Local readers will all know by now the glad news which broke too late for our last issue: Rye Hospital is safe (and so is the Bexhill surgical unit).
Alan Martindale, the HHA General Manager, reminds us that the contingency plan to close both Rye and the Bexhill unit for a year was a proposal, made very reluc tantly by his Authority in response to a request from the Regional Health Author ity to identify areas in which savings could be made if the Government did not fund the new pay awards. Since the Government finally did fund them (or went a good way towards doing so - GAZETTE no. 155) there is now no need to consider putting the contingency plan into effect; instead of a shortfall of £580,000 for the Authority, is is likely to be in the region of £140,000, and Mr. Martin dale says that to save £200,000 by closing Rye Hospital would therefore be a quite unnecessary overkill. Appraisal of the services provided at the hospital, which had priority billing in the HHA's short-term programme for 1986/7 (GAZETTE no. 151) will still go ahead; the X-ray department will almost certainly vanish, and Casualty may also, so to speak, be a casualty.
The delighted Rye Hospital Action Group is still putting together the material it has collected, since this will obviously be useful to the Health Authority in its coming appraisal. The report will go to the Community Health Council later this month (and then the Group's hard-pressed secretary, Mrs. Muriel Mayer of Landgate, will be able to get on with the housework which she hasn't touched for weeks!) Although it is officially the promise of government money which has saved the hospital, everyone round here is convinced that the strength of local protest must have helped - and will certainly continue to help in the longer-term negotiations ahead.
We asked the League of Friends for a comment on the good news. Much to our surprise, Mrs. Ruth Lawson-Tait doubted whether it was good news yet - the League had heard nothing official, and anyway "no decision can be taken until the January meeting" she said. However, as Mr. Martindale pointed out, no decision has to be taken - a contingency plan for a contingency which no longer arises must automatically lapse. Anyway, the League's committee is continuing to circulate the questionnaire which was available at its recent meeting, and copies can be collec ted from and should be returned to Lloyds Bank in the High Street.
As for the long-term prospects, much hinges on the opening of the new District General Hospital in Hastings, due for 1992 (which is only six years away). We have all known since February that Rye will then be at risk again, this time permanently. The feeling generated during the past two months has made everyone much more aware of what is at stake, and various aspects of the hos pital's use and administration have been ventilated (doubtless not all of them in public). Even if the work of the Action Group had no bearing at all on the present rescue, it has not been wasted.
Congratulations to Catherine Collison of Iden and Rebekah Smith of Icklesham, both at Thomas Peacocke School, who have just heard that they have been given places in the National Youth Choir. Catherine is 16, and in the Lower Sixth; Rebekah will not be 16 until next month, and is still working for her 0-levels. Both are pupils of Lesley Brownbill in Love Lane. Catherine was the soloist in the "Home on Sunday" programme from St. Mary's recently on BBC1, and also sang in the Town Hall during Rye Festival. Only 28 candidates out of 90 won places, so for two to come from Thomas Peacocke is a real feather in the school's cap. They will first sing in public with the choir at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 December, after a week's residential course at Ashford School; but the really exciting prospect is a tour to Canada, the US and Mexico next July. For this, each has to find the air fare of just under £600; sponsors will obviously be welcome.2.
Mrs. Ethel Bourn, the wife of Mr. Frank Bourn of Rope Walk, died suddenly in hospital on Sunday, aged 80. The funeral details are not yet available; we shall have a fuller obituary next week.
Mrs. Edith Nash, of Winchelsea Station, died in hospital on 26 November after a fall at her home; she was 93. Mrs. Nash was the mother of potter and engraver Pamela Nash; she is survived by another daughter in Australia, and by her son-in-law Ernest Collyer. Her memories went back a very long way; as a child in Worcester she used to see Elgar going about his business, and she recalled being sent up and down the street to announce the "belief" of Mafeking to the neighbours, with no idea of what she was supposed to be saying. Mrs. Nash had made many friends during the time she lived here, and her cheerful presence will be much missed. Donations in her memory may be sent to the Pamela Nash Dialysis Fund, which has not yet achieved the amount necessary to purchase the machine which Hastings would welcome. The funeral took place yesterday at St. Mary's.
The George ballroom on Friday evening was thick with reminiscence as more than 90 Old Scholars of Rye Grammar School dined, wined and gossiped. This was the Stone-Age Reunion, intended for people who were at the school before 1939; many of the guests, however, had been there much earlier than that, and the senior Old Scholar present was Mr. George Barling of Icklesham, looking years younger than 94 but nonetheless a contemporary at the school of Jeffery Waters's father! (By our reckoning he could have left the school by the time it moved out of the High Street in 1908.) In his day it had 30 pupils, all boys; photographs on display showed it growing over the years, with the boys wearing traditional school caps and, in the early days, girls not only dressed in gym tunics but with neat little hats bearing the school badge. One dated 1932 had ten staff posed in front of 100 children, beside the old front entrance facing towards the town.
The Headmaster now in charge of some 1250 pupils at Thomas Peacocke, Ray Fooks - "the only person who couldn't squirm out of it" - made a brief speech of thanks: to the organisers, with particular mention of John Smith, Will Dunlop, Bob Huxstep and Win Allen, and to the many Old Scholars who continue to help the school in so many ways. He reckoned that over the past year 500 Old Scholars of different vintages had assembled in one way or another; indeed, this year's Recent Leavers get-together was likely to occupy three pubs on 27 December! The person who had done most to held the group together was Will Dunlop - "there have been occasions when the OSA has rested entirely on his shoulders during the past 50 years", though the Association was founded some 20 or 30 years before Will's time. A white envelope handed to him by Ray Fooks expressed the gratitude of members to the editor of the Association's long-running and invaluable newsletter.
The school library at The Grove has a considerable collection of archive material which is on view from time to time; more would be welcome (photographs, programmes, etc.), and can be sent to Mrs. Alison Cade at the school.
The WBL Christmas coffee morning at the Red Cross Centre on Saturday raised £250 for Legion funds, plus a further £135-worth of goods sold on behalf of the Disabled Men's Industries. Some people who were not able to come last week have asked for a second chance, so the WBL are holding a repeat performance this Saturday with the DMI goods, handmade knitted garments and bric-a-brac again on sale.
Mrs. Alice Boreham of Badger Gate is the proud winner of the Special Award cup as a result of a recent competition, judged by Mrs. Phyllis Smith, for cushion-covers; hers, a confection in pink and white, was among those on sale on Saturday. The previous week at Haywards Heath Rye had been awarded four certificates at the East Sussex County Conference of the Women's Section of the Legion: two for increased membership in each of the past two years, and two for the top sales of DMI goods over the same period. As well, Mrs. Joan Kingham of Lea Avenue won an award for her photograph of a peacock, taken at Michelham Priory. Congratulations!
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 4 December 1985
There were presentations all round at the Community Centre on Thursday, when the Rye Majorettes paraded for their end-of-season celebrations. First, and most important, the Majorettes themselves said goodbye to Mrs. Rosemary Wilkinson, after ten years, with flowers and a framed and signed photograph of all the girls - ten years in which the group has raised £2,000 for charity and given a great deal of pleasure to a lot of people as well as enjoying itself. Thanking them, Mrs. Wilkinson wished there was more support from parents - "though we've always got the loyal ones" she added, looking round gratefully. Her troop had first performed on 13 December 1975; this year they had been in three competitions, three displays for old people, and had done 18 shows at the New Romney holidaycamp where they had raised C469. Val Lovecy is taking over the running of the Majorettes for a time, with Pat Downs of Brede as her lieutenant; until now Val has been lieutenant to Rosemary, who marked her own gratitude with a little presen tation in the opposite direction.
The Attendance Shield went to Lorraine Gilbert, the Effort Cup jointly to Nadine Mitchell and Tanya Cutting, and there were badges for those who have been members for a full year: Sally Mitchell, Tanya, Nadine, Tina Kennard, and Sharon Oliver - who has a sweaterful of badges already, and who won special thanks from Rosemary for all her hard work as leader of the troop.
Mrs. Wilkinson will not of course be losing interest in the Majorettes; her experience, contacts and help will be freely available to Val and Pat, but after ten years she thinks it is time someone else had a go!
A social evening at the George Hotel marked the presentation by Rye Lions of a cheque for C695 to Anne Wood, NSPCC Branch Secretary; this was the proceeds of the Raft Race in August, plus C300 raised by Lions at the fete held at the Harbour the same afternoon (and other money has already gone to the NSPCC from the same event, making the full total somewhere over C800). Two £50 resuscitators suitable for use on babies were presented to Harold Law, one for each of the Rye ambulances; and the company then listened with interest to Jack Bogis talking about guide dogs, with his own dog Lionel paying keen attention. Lions have also recently given £100 to the Community Centre's new youth club, and a cheque for C500 has gone to LIBRA, the Lions International fund for research into leukaemia and other blood disorders.
The Mencap Autumn Fair at the FE Centre on Wednesday (27th) raised a gratifying £380, which will go towards the new horticultural project. Two days later Mencap held a very enjoyable disco party in the glamorous surroundings of the George ballroom, when local mentally-handicapped children were joined by 25 Leasam House pupils who had been their hosts earlier in the year.
£220 was raised at the George on Thursday b, the local branch of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Their last year's event - admittedly elsewhere and on a very wet day - produced just £30, so they are very grateful to all this year's supporters and helpers!
Once again this exhibition offers pleasures for the eye as well as presents for the fortunate. Most of the gallery's regular artists have something on show, and there is an admirable display of Margo Bruce's engraved glass; Janet Thorndyke's cats crouch on top of a showcase, John Owen has been painting Greek peasant far mers, and young Jeremy Townsend, Ken's son, shows a group of marvellously convoluted and colourful designs. There is jewellery and pottery and embroidery and toys and sweaters, alongside the pictures and prints. There are even three of Louis Turpin's pictures - small ones, about all that was left of his fantastically successful show at the gallery last month. Among work sold then was the most expensive picture ever to change hands through the gallery - and we are talking in four-figure terms - plus plenty of others with a not inconsiderable price-tag on them; not all of Louis's patrons were local people, but some of those who were had not bought from the gallery before - always good news, says Eric Money. Louis is now working extremely hard for his show at Bath in February!
4.
• Yesterday (if all went according to plan) the Rye bellringers were celebrating the centenary of the Sussex Association of Change Ringers with a full peal from the belfry of St. Mary's. Canon Maundrell feels slightly guilty that this three- hour session comes comparatively soon after a recent Saturday peal from a visiting team of ringers; he gets a lot of requests from touring teams who are anxious to proclaim the glory of God from Rye belfry, but for the sake of the neighbours he tries to space them out as much as possible. This, however, was a rather special occasion. The Wednesday afternoon ringing comes from a team of beginners from Thomas Peacocke School; on Thursday evenings the regular ringers practice, and learners are always welcome to join them - just turn up (experienced ringers are received gladly too).
• The current planning list contains an interesting proposal for Rye Harbour: a development on the derelict land beyond the Coastguard cottages, of 6 3-bedroom and 7 2-bedroom houses, with garages and parking. There is already outline consent for such a development; the houses shown on the plan are unpretentious and might, we hope, fall within the price-range of families working in the area? Rye applications include a garage for a house in New Road, with access from King's Avenue; the conversion of the garage of Belmont in Watchbell Street into a one-bedroom studio flat - with reinstatement of the watchtower next door; continued use of 35 The Mint (Tuckers) as a restaurant on a permanent basis; and an externally illuminated sign for the Landgate Bistro.
• The Royal Navy Presentation Team had the sort of reception it might have expected from a town with Rye's maritime traditions; most of the 400 invitations sent out bore friiit, and the Upper School hall and balcony were full on Wednesday night. Captain 1Rowe's talk and slides were most professional (even if they did occasionally recall to mind Thunderbirds and Jules Verne), the questions were civil and answered most helpfully, and there was not a breath of anything so rude as a demo. A most interesting evening, with some thoughtful questions and - somehow - always the right slide appearing immediately on the screen to illustrate the answer!
• Regular shoppers in Lion Street may have noticed with amusement the way in which books have been steadily taking over "Artique" in recent months. The infiltration has now reached the point where we think we are justified in welcoming another bookshop to the town! Mr. and Mrs. Connolly are always glad to meet people who have books to sell; they can either discuss the matter at the shop or make a home visit if 'a large quantity is involved. The Connollys sell both antiquarian and ordinary second-hand books, and are particularly interested in those with a local flavour to either author or subject.
• On Tuesday last week it was agreed to set up a steering committee to establish a Rye Branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society; the meeting at Ma Beeton's was attended by more than 40 people, and speakers from Hastings and London outlined the aims and organisation of the Society. Details of the inaugural meeting will be given later.
• All Rother Council offices, including ours in Cinque Ports Street, will close at 4.30 on Friday, 20 December, and reopen as usual on Monday, 30 December; still open on 31 December, but closed on 1 January. After that, business is normal. The emergency phone number over the holiday period is Hastings 214171.
• Rye Library will close from Monday, 23 December, to Friday, 27th, inclusive; it will reopen on Saturday, 28th, and Monday, 30th, closing again for Tuesday (31st) and Wednesday (1 January). They always close on Tuesdays anyway; the staff would like to have opened on 23 December, but were told they couldn't!
• The police station press book records four separate road accidents in just two days in the Rye Sub-Division. Two were in the Westfield area on 29 November: one person died, and one is in hospital with leg injuries. Next day there were two more, in Brede and Udimore; here the consequences were less serious, with only minor injuries. No-one in Rye was involved at all, but we report the accidents as a warning to drive carefully on the wintry roads.
THIS HAS BEEN A BUSY WEEK: SOME REPORTS HAVE HAD TO BE CURTAILED. SORRY!
5.
First, the good news: we were WRONG last week in assuming that there might be no buses to Udimore. There will be a service, and it will include a 17.10 from Rye for the benefit of people whose homeward journey after work was axed earlier this year. It will still be possible for people working in St. Leonards to get there and back from Rye by bus, though they will have to change at Broad Oak. But some of the details are a bit complicated!
The communication from Hastings & District on which sire reported last week was primarily for parish clerks and not a press release (apologies, Paul Atkins), though a copy did come to the GAZETTE too. We therefore hesitate to describe as a press release the information from ESCC which arrived on Saturday, giving the timetable for the new County Rider service which will be filling in the gaps, but it has certainly gone out to a good many organisations. As well as the Udimore bus timetable, it gives details of the service in the other direction, to Northiam (with a morning spur to enable Iden people to shop at Jempsons and also an extra journey from Camber arriving at Rye at 9.05). This is the route which serves Playden and the hospital, and we will have a summary of its timetable next week.
On the Udimore route, three different bus enterprises will be involved: H & D, which does the morning and afternoon school run; Fuggles, with two journeys each day; and ESCC's County Rider "midibus" which is equipped with special faci lities for elderly and disabled people and will also be used on Wednesdays for pre-booked services for disabled people and for Day Centre transport (nothing is said about the Tuesday Day Centre). All buses go via the Estate; those starred go right round by Pottingfield Road.
8.35 (non-schoolday) or 8.38 (schoolday) 7.25
*10.02 (not Frid.) or *10.07 (Fri.only) 8.40
13.45 (Weds.only) or 15.00 (not Weds.) 9.02
16.00 *10.17 (Fri.cnly) or *10.47 (not Fri.)
17.04 (schoolday only) *11.47
18.05 *14.30 (Weds.only) or *15.02 (not Weds.)
18.12 16.03 (schoolday only) 17.10.
It seems likely that the bus arriving at 10.02, let alone its Friday substitute, will neatly miss the trains in both directions, as will some of the afternoon buses, though the 17.10 will be convenient for train travellers going home to Udimore. Another snag is the five-hour gap (except Wednesdays) between the bus arriving in Rye just after 10 and the next one at 15.00; there is also (except on Wednesdays) a three-hour gap between the 11.47 and the 15.02 homeward. But at least all this is better than no buses at all, and the timetable is due for a rethink in the spring.
None of the literature mentions fares. We were told some time ago that County Rider fares would in general be much the same as those on H & D. But the operation of the County Rider bus is still out to tender, and the name of the successful operator will not be announced until next week. The Transport Users Group points out that if it is not H & D, there could well be two separate tickets required by people who work in St. Leonards, leaving Rye on the County Rider bus and changing to H & D at Broad Oak.
Printed timetables will be issued on 19 or 20 December, and distributed house-to-house in the villages concerned. Cadborough and Playden people will have to collect their own copies, presumably from the Council Offices as usual - but be warned, they are only open for 4 of the 13 days concerned (see page 4) because of the Christmas holiday break...
We are not attempting to deal with the position over school contract buses, since these don't actually concern people in Rye; but there may be problems for children staying late at school, who need to catch a service bus instead of the contract one they would normally travel on.
6.
On Friday evening Upper School hall was full, with an enthusiastic audience eager to see the PTA's 1985 Fashion Show. It was, once again, greatly enjoyed - thanks to the enormous amount of work put in, both beforehand and on the night, by a very considerable number of people. Miss Rye was unfortunately unable to appear, so we missed the contribution which would have come from Rose-Anne. But Rye was well represented by Bennetts, who supplied the men's outfits (and in her final speech Rowena Varley had a special thankyou for Frank May), and by Frank Golden and The Golden Fleece, who showed a handsome selection of quality casual wear for ladies. James Kimber was responsible for the glamorous hairdos, and the salon's make-up expert turned up backstage to see that everyone was looking their best.
From Hastings, Wards produced immaculate school uniforms for the younger models, including some still at primary school who were greeted with coos of affection from the audience - aaaah! A pleasantly joky presentation came from Martin Channon, his models chewing straws and flaunting checked loggers' shirts to country 'n western music. Equally unusual was the group of dancers from Concoction in Market Road (at least, their clothes were from Concoction), whirling through coloured smoke in vivid outfits. We have written before about Fairytales, whose romantic wedding-dress was the show's finale; Penny's mother, Veronica Briggs at Squirrels, had lent as a companion piece a charming Edwardian wedding-dress from the shop.
An unknown quantity (to us, anyway) was Su Chen, whose sweatshirts with a Christmas theme aroused much interest. This business is based in Brede and run by two brothers, John and Peter Jackson, whose sister Sheila is the designer. They have no Rye outlet at present, but are glad to hear from any group who want shirts made to their particular specification - one very successful line is for a local pub and carries a caricature of the landlord! The firm has been going for only a few months, but already they sell to London stores. Designs can be reproduced from size 22" upwards, and quantity orders work out at about £7. (For more information ring Hastings - and yes, we know they are not a Rye business, but they were kind enough to help with a Rye fund-raising event!)
Mrs. Varley's thank you list included, of course, the Rye Dance Centre, who provided several stylish entr'actes to link the fashion presentations; the older dancers were most impressive, and we wondered if the Wayne Sleep of 2001 was among the seven boys, aged 4 to 8, who performed a clown dance.
The models, of course, were very much part of the entertainment in every sense particularly the men teachers and the one brave father; the women all looked very elegant whatever they were wearing, but perhaps the nightwear drew the greatest applause.
Individual thanks went to compere Graham Lee, Malcolm Harris in charge of the music and Nigel Spooner at the organ; Pat Baker, Steve Denny and their helpers at the refreshment tables; Margaret Marshall who arranged the choreography; the school stage crew for the lighting, Hugh Sutton for help with props, and Maison Fleur and Williams & Sons for the flowers. The final applause, of course (plus a bouquet) was for the girl who originated the whole event: Julia Thomas, assistant housemistress at Leasam House. She tells us that next year may well see something different; but if it raises well over £250 for PTA funds again, who's complaining?
Two of the founder members of the Rye and Winchelsea Centre retired from the committee on Friday: the secretary, Miss Barbara Lyle, and Mrs. Gwen Sandeman. New secretary is Mrs. Janet Paine of Beckley; Mrs. Weslake continues as chairman, and membership secretary is Mrs. Katherine Digby-Worsley. Philip Armitage and Ken Postle are new committee members, and Miss Nancy Lyle remains in charge of the sales table. The Centre now has some 580 members. During the last financial year, the Centre has sent £3,000 to the Regional Office, as well as giving the Henry James portrait to Lamb House; at the [AGM a further £1,500 was handed to the Regional Director for repairs to the Ellen Terry Museum at Smallhythe. Alma Fabes' delightful "Surprise Package" contained a magic carpet, on which she took her audience to Persia in 1968, in the days of the Shah when things were very different...
7.
Last week's piece about the Post Office brought an immediate and grieved response from the Acting Postmaster. It was, she assures us, not true that only one person was on counter duty that Monday morning at noon; there were two, but one was dealing with 53 parcels at the far end and therefore was not available to serve the enormous queue in which our informant found himself. (From the point of view of the queue, of course, this does amount to just one person on duty - but still...) She adds that there are never less than two staff on counter duty at any time. So now we all know.
We in turn offer two points for her consideration, both raised by readers. There is a large notice banning dogs; but the rail to which they could be tied has gone, along with the old entrance steps. What are people to tie their dogs to, if they can't bring them in? Please can we have our rail back?
There is not a notice banning smoking, but there ought to be, says a reader, particularly as the single entrance door is in her view not adequate to provide a quick exit for the number of people who could be inside, in the event of a fire or explosion. (There is, of course, a second door from the public area, which leads into the back parts and which could presumably be used as an emergency exit if necessary.) Our reader wonders whether the entrance door is suitable for wheelchair access, but since this is one of the main reasons for the alterations co the buildings it seems likely that she is over-pessimistic here. But two people have now complained to us about the fire hazard, so we pass it on.
The new cash dispenser outside the Natwest Bank in the High Street is expected to be in service next week; unexpected complications over building work behind it have delayed the opening. It will take cards issued by both Natwest and Midland Banks, and also Access cards issued by those two banks (but not by Lloyds, who of course have their own dispenser at the bottom of West Street). Everyone will welcome this new facility; the Tourist Office often found that visitors who had to go to Hastings to get funds at weekends tended to stay there, while residents will save an enormous amount of time by not having to queue to draw out the week's housekeeping money.
SUBSCRIPTIONS WILL SHORTLY BECOME DUE for the quarter from 8 January to 26 March 1986 (we do not print on 25 December or 1 January): 12 weeks, £3.00. Cheques payable to THE RYE GAZETTE, please; cash in an envelope with your name and address or pick-up point on it.
However, as we warned in GAZETTE no. 153, the price of single copies will rise in January to 30p. This rate will also apply to all subscriptions not paid by the end of 1985. So - if you have paid up to the end of March anyway, you do nothing and your copy should have a tick by your name. If your subscription reaches 2 Cyprus Place by 31 December, the amount required is £3.00 as usual. >If your subscription arrives later than 31 December, £3 will only cover ten issues; the full quarter will cost you £3.60. If you have hitherto had a free copy, please check that yours is in fact ticked; since each copy now costs more than twice as much to produce, we are having to cut out some free ones. These will now go only to the proprietors of our seven regular pick-up points; to the Library, and to DevonFort House, Badger Gate and Greyfriars; and to a handful of people whose brains we pick weekly for the paper or who help us regularly in other ways.
All subscriptions will probably rise to 30p at the start of the next half-year in April; if this is likely to be the last straw for you, why not investigate sharing a copy with a friend? Lots of people do this already; from what we hear of the travels of some copies, it can work out at about 1p a reader - and sometimes in foreign money, at that!
Thursday, 5th Sea Cadets coffee morning (hot mince pies:), Red Cross, 10.30 Christian Lunch Club: Shirley Ansell of the Shaftesbury Soc iety shows a film to illustrate her talk, CC, 12 for 12.30 Museum Association party (invitations), Town Hall
ATC wine and cheese party (invitations), Upper School
Friday, 6th Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
Blood donors, Baptist Hall, 2 to 4, 5 to 7.45
Confirmation Service (the Bishop of Lewes), St. Mary's, 7 Rye Movie Society at home to friends (invitations), FEC
Saturday, 7th St. John Nursing Cadets Christmas coffee morning, St. John's HQ, Conduit Hill, 10
SDP coffee morning (with clothes and books as for Muscular Dystrophy on 28 November), Tower Forge House, 10
Women's British Legion coffee morning, Red Cross, 10 (page 2) Father Christmas switches on town lights - leaving the station just after 4 (GAZETTE no. 156)
Sunday, 8th Methodist Church toy service (for London Methodist Mission), 11
Joint Service with Rye, New York (preacher, Deaconess Una Kroll), St. Mary's, 10.30
Guides carol service, St. Mary's, 3
Attic sale, CC, 10 to 1
Monday, 9th SDP Social Evening (all welcome), 62 Fishmarket Road, 8
Tuesday, 10th St. Mary's Tuesday Club play-reading "Cranford", 2 East St., 7.30
Wednesday, llth NSPCC Christmas coffee morning, George Hotel, 10.30
Freda Gardham School PTA coffee morning, New Road, 10 to 11.30
Rye WI, Annual Meeting, FEC, 7
Next term begins on Tuesday, 7 January (not 8th, we had an out-of-date list)
• Geoffrey Bagley has heard from the BBC that the Timewatch programme about Samuel Jeake will at last go out at 8.10 on BBC2 tomorrow (Thursday, 5th). Unfortunately this clashes with the Museum Association party; perhaps some members will be able to tape what should be an interesting programme.
• On Friday (6th) TVS's Country Ways series at 6.30 has "The Valley of the Brede".
• Tony and Pauline Meyer at the Decorator's Warehouse apologise to customers and indeed to passers-by for inconvenience caused during the building work to con-_, vert the upper floor into two flats.
• Local Roman Catholics will be happy to welcome back for Christmas Father Edmund, who is taking over at St. Anthony's for part of the time which Father Maurice will be spending abroad; Father Brendan, also no stranger to Rye worshippers, will be here for the rest of the six weeks.
• Two delightfully mobile shop windows: Ian Foster at Adams has real water in a real stream running between real Christmas trees, while at the Swiss Patisserie Claude Auberson's tiny train rushes in and out of snow-covered mountain tunnels for 15 minutes in every half-hour.
• Mrs. Shirley Smith at Greyfriars wants to thank everyone - including many from Rye - who helped in any way to achieve the magnificent result of the home's Christmas Sale on Saturday: £846!
• Rye Ambulance Social Club's recent jumble sale raised £180. (More results on p.3)
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)