Good news for Rye Memorial Hospital is being announced at the meeting of Hastings Health Authority today. From the beginning of next month, Miss Lynda Pembleton will take over the entire running of the hospital, in charge of nursing, catering, cleaning - The Lot - and although her official title will be Service Manager, we do not doubt that before long everyone will be addressing her unofficially as Matron.
Miss Pembleton, who comes from Westfield, is already known in medical circles in Rye, as she has been the Senior Nurse for the community nursing service over the past 15 months (in Rye this service is based at the hospital). But now she will be giving almost all her time to the administration of the hospital, including our community nursing service here. For the first few weeks, obviously, she will want to find her feet at the top of the hill; but she is very anxious to get to know local people, particularly those who may be willing to help the hospital in practical ways, and we shall certainly be seeing her in the town, talking to interested organisations and building up again the mutual co-operation which has been sadly lacking in recent years.
Alan Martindale, District General Manager at Hastings and leader of the new team which clearly has a more enthusiastic approach to public relations than did the old management, tells us that Miss Pembleton's appointment is only for a year in the first place, as an experiment. Such an arrangement is working very well at Burford, in Gloucestershire, as Daily Telegraph readers will have read some months ago. However, it may not necessarily be the ideal system for Rye, and Mr. Martindale wants to leave the way open for the new Unit General Manager for community medicine, who will be appointed later in the spring, to make whatever changes he wishes. In the meantime, however, we feel sure that one person behind Matron's desk at the hospital will mean more to Rye than any number of unknown departmental heads at Hastings. Welcome indeed, Miss Pembleton!
What should have been an enjoyable Sunday on the Bisley ranges turned into a near-nightmare for 15 members of Rye's ATC Squadron, when just across the Kent border, on a spot in Sandhurst apparently notorious for accidents, the new Thomas Peacocke minibus skidded on early-morning black ice and ran into a substantial hedge. Five of its occupants were taken to hospital in Tunbridge Wells; the others, three of them Leasam House boarders, were brought home by parents: and staff.
Of the injured, the most seriously hurt is one of the younger cadets, Nicholas Law of Broad Oak, who is "doing as well as can be expected" in hospital after an operation to repair a ruptured spleen. The rest were allowed home after X-rays and emergency treatment, and went over to RESH on Monday for further attention: C/O Chris Bell and civilian instructor Marc Ketterl have fractured collar-bones, W/O Maurice Sargeant has cracked ribs and Cadet Jason Kind a broken wrist. Chris's fiancee Sara Marshall, who also holds officer rank in the Squadron, escaped with bruises.
Parents tell us that Chris's mother and father, summoned to help, were marvellous; they in turn pay tribute to Peter Boyce from TPS, Julia Thomas from Leasam, and Ray Fooks, and to the local people who were so concerned and helpful. (The minibus, only recently paid for by the PTA, is considerably damaged and could be a write-off.) Chris insisted on being driven in from Beckley to the normal Monday ATC meeting, despite his injury, but the Presentation Evening which was to have taken place on Friday at Upper School has been cancelled - for the time being, anyway.
The minibus was not alone in its trouble. It was reported in Monday's paper that in Sussex there were 50 accidents caused by black ice within 3½ hours on Sunday morning!
2.
Mrs. Florence Jones, of the High Street, died peacefully in hospital on Christmas Eve; she was 91. The funeral has taken place. She and her husband Wallace came to Rye in 1935. He ran a branch dental practice, with the main practice in Hastings, and as well as being his surgery assistant Mrs. Jones joined the WI and was its Secretary for many years. She made many local friends, who will remember her great sense of humour. When their house opposite the Ypres Tower was bombed in 1942, they moved home and practice to the High Street. Kr. Jones died in 1966, and there will be some elderly patients who still remember him. Mrs. Jones continued to live in her High Street home for the next 20 years, and in her eighties was still delivering the WI birthday cards by hand and with a personal messages She leaves a great-grandchild, three grandchildren, and her daughter Deslys Turner, who would like to thank all those who sent kind letters, flowers, and donations to the Rye Memorial Hospital League of Friends.
Mr. Sandy Burnett, of Cadborough Cliff, has died suddenly at the age of 69; the funeral is at Hastings Crematorium at 3 pm on Monday, 20 January. Mr. Burnett was the farm manager at Gilishaw Farm, Udimore.
Other recent deaths include Mr. Maurice Standen, of South Undercliff, who died in Rye Hospital aged 79; Mrs. Annie Turner of Cooper Road, who died in the Royal East Sussex Hospital aged 61; and Yr. Idwal Williams, of Dairy Cottage, Gate-borough, who died suddenly at the age of 66 while spending Christmas with relatives in Wales. All three funerals have taken place.
(The GAZETTE is always very willing to publish full obituary notices if someone from the bereaved family will get in touch with the Editor.)
True to last week's promise that we wouldn't comment on the new bus services until they had had time to settle, we merely ask this week that people who have difficulties should pass them on to the GAZETTE if they don't feel able to phone Lewes via the Rye number (local-call price) given on the new timetables: 223053. Some snags have already been dealt with; others are under discussion.
In the meantime, Di Simmons of Beckley has a problem. Living in Main Street, Beckley, she works at the George Hotel four days a week until 2.30 - and now finds that she can't get home until the bus leaving at 4 in termtime. Is there anyone driving out via Beckley on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons after 2.30 who could offer Mrs. Simmons a lift (for a share of the petrol) - or even anyone similarly situated who might like to share a taxi? The school-bus situation, readers will be glad to know, shows a great improvement as far as the scrum in the bus yard at 4 is concerned.
High Street shoppers will have noticed that a new Woolwich sign has replaced the old North Kent one over the entrance to the tiny building society office at 105a. The North Kent Building Society was merged with the Woolwich at the beginning of this year, and North Kent clients have of course already been told about this; doubtless local Woolwich customers also know. But on Friday Jim Phillips locked up for the last time and drove back to his home in Strood (he reckons he has driven 100,000 miles back and forth in the 41 years he has been with North Kent in Rye); he is transferring to the Society's branch in Military Road, Chatham, where he will be glad to see friends (golfing and otherwise) from Rye. He has tried to say goodbye personally to all his Rye customers, and hopes that those he may have missed will forgive him.
The new sub-manager is Lois Johnson, who comes from Croydon where she has been on relief duty at various branches in the area, so she is used to taking on a new office. She joined the Woolwich in 1973. She looks forward to getting to know Rye, and to begin with will be living in one of the flats above the office; we hope she will enjoy life here, and did our best on Friday to reassure her that it really doesn't rain all the time! Next month will see another new face at the Woolwich too, since Mrs. Paula Robus is emigrating to South Africa - we feel sure that all her friends locally will want to wish her the very best of luck.
3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 15 January 1986
Reporting on the 1985 crime figures for Rye, Chief Inspector Dyson is happy to say that overall they are the lowest for a decade - and figures for arrests are up in 1985 there were 190 crimes in all (235 in 1984, 290 in 1983). Of these, just five were domestic burglaries (15 in 1984, 8 in 1983) and 16 were burglaries from other premises (17, 23) - but 33 were thefts from vehicles (19, 18). So there is a clear warning to the motorist: thieves are now finding that the pickings are easier from cars. Don't, he says, leave anything of value in your car – handbags tucked under the front seat are a gift to the-thief. As for the domestic burglaries, most could have been prevented by the fitting of inexpensive window-locks or a decent door lock.
The press book this week records that thieves did indeed find easy pickings in The Deals car park on the night of 4/5 January, when two radio cassette players were stolen from cars - a Panasonic worth £110 and a Sharp worth £100. On two successive nights at the Oasis Club there were thefts - of a purse and a handbag, each containing not only cash and personal effects but also cheque-book and bank card. And an elderly blue mini (H-registration) was stolen from the British Rail car park late on the night of 6 January.
Ken Warren wishes all our readers a happy New Year, and sends us a rather cautious statement about Sunday trading - which the GAZETTE dealt with at length as far as Rye is concerned back in May 1983 (nos. 33 and 34) when Rother was worried about the position in the District after a private member's bill to reform the law had failed to get through Parliament. Soon after that the Government announced that another bill would be put forward, and Rother decided to leave well alone until then; that second bill is now before Parliament, and we asked our MP for his view.
He feels that MPs will not vote along party lines when the time comes; he certainly would not support "whipping" by the government on this issue. He says that "the law is a grave problem in coastal areas like our own which rely very -heavily on a short tourist season for the main source of income during the year... A universal prohibition of all trading is impossible. Every exemption adds to the problems of definition. I would not support requirements that shops have to be opened, nor that the employees, as part of their contract of employment, would be required to work against their wishes on a Sunday. People must have the right to choose how they spend their Sunday and of course I would not stand in the way of that liberty within the law any more than I would seek to stop churches opening their doors every day of the week."
Mr. Warren of course also has to think about his Hastings constituents, with possible big-store problems. In Rye, however, the shops which open at present do not lash their exhausted employees to work an extra day - far from it: useful part-time jobs are provided, either for extra staff or for people who normally work there a couple of days only during the week. Doubtless it would be helpful to Mr. Warren to have the views of his Rye constituents on this matter? Write to him at the House of Commons, Westminster, London SWl.
Rye Town Model needs a model-maker - not for the town itself, which is standing up well to the passing of the ten years or so since Joy Harland first constructed its mini-streets out of polystyrene and tapioca cobbles. But the ships which lie beached or anchored in the "sea" around the town are becoming dilapidated and need replacement. No commercial kit is small enough, the Town Clerk tells us; and Professional model-makers work in fantastic detail - which is unnecessary - at an equally fantastic price. The Town Council wants perhaps half-a-dozen ships of the type which would have been seen on the Rother in around 1800 - mostly trading vessels, fishing luggers or river barges. The 1:100 scale is important, but elaborate detail is not, since the ships are not really the main point of the Model.
Is there anyone local who would like to try their hand at this? Contact the Town Clerk after 27 January.
4.
Towards the end of last year we reported on the proposed formation of a Rye Branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society (activity here has until now been under the auspices of the Hastings Branch), and a steering committee was set up on 11 December. All money collected locally for ES after that date now goes to the new branch, which will be holding its inaugural meeting later in the spring, and a magnificent kick-off came as a result of Rye Market on 12 December; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Corke of Udimore sold £124-worth of holly there and gave the money to MS funds. The Rye advent calendars, designed by Eileen Jenkin, have been a tremendous success - the print order of 1,000 (expected to last for several years) sold out, and they could have done with more. £560-worth were sold in and around Rye, and the local organisers are particularly grateful to Horrells, Adams and the Freezer Centre where the bulk of the sales took place. Final profits are not yet known, and anyway this venture was still under the Hastings banner - though a proportion will certainly come to the new Rye Branch.
High prices pleased sellers at Vidler & Co's crowded special sale on Friday evening. Top price, L720, went to an admirable antique long-case clock, while a 44"-high regulator clock fetched £200. A Victorian secretaire bookcase sold for £600, with an Edwardian version not far behind at £575. Other cabinets of various types also sold well. Tables were popular, too: a Georgian mahogany drop-leaf dining table fetched £420, a Victorian dining table went for the same price, an early nineteenth-century library table sold for £400; a tea-table only 30" across cost someone £310, and an even smaller drum table went for £10 more. Six balloon-back dining chairs reached £460 (the other set, of 12, was not sold). a 43-piece dinner service went for £210, the two antique oak four-posters fetched 020 for the pair, and the charming little washstand with its willow-pattern toilet set went to a good home at £250. All but 11 lots were sold.
Last Thursday the Editor was talking on Lunchdate about what is coming new to Rye in the next year or two in the way of public works. But several suggestions on a much smaller scale have been talked about lately, and we pass them on.
Somewhere is needed for cyclists to leave their bikes - racks to which machines can be chained safely. Obviously this needs to be in the centre of the town; the Town Wall car park would be the natural place, but it would mean losing a couple of car spaces. This looks like one for Pother - or has anyone else space?
There seems to be room for someone willing to provide and deliver cooked meals to people who are temporarily or permanently unable to cook for themselves. Meals on Wheels functions three days a week, so this would be on the remaining days and could also offer an opportunity for non-cooks to ask friends in for a meal. We think that there are ladies in several of the villages who will cook an admirable dinner for a party, but what is needed is something more everyday. We will be very glad to publicise such a service.
We still hear complaints that the town now has no delicatessen shop. Two of Rye's long-established grocers have assured lac that there is no call for one, and certainly both do sell - as Millers did - some of the goods one would expect to find there. But Jempsons at Peasmarsh is the nearest grocery with a full range. Depending on what happens about the supermarket - and that seems to have gone rather cold at the moment, with no firm starting date even for the car park now - the town looks like being without a delicatessen for at least two years, and even then it wouldn't be in the High Street to catch the eye of the holiday trade. The obvious place 'is either ex-Dewhursts or ex-Anglia; ex-Anglia would have room for a snack bar too, preferably one open all the year round (another complaint). Older readers will recall that it was once the tea-room attached to Longs.
Finally, someone from outside the town points out how inconvenient it is that both the bottle-banks are in no-parking streets - though, in fairness, a blind eye is. usually turned even in the High Street to people pausing briefly to load or unload.
5.
... so, lacking the usual staff co-operation for reasons which. we all know about, senior pupils at Thomas Peacocke School have decided to do it all on their own this year. Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" will grace the Upper School stage for three performances on 13, 14 and 15 March - in costume, and with a cast of 16 speaking parts and as many again appearing as bystanders or in the dance sequence.
The producer is Leila Jamieson, a boarder at Leasam. Mark Curry of Guestling, who plays Doolittle, is also the business manager, and Zoe Metcalf combines a small part with running the box-office. Julia Smith, one of the school's most talented dancers, is responsible for the choreography as well as playing Mrs. Pearce. Tania Hanover (Mrs. Higgins) is in charge of props, and Andrea Moon (who plans a career in stage design) is wardrobe mistress. Claire Piper prompts.
Jo Simpkins - a memorable Miss Adelaide in 1984, a superb Bottom in 1985 – is always worth seeing, and her Eliza will be no exception. Laurence Winkworth, admirable last year as one of the Athenian lovers, plays Higgins, Andrew Toole is Pickering and Marcus Gould Freddie. Hannah Courtney-Bennett, last year's Hippolyta, is Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and Vicky Hunt, another of the Athenian socialites in 1985, plays Clara.
Leila tells us that they have cast the play with an eye to experience, since this is the first time, as far as anyone knows, that a TPS play has been produced without any help from the staff (officially, anyway). The team, almost all from the 5th and 6th years, are frankly a little nervous about what they have taken on. Equally frankly, the GAZETTE thinks that they deserve every possible support not only from parents but from everyone in the town, for their initiative in the faceof dreadful problems which are not of their making. We shall provide details about tickets, etc., nearer the time, but we ask you now to book the dates, and to give the production as much publicity as you possibly can.
Props will be glad of the loan of furniture for Professor Higgins' study - Edwardian-type chairs, a desk and small table, a carpet or large rug, window curtains at least 9' long, and (ideally) a horn gramophone, which need not work; they would much rather not use standard school furniture if they can do better. They also want a lamp-post, and we have undertaken to ask Ralph Olesen very nicely whether ESCC Highways might possibly have a spare one?
Rye Community Centre's annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race is early this year, both in date (Easter is early) and therefore in time (it gets dark sooner). Kathy -L'arley is sorry that it will be too early for many schoolchildren. The races .re run on Tuesday, 11 February, from 3.30; most of the local hostelries have already entered runners, but any pub, hotel or restaurant which is still hesitating should contact Mrs. Metcalf at the Centre (9-12 and 5-7 on Mondays or 9-12 on Fridays) as soon as possible, as the six seats are nearly full.
Sponsor money from convivial customers supporting their own runners will go to Community Centre funds; Mrs. Varley sometimes wonders if people realise that the Centre has in effect no local-government funding but is dependent on its own efforts, and the committee are always grateful for donations large or small towards the running costs.
Both chairman (Mr. B. Kemp of Beckley) and secretary (Mrs. Janet Sheppard of Winchelsea Beach) of the PTA are new members on the committee - please ease them in gently! Other members are Mrs. J. Le Roux of Pett (Vice-chairman), Mrs. Andrea Talbot of Brede (Treasurer), Mrs. Jennie Bayntun and Mrs. Jackie Tarrant, both of Rye; Mrs. D. Pope and Mrs. Rowena Varley, both of the Beach; Mrs. Anne Collins of Northiam, and Mr. John Underwood of Peasmarsh; and from the staff, Mr. Fooks, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Fuller and Mr. Beckwith. Co-opted for one year are Mrs. P. Colegrave frog Northiam, Mrs. I. Skinner from Winchelsea, Miss Julia Thomas from Leasam House, and Mr. Le Roux. We wish them luck in what must be a very difficult situation for everyone.
6.
• Something went wrong with the arrangements at Rye Station early on Saturday morning (10th), when Mrs. Tina Gray of Church Square arrived to catch the 7.06 train connecting for Brighton. The station was, of course, locked; but so was the outside gate! Mrs. Gray, who suffers from back trouble, had to make her way round the huts and actually walk on the line to get past the metal barrier at the end of the platform, and then scramble up with considerable difficulty - and the help of a man who had himself negotiated the same route - on to the platform with only minutes to spare before the train came in. Crumpled, cross and grubby, she went to her son's wedding in Hove at 10.30 - a later train wouldn't have got her there; next day she was so stiff she couldn't get out of bed. (If anyone else meets this problem, we suspect that an easier way onto the platform is via the Ferry Road crossing, walking back inside the car park fence to the start of the ramp; but it shouldn't be a problem at all.) Mrs. Gray adds that she has never seen a filthier train than the one from Lewes to Hastings which connected with the 143 from Brighton; and in her time she has seen some filthy trains...We offer Mrs. Gray our commiserations, and hope that British Rail will take notice of her complaints, both at Ashford (responsible for Rye Station) and at Tonbridge (presumably responsible for the Lewes train).
• Back in November we complained in the GAZETTE that two trains were missing from the Rye and Ashford sections of the printed timetables displayed at Hastings (the 11.40 and the 15.40 just don't appear). We sent a copy of that issue to the station manager at Hastings, hoping that someone would go along with a biro and write them in. No way; and no answer. A month later we sent a copy of the paper, with a Covering letter, to the Area Manager at Tonbridge, asking if he would get it seen to. No way; and no answer... Later, since the timetables were still untouched by human hand, we pushed our way into the station manager's office to ask why he hadn't taken action, let alone answered the original complaint. There was no explanation offered about the lack of action; the complaint, he said, was not answered "because there was no letter with it and so I didn't know-who to write to". (We had not realised that he might be unaware of the normal practice of writing to the Editor of a newspaper in which one is criticised; our name and address, of course, appear clearly at the end of each issue.)
Finally, on 9 January, we received a letter from the Area Passenger Manager at Tonbridge. It appears that the Hastings timetable posters contain "a considerable number of omissions of one kind or another. A further print is being arranged but there are far too many omissions to be entered by manuscript." They have therefore decided that it is better to leave the incomplete timetables in place than to have none at all until the new ones are ready!
We all know that printing takes time; but these timetables went up in September and will be replaced anyway in May. Even if the GAZETTE complaint was the first, they do have remarkably slow printers. And surely, knowing that the timetables are "incomplete" - which in effect means inaccurate - they could have gone to the trouble of putting a list of the missing trains in the window of the information office, with a reference to it on each of the posters (but not on brown cardboard, please).
So readers are warned that the Hastings timetable posters should not be trusted. The trouble was caused, apparently, by a computer programming error... Sometimes the old ways are best; are there any retired proof-readers left nowadays?
• Finally, for a change, not a complaint but a pointing-out of something which has led to confusion. Travellers from Hastings who, like the Editor, only occasionally aim for the 17.23 train home and then find that it apparently doesn't run, may like to know that it doesn't go from the regular Rye platform (no. 1, down the first staircase) but from no. 3 (down the second flight). It comes in from St. Leonards. The one which comes in from Ashford to platform 1 at about the same time is the normal shuttle train which is not supposed to leave until 17.52. Doubtless the blackboard by the barrier does record the different platform, but the Ashford section of it is so worn – or it was last week - that any change from the normal system can easily pass unnoticed, and the barrier is frequently unattended nowadays.
7.
Rye firemen, after a quiet autumn, have hardly had time to turn their machines round since the beginning of the year. Michael Bourn told us on Monday afternoon that they must have been out on ten "shouts" already in January - and his bleeper went off again even as we spoke! Local calls included an electrical fire at the Rye Fishermen's shop at Monkbretton Bridge, and a pumping-out job caused by a blocked street drain outside the Cadborough Cottages terrace in Udimore Road. There was a car fire in Whitbread Lane, and a big barn fire at Lydd; and at the weekend two Rye engines and two from Hastings were dealing with a fire at a converted oast house and barn at Icklesham. The bleepers went at 1.30 on Sunday morning, and the three milkmen on duty got home at 5; they set off at once on their rounds, and then Michael went back to Icklesham to check that all was well, still with the same crew.
The firemen helped Father Christmas deliver 260 parcels in and around Rye this year, a bumper number. With the help of the raffle for a hamper of wine, given by Bill Playford whom they extricated from a gang-mower several years ago, £310 goes to the National Firemen's Benevolent Fund as a result.
It must surely be a good omen that last week's News carried four display ads for jobs in Rye. The police station seeks a shorthand-typist (four weeks' holiday and salary rising to £5,560 pa); Anglia needs a cashier; Hill House Hospital wants an assistant cook, part-time; and Embassy Study Tours are advertising for a local organiser to deal with summer language students in Rye.
As well as this, Rye Chamber of Trade needs a part-time secretary, for a few hours a week and with an annual honorarium of £250; applications should go to Roy Barnes at Merrythought (top of Lion Street).
Finally, Rye Town Council is looking for a Model Operator to start at Easter. They need someone with the confidence to deal with the public and answer visitors' enquiries; full training will be given on the technical side. The season runs from Easter to the end of October, and the three operators work full-day shifts so that the Model can be open every day and no-one has to do all the weekends. Barbara Fearon is giving up this job after five years - hence the vacancy; she says that no-one but a real Rye enthusiast would have survived the spartan conditions of the first summer or the panics which ensued when, due to inexperience, things went wrong. Now it is very different - carpets, heating, and a proper sales counter; and she will miss "the wonder and delight on the faces of the school children perched like a flock of starlings on the upper tiers of benches" and the human contacts generally. She thoroughly recommends the job to anyone who loves Rye, is interested in its history and, above all, enjoys meeting people with a similar interest. Applications in writing should go to the Town Clerk at the Town Hall by the end of this month.
• Rye Movie Society members relaxed at their January meeting, and travelled the world on film, visiting among other places the Dutch bulb-fields, the Lord Mayor's Show, and a college Graduation Day. The evening ended with refreshments and wine given by members; and it is also the support of members which has paid for the Society's dual-gauge projector, recently bought (almost new) as a replacement for the one which has successfully seen them through the past twenty years.
• Despite all the recent rain, causing the problems upstream seen by Coast to Coast viewers, George Roberts tells us that there was no trouble from the SWA viewpoint with flooding round Rye: "a nearly-flood" he called it, but the conjunction of wind and tide at crucial moments worked out to our advantage. "It's all gone now" he added. Let's hope it stays gone!
VRadio Sussex has a new Programme Organiser: George Pixley, 43, who moves to Brighton from Radio Kent. Born and educated in Jamaica, he served for 9 years in the RAF, and has specialised in sports coverage including the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10.30 to 4 (and Friday, Saturday)
ATC Presentation Evening CANCELLED (see front page)
National Trust, "Greece - Mainland and the Islands" (Mrs. D. Clifton), CC, 7.30
Arthritis & Rheumatism Council coffee morning, CC, 10.30 to 12.
• Congratulations to Nigel Gray, formerly of Rye and now of Majorca, and Jackie Hall, who were married at Hove on Saturday.
• Congratulations to first-time grandparents Ken and Mary Vicarey of the Freezer Centre and to proud parents Donna and Mick on the birth of Michelle Louise on 6 January.
• Humble apologies to Ken Casson for putting six months on his age; his birthday is not until July, and our shorthand is obviously even worse than we thought!
• Congratulations to Mrs. Maria Judge and her team on the 1985 (11 months only) results of the Red Cross Thrift Shop. Total sales were £8,338, and Red Cross funds benefited by £4,199.
• Rye Scouts sang carols in local pubs for just 2.- hours before Christmas, and raised £56 for their minibus fund.
• The Chamber of Trade wishes to express its thanks to all the businesses and organisations which contributed to the expenses of the Christmas lights.
• Anyone who may have been missed out, owing to a revised list of collectors, and would still like to help should contact Mike Warren at Oliver's, 94 High Street.
• Janet Denny tells us that during January and February Tower Forge will be open on Saturdays and Sundays only. On other days, urgent requests can be made via Penny Royal in the High Street,
• Messrs. Blackman, funeral directors, gave up their premises in Wish Street at Christmas and are now in business at St. Aubrey, Sea Road, Camber, where they will be continuing the firm's long-standing service to people in Rye and the villages. The new telephone number is Rye 226022.
• The current planning list shows applications for three extensions to private houses - an additional bedroom in New Road, a kitchen with bedroom above in King's Avenue, and two bedrooms and bathroom in Cyprus Place.
• This weekend, owing to engineering work between Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge, there will be "certain alterations" on our line on Saturday and Sunday; and on Sunday only there will be no trains between Headcorn and Paddock Wood (travellers to London, please note).
• The Chamber of Trade will be welcoming Ken Warren, MP, as its principal guest at the Annual Dinner at the George Hotel on 25 January (details from Steve Denny at Penny Royal).
• Now that our photocopying is done professionally, the GAZETTE has to work to a much tighter deadline. Typing starts at 9 on Tuesday morning and with luck is finished by 1.15. The Editor will be much obliged if people will refrain from calling on her or telephoning on Tuesday mornings unless the matter is of the utmost urgency. She might even become strong-minded enough to ignore both doorbell and telephone...
• We admire the panache of a lady overheard drawing her housekeeping money from the bank: "One note, please" she requested, "and the rest in gold!"
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, 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)