SUBSCRIPTIONS are due at the end of this month for all whose copies are not ticked this week (one tick for 12 weeks paid, 2 for 24).Full details appeared in last week's issue. £3 will cover you until 18 December, £6 until 26 March (we take two weeks off at Christmas). Cheques payable to THE RYE GAZETTE, or cash in an envelope with your name on it, please; all receipts will go out with the 2 October issue.
Oldest competitor in the TVS Sea-Angling Championship fished off Iceland last week, Rye's Philip Martin also caught the biggest fish - a 30 lb cod. The contest was fought out on the overall weight of fish caught over two days, and on this Mr. Martin came a very creditable fifth. Readers will have seen him and his outsize cod on Coast to Coast on Monday; he makes a habit of catching big fish, his turbot was the biggest in the semi-finals too!
Mr. Martin, who is president of the Rye Sea-Angling Club, tells us that TVS did their ten guests proud. They arrived in Reykjavik on Monday afternoon and were put up in a comfortable modern hotel; on Tuesday they fished in a relatively sheltered bay, but on Wednesday they were in deeper and rougher water well out to sea. After the competition was over, Thursday was devoted to a tour of the area - they visited the natural hot springs (and a garden centre heated by free hot water) and some magnificent waterfalls - and they came home on Friday through clear skies so that they could see the landscape over which they flew, down Britain's west coast. This was Mr. Martin's first-ever air trip, and he really enjoyed the experience. The Icelanders couldn't have been more friendly and co-operative - the TVS group were among the first fishing visitors since the Cod War, he was told - and the local tackle shop even opened up at midnight to help out. The competitors, too, were a really nice bunch, with no cut-throat rivalry, and the younger men were very civil to him 66 years: "If we can fish as well as you do when we get to your age" they told him, "we shall be very happy!"
The chairman of the General Practitioners Committee of the Hastings Health Authority this week sent out a press release containing what may very well be bad news `--"er Rye. Because the Authority foresees a possible shortfall running into a great many noughts in its budget for 1986/7, it has been considering what savings can be made, and has apparently pin-pointed two targets for economy: the surgical unit at Bexhill - and Rye Memorial Hospital.
The suggestion is that Rye Hospital should be closed "temporarily".
The General Practitioners Committee is opposing this, on the grounds that the hospital provides valuable community hospital service in an isolated part of the Authority's area, with the alternatives some 12 miles off. Rye has 15 beds, and also a very considerable outpatient trade, with consultants in six specialities conducting some 180 out-patient consultations each month - plus physiotherapy, day care (and there is a waiting list for this over and above the 40 people who at present receive it) and various other services including minor casualties.
Mr. P. Cracknell, vice-chairman of the hospital's League of Fiends, has been assured by the District General Manager of the Health Authority, Mr. Martindale, that the proposal to close Rye Hospital is no more than a contingency plan, to be put into effect only if the expected shortfall cannot be met in other ways. However, this will reassure no-one, and there will certainly be very forceful questions put to Mr. Martindale on 8 October when he is to be the speaker at the League of Friends AGM.The matter is being discussed by the Health Authority this morning, and we hope to have a further report next week.
2.
Mrs. Violet Nicholls, of Landgate, died in hospital on 13 September after being taken suddenly ill at her home; she was 78, and had been widowed for some 25 years. Before coming to Rye 40 years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholls had run YMCA hostels all over the country, including one in the East End of London during the war; here they were the proprietors of the Cedar Snack Bar in Harbour Road until they had to give up the business owing to Mr. Nicholls' failing health. Popular with her neighbours, Mrs. Nicholls gained much pleasure recently from her attendance at the Day Centre, where she enjoyed meeting again many old friends whom she had not seen for years. The funeral takes place on Friday (20th) at2 at Playden Church, followed by burial with her husband in Rye Cemetery.
Mr. Cecil French, of Tillingham Avenue, whose death on 10 September we reported briefly last week, was 78. He had been ill for a few weeks, having undergone a serious operation two years ago.He is survived by his wife Betty, sons Colin and Alan and two grandchildren; Mr. and Mrs. French had celebrated their Ruby Wedding last year. Mr. French was born at Caterham and before the war was an assistant professional at Warlingham Golf Club. At the outbreak of war, he joined the Caterham Fire Brigade, and in due course found himself stationed at Rye Harbour, out by the tram station, on the fireboats which were there to deal with marine disasters in the Channel. Mrs. French had also been in the Caterham Fire Service; they were married in 1944 and moved to live in Rye when the war ended, in Ferry Road and then Tillingham Avenue. Mr. French joined the Rye Fire Service until it went part-time, and then served for 23 years at one of the Hastings fire stations, winning several bravery medals for cliff rescues. On retiring from the Fire Service, he worked for many years as a painter and decorator for Messrs. Burnhams. Ever since their sons were Cubs, Mr. and Mrs. French played an active part in the Scout Movement in Rye, and Mr. French was awarded a thank-you badge from the Chief Scout; he remained Treasurer of the Rye Scouts until his death. He also guided successive ATC shooting teams to high honours in both local and national competitions - he was shooting instructor to the Corps from 1964 to 1981, having been captain of Rye Rifle Club when it met in the Mermaid Street School building. He was also a founder member of the Rye Coin Club, and was always happy to share his keen and knowledgeable interest in local history. He will be greatly missed. The funeral took place at St. Mary's on Monday.
Home Guard? LDV? Not in 1939...
Apologies to the author of."Lucia in Wartime" (this page last week) who is Tom Holt, not Tom King as we madly said last week. At least we gave him a good review! As for the matter of the LDV/Home Guard, John Smith told us that it dianot in fact start at all until the spring of 1940; he knows, because he joined at the beginning and was a member until he was called up.From the library, we found that the Local Defence Volunteers were founded in May 1940, were given the much catchier name of Home Guard soon afterwards, and were disbanded in December 1944 when the threat of invasion ceased.(One day we would like to include an article about the Home Guard in Rye, if our senior readers would care to recall its successes and disasters as well as the administrative details of where and who.)
Adam Terpening and his staff entertained business contacts to wine and cheese at the George Hotel last week. They were showing off the hotel's elegant Georgian ballroom - laid out for the occasion with a long table as if for a board meeting or conference, a surprise to those who mostly see it on more sociable occasions. But the star attraction was a tiny space tucked away in a corner between bedrooms - used for brooms for many years, it is really a wig cupboard, and Adam has had it restored to its original use complete with wig, lighting, and eventually a suitable print as a backdrop.(Looking from one of the bedrooms - with bath, colour television, phone and kettle apparatus as well as some very nice non-hotel-type furniture - we were fascinated to see at last the Sheffield Place cottages, the subject of a recently rejected planning application, which stand buried across the yard from the hotel.They must have been pretty little cottages; but oh dear, the access!)
3. THE RYE GAZETTE, 18 September 1985
The closure of The Mint continues, and the police have been set no insuperable problems so far, though we don't doubt that the traffic wardens have had their hands full. The first victim was the big Baxters' delivery lorry last Tuesday afternoon: it delivered all right and then, finding The Mint blocked, went up West Street - and found it couldn't get round the corner. So it backed down and turned ready to front into Market Road - and found it couldn't get round the corner... Finally police stopped all traffic coming under the Landgate arch, and when the High Street had cleared they escorted the lorry the wrong way up it, down Hilder's Cliff, and out under the arch. Since then they have adopted this tactic for other large lorries - which is sometimes disconcerting for those who have just pulled out from High Street parking spaces!
Beer is getting through to the Standard Inn, its customers are relieved to find, though its lorry has had to re-route its progress round the town's pubs. But some of The Mint traders feel that shoppers are being put off by falling debris from the scaffolding, though there is a clear path along the far pavement.
The permission to close The Mint ends on 29 September. Bonfire Night, much earlier than usual, is on 5 October. Hearing that there was more work to be done on the property than had been expected, we asked Mr. Heasmer whether his men would be finished in time to clear his scaffolding for the procession. Bonfire Night?" he said, "We'll be well gone by November!" It turned out that ESCC Highways didn't know about Bonfire Night either; the police do, but had assumed that three weeks was the outside limit for the work. Perhaps there may be problems after all...
Rother's Environmental Health Committee yesterday received the annual report (to June 1985) on bottle banks in the District. The Peasmarsh bank is being removed at the request of the Parish Council "because of a nuisance factor" and resited at Hurst Green who lost theirs in an earlier reshuffle. The two Rye bottle banks collected 28 tonnes in Tower Street and 29 tonnes at Strand Quay, in both cases a little more than last year; the Peasmarsh bank collected 27 tonnes, so perhaps some of this may swell Rye's future total. August was a good month, November a bad one, but oddly enough the December totals were the same as those for February despite Christmas jollifications: 5.4 tonnes from the two banks. There is not much money in this for Rother - £832 during the year, to be exact - but we all have the satisfactory feeling of doing our bit, and it presumably reduces the load for the dustcarts.
The 16-19 group got off to a good start at its first meeting on Monday at the Community Centre; nearly 30 young people turned up to play badminton and table tennis, and there was welfare benefit advice on offer as well as coffee. The organisers are now convinced that there is a need for a club for older teenagers, although there were plenty of 14/15-year-olds there on Monday; probably the age-range will start at 15, though they are leaving things very flexible for a few weeks. Meetings are on Mondays at 7.30 until about 10.
On Wednesday evening next week (25th) a meeting at the Rye Social Services office will bring together the adults who are willing to help with the new group, either regularly or occasionally. Do please go along if you are interested and have a Monday evening free; they need your help.
"We have a Troop" said Frank Dowdeswell happily after last Friday's meeting at the Scout Hut to discuss re-forming the Scouts in Rye; eight boys turned up, and a troop has to have at least seven. In future the Scouts will meet on Thursdays at 7.15 at the Scout Hut, starting this week, and new members will be welcomed. The Troop plans to be represented in the Bonfire Night procession on 5 October.
4.
Last week the East Sussex News reported that ESCC's Social Services Committee had decided against buying the Eagle Road (old phone exchange) site for the Day Centre and was preparing to go ahead with the Ferry Road (old council office) site.The figures quoted were a little confusing, so we asked ESCC Councillor Mrs. Joan Yates to clarify them for us.
Mrs. Yates says that if the Eagle Road site had been chosen, the total bill would have amounted to £150,000 (site purchase £50,0001 road improvements £50,0001 adaptations €60,000 and furniture and equipment £10,000); for Ferry Road the total would be £66,000 (capital contribution to Bother Council £60,000, furniture and equipment £6,000). In either case a government contribution of C45,000 was to be deducted from the total, so the net cost would be £105,000 for Eagle Road as against £21,000 for Ferry Road - a difference of £84,000.
The article then went on to state unnervingly that the Rye Council for Voluntary Service would be paying the annual running costs of £40,000. We queried this too. Mrs. Yates explained that the running costs for Eagle Road would have been 244,000 of which £14,000 was debt charges, leaving day-to-day running costs of £30,000 to be paid by Social Services via the RCVS (no-one was expecting RCVS to raise the money!).The Eagle Road set-up would have needed a full-time administrator, whose salary would mop up perhaps a third of this. At Ferry Road the costs would be a good deal less - how much less she was not able to say at present, but has promised to let us know.It does seem pertinent here to add that the Day Centre's present grant from Social Services is rather less, too: not £25,000, not £2,500, but just £250 per annum...
Another disadvantage of the Eagle Road site was the time factor, as Rother Councillor Mrs. Pauline Tomich points out. British Telecom have gone to appeal over the industrial development of the site for which Rother refused permission, and even if this is turned down they may produce other plans. It could be years before work actually started on the Day Centre; it could even be never. Unless a decision was made now, Rother's Housing Department would have to go ahead with the Ferry Road plans for sheltered housings leaving out any question of a Day Centre there, and the whole idea might well have fallen between two stools.
But in a letter to the GAZETTE about the Ferry Road site development generally, the Secretary of the Community Health Council refers to the Eagle Road plans and adds "Local Rye opinion was not in favour of such a proposal and, as a result, it was recently agreed that the plans as already drawn up should continue". Local Rye opinion may well gasp at this astounding statement. What on earth makes Mr. Wade think that? It was quite clear at the July RCVS meeting (GAZETTE no. 140)that all the organisations represented, with the possible exception of one, were heavily in favour of Eagle Road. Mrs. Yates was against it on grounds of cost,Mrs. Tomich on grounds of timing; Eagle Road residents are also, Mrs. Yates tells us, against it, but primarily because they don't want the road made up - which is surely likely to be a consequence of whatever British Telecom finally sells the site for. But "local Rye opinion" in general? Hardly!
There will certainly be disappointment in the town over ESCC's decision (which still has to be confirmed by full Council on 18 November).The accommodation at Ferry Road is inevitably limited by the boundaries of Bother's site, and there will never be room for the ancillary services which could have become part of Day Centre provision at Eagle Road. There had been talk of day care facilities, which are at present given up at the hospital to 40 elderly people (and there is a waiting list) - but see the front page for the latest shock horror about the hospital's future. The Red Cross had hoped to have room for their loan equipment store there, instead of in the extremely cramped conditions of Dolphin House. Inevitable or not, there are many people in the caring organisations of the town who will feel that Rye has been badly served by this decision.
A planning application has just gone to Rother from the Postern Gate practice for change of use for the Eagle Road premises to a doctor's surgery. This is no more than a tentative enquiry, Dr. Thomas tells us; but we offer it to readers as an interesting possibility, and perhaps some consolation.
5.
The only Rye planning application in the current list is an amended one, but concerns all of us - the road layout for the supermarket site. The plans are available at the Council office, but we have done our best to summarise them.
The main route traversing the site, from Station Approach to Ferry Road, will be two-way, still with bus parking and bus stops down each site of Station Approach and with the Post Office vehicle entrance where it is now, leading to the Post Office garage bitten out of the corner of the main supermarket building.
A right turn at the station leads to the new railway car park, with its pay kiosk at the station end; the 16 coaches for which there are spaces enter there but go out into Rope Walk, while the 64 cars are expected to turn at the far end and go out the way they came in.(What stops them going out into Rope Walk if they want to is not clear.)
The Market entrance, with 7 lorry-parking spaces just inside, is on the immediate right of the car park entrance; the public loos are on a strip of land at present occupied by parked cars, and will have pedestrian access from the market area as well as from Station Approach. Three crossings are shown: one at the top of Station Approach, one outside the present bus station kiosk, and one from the anew supermarket across to the station; but whether these are formal zebras or rely chance-your-luck-and-run crossings is not clear. Taxis stay where they are, and a small park is provided on the immediate right of the station building for the use of staff. The footpath from Ferry Road to the station remains.
The plans also show the land ownership under the new regime. BR owns the new car park and the land immediately round the station, plus a small area between the Ferry Road visibility splay and the footpath. The bus company will own the new bus garage and its forecourt opening onto the new road. The supermarket company will, of course, own the site of the building and the two car parks beside it (84 cars in all).The two small shops will be separately owned, and Rother will end up with the land on which the loos are to stand, which is marked as "landscaped".
Assuming that on a Wednesday the market lorries will be able to get inside the market site without having to queue outside and block the access to the new car park, and that they can get out again without interfering with the afternoon buses; assuming that on a Thursday cars aren't queueing in Station Approach (as they now do in Ferry Road) to get into one or other of the new car parks; and assuming that there is something to make drivers take notice of the crossings, e should survive. What will happen in Rope Walk as 16 coaches try to get out cross the traffic stream when the crossing gates are shut is another matter. And where the 6 or so displaced coaches are to park at all will be an ongoing problem - probably for the people in Military Road.
Now, alas, mourning its chairman Cecil French, the Rye Coin Club opens its new season on 10 October with a meeting at the FE Centre at 7.30, when Peter Silk will be speaking about "Campaign War Medals".The Club has been established inRye for over a quarter of a century, and would be very glad of new members. Junior members only pay El annual subscription, adults £2.
Later talks include E. Wheeler on "Pattern coins of the UK" with Seaby slides (14 November); Club secretary C W Banks with recent items in the newspapers about coin auctions, coin collecting, treasure trove, etc. (12 December); two talks on 13 March and 10 April by Ken Willard; and an opportunity on 8 May for any member to give a five-minute talk.Mr. French was to have presented a quiz and grading exercise on 13 February. Members are encouraged to bring to the meetings their latest acquisitions in the way of coins, medals, tokens, bank notes, etc., and relevant press cuttings.
New members for this friendly and long-established club are welcome at the first meeting, or can contact Mr. Banks at Conqueror Road, St. Leonards.
6.
• The meeting arranged by the WI at the Community Centre on Wednesday morning (25th) is timed from 10 until 12 for a particular reason. It is felt that there are women in the town who would like to join the WI but who either don't want to go out on winter evenings to the Rye group or who can't take their small children in the afternoons to the Playden one. So: a morning WI? Everyone interested in such an idea is invited along on Wednesday, but the final timing of the new Insti tute's meetings would depend very much on what suited its members, getting a mid day meal or collecting a child from playgroup, or with an afternoon or evening job.
• We asked Stella Pigrome of Rye Foreign for a bit of background to her Museum Association lecture, with slides, on "Gilpin and the Picturesque" on Friday, 27th. The Rev. William Gilpin, she told us, lived from 1724 to 1802, and was headmaster of Cheam School before becoming vicar of Boldre in the New Forest. He came from a Cumbrian family (his brother Sawrey is known as an animal painter), and his interest in pictures and prints began at Oxford. Nature and scenery appealed to him, and his chief claim to remembrance is the series of journeys he made round Britain which he later wrote up as "Observations...chiefly relative to picturesque beauty".He did much to spread the cult of the picturesque, which he defined as "that which would look well in a picture" - a view shared by French and Italian painters of the eighteenth century.
• Attractions at the Thomas Peacocke School Michaelmas Fair on Saturday week, 28th, include a BMX cycle display, the traditional pet show, an opportunity to throw wet sponges at staff and sixth-formers, the jazz band which produced such a jolly effect last year, a group of Scottish dancers, all the usual stalls - and, if the weather is kinder this time, the hot-air balloon which had to cancel its flight last year; a special raffle will offer a ride in it as a prize if it is able to take off.
• We now have more details of the Stone Age Reunion for former Rye Grammar School pupils - those who were at the school before the war. The Old Scholars Association is holding this very special party at the George Hotel on 30 November, and tickets (£3 to include the buffet) are available from John Smith at Ferry Road, who would be grateful if cheques could be accompanied by stamped addressed envelopes."If you cannot attend" adds the poster, "why not send us your news anyway?" If you have a relative or friend who was at RGS in 1939 or earlier,it would be kind if you would make sure that they know about the reunion - a fascinating opportunity to see who hasn't changed a bits
The latest newsletter from the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve reports progress on the wader pool for which almost £1,500 was raised from the quilt raffled earlier this year. The SWA deposited 440 lorry-loads of mud from the Strand Quay dredging operation into the pool "which immediately attracted many broods of redshank, ringed plover and oystercatcher" who knew a good thing when they saw it (or perhaps smelt it! - can birds smell?)." Now that they have gone, landscaping the area has begun, and a work party on Sunday week (29th) will be busy with this; all are welcome, meet in the car park at 10 and bring lunch, wellingtons and stout gloves plus rakes, spades, etc.
Warden Barry Yates reports that despite the weather, some birds had a successful nesting season at the Reserve.51 pairs of ringed plovers raised around 75 young to flying stage. The terns for which the Reserve is well known were less fortunate; although 76 pairs of little terns - the largest number since the Reserve was established - nested, they only raised 10 or 12 young in all, though the common terns, nesting in concealment on the large island in the Ternery Pool, produced on average one youngster from each of the 60 or 70 pairs; sandwich terns were few and far between, and none bred. Apart from the weather, nestlings fell victim to gulls and to a kestrel with nestlings of its own in Camber Castle. But a pair of sand martins bred successfully at the artificial bank; the seven pairs of wheatears each produced a very satisfactory four or five young.
7.
For the benefit of readers who don't often get into the town, we report that the Post Office is without its front wall and a good deal else, but a handsome new window is in place and the builders are now building up rather than taking down. The idea, of course, is to provide a new entrance without the need for steps, and better facilities at the back of the public office. The outside letter box looks uneasy, and the inside one just like something ready to receive Christmas cards in junior school; and the stamp machine has gone, though we trust its absence is only temporary. Inside, the staff appear cheerful in their windowless environment. 92 High Street (Anglia, nee Millers) begins to take on a much more healthy look; they are now at the stage of installing the counters, and we understand that the builders are due to finish at the end of the month. Here too the stepped entrance has been replaced by a door set level with the pavement. It has certainly been extremely interesting for those who regularly walk along the High Street to watch the work progressing, though the builders must have sometimes felt sympathy for goldfish!
Builders are hard at work, too, at the former takeaway at the corner of Rope Walk. Next week we can say who the new owner is; this week we can only reassure readers that the finished result will be extremely attractive. What is astonishing is ,ne amount of open space inside what looked like a tiny shop before work began.
We would like to congratulate Rayners on their smart new black-and-white paint, which has much improved the look of the very far end of the High Street. It must, however, be said that certain other new paint - which was undoubtedly applied after proper planning approval - has proved much less popular with passers- by from all sections of the community, to judge from complaints which have reached the GAZETTE…
7.
• No wonder British Rail is in financial trouble, if its efforts in Rye are any thing to judge by. Two Thursdays ago the Goods Yard car park was entirely unattended; by mid-day it contained no coaches but a large number of cars, parked somewhat wildly and all, of course, for free. Last Thursday, we were told, the position was much the same; certainly coaches were there, but parked all anyhow with apparently no supervision. The money taken in that car park on a Thursday must amount to several hundred pounds in the holiday season; surely it would have been worth BR's while to import a retired railwayman to take over the kiosk for the day? Anyway, the regular car-park attendant is now back from holiday, so don't expect free parking in the Goods Yard tomorrow!
• The RAF Association Wings Appeal is better off by £173 as a result of the coffee morning held by the Mayoress at the Town Hall on Saturday; the results of the various collections are not yet available but we shall have them in due course. Nigel Spooner's organ concert for Battle of Britain Sunday was poorly attended but greatly enjoyed; the organ performed magnificently, at full power in Bach's Toccata in D Minor but slipping easily back into the popular tunes of its youth - still loud enough to allow the audience to sing along without embarrassing the neighbours. Many thanks, Mr. Spooner, for giving up your afternoon in a good cause.
• The Town Clerk tells us that the cabinet from the Mayor's Parlour (GAZETTE no. 145) has been sent away to have the woodworm pressure-slaughtered and some minor repairs done, rather than to be restored in the full sense; such work would be very expensive and probably not within the resources of the Council, she adds, though an estimate has been asked for.
• Apologies to the reader who tried to take the BR rail link bus between Waterloo and King's Cross on our recommendation and found it didn't run after 4 pm; we checked with BR, and this is because of rush-hour traffic making its schedules unworkable. It runs between 10 and 4, Monday to Thursday, and on Friday as well but with an extension for the benefit of weekenders from 7 to 11, and at weekends the hours are longer too. Within those hours it is a cheap and excellent way of getting between stations.
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10,30 to 4 and Friday and Saturday) Local History Group AGM, Library, 7.30
Bonfire Bonanza, Town Hall, 10 to 4
Lions' Charity Shop, CC, 10 to 4 (and Sunday)
Jumble sale, Fire Station, 1.30
Women's British Legion mini-market and teas, FEC, 2
Rye Bowls Club Finals (and bring-and-buy stall), Salts, 2.30
St. Mary's Harvest Festival: civic service, 6.30
Town Council meeting, 6.30, followed by Planning, 7.15, TH Arthritis & Rheumatism Council coffee morning, CC, 10.30 to 12 Meeting to discuss the formation of a morning WI, CC, 10 to 12
• Congratulations to Ginny and Arthur Lindley, of Thursley in Surrey, on the birth of their son on 11 September - a first grandson for the Dickinsons of Church Square.
• The trains will be at odd times again this Saturday as well as Sunday. However, a reader points out that there is one advantage to the main line from Hastings to London running via Rye - we get much earlier trains on a Sunday.
• The Bayntuns at The Old Forge in Wish Street would be glad to hear from anyone interested in renting the window-space in the building opposite the restaurant (once, was it not, a monumental mason's?).
• Congratulations to Julia Lampon, the manageress of Durrant House Hotel, who is now an Intermediate Associate of the Hotel and Catering Institute of Manage ment Association - after a day a week spent in London at Westminster College. Julia now goes on to do part 2 of the course.
• Rye Bowls Club played Winchelsea twice last week; Winchelsea won both times. The Club hopes for a fine day on Saturday, when the finals of some of the competitions are to be played off on the Salts; this is to be something of a social occasion, and they will have a bring-and-buy stall to tempt the spectators.
• A press release from ESCC has some half-dozen pages of wines which have been found to be contaminated; worried wine-bibbers are very welcome to borrow it!
• Welcome to the new Warden of Devonport House, Mrs. Margaret Hubbard, who started her new job on 1 September. Mrs. Hubbard has been a deputy warden at a SHAA house at Crowborough. The residents at Tower Street are very pleased to see her - particularly, we would imagine, Miss Hay and Hrs. Owen who have been sharing the job during the interregnum; Miss Hay, of course, continues in office as deputy warden.
• A puzzled reader asked the Editor about "Rye Rural Park" - what is it, she said? The Hatleys industrial development on the way to the Harbour, we replied - 25 brand-new units just past Weslakes. In that case, she remarked, it is surely confusing to have a nice green sign at the beginning of Harbour Road luring to it people who may simply be looking for somewhere to picnic!
• Jam-makers will have looked wistfully at the fine crop of blackberries in the High Street - growing out of the wall of the Old Grammar School, just below one of the top-floor windows...
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye (Rye 222303).News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon, Tuesday 9 am for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday; a few spare copies are available from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, and back numbers from Cyprus Place.(Copyright Mary Owen 1985)