Celebrating not just a diamond wedding but a further five years of marriage on Christmas Day were Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs of Cooper Road, both now in their late eighties and married in 1920. Dick Hobbs comes from Crowborough, and has spent much of his working life at Spun Concrete; his wife Dorothy, nee Etherton, was born in Rye. They have two sons in Canada, two daughters (Mrs. Southerden and Mrs. Swain) living locally, and plenty of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We asked in the GAZETTE some weeks ago whether Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs were Rye's senior married couple and there have been no other claimants for the title, so we are proud to offer extra special congratulations and wish them a very happy year ahead and more to come.
John Ciccone of Spar and Love Lane won a decisive victory in the Town Council by-election on 19 December, when he increased his vote by almost 100 on a poll half the size of that in June. 328 people voted for him, 172 for Labour candidate Gerry Fortsch, and 41 for Francis Rowe. Councillor Ciccone attended his first Town Council meeting on Monday.
Congratulations to Craig Chapman, of Thomas Peacocke School and Guestling, who has won a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, to read Maths. Craig took the entrance examination at the start of his Upper Sixth year, instead of the more traditional seventh-term-in-the-Sixth, and takes A-levels this summer. He is anyway a "year young", having moved from Guestling primary school to Thomas Peacocke earlier than usual, and would have liked time off before going to university; but Oxford likes its mathematicians young, and very firmly invited him for this coming October. Craig is the second TPS student to gain an Oxford place (Daniel Owen is in his first year at Brasenose), but there are three ex-pupils currently reading for first degrees at Cambridge - Amanda Briggs, Paul Chillingworth and Tim Maskens.
There was a major burglary in the High Street on the Sunday night before Christmas - or rather, between 1 and 5 am on the Monday morning, 23rd. My Sweet Old Etcetera, whose tiny window at 3a usually displays such a tempting selection of second-hand and antique jewellery, was broken into and the contents of the window cleared by thieves who kicked down the door to get in. Police asked around next morning whether any of the neighbours had heard anything, with virtually no response (there was a mention of an unexpected motorbike); Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, who live above the shop (and also heard nothing), feel that their only hope of recovering the £10,000-worth of stock lies in the capture of the thieves in the course of another burglary. If anyone who was in the High Street early that Monday morning did notice anything untoward - and someone kicking in a door should surely come into that category? - the police would of course be very glad to hear about it (Rye 222112).
In general the police press book shows a quiet Christmas, with only one other crime in the town - the theft of 100 in cash from Freda Gardham School on 26 or 27 December. In and about Rye 41 people were breathalyzed over the Christmas period; 14 of them produced an Amber result, which means that they had consumed a "not inconsiderable amount of drink", but only 6 were arrested and will appear in court. One drink-related injury accident is reported - the same as last year. Last year, however, only one driver was charged with over-the-limit driving, but since police strength was then seriously depleted by the demands of the striking miners, it would be unreasonable to assume that the actual number of drinking drivers has risen six times. Until the cases come to court, there is no knowing whether all six were even local drivers; Inspector Northern tells us that only a quarter of the people who failed the test in the sub-division in the course of last year had local addresses.
2.
Mr. James Plummer, of White Cottage, Playden, died in hospital on Christmas Eve after a brief illness; he was 73. Mr. Plummer, local milk recorder until his retirement, and his wife Penny celebrated their Golden Wedding in August. He is survived by his widow, daughters Barbara McKenzie and Susan Pope, and four grandchildren. The funeral has taken place. Mrs. Dorothy Gillingham, formerly of Doleham and a resident at Devonport House since it opened, died peacefully at her home on 27 December after some months of illness. She was 74, and leaves two sons and a daughter, and grandchildren. She was a member of the British Legion (Women's Section), where her skill as a needlewoman was greatly valued. The funeral has taken place. Mrs. Eileen Britt, of 2 Mill Bungalows, Ferry Road, died at her home on 2 January after a long illness. She was 78, and is survived by her husband Harry. The funeral takes place at Hastings Crematorium on Friday (10th) at 10.30.
The children of St. Mary's Sunday School gave much pleasure to a large congregation on the Sunday evening before Christmas, when they enacted Nativity scenes in the course of the service of lessons and carols. A miniscule lily-crowned Mary, with her Joseph very much in charge of the proceedings and knowing the words of all the carols, was the centre of a growing group in the transept - a workmanlike body of shepherds, four delicious angels (including one who felt happier thumb in mouth) whose every movement sparkled their halos, and a majestic procession of exotically-clad kings and their attendants, all converging on the manger from different parts of the church - the angels, appropriately, from the Upper Room. Discreetly marshalled by the Sunday School teachers, and costumed by Rachel Sarrieddine with a splendid disregard for household linen, the children made a memorable contribution to the town's Christmas. Photographs, with ordering facilities for the proud families of the cast, will shortly be on view in St. Mary's.
Rotary were surprised and delighted to find that their Christmas-tree collecting boxes in Market. Road produced £767 this year - some C300 more than in 1984. Some of this may have been "sympathy money" for the disastrous August Country Fair, but the £l coin is proving a big boost to charity collecting; people will drop a coin into a box when they would not have fiddled about looking for a note. Whatever the reason, Rotary - and ultimately Rotary's beneficiaries - are very grateful. At least two local groups went carol-singing to help restore the fallen fortunes of the Peasmarsh Church organ, whose pipes were stolen just before Christmas. Rye Young Farmers raised £35; and in the Fairmeadow area Joanne Manklow, Joanna Waters and Debbie Fryer, plus Joanne's grandmother Mrs. Southerden, raised £20.
Paul Atkins of Hastings and District offers his apologies to the lady who was not allowed off the 799 bus just before Christmas at her normal Harbour Road stop. The 799 is a Southdown service, and some of the drivers are not used to the local stops which they only use in the winter. He has passed on the complaint to Southdown, and hopes it will not happen again; if it does, please contact him. He was not aware that the bus stop sign for the Harbour Road stop was missing, and is arranging for this to be replaced as soon as possible.
Readers will be aware that there are changes in the school-bus contract arrangements as from the start of this term, and Hastings & District now only operate the school run for Camber children. Mr. Atkins tells us that quite a few TPS parents have made a point of calling in at Rye bus station to thank the Traffic Officer there, Mr. Crouch, for the service given by the company's staff over the years in connection with the school runs.
The County Rider 800 service started on Monday, as planned; we hope to report on it after it has had time to settle. Its first test with wheelchairs was due yesterday, when it was to make its first run for the Tuesday Day Centre clientele.
3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 8 January 1986
Each year, at its budget meeting at the end of February, the County Council looks at the estimates put forward by the various departments both for annual spending and for capital projects. Two proposals for major spending in Rye are included in the 1986/7 capital project estimates, though we would be rash to report them as straight good-news stories just yet - even if they get through the February meeting, there can still be last-minute crises. However...
In 1983 ESCC got outline planning permission to build a new fire station on the site of the old Drill Hall, along the lane to the Mill beside the new telephone exchange. A year later they put in a detailed application for the first stage, a drill tower and underground water storage tank, and work should have started on this in March 1984. But it became a victim of the cuts (the firemen heard unofficially that their drill tower was transmuted into a new fire engine for Brighton!) Now the Public Protection Committee's capital programme for 1986/7 includes a complete new fire station for Rye, on the Drill Hall site and costing £383,000. If the project is approved next month, there are of course various preliminaries before work can actually start, including detailed planning permission for the station itself and the demolition of the Drill Hall after proper notice has been given to the tenants, and it is unlikely that building work could begin until early in 1987. But this is certainly the nearest we have yet got to a new fire station. The present one, with its awkward access next door to the Crown Inn, was opened in 1937 by the Mayor, E F Benson. It was not designed for modern fire appliances, and the training facilities are quite inadequate. But once the firemen are settled more luxuriously into new quarters, the Ferry Road site will become vacant - and its poor access would not matter if it were to be incorporated into the supermarket which will by then (presumably) have sprung up behind it...
It is also some years ago since Thomas Peacocke School was first promised a package of improvements to its ramshackle conglomeration o: permanent buildings (with accommodation for just 685 of the school's 1250 pupils) and huts in various stages of decay. These are distributed between the Lower School in Ferry Road (the old primary school built just before WW2) and the Upper School in The Grove (based on the old Grammar School which moved to the site in 1908); the footpath between the two can be covered by dedicated staff in a couple of minutes, or dawdled over by maths-dodging pupils for half an hour. Now a report from the Education Committee proposes to abandon the sticky-tape approach to maintaining the school buildings in favour of a rebuilding and replacement programme to start early in 1987. The whole programme could well cost some £800,000, and a detailed development plan is to be prepared by the County Architect in conjunction with the staff and Governors. Tt envisages a new workshop and craft block, various extensions, and a new block at Lower School replacing the existing huts and housing specialist facilities; there are also plans for internal work, and for better fire precautions. (The original proposals included a new gym, but this has now been taken over by Rother who have allocated 0350,000 for the building of a community Sports Centre on a site given by ESCC close to the present Upper School gym.) Although work is scheduled to start towards the end of the 1986/7 financial year, the main bulk of the spending appears in the 1987/8 estimates, so if everything does go according to plan the summer of 1988 should see a very different look to the school.
If, if, if... Both firemen and Thomas Peacocke staff have said to us that they'll believe it when they see it and not before. But it certainly sounds hopeful, good news for the New Year, if still only on a provisional basis.
Thomas Peacocke PTA is planning what sounds like an extremely interesting event at Upper School on 8 February; details have gone out to school pupils, and we shall have more next week, but in the meantime model-makers of all ages and at a:1 levels might like to dust off their prize pieces, or make a swift start on those Christmas-present kits.
There is no early-February Lower School jumble sale this year, because of the now all-too-familiar staff difficulties. But the NSPCC has one booked into the FEC on Saturday, 1 February, and will be glad of goods for sale.
4.
Wash-and-squash is the slogan for the new Save-a-Can bin which has now, as promised (GAZETTE no. 155), arrived at Strand Quay beside the bottle-banks. Its publicity leaflet asks for aluminium drink-cans; it also welcomes traditional food tins, as well as others which may have held crayons or perhaps talcum powder. Drink cans squash under a good firm foot, but squashing a soup tin is not that easy - we tried. To make a thorough job if it, you need to cut out both lid and base and tuck them inside before leaning heavily (with hand or hammer) on the resulting cylinder to flatten it, being very careful not to cut your fingers in the process; how many people are going to bother? Lots, we hope, since not only will the bin cut down on the amount of rubbish which the dustmen have to find room for somewhere in the countryside, but each tonne of metal means an V3 donation to Glyne Gap School for handicapped children, the charity chosen by Bother for the spin-off from its bins at Rye, Battle and Bexhill.
A survey from the Can Makers Recycling group reveals that the most dedicated "can"servationists are older people "likely to belong to a voluntary body, environmentally conscientious, and likely to collect other items for recycling" - in fact, the wartime generation who were brought up never to throw anything away that might possibly come in useful. So, fellow-hoarders who already leave bags of silver foil at 29 Rope Walk, take bundles of newspaper to the shed in Playden churchyard, hand in used postage stamps to Maison Fleur and paper bags to our smaller shops, and pack the bottle-banks (and weren't they a memorable sight over Christmas!) - forward with your tins, Cola and cat-food alike and sledge-hammers raised if necessary, but please do look out for the sharp edges.
Perhaps this is a good place to remind readers that Mrs. Viola Bayley is already starting on recycling 1985 Christmas cards for sale later in aid of the Church of England Children's Society. Birthday and other greetings cards are also welcome, all at Norman House, West Street. Those which Mrs. Bayley is unable to use she takes up to Hill House School for the children there.
The Young Ryesingers group, which Nigel Spooner has been training, will soon have to think about changing its name, because some even Younger Ryesingers are on their way! Nigel is handing over his 12-to-18-year-olds to Lesley Brownbill as from this week, and at the same time Anne Whiteman is starting a session for children aged 7 to 11; both these junior groups will be meeting at the Methodist Church on Tuesday evenings at 6.15 - obviously convenient for parents with children in both choirs.
Letters have been sent to the primary schools to be taken home by children who are interested - but we all know what happens to letters sent home from school (sometimes, anyway). So if your child (grandchild, neighbour), aged between 7 and 17, enjoys singing please don't hesitate to prod him or her into going along next Tuesday and seeing what it's all about. No-one need be shy about coming "because I might not be good enough"; if they are keen enough, Lesley or Anne will be very keen to see them. And it won't all be singing scales, either; there are already plans for a concert by the young singers later in the year.
We are extremely sorry to report that one of Rye's favourite dress shops is to close. Mrs. Smith, of Rye Fashions at 16 High Street, has decided to retire, and the property will be for sale freehold. Mrs. Smith opened the shop in the early 1970s as Fabrics and Fashions, after 15 years in business at Blackheath. She gave up the fabric side several years ago, but has stocked a wide range of fashions (including the roomy Indian dresses so much appreciated by us larger ladies) and will be greatly missed by her regular customers. She wishes to thank them all for their support over the years. Mrs. Smith lives in Northiam, and looks forward to having more time for her garden there; but the closing date of the shop is not yet decided, and "Retirement Sale" notices in the window draw attention to final bargains.
5.
An unnamed Kent parish council (we suspect Lydd) is suggesting to the Boundary Commission that the county boundary should be altered to follow the course of the Rother/Royal Military Canal. Neither Kent County Council nor Shepway District Council supported this astounding suggestion when it was reported by ESCC's Boundary Review Panel in April, and it seems extremely unlikely that anyone is going to take it seriously. But in theory it could mean that everyone living across Monkbretton Bridge - the whole of New Road and Kings Avenue, Freda Gardham School, East Guldeford and Camber - could suddenly find themselves in Kent, with their children going to school in New Romney! However, the Boundary Commission firmly recommends on principle that boundaries should not sever local communities nor involve crossing into an adjoining authority for the provision of services, so this is not a proposal likely to succeed and we are telling you about it primarily as a joke.
There is a genuine possibility that land on the far edge of Camber parish (not the village itself) might be "moved" into Kent: a small part of the large gravel-works area, and a section of the Dungeness SSSI foreland, are now in Sussex but could more conveniently be administered by Kent, and ESCC has agreed to consider this change. But the County Council is firmly opposed to the River Rother boundary proposal, which could also mean part of Playden ending up in Kent.
;ouncillor Duncan Starkey tells us that he has heard all this before, as far back as 1965 when the former Romney Marsh RDC was attempting a spot of empire-building along the same lines. Documents going back to mediaeval times, he tells us, confirm the existing boundary. But the Boundary Review Panel at Lewes meets again at the end of this week, and Councillor Mrs. Yates is quite correctly seeking the Town Council's views on the proposals - though we would really like to have been at the Town Hall on Monday when the matter came up on the agenda. (New Road in Kent, indeed....)
Congregations at the Baptist Church were able to use their new entrance foyer for the Christmas services, though Ellis Bros still have work to do on it. Some comment has been caused by the use of slates rather than tiles, in a predominantly tile-hung street, for the slope of roof which runs almost the whole width of the building from just below the big window to door-height from the pavement. The Baptists would have preferred to use clay tiles, and the planning application originally stipulated this; but then it was decided that the foyer roof should more suitably start from the bottom of the window rather than from "battlement" level, a decision with which the Rother planning staff agreed. This meant that he slope of the roof had to be shallower - and for technical reasons, Peter Shepherd of Le Fevre Wood & Royle tells us, clay tiles cannot be used on a roof with a slope of less than 45°. So the application which finally went before Rother's planning committee, and which has now been put into effect, had to have slates. The 1984 application for a circular foyer, which turned out to cost more than the church felt entitled to spend, would also have had a grey-black roof.
We suggested to Stuart Davison that the time-honoured method of dealing with an aggressively new roof was to paint it with a mix of milk and cow manure (to encourage the growth of lichen). He looked doubtfully at the houses each side. "If we did that" he said, "I think the neighbours might accuse us of being rather too 'high' a church!"
Brian Morris of Ferry Road has been sent a newspaper cutting from his wife's uncle in Camden, Australia, with a proposal to twin that town with Rye. They have apparently written to our Chamber of Trade making enquiries. Twinning here is of course done through the Town Council - or rather, it isn't, because the Council has set its face steadfastly against such blandishments from all over the world. The trouble is that other places seem to have much more money to spend on hospitality than we do, and coffee and biscuits after a visit to the Model are hardly an adequate response to a full Mayoral dinner for 500 people across the Channel!
(STOP PRESS: Readers might like to listen to Lunchdate (258 medium) tomorrow at 2.)
6.
Rye's reconstructed Post Office was "opened" by the Mayor with all due ceremony two days before Christmas. In the presence of Post Office officials and representatives of the builders, he cut a red ribbon, and then presented a bouquet to the first lady customer in the queue which had formed outside (Mrs. Gladys Cole of Udimore) and a Premium Bond token to the first man (Graham Turnwell of the 1st Queen's Regiment, home on leave from Gibraltar). Representing the Post Office were Rye postmaster Brian Clark, John Vallender from Hastings who was in charge of buildings when the project was started but who handed over mid-way to Leslie Pembery (also present), and Wally Holden, the Head Postmaster for the Hastings area. The builders were F.J. Pyke (Ramsgate) Ltd., and project architect was Donald Ashdown of Hubbard Ford's Hove office. The work had started early in July to allow for the Christmas rush, and both builders and staff had faced the difficulties nobly: Mr. Holden paid tribute to the Rye workers who had had so much to put up with. As for the builders, they told us they were used to it - Post Office jobs always involved unsocial hours once the customers had gone home as well as trying to keep out of the way when the office was open.
After the ceremony, the Mayor and Mayoress were presented with a Coalport mug made to commemorate the Post Office's 350th birthday, and a £25 cheque which the Mayoress earmarked for Rye and District Mencap. Refreshments were offered in the postmaster's office, with its one-way mirror into the main office; a small celebration for the staff was to come later. There are 28 staff members at Rye, including auxiliaries; the ladies behind the counter, starved of daylight for some weeks in the course of the rebuilding, are Mrs. Clark, Mrs. England, Mrs. Gill, Mrs. Ramsden and Mrs. Harrow. And the Mayor revealed that - some years ago now - he had also been on the staff, as a telegraph boy liable to be sent zooming off on his bike to one of the villages when he was on weekend duty.
A fortnight later, the Mayor and Mayoress were again at the Post Office at 9 am, this time to inaugurate a new Rye hand-stamp for use here. Letters stamped with an extra 3p and posted in the special pink box to the right of the counter are now given VIP treatment; when the box is cleared at the end of the day, the hand-stamp goes on, advertising Rye to the recipient and everyone else along its route. (For it to show to best advantage, letters should bear just one or at most two stamps; the Editor's envelope, posted to herself with a total of four stamps,
didn't come out all that well.) This system is also being started at Battle and Hastings; the Rye stamp has been designed by John Vallender, and shows a simplified outline of St. Mary's with the cliff below and a fishing boat in the foreground - the words "Rye, East Sussex" arch over the top. (On Monday, souvenir envelopes were provided for use by the guests, with an attractive drawing of the Landgate - also by John Vallender - incorporated; we asked whether these were going to be on regular sale? It seems that they might be, if there is a demand. One is on view on the front of the pink box; if you think they should be on sale, do mention it at the counter.) Historical note: in 1839 - and probably earlier than that - Rye people posted their letters at Dr. Jeelani's surgery, 31 High Street (the big door at the side was to allow the mail-cart in and out). Soon afterwards the office moved up to 11 Market Street, but by 1899 it was back in the High Street at no. 91 (Graham's), with Thomas Bushby as postmaster. He was in charge of the 1902 move across the road to the new building (now Liptons), and did not retire until the 1920s; his schoolteacher daughters are still remembered in the town. In the 1960s the Post Office moved down to Cinque Ports Street; the new stone-faced building was unusual for Rye, perhaps intended to echo the Baptist Church along the road. Its corner entrance with steps into a foyer with swing doors made access difficult for people impeded in any way, despite increased emphasis on wheelchair access to public buildings. In June 1983 Mr. Vallender told the GAZETTE that the reason why the old Sussex Express office remained empty was that the Post Office had plans to extend the building - the phone boxes were moved for the same reason; and two years later Rye reached the top of the list. (We didn't dare ask what the new spacious office with its traditional brick and tile exterior has cost...) It is all a very handsome start to 1986, anyway.
7.
• The national Birdwatch on Sunday could hardly have picked a more inclement day, but despite the wet and cold there were 40 visitors, including several families, at the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, where a long-tailed duck from Iceland created much interest. Ian Rumley-Dawson had a five-minute slot on Radio Sussex that morning to talk about the Reserve. The committee felt that the exercise was worth doing again, and they may well have more open days, perhaps in May at the start of the breeding season and again in September, so that new birdwatchers can take advantage of the expertise of the old hands at the Ternery Pool.
• Rye Harbour Sailing Club's Rum Race was held on 29 December, with competitors from clubs along the coast from Dover to Hove. Thirty boats tacked up the river to the town in the blustery north wind, and enjoyed an exhilarating run down to the harbour mouth, finishing at the sailing club. First and third boats came from Bexhill SC, the second from Hythe & Salwood SC; fastest Rye helmsman was Gordon Mockett, placed 7th in a 470 class dinghy. £18 was given to the Lifeboat Station.
• Vidler & Co once again hold a special evening sale of fine antiques and works of art this Friday (10th). These enjoyable occasions can only take place when there are five Fridays in the month, for technical reasons connected with the normal first-Friday sales, and are much looked forward to by dealers and private buyers like. This week there are just 71 lots, but the standard is high; they include pair of oak four-poster 3' beds, a charming corner washstand complete with willow-pattern toilet set, an unusual set of 12 Victorian carved dining chairs and their table, lots of other desirable furniture, and pictures, silver and jewellery too. The sale begins at 6, with viewing from 2 the same afternoon.
• After the election of the new committee at Rye WI's AGM last month, members were led in singing and carols by Mrs. Horner and Mrs. Dickinson. New President is Mrs. Hodgson, Mrs. Freeman the Secretary and Mrs. Page the Treasurer. Other committee members are Mrs. Addy, Mrs. Huddy, Mrs. James, Mrs. Jennings, Mrs. Oliver, Mrs. Owen (Craft Leader), Miss Phillips, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Southerden. Home Economics leaders are Mrs. Spiers and Mrs. Battley.
• Rother's Housing committee is considering what is best to be done about the 12 decaying sectional garages erected more than 20 years ago for Kings Avenue tenants. Despite their condition, there is a waiting list for them, and the Housing Officer on Monday advised the committee that it would be more profitable to spend 1,11,000 in putting up 12 new garages which could be rented out (present garage rents for the site total £1,152 p.a.) than to spend £3,000 on clearing the site and making it available for free open-air parking. Tenants are to be consulted about the arrangements.
• Anyone thinking of running a school holiday playscheme should apply now for cash help from ESCC, whose Social Services Committee is in a position to make grants for this purpose. Talk about it to Social Services in Cinque Ports Street (Rye 226922) as soon as possible; the very last date for applications is 7 February, but they should really be in before then if possible.
• Rye Memorial Hospital League of Friends has recently provided the hospital with a piece of apparatus for lifting patients costing almost £1,000, and has also paid for Christmas festivities for both staff and patients. Both before and after Christmas the wards have been full - a good omen for the appraisal which the HHA will be making this year into the services provided at the top of the hill.
• The Rye Hospital Action Group's report is to be considered by the Community Health Council at its meeting on 4 February, after which we shall be summarising it in the GAZETTE. A copy will be available in Rye Library from 24 January for those who want to look for themselves.
• British Rail fares go up on 12 January, and season tickets ordered in advance at the old rates must be collected and paid for by 4 pm on Saturday. The weekly season ticket to London goes up from £32.80 to £35.20; day return fares to Hastings and Ashford rise by 10p to £1.70 and £2.30 respectively, and a day return to Brighton goes up 40p to £6.
Rye Conservative Association coffee morning (bring-and-buy, raffle), George Hotel, 10.30 to 12
Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11
Blood donor sessions, Baptist Hall, 2 to 4 and 5 to 7.45
Vidler & Co's special evening sale, 6 (see page 7)
Movie Society, Horner Trophy, FEC, 7.30
Nat.His.Society, Michael Tweedie's slides, FEC, 7.30
(then apparently nothing until...)
Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10.30 to 12.30 Community Lunch Group (speaker, Leslie Bulman, RDA Field Officer), Clinic, 12.30 to 2
Council of Churches AGM, Baptist Hall, 7 (see below)
• Congratulations to Mark and Paula Page, of Hastings, whose son Ben Christopher was born at the Buchanan on Christmas Day in the morning - a very special present for his sister Donna and his grandmother Mrs. Joan Page of Eagle Road.
• Congratulations, too, to Ann and Rene Struik of Hastings, parents of the very first 1986 baby at the Buchanan. Her proud grandparents, Ann's mother and father, are Peter and Enid Marsh of Rye Golf Club.
• Finally, congratulations and many happy returns to Ken Gasson of Church Square, who celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday.
• Blood donors are implored to make a special point of attending one of Friday's two sessions, since the South London Blood Transfusion Centre is very short of blood and many non-urgent operations are having to be postponed as a result.
• The Council of Churches AGM at the Baptist Hall on Wednesday next week begins with prayer at 7, a short business session at 7.30, and then a video, "Churches Together", which includes a talk by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a gathering chaired by Bishop Cormac. All are welcome.
• Joanne Haviland reports with pride that Rye Dance Centre ballet pupils, who took their exams at the end of October, have covered themselves with glory with a 96% pass rate (23 out of 24 successes, and some with very high marks). We recorded the Centre's excellent results in the Modern and Tap exams earlier in the autumn. The new term for Joanne's classes at the Community Centre starts this week.
• A reminder for WEA students that classes start again for Literature tomorrow, and for the new Diplomacy Worldwide group (GAZETTE no. 159) on Wednesday of next week (15th).
• The Swiss Patisserie, now closed for staff holidays, will reopen on 27 January.
• Work has started on laying the new gas main in Mermaid Street (GAZETTE no. 151), and the road is at present blocked at the bottom; the workmen do know about putting the cobbles aside safely for later replacement.
• Planning: recent lists include an application for the use of a shed as a workshop in Ferry Road, and for the renewal of temporary permission for Jempsons to use land next to Rye Solvents for vehicle and trailer parking.
• Space permitting - and there is a slack time coming up - we hope to print within the next couple of weeks a list of the main events booked into the Town Diary for the year ahead. Would Secretaries who have dates already arranged kindly notify the Editor (Rye 222303) as soon as possible?
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 now costs 30p weekly (new price) 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 1986)