There will be no GAZETTE next week; issue no. 143 appears on 28 August, and normal weekly publication resumes thereafter.
The wedding at St. Mary's on 3 August somehow managed to fit itself neatly in between the showers so that no-one got wet; the only problem was Bob Deacon's, trying to turn his vast black-and-cream 1948 Rolls outside the Hope Anchor when he dropped off the bride and groom there for the reception. Rory Kay, of La Rochelle, married Ellie Dickerson of Washington, USA, whom he met when she was teaching in Guinea for four years and he had a flying job out there. The sun came out specially to highlight the bride's simple white crinoline dress and wreath of white flowers - her bridesmaids, school friend Karen Vogel and Rory's niece Charlotte de Putron, wore dresses of yellow and apricot. The couple have gone back to the States where Rory, now a chief pilot, hopes to find a job with a junior school nearby to welcome Ellie onto its staff - his mother Jessica hopes that the job will be one which brings them both back to England et frequent intervals.
Also on 3 August, the marriage between Veronica Fox of Playden Cottage and Dieter Bogusch of Coblenz was blessed at Playden Church. The bride was attended by her sister Virginia and two very small bridesmaids, Lucy and Emma Brant; at the other end of the scale, the family's 1953 Bentley was brought out of honourable retirement for this very special occasion. A last-minute hitch was avoided when a super-thin dressing was substituted for the plaster covering the bride's broken wrist, too thick to get her sleeve over, and "something borrowed", long gloves, finally hid the damage. The reception, followed by a barbecue and dancing, was held at Playden Cottage, and the bride's mother did all the cateringxwith the help of her friends. In fact, she tells us, the entire wedding was organised very much with the help of her friends - not the least of her problems being the number of Dieter's relatives who spoke no English at all! The couple will live in Coblenz, where Dieter serves in the German army and Veronica teaches.
The fortnight's third wedding also took place at Playden Church, a week later, when Heather Wilkinson of Pottingfield Road and Nigel Moody of Portsmouth were married. They met when Nigel, who is in the army, came to Rye to stay with his mate David Tiltman (his best man on Saturday). Heather wore an Edwardian-style ''ess with a small train, and her attendants - her sisters Barbara and Jenny and igelss niece Jane - were in royal blue and white. Playden Church was chosen forthe wedding because it has become the Wilkinsons' family church over the years; this is the third wedding Rosemary has organised in a comparatively short time. Caterer at the Community Centre reception was Derek Baker of Icklesham, but the heart-shaped cake was the work of Rosemary and Barbara. Guests who stayed on to dance afterwards included some of Nigel's fellow-soldiers who had come over from Germany specially for the wedding. Heather and Nigel will be living in Germany, where his posting has another 18 months to run.
Callers at Rye Station, particularly people having dealings with the parcels office, should be there in the mornings if they want to be certain of finding someone to help them. British Rail economies as regards overtime mean that on some (but not all) days the doors are apt to be locked after the 2.06 train has left. Whether this will continue after the usual relief staff are no longerneeded to cover for holiday time elsewhere is not certain.
People intending to travel can, of course, do to as usual, paying during the journey or at the other end. But last Thursday afternoon, when the station was closed, two visiting ticket inspectors took well over £200 in fares on the platform - how many of those people, we wonder, would in fact have paid later?
Mr. William Woolford, of Kings Avenue, died very suddenly at his home on 25 July; he was 48. Mr. Woolford, his wife and two small daughters had come to live in Rye only two months. ago, moving here from Bishop's Stortford. The funeral took place in Playden Church, followed by burial in Rye Cemetery.
Miss Blanche Rhodes, whose death at the age of 82 took place on 28 July, was a link with a Rye which is vanishing all too swiftly. Much of her working life was spent in the East Kent bus office, where she was well-known to several generations of Rye people; she was a keen WI member, and one of the founders of the WI Market. She also worked for the Red Cross, and later was a member of the Monday Club. But her interest in local history, and the help which she was able to give to the authors of various books on the area, is perhaps what she will be longest remembered for. She had an excellent memory and a very organised mind, and some years ago herself put on record for a WI project her recollections of the Rye of her youth. She and her sister were the last of one branch of the Rhodes family in the town; her father "Jokey" Rhodes drove the Camber tram for more than 20 years, and had been a prominent local footballer at the turn of the century. Her death is a loss to the town's store of memories.
It was unexpected to find Rye featured on the new 34p stamp, part of the Post Office's 350th birthday series. The tiny picture clearly shows St. Anthony's in Church Square, with the Old Customs House chimney in the background; the Victorian letter-box has been "moved" to the wall on the left of the churchyard entrance, but otherwise the view is unmistakeable. However, the red-headed woman shown receiving a letter from the postman is certainly not Mrs. Gibson who tells us that she had no idea their house was on a stamp until a friend pointed out the resemblance!
The Rye Society of Artists' 34th Annual Exhibition is a real pleasure, as always. It is also, as always, at the Boys Club in Mermaid Street; but this year, for a change, it is running for an extra week to overlap Rye Festival, the final day being Saturday, 7 September. The exhibition is open seven days a week from 10.30 to 5.30.
This year's show is dominated by a life-size bending figure by Bernard Sindall; he also has smaller bronze resins of a girl and a plump toddler. Indeed, there seem to be rather a lot of nudes in the two galleries this year! Some regular exhibitors have been too busy elsewhere to produce their usual quota of work - in particular this year's chairman Louis Turpin, with just three paintings, his father Digby with one and his mother Beryl showing only two of her much-admired enamels. Michael Renton also shows only three engravings, and Ernest Collyer has no work at all in the exhibition; indeed, the only potters offering a variety of pieces are Wally Cole and Frank Smith, though newcomer Signe Kolding has two interestingly delicate bowls using metallic glazes.
Some people's holidays were wetter than others. Geoffrey Bagley obviously found Scotland rather damp, but John Owen's Mediterranean scenes and Leslie Davie's paittings from Portugal are full of sunshine. Robert Greenhalf's country etchings are always popular, with perhaps the same sort of appeal as Peter Jay's hedgerow vignettes. Tina Cole looks at life on the beach or in the garden in her own meticulous way, as does Joan de Bethel who shows a delightful row of specimen tourists and an evocative view of a country railway station at dusk. Cartoonist Martin Honeysett's view of life seems to grow crueller each year, but Sheila Draffin, hung beside him, remembers humorous moments with more affection. Brian Cook Batsford, represented by a gouache of the marsh near Snargate with a superb sky, was (as Brian Cook) a leading book designer in the 1930s and 1940a, and has recently been elected an honorary RI (Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours); congratulations, Sir Brian!
This is certainly an exhibition well worth a visit.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 14 August 1985
Rye Harbour lifeboat went out on 1 August in response to a 999 call from a dinghy sailor whose friend's boat had capsized and lost its mast, somewhere off Lydd Ranges. Since it was dead low water on a spring tide, the lifeboat had to launch from the beach - something it only does about once a year - on its way to retrieve the casualty, his gear and his dinghy, returning him to his launching-point at Broomhill. Although he had been in the water for the best part of an hour (it had taken his friend some time to reach the shore in the first place) the man, from Bromley, was none the worse and needed no medical attention - because, Mary Iestocq points out, he was wearing the right sort of clothes. She adds that while the boat was out, two ten-year-old girls dressed only in bikinis were seen paddling across the Rother, possible at very low tide; but as everyone at the Harbour knows, conditions in the river can change extremely quickly, and the children could well have been swept off their feet and drowned. Parents please note.
When we reported, back in April, on the opening of the new Scots Float sluice, we hoped that the photographs which the SWA then had on view at their depot could be displayed in the town. It all took rather longer than expected, but those io have been down Lion Street recently will have noticed in the side window of Freight Express-Seacon two large boards carrying a very helpful series of colour photographs showing the development of the project, from testing a hydraulic model right through to two fine views of the completed construction, one from the air and the other framed in the branches of the trees on the cliff. There also typed sheets explaining the necessity for the new sluice and giving a great deal of technical material which will be of interest to present and budding civil engineers - the pictures, however, will be of interest to everyone who has wondered what on earth was going on out along Military Road over the past two years or so.
Thanks must go both to the SWA and to Freight Express-Seacon for this chance to see what, among other projects, our water-rates go on:
Julia Thomas's holiday playscheme has been a tremendous success. The demand for places was so great that they catered for 90 children altogether, in three weekly groups of roughly 30, and anyone going between Upper and Lower School on a Monday to Friday during the last three weeks will have seen how much the "pupils" were enjoying themselves; having lots of room to let off steam was in itself a real pleasure! As well as the use of the Upper School playing-field they had the key to the Sixth Form hut, which is really quite roomy and became absolutely essential as one wet day succeeded another. It gave table space for painting, and somewhere dry to eat sandwich lunches or play games.
However, it wasn't all wet weather, and> divided sometimes into two age-groups, the children went canoeing, rock-climbing and swimming; they visited Bodiam Castle and drove over in a school minibus to the "Treasure Island" playground at Eastbourne. There was a final party on Friday afternoon. Thanks are due to Julia herself and to all her helpers, particularly the basic half-dozen or so who were there day after day; and to the school, without whose premises the project would have been impossible. Parents will be glad to hear that a repeat is planned for next year.
At last the Rural Development Area is moving into a less impersonal era. Sussex Rural Community Council at Lewes is advertising the job of Field Officer, to liaise with "the many statutory and voluntary authorities operating in the area". Applications have to be in by 27 August. We look forward to welcoming in due course the new Field Officer, but he or she won't have an easy job, since the word "many" here is no understatement. Since the Area straddles the Kent/Sussex border, the Field Officer will have both the Kent and Sussex branches of every organisation to deal with, as well as two sets of everything in local governments
About the only thing to be said in favour of the weather on Carnival Day is that it was less dreadful than that which followed! But despite the showers,Rye and Rother Valley Round Table found themselves with a success on their hands. We lost count of the floats in the procession, but there were plenty of them, plus bands, three sets of majorettes, our bus inspector at the wheel of the H & D open-top oldie and the Hastings Carnival Queen, plus Her Rye Majesty - whose words, as she declared the proceedings on the Salts open, were quite drowned by a great rumble of thunder.
The very deserving winners of the Playford Memorial Cup were again Computer Devices of Hastings, who really excelled this year with a "Wizard of Oz" theme; the chief characters were on foot, followed by a trailer-load of magic forest which towed a yellow brick road leading to the farm-house - with the Wicked Witch's legs sticking out underneath! Rye Playgroup's liquorice allsorts came second, constructed simply out of cardboard boxes coloured with odds and ends of paint, but cheerfully effective all the same; and Iden Sunday School's animals came third. The Youth Trophy went to Mencap's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The Boreham family are regular winners in the walking fancy-dress class, but they too surpassed themselves this year; representing St. Mary's Church, the 9-strong group of grand-children and their friends included the clock, the Quarter Boys, the parson, choristers and two Friars of the Sack!
We have no space for a full report of all the events on the Salts, but although the rain came down in the middle the merrymakers water-rates not deterred, and the fun started up again when the sun came out - and even after the last visitor had gone and the last scrap of paper picked up, the Round Tablers still felt strong enough to enjoy a private barbecue .
Although it takes time to settle up all the finances of something on this scale, Round Table are talking about a profit on the right side of £3,500, and we offer hearty congratulations to this year's Carnival chairman, Alan Deeprose of Russell's Garage, and all his team on such a successful day. Much of the money, we were told, comes from the programmes - not so much from the sales, though over 2,000 at 25p a time goes a long way towards the printing costs, but from the revenue from advertisements. This year they sold £3,900-worth of advertising space -a startling achievement on the part of men who all have their own jobs to be done as well as their work for Round Table. After a preliminary recce round the villages for likely advertisers, the work was done from the Butler & Hatch Waterman office - and Peter Dennettwould like to add an acknowledgement to the Sussex County Building Society, whose caravan was essential to the organisation of the Salts events but who somehow got left out of the programme. The lucky number was claimed by Mr. E. Vicarey of Cooper Road, who was presented with his Townsend Thoresen voucher at Baldwins Travel yesterday.
Running in the very worst of Sunday's rain, Rye Racers took £340 off their sponsors as a result of this year's Silly Race. Most competing teams took "Wheelies" to mean a garden wheelbarrow (several barrows collapsed under the strain), and to complicate matters the two members of the team not being pushed had to run with their legs tied together. (Only one leg each, of course...)The usual rules applied, and the racers, all soaked to the skin, didn't hang about; the Ypres Castle Team were back on their home patch in a winning 35 minutes or less! The winning mixed team was from Saltcote Place (the staff,presumably?), and the Union Inn provided the winning all-women team. The Union also won the fancy dress, and the Amy Wood Trophy, new this year for the pub raising the most money (the Union took £45). The Leeds George Prize went to the Cinque Ports Hotel. The record amount raised will mean a really splendid party for the town's elderly people at Christmas.
The Racers are most grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Pearce, of the Ypres Castle, for all they did under very difficult circumstances (the pub garden, the usual base, wan almost awash) to make the occasion such a success.
As a solitary Spitfire soared over the fields beyond the New Road houses on Sunday, and people huddled in an army marquee below, it could almost have been 1940. In fact it was the Rotary Club's Country Fayre, and disaster poured down from the skies in bucketfuls rather than bombs! Despite a rather hopeful weather forecast, the rain began just as the event opened; much of the programme was carried out - what was largely missing was the audience.
Sixty of the 85 vintage and veteran cars entered did in fact appear, and the Austin 7 of 1933 which won the prize for the longest distance covered under its own power on the way to the Fayre had travelled 67 miles from Worth, near Crawley. The prize for the oldest car went to a 1907 Rover - which departed early in the proceedings, since it had an open top! - and the oldest motorbike was a 1923 Raleigh. The parade of the vehicles still there in the afternoon included half-a-dozen of the Austin 7s which so many of us remember from our courting days, plus a stylish 1930 Lagonda tourer, a Lanchester, a Wolsey, a Jaguar, and two cherished examples of a lower price-range, a Hillman Minx and a Ford Popular. Two optimists had wicker picnic baskets on their rear carriers - we did hope their sandwiches were stowed elsewhere.
There were sandwiches in plenty - and delicious home-made cakes - in the refreshment tent, ex-army (the property of two Rotarians) with unexpected white-cotton windows all the way round; hospitality, too, in the Geering & Colyer double-decker bus making its first appearance in Rye, though it has been seen at other events in the course of the summer. DIY potters had the chance to work at awheel, courtesy of a group of local professionals; the Scouts had a stall, but had retired to their tent by the time we found them. The sheep-shearing went on as planned, the ten sheep having been kept dry in their trailer until a gap arrived between showers, and we were interested to see that at skin level a black eye, shorn of her gingery fleece, really is coal-black. Ross the carthorse,one of a pair which work at Norton's Farm, Sedlescombe, made his seheduled appearance in the morning and received his admirers in his trailer during the rest of the day. (The only four-footed friend noticeably missing was a well-equipped St. Bernard - perhaps one should be part of the standard St. John Ambulance provision if we get any more summers like this!)
The parachutists of course had to cancel, and the Territorial Army display was off. But Woodwings Flying Circus was quite undaunted by the weather. Inappalling conditions their 20 or so model aircraft - bigger than we expected, with a wingspan of some 6' on the Spitfire-soared and stunted over the field half-a-dozen at a time, sometimes half-hidden in the (admittedly low) clouds, sometimes zooming terrifyingly over our heads. They did indeed shower toffees for the children as promised, and the show closed with an attack on an airfield which included most realistic bangs and flashes and smoke and several genuine explosions which hurled sections of cardboard hangar through the air. It really was an excellent show, and those who saw them will certainly be making a date for the performance at next year's Fayre.
Two of the tug-of-war entrants turned up, the Victoria at Ashford bringing their ladies' team as well; the Ewe and Lamb at Wittersham beat the Victoria in the men's event, and then held a "friendly" pull with the ladies, since none of the female spectators were prepared to have a go. John Jempson & Son produced a spectacular exhibit, an enormous anchor which had been through the hands of their shot-blasting department; they also had a display, aimed at the smaller business, of the tarpaulins, straps and other loading materials which they can supply. The winner of the £25 Rotary Draw prize was on the staff of H-nning-ton Gilbert of Hastings, but all the other 15 prizes went to local addresses.
And the money? They hope to break even on the day, but no more than that. Since this is Rotary's major fund-raising event for the year, it is bad news for the many organisations they help. Perhaps there will be another opportunity later in the year for us all to show our appreciation to the people who put so much time and effort into what should have been a magnificent day out.
It seems possible that BR has now dropped the unpopular proposal to close the Ferry Road entrance to the Goods Yard car park, since there is no sign yet of the ticket machines which were the reason for the move. But the problem of nemt summer still looms; work on the supermarket will have closed the Goods Yard park entirely, and the replacement park beside the railway is nowhere near as large.
Peter Bridges of Rother reckons that if the Gibbet Marsh park were properly supervised it could hold 3/400 cars "and it's not far from the town if you cross the railway to the Strand", he added. Lut not, we pointed out, for people withwheelchairs or even pushchairs, because of the kissing-gate on the far side of the line Mr. Bridges thought it would be worth contacting BR about that -a view he now shares with the Town Council who have the same thing in mind.
Since the Spring Bank Holiday a private-enterprise park has eased the pressure on the town's parking on Thursdays. Edward Mills, whose farm entrance is at the Junction of Love Lane and the Tillingham Avenue footpath, got so fed up with finding parked cars blocking his access that he simply opened up his big field so that they could park out of his way - primarily as a means of self-preservation, he tells us. But the problem, for him, only arises on summer Thursdays, and he won't need to go on doing it once the holidaymakers have departed.
The booking office for Rye Festival (at the North Kent Building Society in the High Street) is now open to the general public; events run from 31 August to 7 September. There are leaflets all over the town, and an abbreviated programme in Fixtures. Local firms have been generous in their sponsorship, and include Christopher McGrath ARIBA, Rye Pottery and Rye Tiles, John Jempson & Son, Midland Bank, Freight Express-Beacon, J. Alsford and Doodle. The Festival also has grants from South East Arts, East Sussex CC, Rother Council and Rye Town Council.
Concerts include the Arbonne Trio (St. Mary's, 31st, 7.45), Chris Barber's Jazz and Blues Band (Upper School, 3rd, 8), the Taskin Trio (Playden Church, 4th, 7), Ryesingers (Town Hall steps, 7th, 2.30), and finally the London Mozart Players (St. Mary's, 7th, 7.45). Films this year are "The Dresser" (Community Centre, 2nd, 7.45) and "Cal" (Community Centre, 4th, 8). Jill Bennett and Edward Hardwicke offer an anthology of "Advice - and How Not to Take It" (Community Centre, let, 7.45); Alan Sillitoe will be at the Town Hall at 7 on the 5th to present his selection of poems, a story and extracts from a novel or two. Sheila Steafel goes "Solo" at the Community Centre at 8 on the 6th, and on the 7th Janet and Nina Thorndyke present "Mothers and Daughters" - readings, poetry and music, at the Town Hall at noon.
For those who fancy a little gentle exercise, Ralph Wood will be leading a guided walk and talking about domestic buildings in part of the citadel area, twice during the week, meeting outside Adams at 2.30 on the Monday and Wednesday. Kitty French is helping the young make kites at the Community Centre on the 31st; there will be puppets at Tilling Green School on the 6th (pupils only), and on the 7th Zippo & Co will be entertaining all their admirers at Tilling Green at 11.
Art-lovers will find the SC Turner Bequest exhibition still on at the Rye Art Gallery, and the Rye Society of Artists' Summer Exhibition at the Boys Club, while the Easton Rooms will house an exhibition of etchings, silkscreens and wood engravings and lithographs called "The Black and the White". A fringe event inaid of the Easton Rooms is provided by composer George Newsom, who will be talking at the Town Hall at 6.30 on the 6th about the London Mozart Players' programme the following evening.
The week begins and ends with flowers, from Winchelsea Floral Group at the George Hotel the first Saturday and Sunday, and from Rye and District Flower Club on the final Saturday at the FE Centre. The Festival fringe also takes in a coffee morning on Wednesday, 4th, for the NSPCC and cream teas on Thursday, 5th, for Muscular Dystrophy (for details see the next 'Week's Events").
• Another Red Cross presentation, this time to Miss Ann Hay of Davenport Heuse. Hilary Bolton was delighted to present Miss Hay with the Clasp to her Voluntary Medical Service Badge, which is awarded for 20 years of service to the BRCS. Hiss Hay, former Matron of Rye Hospital and still called '*Matron" by half the town, joined the Red Cross in 1965, was Nursing Officer from 1977 and became Hospital Liaison Officer in 1981. Just at present she is sharing with Margaret Owen the job of Warden at Devonport House until a new appointment is made to replace Mrs. Leggett, who retired recently.
• The charity shop in aid of Mencap has now opened at 67 The Mint (opposite Swan Cottage tea-rooms), and remains open from Monday to Friday between 10 and 4, until 23 August. The organisers welcome customers, lured in by the balloons bouncing merrily from the railings, and will also be glad of goods for sale - real jumble is held back until their sale at Camber on 28 August. On the firstday, Vickie Piper tells us, the shop took £133!
• Despite rumours meanly put about by persons unknown that the CND were going to demonstrate at the Women's British Legion VJ-Day dance at Upper School on Saturday, Joan Gamier tells us, there was of course no trouble at all. The200 dancers enjoyed themselves enormously, Ted Crouch and his Quartet played 'ell the old favourites, and the company indulged in bangers-and-manh and apple-pie-and-custard in true NAAFI style. Proceeds go to the Burma Star Association, a coachload of whose members came over from Hastings for the dance.
• Opening in the FE Centre on 21 August and running for ten days is the Annual Exhibition of the Tuesday Painters Club. This is open to all amateur painters,though most of the work on show is usually by Club members, and it is always a most enjoyable event with a wide range of subjects and techniques represented. But if you are thinking of buying, go early - most of the large number of pictures on view are for sale, but the real prizes do get snapped up in the first few days.
• Rother gave us, and we therefore gave readers, wrong information about one of the planning decisions made at the last Planning Committee meeting: Sheila Brown's request for an "Accommodation" board at Swan Cottage was in fact refused. Current planning lists include a proposed 2-storey extension to ahouse in Udimore Road, and reinstatement of the derelict "Wee Nestle" in Fishmarket Road.
• Listeners to the programme which Radio 4 devised as a birthday offering to the Queen Mother on 4 August will have been amused to hear a brief and not strictly authentic episode from Benson's Tilling saga (among Her Majesty's favourite reading, it was said). Aubrey Woods had Lucia, on the verge of becoming Mayor, discussing with Georgie the question of birthday greetings from the town to the Warden of the Cinque Ports. In fact, Rye Town Council really did send our Lord Warden both a birthday card and a present - a framed print of Camber Castle with a note about its history.
• The Old Drill Hall (on the lane down to the Mill from Ferry Road) contains a new business: Maurice Care of Fair Meadow offers a restoration and repolishing service for furniture which is beginning to show its age. His wife Sally tellsus that he will gladly use his skill on any furniture - it doesn't have to be antique. He is in the Drill Hall (his workshop is at the back) most days, or can be contacted at home.
• Raft Race in aid of NSPCC, Rock Channel, 2.30 start (but the funbegins at Strand quay at least an hour earlier when the raftsare launched) - plus Rye Lions' mini-fete at the Harbour end.
• Veronica Briggs at Squirrels would be very grateful if, during the holiday season, GAZETTE readers could call for their copies on Wednesday or Friday, rather than on Thursday when the shop is very busy with its own trade. We do ask those who normally collect from Squirrels to co-operate with Mrs. Briggs over this, as the last thing we want is for our kind pick-up points to be in any way inconvenienced:
• Understatement of the season, from the Radio Sussex presenter who took back the mike after yet another dreadful weather forecast, saying pensively that he had "begun to feel very dissatisfied with this summer…”!
Open Day at Rye Fire Station (with stalls, etc.), from 10.30
Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5 (instead of 31 August)
Concert by St. Philip's choir, Norbury, Methodist Church, 7.30
No GAZETTE
Thrift Shop open for receiving only, Red Cross, 10.30 to 12.30 Tuesday Painters Club exhibition opens, FEC, 2 (private view 11 to 12.30)
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10.30 to 4 (and Friday and Saturday) Local History Group, Library, 7.30
Labour Party coffee morning, FEC, 10.30 to 12.30 "Cockney Night", CC, 8 (in aid of RNLI - see below)
Barbecue in aid of Mencap, Ypres Castle inn, 3 to 6 Bank Holiday (so no WRVS Lunch Club)
• Congratulations to Mrs. Vini Cooper, of North Salts (but just at the moment staying in Roselands), who celebrated her 99th birthday on 10 August; we look forward to having Mrs. Cooper on the front page this time next year:
• Congratulations, too, to a second local girl who has secured a local teaching job - Janice Gill of the Old Brickyard will be joining the staff of Guestling Bradshaw Primary School when the new term begins in September.
• The RSPCA flag-day in Rye on 27 July raised £185.
• Winchelsea and District Floral Group point out that their show at the George Rotel is on Saturday and Sunday (31st/let) only, and not on Friday 30th.
• 41 local people will be flying over Rye in a Dakota on Tuesday evening (20th) and that particular RAFA outing is now full; but there will be further seats on the Wednesday. Half-hour flights, from Lydd, cost £12.
• The Cockney Night on 24 August for the RNLI, organised by om King of Northiam, is described on the poster as "a live lively show with sing-along" and has been very successful elsewhere in the area, raising considerable sums for charity. o, The £2 tickets (Northiam 2311, or at the door) include refreshments, and there will be a bar. We are told that these shows usually sell out, so it might be safest to book beforehand?
• Another very pleasant event is planned, appropriately enough, for the evening before Rye Festival opens - on Friday 30 August. The Museum Association is holding a Connoisseurs' Evening at the Museum from 7-to 8.30; the garden will also be open (down the steps) and one of the outside cells. Admission is free to Museum Association members, £1.50 to others.
• On Saturday, 31st, there will be a coffee morning at the Red Cross Centre from 10 to 12.30, the first event to be held in the town by a group new to the area, Action Research for the Crippled Child.
• We are sorry to report that a man from Seaford, who was taken to RESH on Thursday morninr, with a suspected heart attack after collapsing in Cinque Ports Street, was found to be dead on arrival at the hospital.
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. It costs 25p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points an Wednesday (but not next week); a few spare copies are available from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, and back numbers from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1985)