Last Thursday saw Rye's second Diamond Wedding within a matter of a few moatha. Mr. Frank Hobbs and his wife Lily were married on 7 March 1925. Mrs. Hobbs was born in Rye, but she met her husband, a Londoner, when he was stationed at Lydd with the Tank Corps after WWI. When he left the army, he went to work at the Rother Ironworks, retiring not long before the original firm closed down.
The family had moved into their present South Undercliff house - where they have now lived for 47 years - just before the war, and Mr. Hobbs remained at the Ironworks all through it, though his wife and children went to Bedford with the schools as so many Rye children and their mothers did.
Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs have a daughter in Staines, a son in Macclesfield, two grand-daughters, two grandsons and two great-grandchildren, and they all came last weekend to celebrate this happy family event with a party for family and close friends at the Smugglers at Pett. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs are keen modern quence dancers, and the previous day there was another party, this time at a dance club which they attend regularly. Mrs. Hobbs is a member and regular helper at Rye WI Market, and of course a Rye WI member; and Mr. Hobbs tells us that he only gave up his allotment within the past year. The GAZETTE and all their friends wish this energetic couple many happy returns of a splendid anniversary.
Plans for major alterations to Rye Post Office have been under consideration for a long time now, which was why the old Sussex Express office remained empty and also why the phone boxes were moved (since British Telecom is now separate from the GPO). Finally Rye got to the top of the GPO's list, and the plans were approved at Rother's last planning meeting.
The Postmaster tells us that the new building will look very different as seen from Cinque Ports Street (the plans, for the curious, are available at the Council offices). The walls will be brick and the pitched roof tiled, with the level slightly lower over the rebuilt area between the present office and Vidlers, which is to be incorporated in the new building. The entrance will, be in the qieldle, to the left of the big window and opening into what is now the far corner the public office; it will therefore be at pavement level, which will please wheelchair users - who will also find inside a desk set at a convenient height for them. The interior of the main office will be basically the same as now, but thrown into it will be not only the present porch area but also the small accounts office behind it, so that the total counter space will be larger (Mr. Clark says that staffing is not being increased at present, but perhaps one day...). The steps will disappear.
The really major interior improvements will not be seen by the public, since they are to the staff quarters behind the main office and affect both working and welfare conditions. (A friend who has been backstage tells us that this is certainly not before time, the staff are desperately cramped there at the moment.) Work is expected to begin in June, but the builders will, start at the side and back,leaving the public office until after the tourist season. At no time, Mr. Clark promises, will the office be closed entirely.
The Minutes of the 18 February Town Council meeting which discussed the street parking report have now reached the GAZETTE. It was agreed "that the ESCC Planning Department be requested to update the Central Area Plan for Rye dated 1970, before the report could be finalised". This, we feel, could take some time!
Mrs. Daphne Rodgers, of Rye Harbour, died suddenly at her home on 2 Harch. She was the wife of Mr. Robert Rodgers, and also leaves a daughter and two grandsons.
Mr. Roo Gammon, who died suddenly while out walking in Peasmarsh on Friday afternoon (8th), was for many years the landlord of the village's Cock Inn. Mr. Gammon was 70. He leaves a widow.
One of our regular correspondents, Peter Ewart of Staple near Canterbury, was sorry to read of the death of Mrs. Margery Gilbert. His grandfather Ted Rhodes lived at 3 Watchbell Lane from before WW1 until his death in 1959, and during his old age benefited from Mrs. Gilbert's kindness. As a child, Peter used to do his grandfather's errands, and clearly remembers returning the odd pie-dish to her back door in Watchbell Lane. After Ted Rhodes's death, Peter continues, Mrs. Gilbert bought no. 3 and did it up, and then sold it again; but first she changed the name to commemorate her former neighbour - hence "Old Rhodes". Peter also reminds us that it was Mrs. Gilbert's husband, the first secretary of Rye Museum Association, who wrote the Association's publication "Rye Reformed". In the book he used "the reminiscences of some old Ryers who recalled stories of the eventful Rye 19th century elections from their fathers' and grandfathers' stories"; it seems likely that Ted Rhodes, living so near, was one of these sources (and the original Rye Gazette, by the way, dates from this period; it was a left-wing political monthly publication printed in Mermaid Street).
All GAZETTE subscriptions are due for renewal at the end of this month. Mere will, as usual, be no GAZETTE in the week after Easter (10 April), and on alternate weeks in August; so there will be 12 issues in the quarter from April to June, and 11 in the quarter from July to September. Subscriptions are therefore as follows:
For 12 weeks from 3 April to 26 June inclusive 0000 £3.00 - For 11 weeks from 3 July to 25 September inclusive .... £2.75
All subscribers who wish to continue should therefore pay £3 by the end of this month, to ensure delivery of the 3 April issue; those who wish may pay a total of £5.75, which takes them right through until the end of September. - Cheques payable to THE RYE GAZETTE; if you are paying for six months, please send the exact amount as 25p is awkward to return in change with your receipt. Cash payments should have your name on/in the envelope, and also your delivery address or pick-up point (some surnames appear several times in our list of subscribers). All receipts will go out with the 3 April issue; till then, your copy will be ticked once (or twice) as soon as we have your subscription for one (or two) quarters.
(The book-keeping is a real headache for the Editor; please don't hesitate to complain at once if you think we may have done you wrong!)
Readers might be interested to know that we now print to capacity - a regular 400 copies a week. Except for half-a-dozen which the Editor keeps for those who may later want back-numbers, these are all distributed on Wednesdays. It is not possible to produce more than 400 copies on a Tuesday because the production department is flat out already, but each week we gain a few Lore subscribers and these extra copies can now only be found by cutting down on the 30 spares at present left at Squirrels. So we apologise in advance to anyone who normally buys a copy from Squirrels and one week finds they have cold out. (The eventual solution may be a second small printing to go on sale on Thursdays, with only ordered copies available on Wednesdays; but it hasn't come to that quite yet.)
3.
Rye Community Centre supporters gave a really enjoyable evening's entertainnent to a large audience at the Centre on Saturday, when Rosemary Wilkinson's "March Madness" raised £130 for Community Centre funds. The show opened with Rye Dance Centre's all-age chorus-line, dazzling in green and black, in "Sting", and its younger performers closed the first half delightfully in a twirl of coloured umbrellas.The Dance Centre also contributed a charming dance duet, a Twenties piece, a ballet selection, and a very professional "Workout" which left even the audience gasping. No names were given in the programme for the Centre's contributions, but Joanne Haviland, its director, was unmistakeable among the dancers.
Mandy Adamson instructs the Rye Majorettes in baton-twirling, and she and Sharon Oliver carried out gravity-defying feats with flags and batons. More batons with luminous tips swirled into ribbons of green light in the Majorettes' second piece, the eerie scene lit at the back with a flaming twisting wand.
Young Jayne Cuthbert presented "Burlington Bertie" with great aplomb, all by herself on the large stage (the new section had been incorporated for the evening and was put to good use) and her performance was much applauded.
Rye Players opened the second half with "The Swinging Twenties": Yvonne Cotterell, Alison Cade, Bridget Mann and Pam Peters, escorted by Tony Thompson, Brian Lovell, reel Waters and David Cade; and the Players also contributed some greatly-enjoyed individual items. Tony Thompson won all hearts with his rendering of "Ma Belle Marguerite"; Joan Parkes succeeded (or did she?) in "Cheering Up Maria", and as Blodwen dealt firmly with Chris Waters's salesman; Pam Peters told us in horrible detail all about her glands; and Brian Lovell peopled the stage with grasping relatives in his monologue "Where there's a Will...".
Members of the Centre's committee invited the audience to play "Call my Bluff". With Noel Varley as chairman, and a team who had - to the joy of the audience - failed to rehearse one important particular, they had us puzzled (sometimes!).
Compere David Cade kept the audience happy, introducing one performer as "fresh from a very successful tour of south-east Camber", and involving his hearers in a complicated chorus to "The Ballad of Bethnal Green". His cheerful smile may have glossed over back-stage mishaps, but if so we didn't notice - after all, that's what a compere's for. At the piano were Muriel Ball and Barbara Dickinson, and the organisers were also grateful to Malcolm Harris who stepped in at less than 24 hours' notice as stage manager. It would be nice if this could be an annual event, with all the local talent on show; and we hear that Ryesingers, who were unable to take part owing to confusion over the date, will be giving a concert for the Centre some time in the autumn.
• Among the groups of knitters busy making vests for Oxfam to send to Ethiopian children is ono which meets in the Upper Room at St. Mary's on Friday afternoons between 2 and 3.30 - perhaps the first time this room has echoed with the click of knitting-needles? Oxfam has issued a simple pattern and wants it made up in bright-coloured wool (or synthetic with an appreciable wool content) - stripes if preferred; double-knitting, on size 8 and 10 needles. (The Wool Shop has a good offer on suitable wool, which works out at two vests for 65p.) Knitters who would like to take part but can't manage a Friday afternoon to collect the pattern may ring for one.
• Bishop Peter's "caring and sharing" scheme has raised £160,000 in small regular sums in East Sussex in less than two years, towards Third World welfare projects. The idea is for participants to give up each week a small luxury, and send the total amount saved to the scheme (a Mars Bar was quoted to us as an example). To introduce newcomers to the idea, and of course to welcome those who already take part, Mrs. Nora McCaughey is having a scup-and-cheese lunch at Playden Cottage, Military Road (just by the Rye Town sign, plenty of parking) at 12 this Saturday (16th). All are welcome, but it would help with the catering if she had some idea of numbers in advance.
4.
Rye's exposure on television in April is really becoming suite remarkable! As well as "Tinewatch" and "Mapp and Lucia", BBC1 was filming here earlier this week for a children's series called "Busker" which also is due to go out next month. Roy Barnes, whose Merrythought shop under the shadow of the church will appear disguised as a pet shop, tells us that they were filming children in various locations in the town - but whose children we don't know: would anyone like to tell us?
Yet another television appearance for the town, or anyway. for St. Mary's, comes later in the summer, when the holiday-season equivalent of "Songs of Praise" goes out on film. This is not the traditional hymn-singing with a congregation, but a programme with a "name" who chooses hymns which are then sung by local choirs. Recording for this takes place in St. Mary's at the end of the month; and the celebrity, we understand, is Gwen Cashmore, whom Rye Grammar School pupils in the early 1950s will remember as teaching PE, running the Guides and acting as junior housemistress at Saltcote Place - but who went on to work as a CMS missionary in Africa, and then in the wider field of community relations. We were told that she chose Rye for "her" programme because she remembers it with such affection.
The press book at the polite station often contains long and boring (to those not involved) lists of items stolen, which the police like newspaper reports to include in case they are offered for sale locally afterwards. Fortunately these lists are usually from outside the GAZETTE's catchment area; but a recent burglary at a house "under extensive repair" in Cinque Ports Street yielded a haul of expensive and easily saleableequipment - TV, video, movie camera and other goodies. This went in the press book on 5 March, too late for last week's GAZETTE; but in fact the burglary took place over the weekend of 22/25 February, so there was ample opportunity for the thieves to flog the stuff before its loss was made public at all!
The meanie who stole the RNLI box from the Pipemakers Arms (reported in last week's issue) also took the boxes for the Spastics Society and the Firemen's Benevolent Fund. We hope his house burns down…
On the evening of Friday, 15 February, between 6 and 7.30, the yellow Payphone 100 was stolen from the foyer of the Regent Motel in Cinque Ports Street. The replacement is firmly screwed down; but Mrs. Osborne asks us to mention the theft as a warning to other businesses in the town who provide service. This particular model needs a key, either to bypass or alternatively to open the coin box; and the thief has not, of course, got the keys. So anyone currently using a Payphone 100 which has one of the locks tampered with just might have some explaining to do.
Recently we met a delightful French girl, a teacher at Nottingham University, who was staying in Rye in connection with her thesis research into the life and work of Henry James. Her hostess arranged several meetings for her with local people who remember him or could help her, but she wonders if there is anyone else with information about him? Of course it is all a very long time ago: Henry James died in 1916 and had not lived in Rye for a couple of years before that. But if anyone can help Mlle. Bellenger with Henry James reminis¬cences, either of their own or more probably passed on from an earlier generation, she would be very glad to hear from them. We might add that Mlle. Bellenger speaks excellent English, so there is no problem about that. She hopes to return to Rye in June or July to find a holiday job here.
5.
At their Annual General Meeting last Tuesday, the Friends of Rye Art Gallery were very pleased to learn that the Easton Rooms had had a good year. Gross sales were up by more than £5,000, and the net commission earned was over £12,000. Some expenses were lower than last year, though costs of printing and credit card charges had risen so that the total expenses were up by some £800; but the net profit for the gallery in 1984 was £96 as against the 1983 loss of £488 - an improvement in its overall trading position of over £1,000. (These figures do not include rates, water rates and property insurance, which are paid for by the Friends direct.) Anthony Sandeman, who hate just completed his two-year term as chairman, thanked his vice-chairman and successor, Tim Bishop of Smallhythe. He specially congratulated Peter Lee and the Thomas Peacocke School art department on the success of the school exhibition at the Easton Rooms after Christmas (GAZETTE no. 113) - the Friends had made a grant of just over £350 towards the expenses of this show. Mr. Sandeman thanked the retiring Treasurer, Peter Gracey; and also Eric and Martha Money and their staff at the Easton Rooms (later on, Mr. Money spoke enthusiastically about the past year: roughly £16,000-worth of paintings, etc., were sold from the changing exhibitions with a further £6,000-worth of craft goods, plus £9,000 from items sold out of the gallery's e.apermanent exhibition).
Mr. Sandeman then turned to the question of the administration of the Trust governing the Rye Art Gallery's affairs. There was at present, he said, a shortage of Trustees. Sidney Horniblow (who was appointed by. the Subscribers) had resigned in the autumn; Ralph Wood's term of office had expired (he was one of the two Trustees appointed by the Royal Academy). This left the other Academy Trustee, Mrs. Phoebe Merricks - who, as members would know, was very far from well - and the Town Council nominee, Geoffrey Bagley. The third remaining Trustee is the only one left of the original appointees under the will of Mrs. Stormont - Mr. Kenneth Herbertson of Sevenoaks, who had been her solicitor. Mr. Herbertson is at present acting as chairman of the Trustees in place of Mr. Horniblow; he had of course been invited to attend the meeting, or to send a statement about the Trustees' intentions for the galleries, but had not done so. At last year's meeting mention had been made of an agreement to be drawn up by the Trustees to secure the future of the galleries, but this had not yet appeared, Mr. Sandeman said. Mr. Herbertson was anxious for help from the Friends at a personal rather than financial level in the staffing of the main gallery, and in a cautious resolution the meeting agreed to look into this possibility. The feeling undoubtedly was that it would have been ' appreciated if Mr. Herbertson had been able to come - obviously the nesition. is not very satisfactory when out of five Trustees only two are able to function. New members on the Friends committee are Fred Cuming of Wittersham, Joe Holden of Hastings and Dax Copp of Wittersham. Mr. Sandeman was re-elected, and Peter Gracey and Constance Owen did not stand for re-election. Otherwise the committee remains the same as last year.
Vidlers' special evening sale on Friday was very successful, with - Leslie Stutely tells us - more buyers than he remembers at any previous evening sale, coming from all over the country for this widely advertised event. Very good prices were obtained, with only 4 lots out of 108 remaining unsold. Top price of £4,000 went to a wardrobe - but a rather special wardrobe which those who saw it will not forget (lot 38). A charming mahogany bookcase cabinet fetched £1,050, and an antique mahogany bureau did even better at £1,150. A long-case clock with painted panels sold for £800 and another in oak by Thomas Estwick for £540; a pedestal desk went for £760 and a Regency sofa table for £500, and there were plenty more prices not far behind. Buyers showed keen interest in the jewellery, where a 15-carat gold guard chain, 55" long, went for £500. The splendid canteen of table plate catering for a family of 12 fetched £300 - presumably from a buyer with the initial 'F' which was monogrammed on all 136 pieces!
6.
At the recent planning committee, Rye's less controversial applications either got immediate approval or were delegated to the planning officer to approve if there were no objections within the time limit. In one or other category came the hanging sign for Serendipity; the alterations to 12 Watchbell Street which will restore it to its original appearance when it was rebuilt in the second half of the eighteenth century; ice-cream vans on the Salts and at the Harbour; temporary office accommodation for Long Products in Harbour Road; Natwest's new service till and resited night safe; retrospective chahge of use for 10 Ferry Road from a betting shop to an antique shop running through to the former butcher's next door; a garage for a house in Ferry Road, with access from the Mill lane; change of colour for Ellwoods in Market Road, from blue to charcoal and dove grey; a new side door for The Old Hospital; and change of use from shop to restaurant for 5/6 Landgate. Also approved were the plans for the new Post Office (see p.1), and for the extension to the fish shop in the Fishmarket - this included a water¬tight gate through the SWA-'e flood wall, and the Town Council was "opposed to any breach of the sea or river defences of the town, particularly when such a breach is in the control of a private individual" - which somehow brings Rye's maritime past surging into 1985!
This leaves three major applications, all of which were refused. British Rail's plans for a large housing development on land north of the railway, off The Grove, were turned down on the direction of the D o T on the grounds that planning permission would be prejudicial to any decision on the Rye bypass, though the Department would not oppose coach or car parking on the site. Quite apart from any question of the bypass, no-one was very keen on the idea; Rye Town Council objected, the County Engineer didn't like the access to Ferry Road, and the County Conservation Officer said that the setting of the listed railway station building would be adversely affected - "the existing swampy scrub and woodland provides a rural and contrasting background of even texture to the station buildings seen from the south and is an attractive 'green lung'..." (which is a more elegant way of putting what we said in GAZETTE no. 113, just before this particular application came up; we wonder if the allotment holders can now stay put?)
Weslake's airstrip was also turned down; it was pointed out that Lydd Airport wasn't all that far away. There were objections from four conservation bodies, and the planning officer recommended refusal as being: contrary to the County Structure Plan; detrimental to the ecological value of the area and also to the amenities of residents; creating a precedent (Norman Jones's unauthorised air¬strip some 400 yards away is still under consideration by the enquiry inspector); and introducing "an intrusive commercial use in an open and undeveloped area of attractive countryside".
Eagle Road residents will have been delighted that permission was refused to use the old phone exchange for light industry. (The bypass people at the D o T apparently had nothing to say about this - is there any significance, we wonder?) A petition from 12 local people had gone to Rother, and.the Town Council had also objected. The planning officer had recommended approval, subject to various safe¬guards, but this was overturned by the committee who felt (after a site inspection) that apart from any other consideration the access road was unsuitable.
The new planning list has an application for an extension to a house in Ashenden Avenue; for alterations at Alsfords Wharf; and for renewal of permission for parking at 43 Winchelsea Road in connection with Harbour Body Panels. There are also two separate proposals for the first field on the left after Kingdom Hall, at the Rye end of Harbour Road. The owner, Mr. P. Elwell of Robertsbridge, is applying to erect a cattle shelter and feed store 60' x 20' x 10' high, 15' back from the road, beside the gate and facing towards the river - the walls in dark boarding with corrugated asbestos roofing. Mr. Elwell is also proposing to construct, on the bump of land at the junction of Rock Channel and the Rother, 54 riverbank moorings plus 30 moorings in an excavated basin, with 30 car-park spaces alongside Rock Channel just past Kingdom Hall.
• Early birds flying towards London are warned that the first train from Rye to Ashford has been retimed and now leaves six minutes earlier than time-tabled. Engineering work on the line has meant speed restrictions over certain sections, and the very tight connection for this journey had meant that it could miss the London train - hence the retiming (ie. it probably won't arrive 6 minutes earlier at Ashford). This is expected to go on for some weeks.
On Monday, when the retiming started, leaflets were handed out on the train by no less a person than the Area Manager himself, Harry Holt - who had driven from his hcme through the fog very early that morning to join the train!
• The Mair family, of Wick Farm, have lost a much-loved springer spaniel (brown and white, with a long tail and brown face, 8 months old, she answers to "Flax"). She went off in Friday morning's fog, on land between Rye and Winchelsea, and hasn't been seen since. The official and farming grapevine has already been alerted, but Anne Mair wonders if anyone has come across this very affectionate little bitch and taken her in, perhaps without making enquiries. If so, please phone as the whole family is desolated at Flax's disappearance.
• The RNLI's wine-and-cheese party at the Community Centre on Friday, 22 March, at 7.30, has an unusual top prize for the raffle - a knot-board, showing some 40 different knots (tied by a devoted Jean Graham-Reed), undoubtedly a conversation piece on any wall. The film this year, "How do we say thank-you?" is intended particularly for Shoreline members. RNLI souveniers will be on sale. Owing to a printing hitch, invitations will not be ready in time, so local supporters are asked to make a special note of the date now - whether or not they normally get individual invitations. Tickets will be on sale at the door, and the £1.50 price includes the cheese and two glasses of wine - and of course the film and a pleasant sociable evening.
• At a coffee evening at the Harbour last Tuesday, the Rye Harbour Lifeboat Supporters presented the crew of the lifeboat with the VHF radio-telephone for the new lifeboat house (GAZETTE no. 118). It cost £368, but they re3couped much of that on the spot, since the evening raised a further S.100 for the Appeal. This means that the group has, over the last ten months, raised £1,000 by purely local efforts! Mrs. Barbara Morren-Wilkins tells us that it has also become firmly established socially, and they intend to keep going after the actual Appeal is closed - which is good news indeed for the lifeboat crew.
• Radio Sussex issues from time to time a newspaper called Sussex Scene, and copies of the current edition are available from the Eastbourne Mutual Building Society in the High Street, free. It contains articles about programmes and presenters, details of forthcoming events and past successes, and a helpful programme guide. Listeners will find that the local news comes up at 7.55 am (and probably at 6.55 too, but the Editor isn't up that early); and at 7.25 and 8.25 on the medium-wave transmission only they have East Sussex Diary, with forthcoming events for our end of the area. In fact local reception seems to be better anyway on medium wave (258m, then turn your set to face Bexhill) than on VHF (103.1 MHz).
• Geoffrey Bagley tells us that Rye Museum has received from Mrs. Stephanie McCullogh a collection of maps which will be on view next season as part of a WWI display; he was interested to see that in a 1916/17 map, one length of trench near Bethune is marked "Rye Trench", and he wonders if anyone can offer the Museum any information about this?
Mr. Bagley will be giving an illustrated talk on "Walking in Venice" after the business of the Museum Association AGM at the Town Hall at 7.30 on Friday, 22 March. The agenda is included in the current newsletter - which also has a lovely story about a body which went missing on the railway between Canterbury and Rye, in 3854. "A telegraphic message was at once dispatched to Ashford demanding an explanation" said the Hastings & St. Leonards Chronicle, 'and in about an hour an express engine arrived here with the corpse, which was duly deposited in the hearse." We have had occasion to complain at British Rail about various things in the past two years, but never that...
Coffee morning for Thomas Peacocke School PTA funds, George Hotel, 10 to 12
TPS play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (GAZETTE no. 121), The Grove, 7.30 (and Friday and Saturday)
WI Market reopens for the 1985 season, CC, 10
Coffee morning for FE Centre funds, FEC, 10 to 12
Women's Section BL jumble sale, CC, 11 to 1
Caring and Sharing lunch, Playden Cottage, 12 (see page 3):
Madrigalia concert, Playden Church, 7.45 (GAZETTE no. 121)
Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10.30 to 12.30 WWS AGM, FEC, 3
• Congratulations to Stephen and Mandy Tarrant of The Strand on the birth of their son Daniel James on 11 March - a first grandchild for Stephen and Jackie Tarrant of West Undercliff and for Malcolm and Margaret Ham of King's Avenue, and a first great-grandchild for Jackie's mother Mrs. James, also of King's Avenue.
• Congratulations, too, to another new great-grandmother, Mrs. Marjorie Twine, who has achieved this august status before her sixtieth birthday! Her grand-daughter Annette, wife of John Fairhall of Iden, gave birth to their son Lee Gary on 2 March.
• Congratulations again - and the thanks of the town - to Bob Rogers, of Potting-field Road, who has been presented with a long-service medal after 20 years with Rye Fire Brigade.
• The seat given by the Town Council as a memorial to the late Maurice Beavers, Freeman of the town, has been placed outside the Police Station alongside the memorial seat to Miss Mary Warren.
• For the record, just one of the three new phone boxes at the top of the Station Approach is now lit at night!
• Members of the Social Services lunch-time group are reminded that the speaker on 20 March will be talking about the Escort project for shared transport facilities.
• Two minor corrections to recent GAZETTES. It was not Rye but another WI market which regularly supplied a birthday cake through the "market parcels" scheme, though the Rye market has also done parcels. And it was Mermaid Street and West Street (not High Street as we said) which at some stage used the name "Middle Street" - though, looked at logically, the name should really belong to Lion Street as being midway between East and West.
• The start of the seasons Rye Town Model opens to the public on Monday, 1 April - though the Town Clerk has ten party bookings to be-fitted in before then; Rye Museum opens, as always, on the Thursday before Good Friday, which this year means 4 April; and the putting green also opens on 4 April, the bowling green rather later on 29 April - both until 29 September.
• The Editor is well aware that a full list of the summer's events was promised for the end of February and has not appeared; the pressure on our space has been much greater this spring than last. But the Town Diary is up to to date, and anyone wanting to consult it is most welcome to ring Rye 222303 - early evening is a good time.
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; some spare copies are available from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, and back numbers from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1985)