Back in June, when the Rural Development Area was first announced, we wrote in GAZETTE no. 87 about this unexpected development in government largesse. The first Area of its kind in the south-east, it covers a patch roughly the size of the Isle of Wight, with Rye at the centre and extending into both Rent and Sussex (see GAZETTE nos. 89 and 90 for details). Apart from the original announcement, there wasn't then much more to report. But now the implications have been digested, and to tell us what it means to us the East Sussex County Council is holding-an Information Fair at the Community Centre on Thursday week (25 October) from 12 noon to pm.' Representatives from various agencies, says the press release, will be present to explain what they can offer, answer queries and listen to ideas. A dozen organisations will be exhibiting, all with an interest in business and community development in the aew Area - though it is not clear how far, if at all, Kent is involved in this particular event. Designation means that over 10,000 people in Sussex, plus presumably an equivalent number across the border, are "to receive extra resources to improve employment and training prospects, local services and community life". There will be government funding for new industrial buildings, help in renovating redundant buildings for business premises, loans and financial concessions for businesses.
But, says ESCC, local organisations and individuals must also hels by putting >forward ideas and suggestions, both for business and community needs. These are the people they want to see at the Fair - THIS MEANS YOU.
There will be ads in this week's Sussex Express, News and Argus, invitations to over 300 firms and organisations, and "an extensive leaflet drop" (shades of war-time, but presumably they don't mean that!) in the villages. And the GAZETTE is saying to Rye readers, please come to the Fair and see for yourself, even if you don't think there could be anything in it for you; there might well be, all the same - either as an employer, an employee, someone cut of a job or just a >member of the community in general. If ESCC staff aren't told, they can't know what we want; and if we don't know what's on offer, we can't tell them.
Do, please remember - next Thursday. 25 October, at the Community Centre any time
between 12 noon and 8 DM. After all, this timing allows for visits in the dinner hour, or before collecting the children from school, or straight from work, or after you've had your tea - so there is no real excuse for anyone rot to come!
Rye Goldsmiths in the High Street was broken into early last Wednesday morning, and some £ 3,C00-worth of jewellery taken from one of the windows. The thieves forced a metal shutter, broke the glass, snatched four trays of jewels from the display and then, as an alerted neighbour shouted "Police!" made off in a car wit the number-plate apparently obscured. Police were on the spot very quickly and went after the car, but in vain. The shop's owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hodgson, had the shutters installed after a raid several years ago - with much regret, because they enjoyed the pretty lighted windows as much as anyone; now they are thinking about even more elaborate forms of burglar-proofing.
Other entries in the Press Book concern the theft of over 100 gallons of Texaco gas oil from the Weslake premises in Rye Harbour Road; a pair of brass candlesticks from Winchelsea Church; a Raleigh BMX bike from Lower School; and, from a car parked in Market Street, a Sharp stereo casette radio, a leather jacket and an 8' pike rod. The CID has not yet (Monday) seen fit to reveal details of the recent burglary in North Salts, but we mention it nonetheless as a warning that although Neighbourhood Watch is effective it is not infallible.
2.
Miss Edith Turner, of New Road, died in Rye Memorial Hospital on Sunday morning
after a very brief illness; she was 85. Next week's GAZETTE will carry a fuller obituary notice of this much-loved and greatly respected lady, who first came to teach at Rye Grammar School in May 1927. There will be a funeral service at St. Mary's on Thursday (tomorrow, 18th) at 11.15, followed by cremation. Donations for St. Mary's Church funds, in lie of flowers, may be sent either to the Rectory or c/o Ellis Bros, Cinque Ports Street.
Mrs. Wray Laurent, of the Cadborough Post Office Stores, died very suddenly at her home on Sunday. Mrs. Laurent, who was 54, had made many friends in the few years since she and her husband took over the shop, and her invariably cheerful and friendly presence will be much missed. There is great sympathy for her husband Basil and their three children. The funeral will take place at Hastings Crematorium on Tuesday, 23rd, at 3.
Mr. Leslie Jupp, of Udimore Road, died recently in Battle Hospital; he had been in hospital following a stroke earlier in the summer. A librarian be profession, Mr. Jupp retired to Rye some years ago with his wife Mary, who had lived here as, a child, and their twin son and daughter.
An almighty bang down at the Strand at mid-day last Wednesday meant total immersion for a 20-year-old Newhaven-registered yacht, and a lucky escape for her owner. Mr. John Road, 59, was alone in the cabin of his 25' boat "Comraderie", preparing to start up the engine for departure after a couple of weeks spent at Strand quay. Without warning, a major explosion blew the top off the cabin, and Mr. Road out after it; one side of the wooden boat was completely torn off and she sank - as an eye-witness told us - in three seconds flat, leaving just her mast and furled sail showing above the high-tide level.
Mr. Hoad was able to swim to the bank and scramble to shore, whence he was taken by ambulance to RESH for treatment for shock and minor burns. Mick Hodgson of South Undercliff launched his dinghy and retrieved some of Mr. Road's floating possessions before they were swept down-river by the falling tide; a pathetic pile on the quayside was later removed by police. At low water on Wednesday evening, the shattered yacht sat upright on the bottom, her rent side lying beside her, her innards exposed to the public gaze: a sorry sight indeed.
"Comraderie" had been moored alongside another Newhaven boat, also in Rye for a brief visit - "Ldbella", which had put into the river when adverse winds meant a tricky return to her home port after a cross-Channel trip. Astonishingly, neither "Libella" nor her owner - not one of the younger generation of yachtsmen - was hurt in any way; the blast went entirely towards the unprotected outer side of its victim. But "Libella" had to be shifted further up the quay on Thursday night's tide, since at 6 am on Friday an SWA crane arrived to haul the wreckage out of the river. If anything, the disaster seemed even more spectacular when what had been a smart yellow yacht on Wednesday morning was no more than a stack of muddy match-wood on the quayside less than 48 hours later. The mast and sail were salvaged, and Mr. Hoad - whose boat had also been his home - told us that he hoped to save the engine if it could be stripped down at once. He attributed the explosion to petrol fumes building up more than usual in the bilges, due to the damp and still weather conditions.
If anyone has photographs of the accident and its aftermath, Mr. Hoad's son would >much appreciate copies - c/o 73 Windsor Road, Bexhill. And Mr. Road himself rang the GAZETTE on Saturday from his sister's home in Seaford, where he is staying, to ask us to express his most sincere gratitude to all the people who helped him in various ways (and whose names he doesn't know) when disaster struck in such a spectacular manner.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 17.10.1984
Two VIth-formers from Thomas Peacocke School are going for a bike-ride at half-term - rather a long way, and in aid of two very good causes. Andrew Heather, of Church Farmnouse, East Guldeford, and Simon de Ste Croix of Landgate will be leaving the TVS studios in Maidstone on Sunday (21st) for a 300-mile trip to TVS Southampton and back, returning to Maidstone on Friday afternoon, 26th. They are inviting sponsorship for this energetic journey in aid of the RNLI and in particular the Rye Harbour Lifeboat House Appeal, and also in aid of the Home Mission run by the Baptist Church.
Simon and Andrew will be spending the nights along the way in homes arranged by the Church, and also calling at four RNLI stations en route (Hastings, Newhaven, Littlehampton and Shoreham).
For those who would like to support this very enterprising charitable effort, sponsor forms with more detail can be obtained from Church Farmhouse or from Landgate Cameras; they can be returned direct to Lloyds Bank, 84 High Street, Rye.
After a delay caused by printing problems, the new Hastings & District bus time-tables are now available from the Council Offices. The single booklet helpfully includes the no. 12 service to Tenterden, operated by Maidstone & District; but infortunately East Kent were not able to make firm arrangements for what is now the no. 50 service (Hastings via Ickiesham) until too late for printing, and a
separate leaflet for this should be available at the end of this week. The service is now running two-hourly, but as it alternates with the 799 (now a stop¬ping bus as far as Hastings) there is still a bus - 50 or 799 - leaving Rye for Hastings at five minutes past each hour during the day, as before.
Or by train...
A batch of press release from British Rail includes further details of the Senior
Citizens Railcard concessions for November which we mentioned last week. The 22
day-return tickets are only available in four areas of the country, and ours is
one of them. But €2 will also buy a single journey anywhere in the country, for
travel on Mondays to Thursdays after 9.30 am and all day on Saturday.
Another offer, this time applying to everyone and open until the end of March, is a £.29 "day trip" from London to Paris, travelling overnight between Southampton and Le Havre and giving a full day in Paris.
Less happy and more local news is that next weekend extensive engineering works at shford Station will mean train alterations, and buses between Rye and Ashford on
.oth Saturday and Sunday (20th/21st). Some trains between Ashford and Charing
Cross will also be affected, and there may be delays of up to an hour on journeys.
British Rail, however, also seems to have problems unconnected with the works going
on at Ashford. Mrs. Phyllis Smith set out from her home in Ferry Road last Monday
to catch the 10.06 to London, with the intention of going on to Oxford. The train
pulled in to Rye - and then sat there. And sat there. And sat there. It had
in fact broken down, and eventually an engine had to come from Hastings to push it
to Ashford, which meant that everyone got to London an hour late. One breakdown could happen to anybody, agreed John Smith when he told us about this; but when his wife came home on the Friday, the 5.40 from Ashford also broke down, and got to Rye some 20 minutes late - presumably causing horrible complications for the train from Hastings due to pass it at Rye.
The trouble is, says Mr. Smith, that our diesel rolling-stock is just wearing out. Some time ago he wrote to Ken Warren suggesting that once the Tonbridge line from Hastings has been electrified it would be a sensible move to electrify ours as well, so that trains could run straight through without the need to change at Hastings or Ashford and the same rolling-stock could be used throughout. Mr. Warren was not enthusiastic, and said that what we needed was new diesels.
If Mrs. Smith's experience is at all typical, we certainly need something.
4.
It was a rather special Annual Inspection for the Sea Cadet Corps at their Rock Channel HQ on Friday. The Inspection was taken, for the third year running, by Commander Jack Duffett, RN, who commented on the unit's wide range of activities and in particular the keenness shown with regard to boating. Support from parents and friends, he said, was much appreciated, indeed invaluable, but the best recruiters were the cadets themselves: "Bring your friends", he finished, "it's a happy ship!"
There was a good deal of piping, forming up, standing easy and flying of flags, and also something which the Navy calls "evolutions" but which will be immediately recognised as the stuff of which memories are made for every ex-Scout, Guide or even Cub or Brownie: dealing with casualties in a smoke-filled room, and building a tarpaulin shelter to park them in afterwards - always a problem when there is only a wooden floor to hammer the supports into; we suspect that quite a few of the parents present were itching to take charge...
Next came the nreaentations. The Captain Wethey Cup for Seamanship went to Jeremy Gray, the First Lieutenant's Pot for participation to his younger brother (sorry, we failed to discover his Christian name). The Griffin Cup for the most parades attended during the year was won by James Kirkham. Robert Crisp won the Blacklock Trophy for the best sporting cadet, and Andrew Peters and Mark Peatfield shared the Captain Evans award for the most promising cadet with under one year's service. The cup for the best shooting in 1983/4 went to Jeremy Gray for the third year running. Lt. Paul Whiteman was awarded the Sea Cadet Corps 15-year service medal, and Colin Marsh was congratulated on his nromotion to Commander, RNR.
Then came a gift from a civilian: Miss Amy Wood of Winchelsea Road gave the Corps a framed drawing of the 1903 Review of the Fleet which had been in her family for many years. Miss Wood is a firm friend of the Unit, and one of their champion flag-day collectors.
Finally, a sad moment. The Corps' President, Captain Evans, announced that the time had come to say goodbye officially - though not, he felt sure, unofficially - to the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Commander (SCC) R J Whiteman, RNR, on his retirement. He had joined the Rye unit in 1953 and taken over command in 1959, and had then served for 25 years as commanding officer despite an official Sea Cadet ruling. that no CO should serve for more than ten years! He had been a wonderful friend to cadets past and present, said Captain Evans, as had his wife Joyce; he had commanded sons of his original cadets, and it was therefore very aprropriate that his successor as CO should be his own son Paul.
Lt.Cdr. Whiteman was then presented with an engraved silver salver from the
committee. There was a set of decanters and glasses for the household, and a plant for Hrs. Whiteman; and then, on behalf of the present cadets, Leading Seaman Jeremy Gray presented a silver model of HMS Illustrious. Finally, the cadets carried their ex-CO out of the room on what can only be described as a litter, and returned bearing their new CO; and the ceremonies wera over.
A comfortably large audience arrived at Thomas Peacocke School hall on Friday night to hear John Gooders speaking about Indian wildlife. Before the lecture, the new Warden of the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, Dr. Barry Yates, spoke about the season at the reserve and showed slides of some of the attractions. The summer, he said had been a good one on the whole, though some of the plants had suffered from the depredations of a flourishing rabbit population (readers may remember that Camber Castle has been having the same trouble), and foxes had on one night played havoc with the nesting terns. He mentioned four rare visitors to the reserve: a peregrine falcon which obligingly flew over while a recent working-party were having lunch, a sooty tern (the first in Sussex since 1911), the first Wilson's phalarope on the reserve, and the first Caspian tern there for 20 years. (He spoke reproach¬fully of people who come with sacks to cut the sea-kale: he doesn't grudge the odd sample, but a nature reserve is not, after all, a free vegetable garden!)
5.
Ever since 1974, when Rother took over much of Rye's public land, Parks and Gardens manager Colin Hudson had been worried about the overgrown, derelict and rubbish-strewn condition of the dykes which border the large allotment site alongside Tillingham Avenue. They badly needed clearing ten years ago, but Rother had neither the men nor the money to do the job.
However, for the past year Rother has been one of the sponsors of the Community Services Programme, a Manpower Services Commission scheme which creates jobs for >adults rather like YOP did for youngsters. The Rother team has been clearing overgrown land, painting village halls, and other community projects, subject to prior agreement with the unions concerned. If Rother gets permission to sponsor for a second year, they already have plans for making up an unadopted road in Norman's Bay; they would be willing to consider other suggestions for suitable projects (contact Mr. Cook at the Personnel Department, Bexhill Town Hall Hastings 216321).
It is the Community Services team, under Rother's direction, which has been at work on the dykes round the allotments. Colin Hudson has had an occasional complaint that the clearing has been over-vigorous; but he points out that once the ground is cleared, his department does not intend it to remain bare stubble but will let regenerate in ways which can be controlled, leaving it pleasantly wild without becoming impenetrable jumgle again. Anyway, the team have left the healthy trees - we were glad to see some young elms among them; what they have removed is the mass of weeds and brambles and rubbish underneath. They have cleared the bank all along the Tillingham Avenue footpath, and also the dyke the other side, and the transformation is most impressive. We were only sorry to learn that they had had trouble with vandals, when rubbish which they had labori¬ously fished out of the dyke and piled up for removal was flung back in overnight or even chucked across into the river. The job was started less than six weeks ago, and is now almost complete; the team's efforts will be much appreciated by those who like to walk along the path.
Now, how about some well-anchored seats?
In GAZETTE no. 97 we reported briefly on the 0- and A-level results From Thomas Peacocke School. Mr. rooks has now issued his annual breakdown of the full results, unfortunately rather too long for this busy issue; we hope that our precis will not distort the facts. Of the 232 fifth-years, only left without taking any public examinations; the rest took GCE, CSE or RSA exams. including sixth-formers taking A-levers and City & Guilds, 370 pupils altogether took public exams last summer from the three senior years. The CSE results were particularly encouraging, with 106 Grade I passes; there were 1133 CSE passes in all, at all five grades. At O-level, 128 pupils gained at least one pass and 40 gained 6 or more. At A-level, there was a 70% pass rate and a total of 95 passes at all five grades.
Ten students have gone on to university, 9 to polytechnic, 8 to a college of higher education, 5 to an art foundation course and 9 to a professional training. The report refers to a student who has just entered Kings College, Cambridge, to read Natural Science; this is Paul Chillingworth of Lea Avenue, who won his place last Christmas. It also mentions a student who has been offered an unconditional place at Brasenose College, Oxford, to read Zoology in 1985; this (says the Editor proudly) is Daniel Owen, who will be the first Thomas Peacocke pupil to go to Oxford since the school went comprehensive; he has taken a job farming in the Falklands for six months, in order to study South Atlantic bird life."It is our belief" concludes the Head, "that students at Thomas Peacocke School this year have achieved creditably and we take pride in our results. Success is, however, only achieved when students, parents and teachers work together effectively. We are conscious of the help we get from our students and their families and realise that some worthy students are sometimes disappointed. we shall continue to try to do all that we can for all of our pupils."
6.
British Telecom colleagues of the late Michael Booker joined members of his family on Saturday at a simple ceremony at the new Telephone Exchange, when a tree was planted there in his memory. The vivid crimson leaves of a Japanese maple now glow above a plaque bearing the words "In Memory of Mick Booker, from all his colleagues, 1984". Mr. Booker, who had only recently moved from his parents' home in Winchelsea when he was killed in a road accident in June, had been a member of the team working on the equipment of the new exchange before its opening in February 1983.
Mrs. Warner of Poppyfields (nee Jury) sends us a vivid account of her memories of "The Sanny" as the isolation hospital was called, when she was a patient there for eight weeks in 1916. Aged just five, she had been at Playden School only a fortnight when she caught scarlet fever and was despatched up to Udimore by Dr. Harratt, the Medical Officer of Health; while she was there, the Sanitary Inspec-tor, Mr. Gower, fumigated her home.
"I remember sitting dressed waiting for the fever cab (horse-drawn fly) to come and fetch me; my mother kept looking out of the window to see if it was eoming along Military Road. When I was in there, the children were all lying in a row in our beds and it seemed as if there were quite a lot of us. I was very home- sick and cried a lot, especially when my parents came to visit and were only able to look through the window. They" (Mr. and Mrs. Hills were in charge at the time) "used to sit me on a table after I had been given a bath and my feet and legs were rubbed with pumice-stone to get some of the flaky skin off; I believe we had to be free of peeling, as they called it, before being allowed to go home. When I came out, all the clothes that I wore when I was taken in were burnt, including a little red velvet coat and bonnet, which upset me."
Even now, nearly seventy years later, one's heart bleeds for little Miss Jury! Joan Parkes tells us that scrubbing off the peeling skin was not as pointless as it sounds; if it was not done, Dr. Parkes once told her, the victim would end up with rough skin for the rest of his or her life. Dr. Parkes once told the Editor, surveying a child with a sore throat and a rash, that he didn't know whether scarlet fever had actually vanished or not; it simply never got the chance to develop, thanks to antibiotics.
As for our final question - when did the hospital open? - it looks as if Michael Alford has provided the answer. He now lives at Rye Harbour and represents the village on Icklesham Parish Council, but he was brought up in Udimore and can remember the hospital well - it was his mother who helped Mrs. Hedger burn up the bedding when the place closed. Mr. Alford tells us that his grandfather came out of the coastguard service in about 1908; at the same time, Mr. Hills left the service and it was his wife who became the matron of the fever hospital - he is not certain, but feels fairly sure that the Hills were the first staff there. (They were succeeded by a Mrs. Collier, and then by the Yeomans whom many younger sufferers remember.) If Mr. Alford is right, the hospital only had a life-span of some 25 years; it certainly seems to have left its mark in that time in local memories!
Rye Fire Brigade were called to a mischievously-started fire on Monday evening, when the old air-raid shelter on the Salts was filled with smoke and firemen had to wear breathing apparatus to go inside and douse the flames. The shelter, formerly used by Rye Athletic FC as changing quarters, has been abandoned for some time, and police hope to get it sealed up once the Club's goalposts, etc., have been removed. Apart from the sensational blaze at Winchelsea Beach, when the Ship Inn caught alight on Wednesday night and the occupants had to escape across the roof, the Brigade has had a quiet time, with just an occasional chimney fire or leaking petrol tank to contend with. Touch wood! (And for those who wondered why three police cars went roaring through the town on Sunday, they were on their way to an incident at Westfield and not a local disaster.)
Rye's senior Marathon runner, Mr. George Cumming of Market Road, will be running the full 26-mile course at Bedford on 28 October, and has invited the Rye and District Mencap group to seek sponsors for him on their behalf. Vickie Piper is most appreciative of this; although Mr. Cumming runs marathons regularly, he is by no means always doing it for charity, and the group is much honoured by the invitation. For those not likely to come across Mrs. Piper or one of her committee members, there will be a sponsor form at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street.
This week's planning list shows another industrial development proposed, at outline stage only, for Rye Harbour Road. The site is the piece of ground - about acres - between Long Products and the creek, and the application is for light industrial factory and workshop units, wharfage and warehousing.
The Public Enquiry about the development of Nook Beach for various recreational uses, due to start at Rye Harbour on 30 October, has been adjourned because the appellant had failed to lodge with the D o E any formal grounds for his appeal. Although he has now done so, Rother still has to prepare its case, and this means that the enquiry will not take place until a date in the New Year, possibly not until March.
At a recent committee meeting, Cadborough Jubilee Social Club decided to give away to charity the entire proceeds of its Summer Fair: £125 goes to the Lifeboat Appeal and £125 to the Community Centre's toilet for the disabled. Brian Chapman, Chairman of the Community Centre Association, asks to point out that the latter appeal will also benefit from the proceeds of the Laurie Band slide show tomorrow (and not Community Centre funds generally, as we had understood).
Congratulations to three local children (ex-Freda Gardham and now first years ae Thomas Peacocke) whose poems were among the top ten in the junior class of a children's poetry coapetition organised as part of Hastings Day celebrations. Certificates went to Rachel Saunders and Damiel Blumire of Rye, and to Sean Bailey of Camber who also won the third prize in his class.
Reading last week's obituary notice for Mrs. Barbara Bagenal, Sheila Dickinson recalled for us the way in which Mra. Bagenal had so staunchly supported the Rye Art Gallery from its inception until the time she left the town. It was, incidentally, as Barbara Hiles (not Hines) that Mrs. Bagenal had been a member ofe —loomsbury Group; and she was a friend of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell (but -ot of a composite Vanessa Woolf, who didn't exist - sorry!).
Devonport House residents would very much like to see a new bulb put in the middle street lamp on Hilder's Cliff, please, which has been dark ever since the summer. The pavement is their way home from the Red Cross whist drives, and they are worried about missing their footing - the excellent lighting from the Saltings is blocked by cars parked along the road. A message was left at Rother for ESCC to this effect last Wednesday, but there was still no light in the lamp on Monday night.
A coffee morning at Playden on Tuesday raised £100 for the Eye Laser Appeal, and we are glad to report that they are now past the half-way mark, with around £35,000 still to find. Tickets for the concert on 26 October, about which we wrote last week, can be obtained from Anglia in the High Street, or at the door on the night.
And finally, a reader writes: "I wish we could instil a little more pride in Rye, as we are getting a terribly tatty town. I must look a bit mad, but I seem to be always wandering about with handfuls of litter to bung in a bin. If a few more like-minded people did it, we might get a bit more litter-free. We might also set an example to people to stop dropping it in the first place."
This week's events
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10.30 to 4 (and Friday, Saturday) Tilling Green School autumn sale, Tilling Green, 6
Slide show, "Rye in the Past, 1860-1936" (Laurie Band), CC, 7.30
Bible Society Autumn Meeting (Roy Weaver), Baptist Church, 7.45
Museum Association talk, "An Artist and his camera in Sussex" (Geoffrey Bagley), FEC, 7.30
Thomas Peacocke School closed (in-service staff training)
Coffee morning and sale for Blind Association, FEC, 10
National Trust talk, "Some Aspects of the art and history of some Italian towns" (P. Berrisford), CC, 2.30
Half-term week begins
Council of Churches talk, "Unity and. athe Family" (Dr Ruth Reardon), St. Mary's, 7.30, followed by a vigil of prayer for peace (until midnight)
Wednesday, 24th Over-60s Club, Red Cress, 1.45
• Congratulations to Katherine and Bruce Hamilton, of the High Street, on the arrival on 3 October of Jessica (8 lbs), a sister for Alexander - now home again and, if you strike lucky, occasionally greeting her admirers in Hamilton Furnishings.
• The Rye and District Branch of the NSPCC announces with pleasure and pride that in this centenary year the recent house-to-house collection topped, for the first time, the thousand-pound mark: f1,050, as against last year's .C924. This was from house-to-house only, with no street collection (for which Rather refused teem permission), and the area included Rye, Camber and East Guldeford, Playden and Iden, ?Peasmarsh and Beckley, Rye Harbour, Winchelsea and the Beach.
• The Tuck Shoppe opposite the Town Hall has a vacancy for a permanent part-time member of staff, starting as soon as possible: four mornings a week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) from 8.30 to lunch-time. Janet Webb reckons that it would suit someone wanting to return to work after raising a young family, since the hours are compatible with school times; but she warns that it does involve lifting things, and strong arms and back are necessary. Apply to Mrs. Webb at the shop.
• Saturday's Scout jumble sale made over £80.
• The Civil Service Retirement Fellowship is sorry that the visit to the Vienna festival Ballet's performance of "Nutcracker" on 1 November has had to be cancelled - by the theatre, not the trip's organisers; they hope to arrange an alternative outing later.
• Many thanks, Rotary, for the seat recently erected on the grass outside Badger Gate, handy for those about to embark on the long haul up the hill.
• The house-to-house collection recently organised for the National Children's Home raised Z152, and the organisers wish to thank all those who collected.
We are glad to reassure worried readers that the handsome coat-of-arms over the door of the Customs offices in the High Street will go back in place as soon as it has been repainted; and the brass window-sills at Ashbees the butchers have also been only temporarily removed during the repainting.
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 are left at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, and back numbers are available from 2 Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984).