and a slower pace? Could the Bonfire Boys maybe lend their Rye Fawkes chair and the firemen their strong shoulders?
Anyway, this will not be Father Christmas's only visit to Rye.
On Christmas Day morning, by arrangement with Rye firemen, he will be making his traditional rounds delivering parcels left at the fire station during the previous week (see posters for details). The delivery fee for each parcel is only 25p, though anyone who likes to give a bit more is very welcome to do so since the proceeds go to the National Firemen's Benevolent Fund.
And for small people who would like a chance to see the red cloak and white beard close up, the elderly gentleman will be receiving his friends and admirers at the children's shop in Lion Street, Quarter Belle, on each of the three Saturdays from now to Christmas. A modest 50p will gain entrance to a magical silver grotto where Father Christmas will be delighted to meet his admirers and give each child a present. It is more than twelve years since he has made a regular appearance at a Rye shop, and he is glad to be back. But with regret he asks us to say that he must leave at 4 pm on all three days - he has other engagements on the 10th and 17th, and of course on Christmas Eve he is going to be very busy, harnessing up the reindeer and packing the sledge!
Rother Council is still trying to coordinate the arrangements for the 20 or so car parks under its care (an overall scale of charges came into effect in the autumn). A recent decision was to include the Gibbet Marsh car park among those for which a charge is made (during the summer only, when it is officially open). This will come as a blow to people living nearby who habitually park there; but Mr. Bridges of the Battle staff points out that by taking out season tickets to use that car park they also get free use of all the rest of the car parks under Rother's jurisdiction, not only in Rye but also in Bexhill. Restrictions about not returning within an hour have been removed from the "paying" car parks, though they do apply to the free one on Strand Quay and also now to the Rye Harbour Park.
The no-parking signs have now appeared in the Church Square area as promised (excluding of course the Gun Garden car park and approach, and Watchbell Street). It was certainly an improvement visually the other day; we hope it is also an improvement for those who live at that end of the town.
4.
Reports in both News and Express last week strike a depressing note for Rye; the Minister of Transport, visiting the A21 London-Hastings route, was questioned about the Rye/Winchelsea bypass situation and said firmly that Rye will have to wait its turn while the Winchelsea plans go ahead.
The News reports Mrs. Chalker as saying that her Department wanted to help families who had busy roads on their doorsteps and also that they always tried not to demolish houses if possible. On the face of it, this would seem to imply that the Minister would be against a railway route for Rye, since it would put a busy road through the middle of the town and involve the demolition of homes - so we shall keep the cutting for further reference, though we doubt if it counts as a serious promise!
Ken Warren, MP, wrote to Mrs. Chalker some weeks ago setting out the problem over the Rye route, so we asked if he had yet received an official answer. No, he said, he had not; but he had raised the matter with her during her A21 visit. She had said to him that the two routes could only be considered as one if Winchelsea's plans were deferred until Rye's were due. He felt that this was unacceptable, but has asked her to reconsider her decision.
(Jo Kirkham, however, feels that Winchelsea's position is different from that of many small places queueing up for a bypass. If it were not for the difficulty caused by a narrow road up a steep hill, would the village be anywhere near the top of the list, she wonders? As far as discomfort to residents goes, there are more houses being shaken to bits along South Undercliff and Fishmarket Road than there are along Tanyard Lane. She feels that the Winchelsea route is being planned primarily for the benefit of traffic rather than of householders; so would it really matter if it waited another 13 months so that it could be included in the Rye scheme?)
Another member of Mrs. Chalker's party on the A21 was the County Engineer for East Sussex, and Mr. Warren has asked him for details of the routes for a Rye bypass which were under consideration in the days when the County Council was the planning authority. We have already referred in the GAZETTE to discussions on the subject in the 1960s; but one Rye trader remembers bypass plans being put about in the early 1950s - can anyone throw more light on this?
We pass on complaints, so we are happy to pass on compliments too. A reader who sent in his questionnaire and comments early on (the closing date has been extended to 9 January) was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter of acknowledgement from the D o T a couple of days later.
And finally, we heard a suggestion about a bypass route which would involve no property demolition, no waste of agricultural land, no separating people from their communities: a trunk road from Folkestone to Brighton - running neatly along the edge of the beach, on stilts! Thank you, Mr, Kurrein; but we don't see much future for this outlandish (pardon the pun) idea.
Rye Conservation Society, founded in 1973, is anxious to extend its membership to represent every section of the local community, since it deals with quite utilitarian aspects of life in the town (e.g. the television booster station) as well as with planning matters; indeed, much of the time at a recent committee meeting was taken up with discussion about the bypass, and possible ways of persuading the D o T that Rye's must be considered at the same time as Winchelsea's.
The Society's membership secretary is Mr. Frank Palmer, 4 The Strand (Rye 222603), and he would be glad to hear from prospective new members or from present members who might be able to enlist the support of their friends. The Society has just published a helpful leaflet describing its aims and activities, and copies are available from Mr. Palmer. The subscription is only £2 a year (£3 for a husband and wife), and life subscriptions of £20 (£30) are also available. It does not seem a great deal of money to contribute towards the costs of a watchdog organisation for the appearance and amenities of the town.
5.
This week, regular customers at Mr. D.H. Wells's butcher's shop at Banister's Corner are receiving with their meat a letter from Mr. Wells, breaking the bad news that the shop is to close at the end of the year. Mr. Wells has decided that the time has come to retire, and though he would have liked to sell the business as a going concern this did not prove possible, and he has now sold the premises to a private buyer.
It is always sad to report the closure of a long-established Rye business, and this one is very long-established as a butcher's shop. One customer tells us that his family have bought their meat there for 60 years. Indeed, Mr. Wells's assistant and friend Mr. Derek Cope has worked there for 32 years; Mr. Wells himself started on the staff in 1963, and with a partner took over the shop when it was threatened with closure at the end of 1966. This Christmas will be, he tells us, his 46th in the trade!
Mr. Wells and Mr. Cope both live in Peasmarsh, and both, it is clear, have plans for the coming years which will keep them busy. We hope that we shall still see them around Rye a good deal and wish them both every success for the future.
Those who have always hankered for the sort of food that once graced a Victorian family dining-table can now pamper their palates in Rye. Prue and Tony still run the restaurant next door to the police station in Cinque Ports Street; but it is now no longer "Peppers" but "Ma Beeton's", and the menu includes such old-fashioned delicacies as rabbit stew, game pie and haricot lamb. Puddings are available in the same tradition - though Prue will still have a children's menu of bangers and beans, fish fingers and ice-cream for those who have traditions of their own!
There will also be a range of salads and other vegetarian meals. This unusual approach will extend to the wine-list, which will include "home-made" wines such as elderberry - not actually made on the premises at present, but perhaps one day - and even that Olde Englishe beverage, mead. The restaurant is open for morning coffee, followed by lunch; they close from 3.30 to 7, and open again for dinner.
The Union Inn did indeed reopen on Friday, after some concentrated hard work on the interior of this fifteenth-century inn. The refurbishment has revealed many original features which no-one now living is likely to have seen before (now, there's a challenge to our older residents!), including an inglenook fireplace known to have been covered up for at least 200 years. The bar itself now has various interesting nooks and crannies and traces of at least two and possibly three vast fireplaces, not counting the one in the corner where a cheerful fire now burns, and a warm welcome in every sense awaits customers.
There is no formal restaurant, but an extensive and frequently changing range of bar meals is available under the direction of Terry Platini, well known to Rye diners and combining his work at the Union with the job of head chef at the Woolpack Inn at Warehorn; tables can be reserved in the small dining-room behind the bar. But the real object of a pub is to sell drink, and here the Union has the advantage of being a free house - they sell beer from three different breweries, and their list of English, French and German wines includes a real conversation piece, an 1822 madeira! There will be meals served on Christmas Day; and on 16 December John and Angie Matthews will be playing music of the Sixties and Seventies live for the pleasure of customers from 8.30. Vivian and the girls look forward to meeting regular patrons and newcomers at the Inn from now on.
The Lyons family, of Fairlight, have recently opened "The Card Shop" in the Landgate (in the premises from which the Children's Shop moved to Lion Street), and will welcome customers in search of cards, wrapping paper and similar items.
We also notice the arrival of an horologist (clock-maker) in Needles Passage, and a shop selling children's clothes in The Mint, but have no further information about either. Regular readers will know that we are always pleased to introduce (for free) new businesses opening in the town if the proprietors like to get in touch with the paper.
6.
We reported last week that Dennis and Maureen Townsend had applied to convert their Iden Pottery warehouse on Strand Quay into four shops and five maisonettes.
Hoping that all was well, we went to see them. All is indeed well - so much so, that the warehouse is just not suitable for the modern-type production Dennis now needs to carry on the business at an increasing level of trade. It looks large enough, to be sure; but the interior, though dramatic to the eye with its idiosyncratic floor-levels and endless staircases, is very inconvenient and contains a lot of unusable space.
The Townsends, we are glad to say, have their eye on somewhere local which would be suitable for the kind of production line they now need. But what to do with the warehouse? Rather to our surprise, when we looked at it we found it was not the blank-walled building we vaguely remembered. There were once three entrances, one now bricked up and one used as a sales area in the season; plus tall fanlight-topped windows on the first floor, and more conventional ones above.
Maureen showed us the plans. Of the four small shops on the ground floor, three face the Garden Shop, two built into the existing entrances and retaining the warehouse-door effect, and the fourth uses the bricked-up gateway on the Ship Inn side. The tall narrow shop-windows echo those above, and a brick archway spans each facade. Upstairs, ingenious dovetailing creates five two-bedroomed dwellings, sharing an entrance on the Ship Inn side. Surprisingly, the rooms have the normal number of windows without making any great alteration to the outside of the building; because of the varying floor-levels, a few windows would have to be moved slightly up or down and there would be, as far as we remember, one new one. But the plans show complete faithfulness to the distinctive design of the existing windows. And, finally, we can deny completely any rumours that the Townsends are proposing to pull the warehouse down and start again; it is not all that long since they paid out a lot of money to give it a new roof, which should be proof against our south-westerly gales for a good many years yet!
Curiously enough, this week's planning list contains another application to use the first floor of a Strand Quay warehouse as living accommodation: John Barrable, the glass-blower about whom we wrote some weeks ago, wants to put a manager's flat upstairs in Colebrooke's. There is also an application this week from Mr. and Mrs. Simmons of The Mint to use 11 High Street as a guest house and restaurant.
(We apologise to the lunch club for a misunderstanding last week) Mrs. Judy Brown has taken to verse to thank WRVS Lunch Club friends for her presents - she calls it "Gratitude from Judy" - "My plate looks lovely on the wall, brings happy memories of you all.
The card with all your names inside I can read when open wide,
Stands on the chest for me to see. I send you love and thanks from me.
And then my helpers, everyone worked so hard, but we had fun.
A lovely plant and card, so kind. Words of thanks are hard to
find."
The first Sunday Songs of Praise at Tilling Green was well attended by people of all ages, and the school's immense Christmas tree and nativity wall-hanging made an appropriate background for hymns, Advent and otherwise, old and new, punctuated with introductions and readings by the pastors of the Rye churches.
(The Editor's mind was still on the bypass: did someone really say
"The voice of one that crieth in the Regional Office, Prepare ye the way
of the Minister, make straight in an area of great landscape value an
highway for our Department; every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough places plain; and the glory of the A273 shall be revealed"
- or not?)
7.
Rye Festival this year is agreed to have been one of the most successful ever, artistically speaking; financially it made a loss, but not so much as had at first been feared. At the Council's AGM on Thursday, new officers were elected:
Carolyne Simpson as Artistic Director, Jim Simpson as Chairman, Barbara Maundrell as Hon. Secretary and Pat Payton as Hon. Treasurer. Support for Festival funds is invited at the coffee morning at the Town Hall on Saturday.
Thomas Peacocke Lower School children raised £243 (plus some extra money which missed the count) in aid of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, a total much helped by the efforts of Dean Blanchard of Camber whose sponsors contributed £52! Certificates are being presented to the hard-working readers this week.
Rye Sea Cadets are having a problem with their personnel carrier. A very successful summer of regional and national competitions has meant heavy use of their elderly minibus, and parents and supporters are starting a mammoth fund-raising exercise to replace it and supply other equipment for the cadets. They have received splendid support from local traders who have given goods for their Christmas Fair on 17 December - the last such event of the season. Holly is already promised, if you find yourself without any; and any further offers of things for sale will be gratefully received by Mrs. Thomson (Rye 224220) or Mrs. Southerden (Rye 223151).
We are very pleased to learn that when Mr. Harding retires in March as Chief Executive and Clerk of Rother District Council, his successor is to be Mr. David Powell, now Rother's Planning Officer. Mr. Powell has had a good deal to do with Rye in his present capacity, and it is good to know that the new hand at the helm will belong to someone who is aware of the town's rather special problems.
A desperate plea from the six people who spend Monday afternoons studying "Then World of Dickens" at the FE Centre: come on in, the water's fine! This class may sound a bit like school, but we are assured that it is not; the group reads in advance a few chapters of the book being studied (David Copperfield at present), and then the meetings turn into a kind of literary debating society, with views and interpretations exchanged and discussed and a general pleasant easy atmosphere. Tutor is Dr. David Lee. But six people is not enough; they need ten if the class is to continue after Christmas, and they need them to sign on now before it is too late. So, if you would like a friendly way of spending Monday afternoons for the second term of the course, see Mrs. Swaine at the FE Centre now, or ask for a brochure at the library.
The "Let's Celebrate" event on 17 December in the Methodist Church is, this time a special double offer. The speaker is Dom Benedict Heron, OSB, and at 4 he is talking on Renewal to St. Anthony's parishioners and everyone else who would like to come. At 6 there is a break for a meal (tea, etc., will be provided, but the participants are asked to bring food for sharing among the group); and at 7.30 Dom Benedict will speak again, this time on Healing.
The annual joint service with Rye, New York, was held at St. Mary's on Sunday - with, as it happens, five visitors from our American sister town in the church! Mrs. Kate Davson was over there a few weeks ago, and Mrs. Yates (who read the lesson) and Mrs. Kirkham have also visited Rye NY, so honours were fairly even, though we don't know if any Rye people happened to be on the spot for the Rye NY service held at the same time? Preacher at St. Mary's was our Methodist minister from the States, Dr. King. The date is also observed, Mrs. Kirkham tells us, at the Congregational Church in Rye, New Hampshire, which has become incorporated into this Anglo-American triumvirate since she and Tracy visited it a few years ago, and from which Rye has had quite a few visitors recently.
8.
Thursday, 8th National Trust stall, Town Hall, 9 to 12
Woolworths late opening for elderly and disabled shoppers
"Mastermind", St. Mary's, 7
"Toad of Toad Hall", TP Upper School, 7.30 (also Friday)
Friday, 9th CSRF coffee morning, FEC, 10.30 to 12
Blood Transfusion Service, Baptist Hall, 2 to 4, 5 to 7.45
Ken Warren MP's "surgery" by appointment, Council Offices, pm
Vidler & Co., special evening sale, 6
Draw for Town Lottery £1000 Town Hall, 7.30
Nat. Hist. Soc., "A Strange Market" by Harold Page, FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 10th Craft Market, FEC, 10 to 4
Rye Festival Council coffee morning, Town Hall, 10 (see p. 7)
Sunday, 11th Attic Sale, Community Centre, 10 to 1
Monday, 12th Winchelsea Floral Group AGM and party, George Hotel, 7.30
Tuesday, 13th Tilling Green School Christmas concert (afternoon)
Freda Gardham infants' nativity play (afternoon)
Hill House carol service, Playden Church, 2.15
Lower School carol service, Ferry Road, 7
St. Mary's Tuesday Club play-reading, Rectory, 7.30 (see below)
Wednesday, 14th BRCS Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Rye WI AGM, FEC, 7
• Apologies if your GAZETTE appears this week at an unusual time; Rye Police now have a weekly press conference on Wednesday morning, which means an alteration to our delivery pattern.
• We are very glad to hear that Mr. Vic Rootes, of Ashenden Avenue, is now making a good recovery in St. Helen's after two recent operations.
• A grateful user of Winton's Steps would like us to thank ESCC Highways Department staff for mending the handrail.
• Congratulations to Louis Turpin, who held an exhibition of recent paintings at his home in Udimore Road on Saturday - very successfully, we are glad to say.
• Congratulations, too, to PC Ellis of Rye Police, who has got through to the third round of the Sussex Police County Squash Championships.
• A reminder that next week's GAZETTE will include a list of all Town Diary bookings up to the end of March, so please let us have your 1984 dates now.
• Visitors will be welcome at the Rectory on Tuesday, when St. Mary's Tuesday Club members are reading the play "Toad of Toad Hall" for everyone's enjoyment.
• Ginny Fox's Christmas cards (5p in aid of Playden Church) are now on sale at the Rye Bookshop, and at the WRVS office - as well as at Playden Cottage and at St. Michael's Vicarage in (sorry!) Fair Meadow.
• The two Christmas Fairs on Saturday were both well supported. The British Legion Women's Section raised £260 plus a further £150 which went straight back to the Disabled Men's Workshops at Maidstone; and Rye Playgroup, with the help of Father Christmas, cleared £316 (Francis Hadfield won the hamper in the raffle).
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303). News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon, or Tuesday 9 am for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly, and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday; extra copies and back numbers can be ordered from 94 Udimore Road, while a few spares are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1983)