SUBSCRIPTIONS - A FOURTH, AND FINAL, REMINDER
If your name is not ticked and you wish to receive next week's GAZETTE, please make sure that £3 (for 12 weeks) or £6 (for 24 weeks) reaches 2 Cyprus Place by Sunday.
Donald and Mildred Southerden, of Cadborough Cliff, who celebrated their Golden Wedding last week, were married on 22 September 1934 in Rye Methodist Church - not the present one, of course (which was then the Sunday School) but its predecessor on the other side of the Gun Garden. Don is a Ryer, born over his father's shop at 32 High Street; Mildred comes from Fairwarp in Ashdown Forest. During WW1 her father was billetted with the parents of the late Jim Foster, and Jim Foster was Don Southerden's best friend, and the link between the families was kept up after the war with happy results.
For half a century Mr. Southerden worked on the clerical staff of Thomas Hinds, the old-established timber merchants on Strand Quay whose business was taken over some years ago by Alsfords. The Southerdens, both with an eightieth birthday within sight, don't go out a great deal now, but they used to be members of the Natural History Society and the Camera Club, and were involved with the Museum Association in its very early days.
They have two daughters, Jennifer (who recently celebrated her own Silver Wedding) in Essex and Linda in Woking - plus three grandsons, and a seven-year-old grand-daughter.
Messrs. Cooper Macdonald & Partners, the Epsom consulting engineers in charge of both the Winchelsea and the Rye bypass schemes, conducted an "origin and destination servey" on the edge of the town last week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the researchers questioned drivers leaving the town by its six main exits (two on each day, with the police in attendance): New Road, Military Road, Rye Hill, Udimore Road, New Winchelsea Road and Rye Harbour Road. They chose to interview drivers leaving the town rather than entering it so that "where did you park?" could be one of the questions. It all went very well, bar the weather, and they are most grateful to motorists for their co-operation. In the town this week are some rather chilly-looking people sitting at road junctions repeating the car-counting survey first done in the summer.
Cooper Macdonald have also been conducting a home interview survey in the town. About a thousand households are being questioned - a high proportion for such a survey, but as their Mr. Austen points out, you need a large proportion if you are dealing with a not-very-large place. Detailed questionnaires are being put through doors, and the researchers call back a few days later, and again if necessary, to collect them. The questionnaire asks for details of all journeys under¬taken on 24 September using vehicles belonging to the household, and is intended to get the feel of traffic circulating within the town as well as on longer trips, thus supplementing last week's perimeter survey.
As the latest development in the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, and a very logical one too, Rye is to have a Community Crime Panel. This will replace the present Crime Prevention Panel, whose members will now join the ten community co-ordinators to form the new group. Other organisations in the area have been invited to send representatives to the inaugural meeting on 7 November.
THIS IS THE GAZETTE'S 100TH ISSUE!-2 -
Mrs. Vida Mary Ovenden, formerly of Cinque Ports Street and recently living in Greyfriars, died in hospital on 18 September. A widow for very many years, her husband had worked on the railway. Mrs. Ovenden, who was 81, was buried in Playden Churchyard where her son Peter - a former caretaker at Thomas Peacocke School, who died last year - also lies.
Mr. George Edward Pope, of The Close, died suddenly at his home on 21 September. Mr. Pope, known to his friends as "Ham", was 71. He leaves a widow, Vera, two daughters and a son.
Anne Swaine tells us that there are still vacancies in some of the Adult Education classes. At The Grove, there is room in Car Maintenance, Spanish Conversation and Enamelling/Silversmithing. At the FE Centre, all three -iTrench classes still have space, as does "Fascination of Gardens and Gardening" and "1066 and all what?". This last title goes with a one-term Wednesday evening class dealing with how Mr. and Mrs. Average, circa 1350, led their lives - it should be interesting for Rye history addicts, since it covers that lively period of the town's existence when we were not on the best of terms with our neighbours across the Channel.
The Photography, Better Driving and Beauty Care classes have been cancelled owing to almost total lack of support. Clearly we all drive well and don't care what we look like; but it seems odd that there is so little interest in photography.
There is room on most of the Saturday Special classes, but Needlepoint Lace is full. Mrs. Swaine will be at the Centre on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons this week, and as usual on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons thereafter. If you can't call in to enrol in person, fill in the form at the back of the pink booklet and put it and the fee under the FEC office door.
Joan Aiken returns to the town of her birth to give the first of the Friends of Rye Art Gallery's winter lectures, "Writing for Children/Writing for Adults", in the Town Hall at 8 on Monday (1st) instead of the normal first Tuesday of the month.
Joan, her sister Jane and brother John are the children of Conrad Aiken, the American author who lived at Jeakes House between the wars. All three emerged as writers, but in very different fields: John, who now lives in Ferry Road with his photographer wife Paddy, sticks to fact, as does his elder sister (Jane Aiken Hodge) whose biography of Georgette Heyer received excellent reviews last month. Joan — who lives in Petworth, is perhaps best known as a writer of books for older children ("Black Hearts in Battersea", etc.) and has recently published "Bridle the Wind", a sequel to "Go Saddle the Sea"; she also writes novels for adults, including mock-historical stories which her brother describes as "Gothick".
British Rail, now thinking about timetable changes for next May, is receiving a barrage of complaints from regular rail users about those which took effect five months ago. Doubtless Rye commuters were among those who wrote. Davina Artis of Landgate Square tells us that not once since May has the down train due at Rye at 7.04 pm come in on time. It collects passengers from the fast down from Charing Cross at 4.55, the slow at 5.10, the two-stop at 5.25, and even then, says Miss Artis, it frequently hangs about for yet another train. It does seem hard that those lucky enough to catch the one fast down train at commuter time should find themselves spending in theory over two hours on the journey from London to Rye, and in fact considerably more than that. There was a protest meeting at Ashford on Monday, with Keith Speed, MP, and BR's Harry Holt and Cedric Nott (see GAZETTE no. 96); we hope to hear what happens in consequence.
- 3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 26.9.1984
When the original BRCS Thrift Shop closed for lack of an organiser in 1981, there was general desolation. Happily, however, it reopened a few months later in the capable hands of Kathleen and Stewart Thurston of Mill Road, and between May 1982 and August 1984 has raised 9,469 in commission for Centre funds (they very much hope to top £10,000 by Christmas), with total sales of £24,412.
Now Mr. and Mrs. Thurston announce that they will be retiring in December, after nearly three years organising the Thrift Shop. Everyone will be relieved to learn that this time there is to be no closure; from January the shop will be under the supervision of Mrs. Maria Judge of Brede, with the opening days and hours unaltered.
Doubtless the Red Cross will be saying its own thank-you to the Thurstons, but on behalf of their customers we would like to congratulate them not only on the shop's contribution to Red Cross funds but also on the invaluable service it provides to townspeople and visitors alike.
For the next three monthly openings there will be, as well as clothes, Christmas presents for both adults and children on sale, many of which can be repeated as special orders if necessary; there will also be a pre-Christmas raffle.
As an experiment, and for a limited period only (probably a matter of several months), ESCC Music Library subscriptions are to be lowered, to see whether this will encourage more people to use the service and therefore ultimately bring in more revenue. There is also a 5p reduction on the 30p charge for reserving books, which may not make a vast difference to those who only want "special orders" occasionally; but the Music Library subscription drops from £10.50 to £3, a saving well worth having - members can borrow two records or tapes at a time, changing them as often as they wish.
Mr. and Mrs. Wills of Doodle in the High Street (and also of Serendipity, ditto) have decided to brighten up the autumn shadows with a very cheerful art competition in which non-artists stand an equal chance. Mrs. Grossman's Paper Company, manu¬facturers of many of the innumerable stickers seen in the shops nowadays, is running this on a national basis; it has already begun, and entries must be in by midnight on 17 October, in just three weeks' time.
The aim is to produce, using any assortment of stickers enhanced by pen or pencil, tc., a greeting card which may well go to a sick child in Great Ormond Street Hospital. National prizes are in the form of special T-shirts and various stickers and accessories, and there are three age-groups: 7 years and under, 8 to 12, and 13 and over (how much over is not clear, but it is not every adult who would know what to do with 15 yards of stickers anyway!).
The entry form and basic sticker card in a choice of colours are free from Doodle - who also sell stickers, pens, etc. (though Mrs. Wills says that 2/22. stickers can be used, not only theirs). Once the entries are in, they will be judged locally and the winning cards in each category sent to the company for national judging. However, Doodle hopes to display some if not all the local entries in the shop window for a day or two first, and if they do we will tell you.
... or, to be more strictly accurate, digging up Ferry Road to lay a gas main. This means traffic lights and the attendant all-night generator, plus road drills and general dislocation. But we hear from one household alongside the road-works that all this is infinitely preferable to the perpetual roar and clank of the heavy lorries which normally travel along the road at top speed and are now slowed to a decorous and much quieter pace by the diggings! Much the same thing was said in New Road when Monkbretton Bridge was repaired: roadworks, we love you...
4.
As a result of last week's report on the school buses serving Thomas Peacocke, we had a word with Mr. Wood, Traffic Superintendent of the Hastings & District Bus Company.
In most schools with a large country population, the buses are able to wait either in the school grounds or immediately beside the school gate. In such cases, the children are clearly in the charge of the school until they get into the bus, when they are equally clearly in the charge of the bus company. But in Rye, both Upper and Lower Schools are so situated that it is just not possible for large modern buses to enter and leave the grounds or even the approaches, half-a-dozen at a time. And, of course, all the buses which carry the children are also normal service buses, and certainly members of the public would not care to lug their shopping along to the far end of The Grove.
As for double- vs single-decker buses, Mr. Wood pointed out that there is very little difference nowadays. A double-decker bus takes 74 people seated plus 8 standing - total 82. A modern single-decker "National" bus (designed by British Leyland in conjunction with the National Bus Company) is licensed to carry only ten fewer people - 48 seated, but up to 28 standing.
In Mr. Wood's view, we are delighted to report, the behaviour of Thomas Peacocke pupils on the buses generally is much better than it used to be, and continues t improve; he attributes this to the efforts of Mr. Fooks, Mr. Boyce and other staff members. Relations between the bus company and the school and PTA are also good, he adds.
However, the fact remains (and here we are not quoting Mr. Wood) that between leaving the school grounds and getting on to the buses, the pupils are no-one's responsibility. In these days of tight staffing, there are no spare adults from school or bus company to keep control of the surging crowd. If parents were there to see the way their children mill around on the edge of the pavement, or even run alongside the manoeuvring buses, they would undoubtedly be horrified; but, of course, they agen't there. This seems to be a problem to which there is simply no solution.
Two correspndents have been in touch with us in connection with last week's piece about dogs fouling the pavements. Mrs. Beryl Hutchings of East Street blames it on the visitors - "One sees so many unhappy dogs being rapidly hauled from various visitors' vehicles at bursting point due to their owners' stupidity, and promptly fouling anywhere" - and goes on to complain about the litter generally. But if it really only visiting dogs who offend? We think not; it happens in a wet February as well.
Mrs. Julie Fuggle of Tilling Green sends us a cutting from a Deal paper, where local people have formed a committee to explore ways of dealing with the matter. We quote from the letter which the committee's chairman wrote to the paper:
"We are not cranks. The committee is drawn from a wide cross-section of the population of the area brought together by the common belief that it is reasonable, bearing in mind that human excrement disappeared from the streets in the nineteenth century, that animal excrement should be controlled as we approach the year 200C. We do not accept the view that nothing can be done, an attitude which has apparently been adopted by the District Council to date. ... Finally, some food for thought for incensed dog owners. Please consider how much more pleasant your town would be without filth on the pavement, in the park or on the beach. How many of you preserve your gardens at the expense of public places? How many of you have trodden in dog dirt on the pavement and been revolted? How many of your children have got filth on their hands and feet when playing on the beach or park? Yes, your dog is only one of many, but could not you set an example to your fellow dog owners and take responsibility for the hygenic disposal of the excrement of an animal for which you are responsible?" (Well done, Mr. Lamb of Victoria Road, Deal!) We hope to hear more; Mrs. Fuggle's sister lives in Deal.
5.
Back in July we promised a sequel to our story in GAZETTE no. 90 about the Udimore isolation hospital - and here it is, better late than never.
In 1932 Mr. William Hedger, now of Cooper Road, came to live at School House Farm in Udimore (so called because it was part of the original endowment of the Grammar School). From the farm he supplied milk to the isolation hospital, which was just up School House Lane (other people have referred to it as Donkey Lane or Sanatorium Lane), for two years or so until it closed. In 1932 the hospital was kept by Mr. and Mrs. Yeomans, who had been there for a good many years; they left in 1933 or 1934 and were succeeded by an Irish couple, Pat and his wife. Those who remember it in that last year recall a rather run-down establishment, and when it finally closed in 1934 or 1935 Mrs. Hedger and Mrs. Alford, the caretaker, burnt the entire contents except for the iron bedsteads and one or two oddments such as the steel milk saucepan - which, said Mr. Hedger, served his family faithfully until a couple of years ago when the handle came loose and they discarded it.
Diptheria, smallpox and scarlet fever sufferers (or just suspects) were all banished to the hospital. It was run, according to the 1933 Almanac, by the Rye Rural and Urban Hospital Joint Committee (this was of course in the days before Rye Rural was merged in Battle Rural District Council).
Mrs. Tarrant of West Undercliff tells us that her mother, Mrs. James, was there as a girl of 16 in the early 1930s; wrongfully incarcerated as a smallpox suspect, and not feeling very ill, she was less well-behaved than she might have been and once put a bunch of flowers in the nurse's chamber-pot!
Charlie Coleman, writing from Woods Mill where he is Warden, recalls the Christea of 1927 when he was five. He and his older sister and brother spent that Christmas in the isolation hospital, looked after largely by his sister Lilian - "when we finally emerged we were in such a state that my mother raised hell!" Baths were taken once a week, in a hip-bath in the ward using the same water for all the children (though it was subsequently changed for the gruwn-ups). The washing, clothing and bed-linen alike, was boiled up outside in a copper, regardless of what happened to the colours. The Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Harratt, visited weekly; parents came at weekends and shouted through the closed windows, standing in the (to Charlie) tantalising snow outside. The Coleman children, with their mother, had gone from Iden to Udimore in the "fever wagon" which normally lived in Wright and Pankhurst's yard in Tower Street - there was a sulphur candle burning in one corner, and the driver Charlie sat outside in a black suit and top lit. We are glad to add that the Coleman family were not candidates for the attentions of Mr. Wyborn, whose son now lives in Wish Street; it was Mr. Wyborn senior's job to make the coffins required by the hospital.
When it closed, continues Mr. Hedger, the building was bought by Mr. Saunter of School House Farm and then resold to Mr. Ashenden, the builder, for conversion into two cottages. Mr. Ashenden's niece, Mrs. Hunter, came home from Canada and lived in one half; the other was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Williams, owners of a little fairground roundabout which they took round the villages. Later tenants were the Holberts; when Mr. Holbert died, the building stood empty until Mr. Horniblow bought it in 1965, demolished it and built the present modern house on the site. But we still don't know when it opened?
Mr. Hedger, by the way, tells us that he and his wife have had three children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren - which, for someone who still gets around as much as he does, seems a very creditable total. What on earth does he do at Christmas, we wonder!
Nice to see Richard Knight briefly back in Rye last week; he and Pam have new bought a house at Piedlehinton in Dorset, near Pam's job and a base for Richard to catch up on his written work over the winter. He hopes for an RSPB contract in the area next summer.
Thursday, 27th Local History Group inaugural meeting, Library, 7.30 (GAZETTE no. 99)
St. Mary's Harvest Supper, Community Centre
Saturday, 29th Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5
Thomas Peacocke School Michaelmas Fair, The Grove, 2
Rye Sea Angling Club jumble sale, CC, afternoon
Musical Evening, Rye Methodist Choir, Methodist Church, 7.30
Monday, 1st Monday Club, Clinic, 2
FRAG talk, "Writing for Children/Writing for Adults" (Joan
Aiken), TH, 8 - see page 2
Tuesday, 2nd Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
Council of Churches talk, "Unity in Worship" (Rev. John Weller), St. Mary's, 7.30
CND talk, "The Medical Effects of Nuclear War" (Dr. Reg Saxton, of the Doctors' Union Against Nuclear War), CC, 7.30
• Congratulations to Christine Marshall, of Leasam House Farm, who was married at Chilham on 1 September to Det. Sgt. Bruce Campbell of Kent Police. They are likely to be seeing something of each other at work; Christine is Clerk to the Justices in Canterbury.
• Congratulations, too, to Keith and Beverly Gudgion on the birth of their daughter Ria, a sister for Jai - now safely back home in Rye Harbour.
• The coffee morning at the home of Mr. and Mr,. Phil Ellis on Cadborough Cliff last week raised £176 for the work of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council ¬grateful thanks, says ARC secretary Francis Barrett, to all supporters.
• British Rail warn about engineering work this coming Saturday and Sunday - not (apparently) on our line this time, but between Ashford and Staplehurst - which will mean buses again, with delays of up to 50 minutes; and it's no good going to London via Hastings instead because they are working on the Tonbridge line too, with buses from Wadhurst and delays of up to an hours
• Condolences to the Hope Anchor Hotel, where a video recorder and a colour tele-text TV set were stolen from a staff room during the afternoon of 14 September; the equipment was worth nearly £900.
• Planning - Rother is applying to itself for continued use of the Gas Works car park until March 1993.
• Publicity about the success of Sussex Police's recruiting drive for special constables led us to ask what response there had been in Rye. We are glad to report that five new names are now going through the selection procedure. Some enquirers had to be turned away - the age-limit for new recruits is normally 50.
• Rye and District Sea Cadet Corps raised £381 for Unit funds from their flag-day collection on 1 September. The Corps' Annual Inspection, by Commander Jack Duffett RN, takes place at their Rock Channel HQ on Friday, 12 October, and this will be followed by a presentation to Lieutenant Commander (SCC) R J Whiteman RNR, who is retiring after 31 years in command of the unit.
• On Saturday week (6th) members of the Tilling Society meet in Rye for their annual pilgrimage. E F Benson addicts who are not yet members but would like to join in should contact Mrs. Reavell at the Martello Bookshop to see if there is room - lunch is at the George Hotel ("The King's Arms") and tea at the Hope Anchor ("The Trader's Arms"). Last year's get-together was much enjoyed.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, 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. A few spare copies of the current issue are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street; back numbers can be obtained from 2 Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984)