A Hastings girl of 18, Christine Lee, was killed on Saturday night when the motorbike on which she was riding pillion was in collision with a car in the Rye Harbour Road. Police are asking for witnesses to the accident, which took place just before 10 pm. Mr. Charles Davie, of New Road, was turning out of the Davie's Coaches premises; the motor-cyclist braked to avoid him, skidded and crashed into the car. The rider, a boy from Hastings also aged 18, is in hospital with a broken leg and chest injuries.
We are very sorry indeed to have to report two tragedies of this kind in the town within a fortnight.
Less seriously, two more young people were taken to hospital when a Datsun hit a telegraph pole in Udimore Road early on Sunday morning, 7.30 am. No other vehicle was involved, and the driver (who injured his leg) and passenger, both aged 18, came from Woodchurch and Tenterden respectively.
Readers will be aware that the GAZETTE is moving to its new base in Cyprus Place in the course of this month, taking its telephone number with it. We are most grateful to all who have been so helpful about paying subscriptions promptly for the new quarter; receipts are attached.
We intend the remaining three July issues to appear on time, but they may be rather skimpy. Normally we only print on alternate Wednesdays in August (ie. no issues on 8 and 22 August) and you have paid for 11 issues in the coming 13-week quarter to allow for this. But if anything goes wrong, and the paper does not appear at any point, we will make up for it by printing an extra August issue after all. Keep your fingers crossed!
Over £200 was raised for the Pamela Nash Dialysis Appeal by the concert at St. Mary's on Saturday, when a large audience enjoyed music by classical and modern composers. The programme was given by Covent Garden singers Alexander Oliver and Jessica Cash accompanied by David Mackie, and by Ryesingers under Lesley Brownbill accompanied by Mary Densem; Charles Proctor contributed two organ solos to the varied programme. Ernest Collyer is most grateful to all the performers who gave their services for the evening, and to those who came to enjoy the unusual chance to hear professional singers in the town, as well as supporting the cause for which he has worked so hard.
As well as LWT, another team of filmmakers has been busy in Rye during the past couple of weeks: TVS, making two programmes (they originally intended to do just the one, but there was too much material) about local artists and potters. Among those they visited were the Cole family at Rye Pottery; the Turpin family in Udimore Road and Wittersham; Kitty French off Church Square (where, we hear, they found themselves in competition with "Mapp and Lucia" further along the road); Ernest Collyer at the Winchelsea Station pottery; Frederick Cuming of Wittersham, and sculptor Bernard Sindall. The programmes will be going out early next year, presumably with some of the aerial shots taken by the helicopter some weeks ago.
2.
Mr. Harold Almond, of Rye Harbour, died on 29 June; he was 82, and a widower. The funeral takes place tomorrow (Thursday) at Hastings Crematorium at 10.30. >Mr. Almond was born in Landgate and lived much of his life in Rye. We hope to print a fuller obituary notice next week.
Mr. Arthur Ball, whose death we recorded last week, had lived in Mason Road since 1979; he died very suddenly, without any previous trace of illness, while out walking with his wife Eveline on 24 June. He leaves five married children, eight grandchildren and many friends in Rye and Winchelsea. Before moving to Rye. Mr. and Mrs. Ball and their family had lived in Winchelsea, where his mother had brought young Arthur in 1923 when she took a job as cook at Cleveland House and then at the Armoury. They had come from the East End of London, so Winchelsea School where he finished his education must have been a remarkable change for the ten-year-old boy. On leaving school Mr. Ball was apprenticed as a plumber to Ellis Bros; he married in 1939 and was called up in 1942 into the Duke of Wellington's Regiment where he drove a bren gun carrier, serving in the Middle East and taking part in the invasion of Italy. After the war, Mr. Ball returned to Winchelsea and worked for Turner Bros, the Winchelsea builders; his spare time was spent gardening for himself and his friends, and also for the Dormy Club when he retired from full-time work. He had been Chairman of Winchelsea Youth Club, and was a member of the Royal British Legion.
One of Rye's most fondly remembered entertainments from the old days is the Rye Regatta. Memories were awoken once more at one of Laurie Band's recent slide shows, when we saw one of the big Rye boats at the Fishmarket packed with spectators and participants some time before WWI.
This year the Rye Harbour Sailing Club is reviving the Regatta, at midday on Sunday week (15 July). There will be five events, open to all: a Novelty Race for sailing dinghies, a balloon to be collected from the sewage works (filled with methane, perhaps?); a race for boats propelled by any means other than oars, sails or motors - now, there's a challenge for the inventive; a race for dinghies and inflatables with outboard motors up to 4 hp; a Greasy Pole competition; and by way of modern contrast, a prize for those who can get most people standing up on a sailboard for five seconds!
As well as the Water Sports Regatta, the Club is organising trips down the river and back in various yachts and fishing boats, the proceeds from which will be going to the Lifeboat Shed Appeal. The embarkation point for this will be Rye Yacht Centre (at the far end of the Salts from Monkbretton Bridge).
The proceedings begin at approximately 12.30, and the Fishmarket will provide suitable viewing-points. So bring beer and sandwiches and an extra sweater (it's always colder on the river) and prepare to enjoy yourself - or, better still, bring swimming trunks/bikini and prepare to entertain the spectators in a good cause. There will still be time, when the tide goes down, to go on to the Hill House Fete, which doesn't begin until 2.
(or rather, its shed) Harbour Master Colin Marsh tells us, rather ruefully, that whereas they had expected to be asked for about £20,000 to build the lifeboat shed, over and above the foundations which the SWA is laying free, the estimates for the job have now come in.
Even after pruning, it seems that there will be a further £11-12,000 to raise over and above the £20,000 which they have almost reached. This is sad news for the hardworking RNLI committee, so please support the Regatta (see above); there may or may not be collecting tins in evidence, but if you particularly enjoyed your afternoon a donation by way of thanks can be sent to the Lifeboat Shed Fund c/o Nick Martin at Phipps 8, Co., Landgate Chambers, Rye.
3 THE RYE GAZETTE 4 July 1984
The Mayoress's Coffee Morning at the Town Hall on Saturday raised £175 for the Eye Laser Appeal. The Appeal's honorary secretary, Owen Porter, spoke in the course of the morning of the great benefit that the new laser would bring to eye patients not only in Hastings but in the surrounding district. Now that in-patients with eye troubles are to be moved to Eastbourne, it will be particularly advantageous to people at this end of the area to be treated as out-patients in Hastings, and the laser will make this possible for a number of eye defects.
Chris Ashbee has already made a very handsome contribution through his efforts in the London Marathon, raising nearly £1,000 in sponsorship money for the appeal; but the total cost is £80,000, and there is a long way to go yet.
Mr. Porter said that the first need in Rye is to bring together a local committee, and those willing to help should get in touch with Mrs. Breeds (leave a message at the Town Hall).
Later Mr. Porter explained to us that the reason why the proposed laser is so expensive is because it incorporates three different instruments - the Argon, the Krypton and the YAG. As far as we could understand the technicalities, the first two use heat to heal, and together would cost some £30,000: but the YAG works "cold" and can therefore be used for much more delicate surgery. Mr. Porter made it quite clear that the hospital authorities welcome the appeal and are prepared to house, staff and service the laser (indeed, it will save them a lot of money on in-patient treatment costs); but they cannot afford the initial cost.
We have reported all this in some detail because we feel the cause will appeal particularly to some of our readers whose sight is not as good as it used to be when they were younger. At present patients who need laser treatment have to go to Eastbourne or even to Moorfields in London, a difficult journey at the best of times for the elderly; once they can be treated at Hastings, eye problems arising from diabetes, glaucoma, detached retinas and other degenerative troubles will be much less formidable.
Mr. Porter is very willing to give a 15-minute talk about the laser and the appeal to any organisation which would find it helpful; contact him at Hastings 424769 if you would like him to come to your group.
Anglia Building Society in the High Street are helping by housing a box for foreign coins, which can in due course be turned magically into good English cash to help the appeal.
Many readers will be sorry to learn that Richard Marriott has left the George Hotel, for which he has done so much in a comparatively short time. He has not, however, left Trust House Forte, and we shall hope to say in due course where his new job will be. His successor as manager is Adam Terpenning, who comes to Rye from Bristol where he was deputy manager at the Dragonara Hotel - not a THF hotel, but he had been with the company for ten years before that, and indeed knew Rye and the George slightly as a result of taking a THF training course here some years ago. This time his stay is a permanent one, and we hope he will like it here. We are grateful to Mr. Terpenning for permission to go on using the George bar as one of our pick-up points for the GAZETTE.
The Greyfriars League of Friends made a clear profit of £120 from its Strawberry Tea and are most grateful to the Thomas Peacocke School orchestra who played for a full hour during the afternoon. Those who were unable to get over to Winchelsea on Saturday may like to make a diary note for Thursday, 2 August, when the League will have a coffee morning in Rye (Social Services office).
4.
The late Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Rye Conservation Society, and at the recent AGM the chairman paid a tribute to his memory. Too late for the meeting, Mrs. Barbara Fearon unearthed a letter she had received from Sir John in March 1968 apologising for not being able to attend some meeting, and adding:
"Rye is certainly what a town ought to be, that is to say, it is not too big, you can see the country from most of its streets, you can walk about in it, though it would be nicer still if there were no traffic except at certain hours, and it has most attractive buildings. When people start playing about with a town, suddenly increasing its population, they turn it into something else and it is no longer home for its original inhabitants."
We feel sure a lot of people will agree with Sir John.
In fact, though Rye has seen many changes, the size of its population is not one of the more noticeable. In 1831 the population was 3,715; 40 years later it had risen to 4,366, and then fluctuated just above or below the 4,000-mark until 1931, when it fell to 3947. The figure nowadays is usually quoted as 4,500; the new housing which surrounds the town is presumably counterbalanced by the vastly decreased population density in the centre.
Rother's planning committee on Thursday deferred once again the "established use" application for recreational activities at Nook Beach. Permission was refused, on the grounds of traffic volume and over-development, for British Rail's suggested housing between the railway and Winchelsea Road - the original application for some 20 old people's flatlets and a warden's house had been replaced by the current one for 30 flats. Rye Tiles have got permission, subject to technical details concerning ventilation, etc., to use the Wool Store in Winchelsea Road as a pottery, though with no retail sales space - Biddy Cole tells us that this is no problem, they had no intention of moving the shop anyway.
Amended plans for a third-floor flat at Swan House in Watchbell Street are still under consideration. A new vehicular access to a house in New Road is likely to be approved subject to amended plans being satisfactory to the D o T; approval was given to alterations including a bathroom for one of our very senior citizens, and also (subject to the time-limit for objections) to alterations at the back of Tower Forge House. The Baptist Church have received permission for the new entrance foyer; and the plans for conversion of the Colebrooke building into two houses and a flat, with garaging, was approved in principle - with a footnote about the high standard of design required for this site.
This week's planning list includes alterations to a house in New Road to provide a garage with two bedrooms above; fencing in Hylands Yard; and a sign for the Kettle o' Fish on Strand Quay which would be lit but not illuminated - i.e. the light would come from floodlight bulbs rather than from inside the sign itself.
We would like to thank Rotary for the seat which has suddenly appeared beside the information board outside Seeboard: a nice stout seat, and already well used. There are apparently more to come, and some people (not the Editor this time!) have reservations about the suitability of the particular design —timber slats on speckled concrete ends - in other more planning-sensitive parts of the town.
When we asked Mr. Bridges at Rother recently why there were no seats this season on the small lookout along Hilder's Cliff, he told us that the wooden ones were thrown down the cliff into the road earlier in the year and are still awaiting repair. It would be rather more difficult to chuck around the model outside Seeboard; maybe this is the reason for its choice?
5.
Mrs. Marie Dixon, of the Olde Bell Inn, has lent us a cutting from a Canadian newspaper, the "Times-Colonist" of British Columbia, which we think will be of interest to readers. The author of the article, which carries a handsome illustration, is Geoffrey Castle, a council member of the Victoria section of the British Columbia Historical Federation.
British Columbia (we had to look it up) is on the west coast of Canada, and includes Vancouver Island; Victoria is on the southern tip of the island, just on the border with the United States. Victoria's Sail and Life Training Society is about to spend 400,000 dollars on a full-size replica of a brigantine used by the Hudson's Bay Company along the Pacific coastline in the mid-nineteenth century, and the new vessel will be used to carry visitors to and from Vancouver Island for Expo 86, which speaks for itself but is clearly a very big forthcoming event in the area.
So what, you ask? So what is of interest to us is that the original ship was built in 1824 in RYE - probably at Strand Quay by James Hessell, the leading shipbuilder of the time - at a cost of £800, and was named the "Cadboro"! (£800, says the article, is the equivalent of 1,400 dollars.)
"Cadboro" first arrived at the Columbia River in 1827 - a 56-foot, 72-ton brig with a 17-foot beam, a crew of 35 and six cannon intended for use. She became, says Mr. Castle, the pride of the Pacific. She is thought to have been the first ship ever to enter the Fraser River, in 1827 when she brought materials for the construction of a fort there; ten years later she entered what is now called Cadborough Bay after her. Her career on the West Coast lasted for 35 years, and included capture for customs offences by the Americans in 1850. Ten years later she was sold at auction, fetching almost twice her purchase price of over thirty years before, and became a collier. In 1862 she was caught in a storm, ran aground and broke up; just one of her original crew, ship's carpenter John Spence, was still with her at the time.
Cadboro Bay was first settled in 1865, but at what point it got its name the article does not say. Mrs. Dixon's sister lives there, and it was she who sent over the cutting from the Times-Colonist.
Doubtless other Rye-built ships have had similar adventures, but it can be very seldom that their life-histories come back home a century and a half later! If in due course any readers should happen to visit Expo 86, we hope they will not fail to take a trip on the new "Cadboro" and report to the GAZETTE how she is looking?
We are asking Mrs. Dixon to send a copy of this issue of the GAZETTE to her sister for forwarding to Geoffrey Castle c/o the Times-Colonist. It would be extremely interesting if he were able to let us know in due course how the project goes, and perhaps even send a photograph or two for display in the town. James Hessell - if it was he who built "Cadboro" - would be a proud ghost!
Saturday, 21 July Catholic Church coffee morning, FEC
Rye Dance Centre jumble sale, CC
Saturday, 28 July Methodist Church Annual Sale, Methodist Hall, 10 Coffee morning for Sports Hall equipment, TH
Wednesday, 1 August Conservative Association coffee morning, 47 Fairmeadow
Thursday, 2 August Greyfriars coffee morning, Social Services office
Saturday, 4 August Rye Carnival
Sunday, 12 August Rotary Country Fair, New Road, all day
Wednesday, 15 August Coffee morning for St. Mary's Flower Festival (w/e 25th/26th)
Sunday, 26 August Raft Race for NSPCC (provisional date)
6.
Just too late, alas, for last week's issue, Ashford District Council rang us apologetically to say that the list they had given us of their parishes in the new Area was over-optimistic: this had been the proposed list, not the final one.
In fact the only Ashford District Council parishes which are included are Wittersham, Stone, Appledore and Kenardington (bad luck, Warehorne, Ruckinge, Orlestone and Bilsington - and maybe Snave?).
This makes by our reckoning 13 villages or towns (as opposed to parishes which may include several villages, e.g. Icklesham) from each county, though in terms of acreage the Kent section is twice the size of the Sussex section.
It was entirely by chance that we raised this subject in the GAZETTE just two weeks before Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Horniblow opened their breathtaking Udimore garden to the public for charity last Sunday; but the fact certainly gave an added interest for some visitors. White Fox Lodge was built for the Horniblows on the site of the hospital, derelict when they first saw it in 1965; there is certainly no trace of the hospital now, unless an occasional reminiscent shadow falls across the white walls and flat roof of the modern house.
Some of our correspondents refer to the lane down to the old hospital as Donkey Lane. Others, including Mr. Southerden of Cadborough Cliff, knew it 60 or 70 years ago as Sanatorium Lane, which seems logical. Whichever it is, Mrs. Odell, also of Cadborough Cliff, went back down it on Sunday for the first time in 64 years, and found things looking very different when she got to the end. When she caught scarlet fever in 1920, there was no question of her being nursed at home; her parents kept the Udimore grocery shop, so the little girl spent six weeks at the hospital under the care of the matron, Mrs. Yeomans. There were two wards in the bungalow-type building, one for scarlet fever and one for diphtheria; visitors could only converse with their friends and relatives through a window.
Of course, if the window happened to be open there were other possibilities, as Mrs. Winifred Hollands of New Winchelsea Road discovered some years later. She went to the hospital with suspected diphtheria when she was 18 (she worked at the Hope Anchor Hotel, so MOH Dr. Harrett dared take no chances); she was taken up, she remembers, in a horse-drawn cab. She recalls a low, rather spartan building with bare wooden floors much in need of a scrub, run by a pleasant Irish couple. Her diphtheria turned out, after tests, to be tonsillitis, but in those pre-antibiotic days she was much too ill to be moved and remained there for a fortnight. Her recovery began when her boy-friend Jim found the window open and tossed a little box through it; it landed on her bed, and contained an engagement ring, the start of 31 years of happy marriage.
Mrs. Jenkinson of Graham's tells us that her mother had a very raw deal over suspected scarlet fever, when Mrs. Jenkinson herself was a small child; the all-clear came through after only a few days, but those few days included a very special Frewin wedding in Udimore to which the whole of the rest of the village went - but not, of course, the poor scarlet-fever suspects!
Mrs. Underdown of Cyprus Place was also a scarlet fever patient there as a child, which could take us back to before WWI since Mrs. Underdown is over 80.
The hospital finally closed in 1950 or thereabouts - presumably the widespread use of antibiotics and the success of the diphtheria inoculation scheme made it redundant - which would account for its decayed condition when the Horniblows saw it in 1965. But when it was opened, we have no idea at all: 1900? 1850?
Were such hospitals set up by Act of Parliament, like the primary schools, and if so, when?
One thing is certain: if one had to be isolated during the first half of the present century, it is hard to imagine a more beautiful view from the pillow!
7.
• The Rye Harmonic Society's summer concert this year will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Edward Elgar, and the programme consists entirely of music by this much-loved composer. The Hastings Youth Symphony Orchestra and Ryesingers are joining the Society for the concert; Molly Townson will be the soloist in "Sea Pictures", and other items in the programme include Elgar's arrangement of the National Anthem, his Serenade for Strings, Pomp and Circumstance March no. 4, and "From the Bavarian Highlands". Some of the words are from the hand of A C Benson, brother of E F B of Lamb House. Conductors are John Simpson and Charles Proctor. St. Mary's, this Sunday, 7.30, admission £1.
• On behalf of the Tilling Society, Cynthia Reavell is organising a petition to the National Trust for a plaque to be put on the outside of Lamb House commemorating E F Benson; she suggests that it would be possible to incorporate suitable wording on a replacement for one of the existing plaques, rather than add another to the Lamb House collection. Certainly, once the LWT series goes out, visitors will otherwise be much puzzled to know whether, so to speak, the Swan or the Lamb was the progenitor of the Mallard! Signatures may be added to the petition at the Martello bookshop in the High Street.
• In the RCVS report last week, we said that Elizabeth Goldsworthy had received no "co-operation at all from local doctors in connection with her research into what looks like an unusually high incidence of multiple sclerosis in the Rye area.” She asks us to add that one of the doctors did explain that this was because to give any information of this kind would endanger the secrecy that they owe their patients. Quite; but we do hope that this delicacy can be overcome at some level as a matter of some urgency, since it seems rather an important issue for those of us who live round here, and for our children.
• The formal "Sold" notice outside Whitefriars on Conduit Hill means that the new owner is now officially Mrs. Duncan Wylson, who has moved some 200 yards down the road from 11 High Street and is expecting the builders in shortly.
• A surprising gap in the Udimore Road landscape is due to the removal of the poster site from the end wall of the row of cottages near the Tillingham bridge (we were told they were once known as the Black Cottages because of the tarred wall). Mrs. Osborne says the contractors told her that in these days of enormous posters, small sites like hers are no longer economic to keep up!
• The recent Rother Council meeting confirmed a decision by the Housing Committee which will be a relief to many Rye people. The committee considered, in private so that we have no details, an application from a private buyer to purchase Badger Gate. Readers will doubtless be as surprised as Housing Committee members were at this - it would have led to all kinds of complications about the Council Offices site, quite apart from the general undesirability of the transaction. Anyway, the offer was firmly rejected.
• Talking of Badger Gate, do we have a yucca expert among our readers? One of the three plants outside the flatlets recently produced a lovely orange flower - meanly removed by an unauthorised person one dark night. Now the plant has retaliated with an impressive spray of white blossom which has no apparent relationship with the orange flower at all; one of the other yuccas produced an orange flower several years ago, but no white spray followed. Mrs. Sinden and her residents are wondering what to expect from the third plant, which has so far done nothing at all - it is much smaller than the other two, though they were all put in at the same time. Would anyone care to enlighten us on the yucca's reproductive system?
• We heard recently of a new method of fund-raising with considerable potential. "How much" said a fringe supporter of one of our local good causes to its Branch Secretary, "will you take to let me off being a street collector?" The fund benefited by £10, and the Branch Secretary is now looking round thoughtfully...
8.
Thursday, 5th WI coffee morning, 69 Military Road, 10.30
Friday, 6th Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
Saturday, 7th Coffee morning for St. Michael's Hospice, FEC, 10 to 12 \ Christian Lunch Club coffee evening: "It hurts to heal", CC, 7 for 7.30 (see below)
Sunday, 8th Loft sale, Cinque Ports Majorettes, CC, 10 to 3
Rye Harmonic Society concert, St. Mary's, 7.30 (see page 7)
Tuesday, 10th St. Mary's Tuesday Club, 2 East Street, 7.30
Wednesday, 11th ARC coffee morning, Fair Oak$ Fair Meadow, 10.30 to 12
Over-60s Club, Red Cross, 1.45
Rye WI, "Acting is Fun", FEC, 7
• Congratulations to Rye's Harbour Master, Colin Marsh, who is now Commander Marsh, RNR. His promotion from Lieut. Commander is, he tells us, more in recognition of his service on the staff of C-in-C Fleet during the Falklands war, than for his tour of the Scottish coastline on which we reported recently - promotion is a slow business.
• Gordon Collett of Love Lane asks us to say that he doesn't collect silver foil for Guide Dogs for the Blind; it is postage stamps which he sends to them, and for which Maison Fleur act as his collecting point in the town. This still leaves the Ferryboat Inn, who will take it for the same purpose; we apologise for misleading readers last week. It is certain that Miss Henley is having to give up her collection at Freeman Hardy & Willis due to the builders moving in.
• Guests at one of the Christian Lunch Club's rare evening events are Anglican minister the Rev. John Huggett and his wife Christine, and the occasion will be given over to aspects of healing in the power of Christ. All those interested in the subject are most welcome at the Community Centre at 7 on Saturday; the regular charge of £1 will cover coffee and cakes, and the meeting will begin formally at 7.30.
• The Alexandra Rose Day collection, for the East Sussex Association for the Disabled, raised £1,357 in Rye and the villages, well up on last year.
• This week the RSPB Reserve at Dungeness is holding Open Days on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, when there will be conducted parties; the observation hides and information centre will be open, and RSPB goods will be on sale. The Reserve is reached via a track off to the right about halfway between Lydd and Dungeness, and there is plenty of car parking at the far end.
• Cross Bros Circus visits Rye this week from Thursday to Monday. The posters advertise a Sunday performance, though we understand that they have not been given permission for this from Rother so presumably it will not take place. Performances on Thursday, Friday and Monday are at 5 and 8, and at 2 and 5 on Saturday. Tickets cost from £1 to £3, with a maximum of £2 for OAPs and children.
• Crime: a 14'sailing dinghy went missing from Castle Water last month - worth £500, it is marked Paton II on the bow and CW 307 on the stern.
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 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 (for the next couple of weeks), while a few spares are available from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye.
(Copyright Mary Owen 1984)