The proposed closure of Rye Police Station at night - revealed in the News recently by a Battle councillor, since Battle is also under threat - is not as bad as it sounds; there is absolutely no question of everyone packing up at 5.30 and going home! This is not a cost-cutting exercise, Chief-Inspector Dyson tells us, so much as an attempt on the part of the Chief Constable to make the beat possible use of police manpower, and someone sitting all night behind a desk waiting for something to happen is a policeman wasted except when something actually does.
The plan for Rye is that the station will be closed as far as the general public is concerned from, probably, 10 pm to 6 am. However, the man who would have been on duty behind the desk will instead be on patrol in the town, of course in radio contact with Hastings and Lewes. There will also be the usual patrol car in the area, ditto. If there is trouble, either policeman can open up the station - either to put someone in a cell, or to help innocence in distress; and of course a major incident would mean everything opening up at once anyway.
The main difference to us will be that if problems do arise during the night, it will be time wasted to hurry round to the police station; hurry, instead, to the nearest phone and dial 999. (Rye police are asking for an emergency 999 phone to be installed outside the police station for the benefit of strangers, or residents who forget about the night closure.) The police are anyway anxious to encourage use of the 999 dialling system by those who need help, since these calls go through immediately to Lewes who are in a position to mobilise a lot of it at once if necessary. But it was a relief to hear from the Chief Inspector that during the three holiday months, when the population of the Rye Sub-Division is vastly increased, the station will remain open all night as before.
Kenneth Warren, our MP, will be in Rye on Friday morning, 12 April, holding one of his regular "surgeries" at the Council Offices in Cinque Ports Street. Appointments to see him then can be made with the Hastings Conservative Association office (Hastings 423110, mornings) - we are told that he was booked solid last _me, so don't leave it too late.
Mr. Tony White, who has taught at the school since he came to the Grammar School in 1956, retired at the end of term, early for medical reasons. Although he originally arrived to teach maths, he soon transferred to physics and has been Head of Science for some years. Mr. White will continue to live in Peasmarsh, with more time for his garden and perhaps an opportunity to devote his leisure to photography - he used to run the school's Photographic Club. The new Head of Science, who joins the school in September from Chichester, will be Mr. Praegar, teaching physics; in the summer term this will be in the hands of the County's itinerant physics teacher Mr. King (not to be confused with Mr. Clive King in charge of computer studies at the school).
Upper School Science Department is also losing Mrs. Molly Docksey. Originally a biology teacher at the school, she gave up teaching to help her husband in his business and instead took the less demanding job of laboratory assistant, from which she is now retiring.
Lower School is losing its secretary, Mrs. June Homard, who is moving to Wales with her husband Ted after nearly four years in the job; her official last day in the office saw a continuous stream of flowers, presents and cards from the children. Her job was advertised in last week's Sussex Express; we can assure aspirants that it is very demanding, but great fun.
2.
Mr. John Green, of The Rise in Udimore Road, whose death we recorded briefly last week, gave a lifetime's service to his country in the Royal Air Force, retiring after thirty years' flying a sadly short time before his death. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Green, John came to Rye from Maidstone as a small child when his father had the Rye Mosaic Works in Market Road. (Tom Green was the last man to make Tonbridge ware - the works and all its precious contents were destroyed by WW2 bombing.) Always keen on model aircraft, John graduated to the real thing straight from Rye Grammar School, and completed his first tour of operations with Bomber Command before he was 21. He and his wife Doreen, from Ewhurst, were married in 1945, just before he went to Burma with Transport Command. Later he became a flying instructor, and the family spent time in Germany and Singapore; they were in Cyprus when the Turks landed in 1974. When he retired from the RAF, John spent a year at the London College of Furniture and then took over the Glue Pot in Ferry Road, the furniture repair and restoration business which his father had started.
Latterly he had spent a great deal of time in hospital, supported with courage and cheerfulness by his wife, sister and two daughters - the: second grandchild was born just ten weeks before he died. His loss will be much felt by friends of the family, both in Rye and the area round.
On 23 March, 7 members of Rye British Legion (Women's Section) went to Windsor for a service in St. George's Chapel during which a new Area Standard was presented by Lady Astor of Hever. Branches from all over the south-east as far as the isle of Wight were represented, and Mrs. Marjorie Giles carried the Rye standard in the long procession winding up the hill towards the Chapel in Windsor Castle.
In the course of the service the standards lining the aisle were dipped and raised again. Joan Camier was seated on the outside of a pew, next to a standard-bearer from another branch. Suddenly her neighbour nudged her - "Look what's happened!" she gasped. Mrs. Gamier looked: in the course of the dipping, the long tassels on the standard had become knotted up with those from its opposite number across the aisle, and neither bearer could jerk them free. Feeling extremely conspicuous and of course wearing her official white silk gloves, Mrs. Gamier nipped out into the aisle, sorted out the tangle, and retreated - and both standards were thankfully raised to their upright position.
No such emergency is envisaged by Margaret Owen, who will be representing Rye at the Annual National Conference in Brighton early in May. At the Women's Section monthly meeting on 25 March, Barry Yates of the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve gave: a illustrated talk, and was given the £11.50 proceeds of the bring-and-buy table towards the Reserve's funds.
Mrs. Tullett came back to Wish Street on Tuesday to collect the family tortoise. This was the one which went a.w.o.l. in the autumn, and they had assumed that the Weather would have finished it; not at all, it emerged' on Monday from the compost heap next door in excellent form, and is now settling into the family's new (and firmly escape-proof) garden in Silverhill!
A recent meeting of the local history group heard a speaker from the County Records Office on the selection of documents for preservation. Frank Palmer showed slides sent him by Mr. Martin of Southampton, whose family album we wrote about some time ago; Mr. Palmer added archive slides of his own, contrasted with modern shots of the same scenes.
A decrepit copy of Holloway's History of Rye has now been found, and a photocopy is to be made, so that the indexing by members of the group can go ahead. Alan Dickinson talked about this project on Radio Sussex recently.Another recent speaker on Radio Sussex was John Collard, with an 18-minute interview about his history of the Harbour (GAZETTE no. 123). Ralph Wood has also been heard on the programme recently - and other people too? Do tell us.
3.
(No, we don't yet know who it will be!) Readers who have followed the progress of the plans for the supermarket will recall that Ellis Bros were due to move their builders' yard from behind their present offices to an adjoining site on Crown Fields, so that the old yard could be incorporated in the main site. This is now being done, and the firm has erected a fence and walled up the gateway which served as a back entrance for both Stocks and Rediffusion; Stocks has another entrance, Rediffusion has not. Doubtless the access question is being dealt with privately and it is no concern of the GAZETTE's. But the move does mean that a certain amount of parking space is taken out of the town's largest car park, some of it in the area used for coaches; and British Rail has issued instructions that coaches rather than cars are to be turned away.
When the supermarket plans were approved recently, it was laid down that before work could start on the development itself (presumably not including Ellie's move) the new car park between the railway and the market must be operational (and the new bus garage behind the fire station built). It therefore seemed reasonable to assume that the bulldozers would be moving in beside the market very shortly.
Not so! David Woodhouse of BR at Ashford reckoned that it would be some time before the new park was open, and in fact what he described to us did not tally with what the planning officer is expecting - so there is obviously more work to be one on paper before anything actually happens there. Andrew Beggs, the super market developers' agent, is still hoping that the contractors will start on the car park in April (with an October start for the main site), but the probability seems to be against this in view of what both BR and Rother say.
The news is not very good, either, on the car park beside the lane to the Mill, also British Rail land. In view of the D o T's refusal on bypass grounds to allow housing north of the railway (GAZETTE no. 122), Rother is now trying to extract from the Department some idea of bypass route or anyway bypass timing. The amount of work it would be worth doing on the car park will depend on this, though the money is there for 1985/6 use. Depending on what joy they get from the D o T, revised plans will have to go before Council, whose decision it must be whether the money should be spent or not. The same argument of course applies to the third proposed car park, on BR land between Lower School and the railway, for which Rother obtained planning permission long before BR's recent and aborted housing-cum-parking proposal.
The new white-lining on the Town Wall car park was, Rother tells us, carefully thought out to avoid the problems that frequently arose when parking was more haphazard there. But it has of course reduced the total number of parking spaces for the town's visitors, whether regular or seasonal.
And coaches? If they can't get into the Goods Yard park, there is nowhere else for them to go - officially; they do in fact filter via the exit into the Gas Works park, or lie up along Military Road or down on the Estate. Presumably if more are turned away from a shrunken Goods Yard park, more residential streets could be afflicted in this way.
The Press Book this week shows a large number of small thefts in and around the town. A quantity of office equipment was taken from Long Products on 20/21 March, and the following night two Triplex safety windows (with no identity markings) were stolen from the Ferry Road car park and a pair of spot lamps from the Strand car park. An outboard motor and a car battery were stolen from the Lochin Yacht Centre, a boomerang from the Ypres Castle pub, a Sharp stereo cassette from the Rye Harbour car park, and a 19kg red Calor gas cylinder is also missing. Forged notes have been around (£5 at Iden, £50 at Rye Market); please report anything suspicious to the police at once. They would also like to hear from any witnesses of an accident on New Lydd Road, Camber at about 4.45 last Saturday afternoon, when a child fell from the back of a pick-up truck; he is now in the neurosurgical unit at Hurstwood Park Hospital with serious head injuries.
4.
• Welcome to the new proprietors of one of our two High Street greengrocers - still at present Moores, but about to be renamed "Fruits of Rye". Maureen and Len Phillips like unusual names for their shops: their supermarket in New Romney is called "Food for Thought" and that town also houses their "Rachel Rebecca", and now they are extending their business interests across the county boundary. As the name implies, "Fruits of Rye" will continue to sell fruit-and-veg; but Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, who have been in the business for fifteen years, are bringing with them their Teleflora agency, and will be selling flowers and pot plants and offering other floristry services. Thrice-weekly deliveries from Covent Garden will continue, and there will still be familiar faces in the shop; indeed, Mr. .!core, who had the business for some twelve years, will be around for a little while before he and his family move to (we understand) the Lake District, where we all hope they will be very happy. For the record, before the Moores came the shop was Wallaces, and before that Waghorns (remember the dance-band?) -.and always a greengrocers; but back in the 1880s the occupant was Miss Dawes and presumably then it was a private house. In about 1910 a family called Goode ran the Rye Bazaar there; can anyone fill in the gap between this and Waghorns?
• Welcome, too, to Noel and Lavinia Beattie, whose "HoVens" (ex-Eliwoods) in MarketvRoad will be opening in time for Easter. The Beatties come from Ipswich, where they had a much larger shop (universally if unofficially known, they tell us, a "the purple shop"), and will be offering clothing in natural fabrics (cotton, silk: and some Irish tweed shawls, for starters) and hand-made craft goods from aroundvthe world, the result of their own extensive travels. Mrs. Beattie used to work in the jewellery business, and will be taking particular pride in a range of craft jewellery; but before they moved to Ipswich 13 years ago and her husband gave up his job in the pharmacy world, she had several fashion shops in Belfast, so we do hope that she will feel inspired to expand the fashion side of the business (what the town really needs is more provision for larger ladies, as we have been saying plaintively for some time!). The Beatties have just moved into a house in Trader's Passage, and we hope they will like life in Rye.
• David and Ann Osborne have recently extended the furniture restoration and upholstery business at the Glue Pot in Ferry Road to include retail sales of the various materials used in both workshops - all sorts of useful and unobtainable-elsewhere things for DIY furnishers. The shop also offers a while-you-wait upholstery button making service. It is still a pleasure to look in the window, though the dolls' houses had a charm all their own.
A familiar face disappears from Woolworths: Mrs. Brenda Pearce, after years at the shop to which she went from the International Stores in 1973, has joined her husband Harold in retirement. Mr. and Mrs. Pearce are not leaving Udimore Road, but will now have more time to visit children and grandchildren living away from Rye. Woolworths' staff - none of whom are exactly newcomers to the store - gave Mrs. Pearce a party at the end of last week. Mr. Wren tells us that his Head Office will not allow him to replace her in the present business climate, but he has found a very satisfactory compromise: all the regular assistants get Saturday off, and the shop is staffed by eight "Saturday girls" earning their pocket-money and gaining useful experience of working life.
After last week's remarks about the difficulty of following up local crimes to the magistrates' courts and beyond, we were enthralled to read in the Express that a Hastings man had been convicted at Lewes of a vast number of burglaries - including "18 in Rye"! We checked; it was not, of course, 18 in all, but 18 in the Rye Sub-Division, which is not at all the same thing.
However, this was the youth responsible for a burglary in North Salts, and for an attempted burglary in Mermaid Street where the arrival of the householder scared him off; and the victims of both those efforts will be glad to know that the offender, aged 20, is now serving three years' youth custody.
5.
Rye did well out of Thursday's planning committee; nothing was refused outright, one application was deferred for a site inspection, and two were granted subject to no objections from the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, now a standard stipulation for the Conservation Area. The site inspection will be into Alsfords' proposal to instal a machine saw at the wharf, though the firm's proposed alterations to the access, etc., were granted.
Detailed plans for the houses in Rock Channel were approved subject to no adverse comments from the SWA. The HBMC has to approve a greenhouse extension in Church Square, and the awnings (and planter boxes and tubs along the roof) to the Saltings Hotel's 1930s wing. Otherwise, it was "yes" to four house extensions (South Undercliff, Rye Hill, Rolvendene Farmhouse and Ashenden Avenue); to Ellis Bros for three garages in their new yard; and to the riding school in Playden. Mrs. Bryant proposed to move its stables from Leasam Lane to the buildings in her husband's agricultural machinery depot at the Peace and Plenty corner, and riding will continue to be over the adjoining farmland, so the committee over-ruled the County Engineer's worries about possible traffic hazards.
In connection with the Rock Channel development, Rye Town Council pointed out that the developers have not complied with the tree planting order imposed on the warehouses already on the site, and the planning officer has raised the point th the applicants. Still on trees, the planning authority has no objection to a proposed planting of 2.4 acres of Norwegian spruce and oak on an area of cleared coppice at Morfrey Wood, Rye Foreign.
The planning committee was told that the D o E had turned down an appeal against an enforcement order by Rother to remove caravans at Castle Water; compliance with the order has to be by mid-September, longer than usual so as to allow the occupant to find other accommodation.
The enormous anchor - more than 6' from fluke to fluke, and considerably more than that in total length - is now in place on the semicircle of cobbles beside the Grist Mill. It was put there by a SWA crane, other arrangements by ESCC Highway Department. It has been blackened to preserve it, but looks respectably aged and very handsome. Does any of our maritime experts know anything about its previous history? The SWA dredged it up - but before that...?
Still down on the Strand, we admired the unobtrusive new roof on the old Colebrookes warehouse (not the factory); the work was very much hampered by the bad weather which came on when the builders had nearly but not quite finished the is now good for - well, another hundred years? Thank you, Mr. McEntee.
Rother are painting the Hilder's Cliff railings black, and have at last put back the coping-stones on the lookout wall; there is also repainting of the depot's garage doors facing onto Wish Street, which have been looking sad lately.
Phipps & Co have installed a large window to replace an unused door in their Landgate Chambers offices; Burnhams have made a lovely job of matching it to the existing one, and we are prepared to bet that in three months' time no-one would realise that it had not always been there!
Magdala House is rapidly being reduced to a pile of rubble. We were interested to notice that it has a cellar - not an interesting one, John Smith tells us, and quite inconveniently low. (Perhaps it was primarily intended to keep the damp from the reclaimed marsh out of the main house?) Having been rather uncomplimentary about the house's architecture in an earlier issue, we would like to put on record that when the top storey was removed, it suddenly looked very nice indeed - as if it had been designed with only two floors, and the top one added as an afterthought.
Bad marks to someone who shall be nameless in the GAZETTE, who repainted the wall of their shop and the street nameplate in with it!
And thoroughly bad marks to the louts who tipped the litter-bin beside the Mill footpath into the Tillingham, concrete mounting and all.
6.
Hastings & District buses run as usual on Saturday, with Sunday services on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday - which for us means just the 2-hourly 799 service to Hastings and sometimes beyond.
H & D fares go up on 14 April for the first time since January 1984. Rural fares over 55p single will increase by 5p - but not most of the special off-peak day returns. This makes the Explorer Tickets very good value (£2.95 for adults, children and OAPs £1.95, families £5.95); they can be used all day, every day, on all H & D services and many East Rent, M & D and Southdown routes.
NSPCC supporters who met at the FEC last Wednesday for the branch's Annual Meeting were very pleased to hear that the past year had been extremely successful. The group's regular donation to Head Office was 21,000 more than in 1983, and in addition 21,000 had been sent specially to the Centenary Appeal - a magnificent total of 28,106. This had been achieved largely through a number of sales and private- house coffee mornings, etc., over the year; the house-to-house collection had topped the thousand-pound mark for the first time, the Summer Fair raised 2845, and this was closely followed by the astonishing sum of 2,812 from the Winchelsea coffee morning organised by Mrs. Marguerite Fuller at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Jempson. "We knew we had done well," said branch secretary Mrs. Anne Wood, "but hadn't realised quite how well!"
The speaker, the Society's Senior Organiser for the South Thames Division (Mr. Patrick Lawrence) congratulated the group on its achievements. The Centenary Appeal, he said, had been even more successful than they dared hope, raising 214m in cash and promises as against the £12m asked for, and nearly 26m of this had come from the 3,500 district branches throughout the country (the rest being from big business and major private donations). The money would be invested rather than spent outright, and the interest used for the Society's work; they hoped it would be possible to set up once again a Child Protection Team in Hastings to replace the Society's inspector who used to be based in our area.
Branch chairman Mrs. Beryl Rixon thanked all her committee for their help and support over the past year. The speaker was thanked by the Mayor, present with the Mayoress; Roger Breeds revealed that it was their wedding anniversary, though he declined to say which!
Modern technology came to St. Mary's on Wednesday evening, when filming took place for "Home on Sunday" (GAZETTE no. 122) after a Tuesday evening rehearsal. Cablesnaked across the floor, two cameras bobbed and glided about the transept, the east and south windows were illuminated from outside. The three choirs grouped themselves in various ways as the filming moved towards the altar - the Thomas Peacocke pupils immaculate in white blouses for the girls, shirts and ties for the boys; the St. Mary's choristers in their surplices; and the ladies of Madri-galia in long scarlet robes (the men stuck to white shirts and ties, though they do have scarlet pullovers for less formal occasions). A fascinated audience stood behind the control panel watching the monitor screen.
The first item was the school choir under Lois Benton singing "Summer Carol", several times before the producer was satisfied; Jane Blackman showed admirable poise as she opened the proceedings on the flute for the fourth time! Other performers were James Cruttenden (double bass), Nigel Spooner (piano), Patrick Lovell (glockenspiel), and later Jane Bowler (cello), Tony Thompson and Ray Nye (guitars) and Anne Whiteman (recorder). Catherine Collison's lovely voice provided the solo in "Summer Carol". Then Madrigalia under Lesley Brownbill and the St. Mary's choir under Charles Proctor sang "Jesus, the life of the world" and "0 thou who camest from above"; the three remaining pieces were left to Madrigalia alone ("Deck thyself", "Were you there?" and Psalm 139). Recording continued, we were told, well into the night; the programme is supposed to be going out in August. Gwen Cashmore, incidentally, did not come to Rye for the programme, but was filmed separately in Geneva where she now works with the World Council of Churches.
7.
Last week British Rail invited the press to Ashford to meet the Area Manager, Harry Holt, and other area staff members. Your Editor took advantage of the opportunity to talk about the Hastings-Ashford line with David Woodhouse, of the Ashford staff.
Mr. Woodhouse says that on average only 10% of available seats are occupied, which is not very much - though we did wonder if in this figure BR includes the sort of situation we met coming home, when there was a six-carriage train at 1.40, presumably because they wanted the carriages the other end. Anyway, although the message still is "Use it or lose it", losing it is not, we gather, an immediate threat. Indeed, BR is currently spending a lot of money on new signalling for the stretch of line between Ashford and Appledore, at present double-track; in 1986 it is to go single-track, with all the signals controlled from Ashford. (Appledore is also getting huge new platforms, we noticed, with room for almost the entire population of the village on thed; but this is an official requirement so that in future carriages shall not be "off the platform".) Although the new signalling will mean job losses, Mr. Woodhouse assures us that there are no compulsory redundancies along the line - though presumably a certain amount of personnel reshuffling.
This summer, Sundays will offer Rye travellers a new experience (temporary only, alas). Part of the Hastings-Tonbridge line will regularly be closed on Sundays from May because of the electrification work, and passengers from London to Hastings and indeed to Robertsbridge (at which point the train stops) will travel from Charing Cross via Ashford without having change. We have no idea how long it was, if ever, since last there were through trains to Rye from London - or, for that matter, from Rye to Robertsbridge; it might be worth making the journey simply for the record, if for no other reason?
For those looking for a day out over Easter, or in the summer, BR offers the East Kent Rail Rover (adults £4, children £2). With this, you can fit in as many journeys as you like on a single day within the East Kent area (everything east of a line from Folkestone to Whitstable via Ashford and Faversham, and of course including Canterbury). Mondays to Fridays, not before 9 am (from Ashford, of course, not from Rye) weekends, etc., start when you like.
• The first Rye Business Advice Centre session last Thursday went very well, ;they have acquired seven new clients - tomorrow there will be two staff member ; the Council Offices to deal with enquiries. Those who are thinking about calling at the Centre might like to visit the exhibition "We Can Make It" at the Queen's Hotel in Hastings on Thursday, 11 April, from 11 to 8, when some of Hastings Business Ventures' clients will be showing what they have done with its help. Staff will be on hand to answer questions.
• TPS staff are taking three school trips during the Easter holidays. The Head left Rye at 4.30 am on Saturday with his geography students on a field study trip to Arran, off the Scottish coast; Mrs. Woollard has a group going to France, and Mr. Beckwith takes his usual enthusiastic skiers to the Aviemore area.
• Two events on Thursday, 18th, which we would normally be previewing next week. The speaker at the Christian Lunch Club (CC, 12 for 12.30) is from the Co-workersof Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and will be showing slides of the work. The Local History Group (Library, 7.30) will be able to look at George Wood's collection of photographs, presented by Victoria Williams from Hastings Museum and Bryan Purdy of the Library Service.
• The Samuel Jeake programme in BBC2's "Timewatch" does not feature in the Radio Times billing for the edition this evening, so watch out for the next one (we were told "early April"). "Mapp and Lucia" is being trailered on Channel 4; the first episode goes out on Sunday, 14th, but is repeated from an evening earlier in the week, we gather. Happy viewing!
(... and just room to say "Happy Easter" to our readers, and many thanks for all your kind remarks.):
(no GAZETTE next week)
WI Market, CC, 10 (instead of Good Friday)
Easter coffee morning for Red Cross funds, Red Cross, 10.30
Snack lunch for shoppers, ditto, Red Cross, 12.30 to 2
Good Friday Procession of Witness to St. Mary's (Tilling Green, 10) for United Service for all Churches at 10.45
Devotional Service, St. Mary's, 2 to 3
Vidler & Co's monthly sale, 10 (instead of Good Friday)
Easter Day services: St. Mary's, 7, 10.30 and 6.30; St. Anthony's 8 and 10.45; Baptist, 8, 11 and 6.30; Methodist, 11.
Coffee morning for Cancer Relief, Red Cross, 10.30 to 12
Bonfire Boys meeting, Queen's Head, 8
Rye WI, "Seeing Design in Photography" (Mrs. Phyllis Smith), FEC,7
Coffee morning for Muscular Dystrophy, Red Cross, 10 to 12
Kenneth Warren, MP, at Council Offices, morning (see front page) Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11 Movie Society AGM, FEC, 7.30
Old Scholars Association annual reunion, Mermaid Hot el, evening
Scouts jumble sale, Scout Hut, 1.30
CND :jumble sale, Methodist Hall, 2
United Easter Worship at St. Mary's, with communal meal, 12.30 for 1 (bring finger-eating food for sharing)
Summer Term begins
Annual Church Meeting for St. Mary's, TB, 7.30
Day Centre coffee morning and bring-and-buy, Baptist Hall
• Congratulations to Ann and Alan Sinden, of the Hope Anchor Hotel and Udimore Road, on the birth of their daughter Tamsin Ann on Saturday (30th) - a sister for Benjamin.
• Congratulations, too, to Mr. and Mrs. Brian Atkins, of Thomas Peacocke School and Eagle Road, on the birth of their daughter Emily on Thursday last week.
• The Community Centre Association is offering a free hiring of the Centre to any organisation wishing to hold a fund-raising event for famine relief in Ethiop: Contact Mrs. Cuthbert at the Centre, Tuesday or Friday mornings.
• Welcome back to The Ice Box in Cinque Ports Street, open again for the season.
• There is a National Trust talk on "Brighton and the Royal Pavilion" by Mrs. Cynthia Campbell at Winchelsea New Hall on Thursday, 11th, at 7.30
• Dwellers on Udimore Road and Cadborough Cliff were very glad to have their street lights on again on Monday, after all except one had been out for a week!
• The Social Services lunchtime group on 17 April will be discussing the District Health Service proposals as they affect our area.
• Congratulations to Rebekah Smith, of Guestling, in her fourth year at Thomas Peacocke School, who has just gained a distinction in her Grade V examination in singing, with 138 marks out of 150. Rebekah has been studying for 18 months with Lesley Brownbill of Love Lane.
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).