A GAZETTE already much concerned with the novels of E F Benson (see pages 4 and 7) seems a very suitable place to report good news about Lamb House. Sir Brian Batsford tells us that the National Trust is considering rebuilding the Garden Room, destroyed by a bomb in August 1940. When the Trust took over the property ten years later, it was decided not to rebuild but to spend the money on the main house; but there is now the likelihood of money coming from America - Henry James, perhaps Lamb House's most famous resident, was of course an American. The building would be an exact replica of the original room, which is well documented by photographs both inside and out. It was built by James Lamb in about 1740 as a banqueting hall, probably using the same architect who designed the Town Hall.
Sir Brian wonders whether local opinion would be in favour of rebuilding? We feel sure it would, since the Garden Room was an integral part not only of our best-known house but also of the whole street and hence the town. The replacement of a building which for two centuries stood in the middle of Rye is, in our view, not to be sniffed at. As we report elsewhere in this issue, the "Mapp and Lucia" series will go out on Channel 4 in the autumn, and doubtless on foreign television stations as well in due course. It will certainly draw many visitors to the town; how nice if in perhaps two years' time they will be able to see it in reality as it was depicted on the screen.
Rye produced marvellous weather this year for the President's Putter, the annual competition of the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society. All too often it blows a sleety gale, or even snows, but after a bad start on the Thursday there were three clear if cold days for the later rounds -classic Putter weather, said the new Golf Club Secretary, Mr. Oliver Lough. (He didn't tell us, but we hear that Mr. Lough captained the Oxford side just after the war.)
A large number of spectators watched Sunday's three rounds, one of which ended at the 17th hole and the other two at the 19th (which in this context means a sudden-death play-off and is not a joke about the clubhouse bar!). Last year's winner, cricketer Ted Dexter, was strongly favoured to win for a second time; he beat the Welsh international Tony Disley in one semi-final. The other was between the Society's new Captain, John Uzielli (Oxford) and 20-year-old Andy Edmond (Cambridge), a close and exciting match with Edmond winning at the 19th - the first time since Leonard Crawley's day, Mr. Lough thinks, that a Captain of the Society has come so near to winning the Putter. So the final was of course between two Cambridge men a generation apart, a thrilling match in doubt until the very last minute when Edmond clinched his victory, again at the 19th. He is still an undergraduate, in his third year reading Law at Trinity, and his home club is Ganton (somewhere north of Watford?); doubtless we shall be seeing more of him at Rye in the next twenty or thirty years. In any case, his yellow ball is the first to hang among the traditional white ones on the hallowed Putter in the Club.
Two of our leading citizens who were in hospital briefly over the holiday are now well on the way to recovery. Sir Brian Batsford is glad to be back at Lamb House after, he says, a very unexciting Christmas. And our Mayor, Mr. Bill Simpson, was in hospital over the New Year. Just before Christmas Mr. Simpson had what he thought was digestive trouble; but his family thought otherwise, and he found himself in the National Heart Hospital in London, receiving treatment for what was in fact a slight heart attack. Mr. Simpson is now back convalescing with his family; we hope to see him in Rye again later this month.
2.
Mr. Ernest Albert Fellows, of Cooper Road, died in hospital on Christmas Eve. He leaves a widow, son and daughter.
Mr. Selvin Norman Martin, also of Cooper Road, died in hospital on Christmas Day; he was 85, and leaves a widow. Mr. Martin, a carpenter by trade, will be long remembered in the town for his stalwart work as a fund-raiser for Rye United FC. Never a player himself, he raised hundreds of pounds over the years by selling lottery tickets in aid of the club - not just in Rye, but in the villages too, where he made many friends; and all done on foot, regardless of weather, until increasing age forced him to give up only a few years ago. At Mr. Martin's funeral on Friday, Mr. Sellman was present to represent the Club as a mark of respect to its staunchest supporter.
Mr. William George Leggett, of the Warden's Flat, Devonport House, died in hospital on Boxing Day, aged 70. Mr. and Mrs. Leggett came to Devonport House a little over 18 months ago, with Mrs. Leggett as Warden and Mr. Leggett in charge of all the maintenance work on the building. He had not been well since the late summer, and although he left hospital for a few weeks just before Christmas, he had had to return there a week before his death. The funeral has taken place, followed by interment at Rye Cemetery. There is great sympathy for Mrs. Leggett, who has of course continued to look after the House despite the strain of her husband's illness, and who even managed to arrange seasonal celebrations for the residents (a pre-Christmas lunch and a New Year party) in the midst of her own distress.
Mrs. Frances Bryant, of Fishmarket Road, died on New Year's Day. Mrs. Bryant, a widow, was 82.
Until the end of the week, the High Street gallery has an exhibition of work by pupils of Thomas Peacocke School. It would have been helpful, both to the staff, to your reviewer, and to visiting relatives of children with work on display, if the paintings and pottery had borne the name and age of the artist. There is, for instance, no indication of which figure studies in terra-cotta are modelled by Claire Farley, whose success in a regional competition we reported before Christmas. It would therefore be invidious, if tempting, to mention just the names of those who had the sense to put them on the front of their work; so we shall settle for generalisations.
The front room contains mainly Lower School work. There are some lovely papier-mache figures, notably a silver-and-green mermaid, and a bowl of paper fruit; a group of very competent pencil drawings by second-year pupils bear oddly sophisticated titles, and we were struck by an atmospheric painting of a pop group. The inner room has a range of pots and models (a beautifully made sole - fish, not footwear) - including what looks like a study of a flasher! Here, too, there were some quite outstanding pencil drawings, doubtless some of them 0 and A-level entries (pupils who left in the summer had their work included in the show); some admirable paintings; and one or two surreal works difficult to appreciate but presumably with meaning for the artist. There was an interesting group of letter patterns, though not very much purely abstract work in general. For next year, we would plead that even if names cannot be given, at least the artist's age should appear on each piece; it is difficult to give proper credit to the standards of the Art Department without any indication of where in the school the work comes from.
Rye Majorettes provided not only the entertainment at Greyfriars Christmas party recently, but also gave the Winchelsea home a clock for the common room. Two elderly ladies received the gift on behalf of the residents, and all enjoyed the programme put on by the small group which could be fitted into the room. The Majorettes' next appointment is at the Eversfield Chest Hospital - as entertainers, not patients! Mrs. Rosemary Wilkinson is now booking up for the coming year; phone (evenings) Rye 2251XX or 2220XX. The money they raise all goes to good causes, mostly local; they make no charge for their appearances, but they do welcome donations where appropriate.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 11 January 1984
Last week we reported on the inconvenient morning train proposed for the new time-table due to start in May. This week, without any warning to speak of, more inconvenience was inflicted on Rye train travellers. The thirty or so people who turned up for the popular 10.11 shopper's train to Hastings found themselves hanging about for a wasted quarter of an hour, since from last Saturday until April all the Saturday trains, except the very early ones, are retimed to cross over at 26 minutes past the hour instead of the normal 11 minutes past. We don't of course know how many people missed appointments or connections because of the changes, but if the station had thought to ring the GAZETTE beforehand, we could at least have warned readers in advance.
Anyway, going to Hastings, the 9.11 (etc.) becomes the 9.26 (etc.), reaching Hastings 23 minutes later; returning, the train leaves Hastings at 2 minutes past the hour instead of 47 minutes past. The last train leaves Rye at 23.26.
Going to London, the position is much more annoying. Try to get the 9.11 if you can, since the 10.11 (etc.) becomes the 10.27 (etc.) and takes almost two hours to get to London, going via Maidstone; this applies right through the day till the 21.27, which has a London connection; the 22.27 does not. And Heaven only knows what the down connections from Charing Cross for Rye are now!
This is all on Saturdays, just. There is no notice in the station about Sundays, but engineering works (the cause of the trouble) usually occupy the whole weekend, so we asked the passenger information service at Hastings. After a lot of thought, whispered consultations and rustling of pages, the consensus of opinion was that instead of the normal 10.11 train a bus would leave Rye at 9.49, reaching Ashford at 10.42 for a connection at 10.58; this would normally get to Charing Cross at 12.12 but, said Hastings, since it will be diverted by way of Maidstone and Chislehurst it will doubtless take longer. In fact, as far as we can see, it could easily take three hours to get from Rye to London on a Sunday; and as for getting home again... (We didn't dare ask what the last train was; but weekenders should be very cautious!) They did add that the bus would run hourly instead of the usual two-hourly train service; but there was a lack of conviction in the spokesman's voice that would have made us very wary Sunday travellers. For anyone who has to go, it would be well worth either checking the journey times from several sources, or having very open-ended plans for arrival.
And all this apparently goes on until April!
New fares are £1.60 for an awayday to Hastings, and £8.00 for an awayday to London; a single fare to London now costs £7.60.
John Smith of Ferry Road (who has been trying to persuade Ken Warren that while BR are electrifying the Tonbridge line they might as well do ours too) is not alone in suspecting British Rail of deliberately making travel on our line difficult. If passenger numbers drop, there is an excuse for closing the line and the bypass can replace it. D o T at Dorking deny this, but certainly the arrangements outlined above - and we have tried to get our facts right but do check - are not likely to tempt travellers.
A leaflet now being distributed in the town by Hastings College advertises two new classes starting in Rye this week. One, French for Holidays, begins today from 10 to 12 at the FE Centre and runs for 11 weeks. The other, Introduction to Computers, starts tomorrow; but the leaflet is misleading - if Hastings had consulted Anne Swaine, she would have told them that it was already fully booked up, with a waiting list since September! However, there are currently vacancies for Scottish Dancing and Ladies' Keep-Fit, and also a few for two of the art classes, for typing, dressmaking and tailoring and a class in natural history. Although a Hastings phone number is given (435619) it might be wiser to contact Mrs. Swaine at the FE Centre on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons for the latest information. In May, there will be four talks about Oberammergau, and a one-day "special" on 6 June on the wildlife of the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.
4.
A buffet definitely up to the highest standards of Lucia's entertaining rather than the more economical ones of Miss Mapp was set out in the George Hotel ball-room last Tuesday. It was for the benefit of a group assembled to hear about plans for the filming of E F Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" in Rye later this year (this is the one in which Lucia comes to Rye, and it includes the episode of the seagoing kitchen table). Producer Michael Dunlop and director Donald McWhinnie were there, together with Peter Hall whose job as location manager is to organise appropriate places for the outdoor filming. (Indoors, they will film in their studios.) The series is being made by London Weekend Television for Channel 4 and will go out in five parts in the late autumn - we hope to be able to give the dates in good time so that people can be sure of keeping those five evenings clear.
Channel 4 is supposed to cater for minority interests, and someone who can't stand the books said to us, reasonably, that those who could were a minority indeed! However, viewers who enjoyed the Irish RM series will know that Channel 4's relentless emphasis on black single-parent families in Tower Hamlets is some-times bypassed, and this series will be one of the times. There is a star cast: Geraldine McEwan plays Lucia and Prunella Scales Miss Mapp - both actresses have appeared in Rye in recent Festivals, Miss McEwan as Jane Austen and Miss Scales as Queen Victoria. Georgie will be played by Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey of "Yes, Minister"), and Major Benjy by Dennis Lill, the Prince of Wales in the Lily Langtry series.
(Readers who by now are wondering what on earth we are on about might like to turn to page 7 for clarification; readers who do know can skip that bit.)
Filming will be from 21 to 29 February and from 5 to 15 June (since the story covers a full year), and will take place in Watchbell Street, West Street and Mermaid Street. Grebe, Lucia's house along Military Road, will be represented by Point Farm (known to some as Tommy Langley's), the isolated Victorian house on the left just before Camber; Peter Hall says that the SWA have agreed to help by temporarily raising the level of short stretches of dyke to simulate the river. This will relieve the minds of Military Road householders who know what happened at Grebe!
When approaches were first made to top-of-the-town residents about the filming, LWT were a little taken aback at the lack of enthusiasm - until they heard about the upset caused by "Yellowbeard" (GAZETTE no. 6, for those who have forgotten!). Tuesday's very enjoyable luncheon will have done much to mollify and reassure those likely to be affected, and in fact only about half of each filming stint will take place in the town itself. Peter Hall promises that he will be in evidence at the time to sort out problems and is making sure that phone numbers both in London and in Rye will be available. Fortunately, Rye in the 1920s had no straw in the streets - though there is a reference to grass growing between the cobbles which doubtless ESCC Highways Department staff hope will be ignored.
Cynthia Reavell at Martello confidently expects an increased membership of the Tilling Society as a result of the filming. Benson's fans live far afield, and the Society already has members living in the States; but someone at Tuesday's luncheon had encountered an E F Benson Appreciation Society in (wait for it) - Bankok!
(We would just like to add that of course life has changed utterly since the war, and of course there are no parlourmaids and chauffeurs in our homes nowadays; but small-town human nature doesn't change a bit, and Benson's characters can in essence still be met with, shopping in the High Street, any day in Rye - and wouldn't Diva Plaistow have enjoyed running the GAZETTE!)
Wondering why the River Tillingham level seemed to be lower now than in the summer, we asked George Roberts at the SWA whether anything dramatic was happening upstream. Not at all, he said; the present level is the river's natural one except after heavy rain, but in the summer the Authority keeps the water artificially high so that people fishing along its banks can enjoy their day out.
5.
The proposed car park beside the railway, to which we referred last week, turns out to be on the land between the Lower School playground and the railway line. British Rail were only willing to sell a larger area than Rother can afford to develop at present, so there will be a strip of ground covered with trees and bushes left untouched between the car park and the playground - a catchment area, literally, for footballs kicked too high over the fence! The parking area is intended for 70 ca plus 10-15 coaches or HGVs and will run from Ferry Road to a point roughly level with the end of the old Goods Shed, though the total area extends to beyond the up platform. "Surface water" the application says, "will be removed via soakaways"; we hope Rother have better luck with this than Lower School has had sometimes after very heavy rain...
John Baker at the Adelaide was a little surprised to hear about this application, since his pub's car park lies immediately across the proposed access; but he has now had a meeting with Rother staff and tells us that things should work out. The exact siting of the access has, we understand, still to be decided.
Rother had originally intended to develop for parking first the land between the market and the railway, then the Lower School section, and finally the area from Ferry Road to the Mill; but it seems that a satisfactory arrangement with British Rail for the market land cannot be reached, which is why Rother are now starting with their second choice. Any planning for the area south of the railway line between Ferry Road and Rope Walk is, of course, very much affected by the current state of the supermarket proposals. But, equally, any planning for the supermarket must be affected by the route of the bypass, and since in theory no decision on this is possible for several years it looks as if there could be a lasting stalemate.
Puzzled about what was happening - or not happening - about thin air between the Baptist burial-ground at the end of Watchbell Street and the yard of the Boys' Club in Mermaid Street, we contacted the Boys' Club secretary, Mr. Jim Cavill of New Winchelsea Road. He tells us that the wall was becoming dangerously derelict, and with a club membership of 120 lively boys he could take no chances, so he asked Rother to take it down - which they very promptly did. (The burial-ground is in Rother's care, on a long lease originally between Rye Borough Council and the owners; the Mermaid Street building was given to the Boys' Club by a local benefactor, Humphrey Cadogan Ellis, and it now belongs to the National Association of Boys' Clubs).
Mr. Hudson, of Rother's Parks and Gardens Department, says sadly that this year's estimates included no allowance for rebuilding walls; but he is now getting quotations for the work, and hopes to find the money by the time that the builders can be sure of suitable weather.
In connection with last week's note about Saltcote Place, Robert Bromley tells us that where County Council property is concerned, the Council can in effect make its own planning rules. In a case where the property is to be sold, Rother takes over planning responsibility for work proposed by the new owners, but as far as the Saltcote change-of-use is concerned, ESCC was asking for Rother's opinion rather than for specific permission. It was, Mr. Bromley adds, never ESCC's intention that access should be via Point Hill except for emergencies; perhaps the Rother report was ambiguous, or we misread it?
Paddy Aiken, of Ferry Road, will be brightening the cold January days with an exhibition of her flower and landscape photography at the Hamilton Galleries, 15 Cinque Ports Street (foot of Needles Passage), from 14 January. This is an unusual event for Rye - it is many years since we remember seeing an exhibition of photographs in the town. Mrs. Aiken and Caroline Glibbery at the Gallery will be glad to welcome friends as well as casual visitors to a show which is bound to give pleasure. All the work will be for sale.
6.
Pointing out that Rye really is not nowadays the traditional and poetic "port of stranded pride", Mr. John Collard sends us the Harbour of Rye Advisory Committee's report to the SWA on traffic in Rye Harbour from 1 April to 31 October last year.
The number of fishing boats is still 40, the same as last summer, 36 of them locally owned. Visiting yachts, most of them from abroad, have increased in number since 1982 - a total of 961 visitors plus 430 locally owned pleasure boats used the Harbour last summer. The waiting-list for moorings was, as far as we remember, sorted out not long ago; but even so there are 45 vessels on it, 15 more than last year, most of them twin-keeled boats of between 15 and 35 feet but including five big boats with single keels.
Commercial shipping shows a drop by comparison with 1982; but that was a boom year, and the gross tonnage of shipping using the Harbour almost doubled the 1981 figure - a rate of increase that could hardly be maintained indefinitely! 115 vessels used the port: gross tonnage 48,476, net tonnage 30,404 (we are not quite sure what it means, but that's what it says). Cargo also showed a drop, after an enormous increase in 1982; stone cargoes are down by 10,796 tons, but apart from this the rest of the cargo shipped through the port shows an increase over the same period in 1982, with a total tonnage of 66,222 tons.
It appears from a report to Rother's Recreation and Tourism Committee yesterday that Rye is indebted to a Mr. G. Bell of Alderley Edge in Cheshire for the gift of a teak seat for St. Mary's churchyard. We wondered if it was given in memory of someone in the town, but Parks and Gardens manager Mr. Colin Hudson didn't know. He did, however, tell us that his department can always arrange for the purchase of seats (and plaques) for those who would like to give such a handsome present to the town, for whatever reason; he can also arrange for planting trees or shrubs, so that all the donor need do is provide a cheque. In fact, says Mr. Hudson, the churchyard is pretty well provided with seats, but the new bowling green and the Salts area generally would be very grateful for either seats or shrubbery, and anyone thinking of making such a benefaction should contact his department at 250 Turkey Road, Bexhill.
The GAZETTE would like to see a seat beside the pavement near Badger Gate, for the benefit of those stopping to get their breath before starting to climb the hill. And, incidentally, we need a litter bin by the main entrance to Gibbet Marsh, judging from the current deposit left where one used to stand.
Domestic pressure compels us to record the names of the carol-singers from TPS who raised £30 for Hill House School: Tim Shephard, Sarah Jenkinson, Kim Baker, Tracy Kirkham, Isabelle Haumont, Diane Nickerson and Daniel Owen. The money was a very pleasant surprise for Miss Dean, who plans to use it towards the cost of a special small-child's swing for the adventure playground's existing frame. Since the summer, the school has had a pre-school-age class with its own teacher, which now has half-a-dozen children under five; the hope is that with the help this group can be given at Hill House, at least some of them will be able to attend their local infant schools when the time comes. Apart from these tinies, the youngest pupil at the school is 12; so small-scale chairs and tables have been rummaged out from the back of the store, and the school would welcome play-group toys such as pull-along carts, big bricks, etc. The next major purchase for the adventure playground will, Miss Dean hopes, be a cedar playhouse to give shade in hot weather - important for less mobile children.
We have asked the Acting Area Manager of British Rail at Ashford how much longer it is going to take to restore the footpath beside the railway line, still cluttered up with a bin full of rubbish and some very uneasy brickbats in the hole left by the weighbridge. It is, after all, now a full seven months since demolition work started on the Goods Shed. It would be nice if he replied; it would be nicer still if he did something about it.
7.
Mr. Harold Pearce, of Udimore Road, can see no possible way of thanking individually the people - pupils, parents and friends - who contributed to his retirement present. None the less, he would like them all to know how grateful he is, and how much he and Mrs. Pearce appreciate the beautiful decanter, and the print of old Rye, which were presented to him at a party at the Mermaid last week.
We are very glad to say that Miss Elizabeth Morphy and Miss Louie Cotton are now once more in full possession of their homes in the Mill Cottage terrace which recently had its front wall entirely rebuilt. The builders - Messrs. W. Tollett's staff - were "just lovely', said Miss Morphy.
Those who regret the loss of the original parapet may like to know that, attractive though it was, it gave nothing but trouble to those living below it!
Joan Parkes wishes her friends to know that (contrary to the statement in last week's Sussex Express) she would never presume to describe herself as a Ryer. Even by the most slipshod standards, a Ryer is someone who was born in the town; more strictly speaking, whose parents and grandparents (or anyway one of each) were also born in the town; and, for real purists, not just in the town but within the town wall limits! Leaving the town wall out of it to allow for aging patterns of housing, it would be interesting to know how many people are really entitled to such a distinction (three of Joan's daughters are, in fact, but not through their mother).
E F Benson lived at Lamb House between the wars; he was a well-known novelist, Mayor of Rye, who died in 1940 and was buried in the cemetery. Among his books are six, plus one short story, which are concerned initially with the forceful Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, known as Lucia to her friends in the village of Riseholme. This was the best part of a day's drive from Tilling, the home of the equally forceful Miss Elizabeth Mapp. The last three books describe deliciously the struggle for power between these two when Lucia moves to Tilling.
Anyone who has read the Tilling books will have realised, if they didn't know already, that Tilling is in fact the Rye of Benson's day, and every street corner and a good many of the shops can be clearly identified. Miss Mapp, and in due course Lucia, lived in Lamb House, and much of the action takes place in its Garden Room, in West Street and in the High Street, with excursions down Market Road to the station and out on the tram to the Golf Club.
The charm of the books (apart from the interest to us of the Rye setting) lies in the witty interplay of the small social group which dominates the top of the town: Lucia and Mapp, Lucia's follower Georgie and Mapp's neighbour Major Benjy; the bustling Diva (short for Godiva) and the eccentric artist, quaint Irene; the Bartletts from the Vicarage; and the elegant Mr. Wyse with his bride, Mrs. Susan Poppit, MBE. The next layer of characters includes the domestic staff of the various households, known by their surnames in the grander establishments (Foljambe and Grosvenor are parlourmaids, though the plushy Poppits boast a butler; Mr. Wyse has a valet, Lucia a chauffeur, though Diva just has Janet to help with her tea-room in the High Street). The third layer are cut-outs: the Rye tradesmen, the doctor, the dentist, the reporter from the local paper, and the man who wasn't the Prince of Wales - necessary to the plot, but never given any detailed existence. No-one has any children; and by the time Lucia arrives, Isabel Poppit has retired to Camber to sunbathe naked among the dunes, and Captain Puffin has drowned, in his soup.
Benson based the idea of the stories on the small-town life which went on around him in Rye, though he is thought to have modelled his main characters on people he had known earlier. The last book, Trouble for Lucia, was written in the late 1930s. If he had lived, might he have taken his characters into war-time Tilling, with Major Benjy in charge of the Home Guard, Georgie running the Sewing Circle, and Mapp and Lucia bossing the Red Cross and WRVS respectively?
E M Delafield and Angela Thirkell managed this very nicely; how sad that Benson's far sharper satirical eye was closed too soon.
8.
Friday, 13th Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 10.30
Natural History Society: "An Excursion to British Columbia, II" (Ernie and Breda Burt, Joan Medlock), FEC, 7.30
Monday, 16th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
Tuesday, 17th Wednesday, 18th Hill House League of Friends AGM (speaker, Dr. J. King), TH, 7.30
Handing-in, Thrift Shop, Red Cross Centre, 10.30 to 12.30
Muscular Dystrophy Association AGM, Tower Forge House, 4.30
• A reminder that discarded Christmas cards will be welcomed at the Rye Bookshop; they are recycled by supporters of the Church of England Children's Society and resold in aid of the Society next year. Birthday cards are also useful.
• Apologies to Round Table, since it was they and not Rotary (as we had said) who helped Rye Lions with transport for their senior citizens' party at Iden before Christmas.
• Bronwen Burke is back in Rye, and looking for a secretarial job, preferably full-time; she is an experienced shorthand-typist and speaks fluent Spanish - for that matter, does anyone want Spanish lessons? Ring Rye 222717.
• Rye Fire Brigade were called to a kitchen fire at Ockman House, Ockman's Lane, on Monday afternoon; fortunately, there was no great damage caused.
• Badger Gate residents much enjoyed their Christmas party; festive fare and entertainment were provided, and home helps and relatives were invited along as guests.
• Following the successful concert arranged-last autumn by Mainly Acoustic, Michael Prince has organised three more "for the best in folk, blues and beyond...". He has booked Eddie Walker for 18 February; Dab Hand (Jez Lowe, Tom Napper and Tom McConville) for 31 March; and Dave Burland for 19 May. All the concerts take place on a Saturday at the Saltings Hotel at 8 pm, and fans will want to book the dates in their diaries now. Further information from Mr. Prince at Rye 223543.
• The Kettle o' Fish, closed for staff holidays since Christmas, reopens on Tuesday (17th); the Swiss Patisserie is now closed until the end of the month.
• An RN bomb disposal team was called to Pett Level on Saturday afternoon, after a report of an unexploded bomb partly buried in the shingle. What they found - and refrained from blowing up! - was in fact a very large, upturned boom buoy; instead, they told the SWA, who are doubtless grateful to have their buoy back.
• Mandy Knights is looking for a self-contained flat in Rye, as a permanent let; if you know of one, please ring her during working hours at James Kimber's, Rye 224972.
• A man's Peugeot racing bike worth £200 was stolen from Tower Street on New Year's Eve.
• Mr. D. Williams of New Road - who works for the SWA, so he should know - tells us that the Fishmarket seal is a regular annual visitor to the river, arriving in the late autumn and usually departing some time in February. Certainly, it is still there at present, happily eating eels. A rumour that there are now two seals is unsubstantiated and thought to have started on New Year's Day!
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303). News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon, Tuesday 9 am for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25: 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 scares are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye.
(Copyright Mary Owen 1984)