The demolition of "Wee Nestle" in Fishmarket Road, which started in July in ignorance of the planning permission necessary for such work in a conservation area, should have been simply a reason for a smart reprimand from Rother and an adequate and apologetic planning application shortly afterwards. The pair of early-nineteenth-century timber-framed cottages, up and back from the road and almost unnoticed except by those who looked at them from above, had been gently decaying for the best part of 20 years, and it was clearly in the public interest that something should be done about them.
What was or wasn't done, and why, is ground even more delicate than the edge of the cliff, and we would be unwise to tread it. But some things are obvious to any passer-by. As we all know, a very wet season followed a dry autumn. The house backed up against the cliff; and the house is no longer there. New foundations, involving the removal of considerable quantities of soil, have been laid a couple of metres nearer the road (and further from the cliff) than the old building stood. Two weekends ago the Ypres Castle pub had a sudden crack in a wall adjoining the Wee Nestie site, and Bother building control staff were called in; last weekend a fall - not wildly spectacular - of mud and earth came down at the back of the site, where steel piling has now been inserted. Scaffolding supports the end wall of the pub.
Rother has served an order on the landlord of the Ypres Castle forbidding the use either of the bar kitchen or of the outside gents' loo, on pain of a startlingly stiff fine; it is, of course, in no way the fault of Dick Pearce, but it is his family and customers who could be at risk if there were any further movement of the ground at that end of the building. Surprisingly cheerful, Mr. Pearce assures us that there are alternative facilities for his male customers, and that there is still good food at the bar, though with a restricted choice - the bar, at the other end of the pub, is not causing concern - and they will be glad to welcome customers as usual. (Mr. and Mrs. Pearce, who come from Worthing and were at Biddenden before taking over the Whitbread-owned Wipers just over a year ago, have made their mark on the town as very efficient fund-raisers for the RNLI a most suitable cause for a pub with a strong fishing-fleet connection.)
Rumours that the Ypres Tower (the Museum) could also be at risk are absurd – the problem there is still the damp inside rather than creaking foundations. Even the little terrace outside the old prison-yard wall is propped up firmly by the sloping lawn of the pub, well clear of the unstable cliff. Further along, the Rectory - built after the war on the foundations of the bombed Methodist Church is also secure. But the pair of houses between, which replaced bombed cottages and are perched nearer the edge of the cliff, are more vulnerable, and there are cracks to be seen in the garden walls below them.
The owner of Wee Nestie is Mr. R. Palmer, who gives his address on the planning application as c/o his Iden builder in Grove Lane. Through the builder, we had hoped to contact Mr. Palmer; but he apparently went on holiday on Monday.
The Ypres Tower was once called Baddings Tower, and Baddings Lane ran beside it, with - as we understand - the Augustinian Friary at the end. The Friary was rebuilt in the late 1300s on a more stable site; this is not the first time there has been trouble with the cliff!
The report prepared by the Rye Hospital Action Group - and an admirable and workmanlike document it is - is now available for public inspection in the Library, and we shall be writing about it in detail next week, after it has been discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the Community Health Council.
2.
Mrs. Doris Murrell, of New Winchelsea Road, died in hospital on 22 January after a long illness. She was born in Rye 68 years ago, a member of the Bayley family which has its roots deep in Rye's history. Mrs. Murrell will be remembered with affection and gratitude by generations of Rye's small children, since for 26 years - first at Ferry Road and then at New Road - she was an assistant at the primary school, with particular responsibility for looking after the very little ones. "She never minded what she did", said someone who had worked with her for much of that time,"and she was absolutely reliable". Three years ago Mrs. Murrell retired, but her pupils did not forget her, and during her stay in hospital she received with pleasure many home-made greetings cards. She is survived by her husband - they had been married for 47 years - their two daughters, two grand children and a sister and brother. A service will be held at St. Mary's at 2.30 tomorrow (Thursday, 30th), followed by burial in Rye Cemetery.
Mrs. Eva Boots, of South Undercliff, died suddenly at her home on 26 January. It was the house where she had lived since she was a small child (nee Page, she was born in Church Square), and where she and her husband Archie celebrated their Golden Wedding in April last year. She leaves four sons - one of whom brought his family back from Tasmania for the April party - fourteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The funeral will take place at Hastings Crematorium on Monday (3rd) at 2.30.
We first wrote about the plans for a hospice, to be attached to St. Augustine's nursing home in St. Leonards, back in March 1984 (GAZETTE no. 76). Since then a great deal of work has been done, and the St. Michael's Hospice Appeal took off in Hastings some time ago. It is now likely to be the next big appeal in Rye.
A notice in the window of Rye Fashions in the High Street, now in the throes of Mrs. Smith's retirement sale, invites donations of nearly-new clothes and desirable bric-a-brac to the cause. Mrs. Smith is planning an event in Northiam, where she is the Hospice representative, but if she should be offered a large quantity of goods while the Rye shop is still open she might briefly run a one-woman charity shop in the unused downstairs room.
The Rye representative is Joy Mockett. She is not being unduly ambitious, and is thinking in terms of just one or two fund-raising events each year; so she would like to hear from people who are interested enough to offer help in making them very special events. Joy works in Frank Golden's on Mondays and Thursdays, and will have available there 30p car stickers, 50p cookbooks, and subscription forms for those willing to enrol as Friends of the Hospice (minimum £2 annually, or £10 life membership). If you can't call at the shop, write to Mrs. Mockett at Mill Road; all suggestions and help will be welcome.
The first issue of "News from St. Michael's", the hospice newsletter, contains details of various Hastings-based events, and it is too long for us to attempt to summarise the contents here, but we will be happy to lend our copy. Local people might like to join in all or part of a 60-mile sponsored walk from Margate to Hastings over the Easter weekend. There is a charity shop in aid of the appeal at 187 Queens Road; gifts for this will be very welcome, and Mrs. Mockett can take them over. If any organisation would like a talk on the plans for the hospice, there are speakers available and willing to come to Rye.
In case anyone is wondering just what a hospice is, we quote: "A hospice provides care for seriously ill patients who are suffering from terminal illnesses. The emphasis is not on investigation and diagnosis but on relief of distressing symptoms. Highly specialised medical and nursing skills combat pain; ease and comfort are given to those who suffer; anxiety and stress are replaced by peace of mind. Each day can then be lived as fully as possible." Patients will be admitted with no restrictions on age, sex, race or religion, and the area to be served is that of the Hastings Health Authority - from Hooe to Camber and from Ticehurst to the sea. This major project concerns us all.
- 3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 29 January 1986
Congratulations to Jason Osborne of Cadborough Cliff, who joined his ship - HMS Raleigh, at Plymouth - on 6 January for 14 weeks' initial training as a marine engineer artificer apprentice. This is the start of a much longer training: five years' apprenticeship in marine engineering, which is automatically followed by a further five years' service with Her Majesty's Navy. A job for the next ten years anyhow, as Jason's father says - and probably a good deal longer, as 40% of a ship's complement now consists of artificers, and they are in short supply.
Jason's younger brother Harvey (Jason is 20, Harvey 19) gained his sea-legs some time ago, and is now at sea with HMS Exeter as a marine engineer mechanic. Both boys were Thomas Peacocke pupils; their father David was at Rye Grammar School, but he left at some thirty years ago, to train on HMS Conway (a 92-gun ship of the line, he tells us) and has been at sea ever since. He is now one of Townsend Thoresen's senior Captains, and as an RNR officer is entitled to fly the Blue Ensign from his command on the cross-Channel route from Dover.
And Mum? She knows all about it; Anne Osborne spent six years in the WRNS...!
The George Hotel ballroom had twelve tables concealed beneath the white cloth which ran the entire length of the big room on Friday night, seating the Northiam and Rye RAF Association members, ladies and guests at the Association's annual dinner. Brian Sealy was in the chair, and the guests included members of the Bexhill RAFA branch, Rye's Mayor and Mayoress, your Editor, and Wing-Commander David Boak, Officer Commanding RAF Biggin Hill, with Mrs. Boak. Thanking the branch on behalf of the guests for a thoroughly enjoyable evening, Wing-Commander Boak said he was well aware of the tremendous efforts made by RAFA branches in attracting new members and, of course, raising the money spent on welfare: he recalled that at last year's annual Hangar Dance at Biggin Hill, 2,500 people had danced to the music of Joe Loss!
Membership of the Northiam and Rye Branch has indeed increased in the past year, we were told, with local detective work uncovering hitherto unsuspected ex-RAF personnel living in the area, while the money raised for the 1985 Wings Appeal, as we reported in September, was a record despite the loss of the flag-day. Congratulations!
With three highways queries on our list, it seemed about time to bother Ralph Olesen at Bexhill again. As usual, he knew the answers. What had happened to the big road sign at the Strand bend, we asked - flat on its back beside the quay? One of our recent gales? Vandals? The reason was simpler: those very large illuminated signs are awkward to maintain if they go wrong, as this one did it is likely to be replaced with another lit from outside.
Were there plans for a wheelchair ramp into the Post Office, we asked next? There are, but not for a ramp as such because of the risk of people falling over it as they walk along the pavement. The plan is to "regrade" the pavement at that end so that it all slopes gently towards the doorway, but not steeply enough to notice.
Finally, Leslie Bulman of the RDA had told us recently that the improvements promised a year ago for the junction of the Rye Harbour Road with the A259 would, in effect, only amount to a footbridge. Was this true, we asked Mr. Olesen? After consulting Lewes, he said yes: there is to be a footbridge over the river, plus a narrow footpath from there to the main road, and a slight widening of the road on the garage side of the junction to allow easier access for cars turning out towards Hastings; but that is all. The mulch greater problem of cars
turning out towards Rye, across the stream of traffic, remains untouched; and anyone who has waited to do just that on a Sunday sailing afternoon, when all the dinghy sailors go home at the same time as the tide falls and the rest of the inhabitants of south-east England drive back and forth along the A259, will know what we mean. It's all a bit disappointing, isn't it!
4.
So many major planning projects of one kind and another are being tossed around at present and could well affect Rye in the course of the next ten years, that we thought a summary might be helpful.
Over the last three years or so, since the GAZETTE started, the town has gained the bowls green and pavilion, the new phone exchange, and the rehabilitated if not strictly new Post Office. Work is due to start in March on the Sports Centre in The Grove; and in the autumn we should see the builders moving onto the old council office site in Ferry Road, where Mr. Catt tells us that they now hope to fit in as many as 16 sheltered flatlets, as well as the purpose-built room for our new and flourisLing Day Centre.
Even if work on the supermarket were to begin at once - and there is no forecast of this at present - it would still be months behind the September 1985 date which we were given so confidently last summer. There are still legal tidying- up negotiations going on, and anyway the car park beside the Market has to be built before anything can actually happen in the Goods Yard. As for car parks, Rother is organising the provision of a temporary one for 50 cars down by the Mill, but there is still likely to be a shortage of parking spaces once the contractors do move into the Goods Yard, anyway until the work there is complete.
Lynda Chalker has just left the Department of Transport, so it is now someone else's job to defer yet again the Rye bypass public consultation. Is it reason- able to hope that her "spring at the earliest" reply to Ken Warren in November could at least be interpreted as "Christmas at the latest"? It is also, of course, someone else's job to announce the preferred route for the Winchelsea bypass, whose public consultation was held in November 1983. Mrs. Chalker promised this "by about the end of the year" when she wrote to Ken Warren; we took this to mean the end of 1985, but perhaps that was not the year she had in mind!
Very recently we reported on the prospects of a new £383,000 fire station and a major facelift for Thomas Peacocke School, both County Council projects. Immediately after that the papers started to talk about cuts in rate support grants, with the shire counties, least Sussex among them, at the bottom of the heap. Whether we shall get either now seems problematical, and will depend on decisions taken at the ESCC budget meeting in February. The school improvements were scheduled to cost £50,000 in 1986/7, with the main outlay of £380,000 in the following year and a further £20,000 labelled "future", plus £35,000 earmarked for furniture and equipment in 1987/8. (All this would be the first phase of a project with an eventual total cost of some £800,000 - but it rather looks as if "would be" is now the crucial phrase.) If either project does go ahead, work will be likely to start early in 1987.
In 1987, too, we may look forward to more industrial development - and more jobs - in Harbour Road, under the auspices of the Rural Development Area; the RDA is also making encouraging noises about a marina development, so perhaps one of the three which currently have planning permission will actually become seaworthy?
There is talk - if no more than that at present - of a redevelopment of the Strand Quay area. Different rumours imply different levels of expenditure, ranging from a couple of benches and some trees in tubs to a full-blown Heritage Centre (whatever that is). But nothing has yet come before Planning, nor is it likely to in the immediate future.
In the far distance, we see the mirage of a new clinic, proposed in the HHA's Strategic Plan and obviously linked with other developments for health care in the area, which are in turn linked with the 1992 opening of the new District General Hospital on The Ridge at Hastings (and what a ghastly place that is to get to, without a car!).
Finally, Rye's long-standing scare story: the railway, will it survive? It nearly didn't, 15 years ago; but it seems likely that the Channel Tunnel will be its salvation. We could even be electrified - or Inter-City...(Will the GAZETTE still be here, to report it all? We do hope so.)
5.
• At Thursday's Planning Committee - at which Wee Nestie was not, according to the agenda, under discussion at all - the following Rye decisions were made. The Landgate Bistro gets permission for an externally illuminated hanging sign subject to satisfactory screening of the light source. Permission goes to conversion work at Belmount in Watchbell Street, to include the reinstatement of the watch-tower (demolished in the course of earlier trouble at that end of the cliff); to extra office accommodation for our vet's surgery; to the temporary car park on the land between the railway and the lane to the Mill (which belongs to British Rail); and to Tuckers for permanent use as a restaurant, subject to satisfactory arrangements for the toilets.
In Playden (just, technically) the proposal to convert the Saltcote stable block into four self-contained flats plus the three already there was deferred; the application to build a house on the land adjoining the stables was refused. Permission for a caravan at Playden Oasts was also refused. At the Harbour (Icklesham, technically), the plans for 13 houses in Coastguard Square were approved, while those for 10 houses on Goulds' land behind the village hall were deferred.
• In view of the backlog of applications which can build up over the Christmas and summer recess periods, the Planning Officer is proposing that the Planning Committee agenda shall from time to time have a section for very recent but minor applications; the list is seen by the committee but is not discussed and the decision is left to the Planning Officer unless an application turns out to be more complicated than expected. Full Council will decide on this system on 3 February. Five Rye applications are on the extra list - extensions in New Road, Kings Avenue and Cyprus Place, removal of a conservatory and erection of a utility room in Military Road, and change of use for part of the Decorator's Warehouse to a health food restaurant. If Council approves the new system, they will get their decisions at once; if it doesn't, they will have to wait until the Planning Committee meets at the end of February in the normal way.
• Eagle Road residents will be very glad to know that on appeal British Telecom has been refused permission for light industrial use of the old phone exchange, primarily on the grounds of the access. "Even were Eagle Road made up to proper standards" says the report, "its use by any significant amount of light industrial traffic would be unacceptable; ik its present unmade and unadopted state it would be manifestly wrong to expect local residents to suffer the noise and other consequences of traffic that this road should not be called upon to accommodate." The Inspector says that if permission is once given for an undefined light industrial use, the local planning authority then has no control over what happens there within that category; some light industries might be perfectly acceptable to the neighbours, but others...
• Anglia Building Society's estates office at Horsham tells us that the Society has "reached an agreement for the sale of" its old Rye office - ie. it is now off the market, though contracts have not actually been exchanged. Obviously they weren't going to tell us who the prospective buyer is, so we shall have to wait to discover whether the rumours which have been going round the town for he past year are correct. If so, it seems unlikely - alas! - to become a delicatessen!
• The current planning list has just one Rye application, and everyone will be glad to see it. George Gray, of the Cinque Ports Pottery, wants to refurbish the curved-end Monastery Cottage opening on to Conduit Hill. The plans show a dear little house for one person, with no garden to worry about and practically unlimited parking in the yard of the adjoining pottery. But it is no good rushing round to be first in the queue, since Mr. Gray tells us that it is not going on the market.
(What a lot of planning there is - two pages of prospects for a town with only some 3,500 voters on the roll!)
6.
"It's like Dengates back again" said someone, talking about the County Rider buslet which fizzes round the town and out to the villages unceasingly throughout the day. It is a long day, at that; but the driving is shared by David Taylor and Tony Hartley, who are already regarded as old friends by their regular passengers - and the number of regulars, we are told, is increasing rapidly, so that the new and bigger (but still not very big) bus expected in service soon will not be likely to run with many empty seats.
You can see why. The bus which comes down Udimore Road just before 10 am puts on a spurt to catch the crossing-gates if it has a passenger anxious to get the train. Later, if the High Street is not likely to be congested, it is said to run round that way and drop shoppers off to save them the climb up the hill - certainly we saw it vanishing under the Landgate on Monday morning. Just like Dengates, if not more so!
From the point of view of Thomas Peacocke School, too, the new arrangements are working well. Four coachloads of children are now picked up from the school gates; three coaches are waiting at 3.50 when school comes out, and one returns at 4.25 to collect the Northiam children, who can stay in school in the dry till then. So nearly 200 children now no longer wait around in the bus yard; and even there, at least three contract coaches are ready to load up as soon as the passengers arrive. The drivers have said very civil things about the polite and helpful behaviour of the pupils once they are on the buses, too.
Some routes, of course, are still served by service buses for school-children and civilians alike, and here there is still a fair amount of milling around, getting in the way of the traffic and generally showing off, from a proportion of the older boys (the girls seem to have more sense). But it is immeasurably better than it was - and may, as the contract system progresses, be better yet (the next route due to receive the attentions of TDD is the one covering Rye Harbour and the Beach).
There are some complaints from civilians, of course, since service buses have been cut on some routes. One problem is that of fares between Rye and Hastings, when passengers have to change at Broad Oak from County Rider to H & D (and vice versa coming home); County Rider will accept H & D tickets, but H & D won't take County Rider's, so on the outward journey passengers have to pay, we were told, an extra 40p. (Michael Alford, incidentally, tells us that this route was started in 1922 by Maidstone & District, with a journey time of 80 minutes and 12 buses each way daily!)
As for the Tuesday Day Centre, whose clients are delivered and collected in the little bus, they are delighted. It was a very cheerful party which we watched departing for home a couple of weeks ago - several of them, unable to manage the steps, had simply been lifted from ground to bus floor by the folding platform.
There have already been some minor alterations to the timetable already, which regulars along the route will know about, and there will be more later as experience dictates. But on balance, from the views reaching the GAZETTE, the new system is a great success, and we congratulate Kim Clark of TDD at Lewes, and also Autopoint of Herstmonceux who operate the County Rider bus.
Rye Museum Association is badly in need of someone to act as its Secretary, to start as soon as possible. Two out of the last three gave up the job because they were moving on to full-time careers, so you never know what it could lead to! Basically the work involves taking the (non-verbatim) minutes of the committee meetings and the AGM (shorthand is useful, typing essential), and giving some time to helping Mr. Bagley with the Museum correspondence. There is a newsletter which could be expanded by an enthusiast (it has already expanded into the GAZETTE) plus a handful of winter lectures and perhaps a couple of summer outings: not really very arduous, and there is an honorarium payable. If you are interested, Mrs. Rosemary Bagley would be delighted to hear from you.
The Association AGM will be at the Town Hall on Friday, 11 April.
7.
Some months ago a visitor spent a week in Rye: compact, chunky, rather noisy but willing and with a passion for tidying-up. It was called the Scarab Minor, and was on trial to see if it was the answer to the town's street-sweeping problems.
In a report on the peculiar difficulties of keeping Rye clean, Rother's Chief Technical Services Officer evaluates the performance of this yellow mini-monster and finds it very satisfactory; sweeping is much quicker, and the time saved meant that outlying parts of the town could also be covered during the trial week, including Tilling Green and King's Avenue.
The Scarab costs £22,000, but a comparison of running costs with savings on labour (not involving redundancies) showed that for an extra £860 a year Rye could be provided with a much better cleaning service, suitable for our somewhat fiddly needs. We shall still have an extra sweeper working here for the eight weeks of the high-summer season, but the machine will cope with the other demands.
Like sundry other treats at present half-promised (see page 4), the arrival of the Scarab is dependent on final budgeting for the next financial year. But it is anyway possible that it will be chundering into our tighter corners before too long.
The press book shows just one Rye crime this week - one which, however, has serious implications: a load of washing was stolen from the launderette. Your reporter has used the launderette, in Tower Street, for ten years and has never heard of such a thing happening in Rye before; this is confirmed by Susan Manktelow who works there. Odd garments do go missing sometimes, she says, but never a whole load! The theft was on a Thursday over the lunch-hour, and Thursday is not a popular day for local people to do their washing; one hopes that the thief will not extend his or her activities. The missing load was valued at £77, which sounds fantastic - until you come to cost the contents of your own washing-bag: sheets, towels, jeans... Perhaps we ought to Mink about a Laundry- watch scheme?
We reported some weeks ago on the Gas Board's plans to lay new mains in Mermaid Street (now in hand), followed by the High Street, and then Lion Street starting the week before Easter. We have now made contact with the Segas press officer at Croydon, Chris Judge, to whom we had written in a worried way about the Easter „date and the inconvenience it would cause to a tourist town.
Mr. Judge tells us that Segas doesn't in the least want to inconvenience anyone, if the work can be done without. They might even be able to use a "mole" - in this sense, entirely benevolent: - to lay the new pipes without digging up the road at all; or perhaps run the new pipes inside the old ones. (We recall a newspaper account, some years ago, of one of the public utilities using this system, when a ferret with a string attached was introduced into one end of the old pipe and retrieved at the other, the string subsequently being used to pull the smaller new pipe through; but certainly Mr. Judge didn't mention ferrets.) Anyway, he assures us that they are aware of the complications of working in the middle of Rye, and that they will not just arrive and start drilling but will contact residents and businesses first. It is possible, too, that the Easter date could be advanced - which would solve the problems of the hot-cross-bun queues at the Tuck Shoppe bakery. We shall be hearing from Mr. Judge again.
The Editor is guiltily aware that she has had for some weeks now several old and fascinating copies of local papers lent to her by readers. She has them safe, and is much looking forward to quoting from them, but there has been much more in the way of day-to-day news lately than she had expected. February looks like being a quiet month; local history addicts, keep hoping: One week when absolutely nothing has happened, we will have an orgy…
Local History Group (Brion Purdey on Hastings Library's local collection), Library, 7.30
Atomic Roadshow disco for under-18s (admission £1, smart dress), Ma Beeton's, 7.30 to 11
NSPCC jumble sale, FEC, 2
Sussex Trust for Nature Conservation, "Galapagos Islands" (Francesca and John Inskip), CC, 7.30
Rye Famine Appeal Blues and Folk Evening, George Hotel, 8 (see GAZETTE no. 162 for details)
Monday, 3rd First lecture in the St. John Ambulance First Aid classes (8 sessions, £10 - see posters), Conduit Hill, 7.30 Hill House League of Friends AGM, TH, 7.30
Rye Camera Club (competition), FEC, 7.30
FRAG, "Early Woodwind Instruments" (Robert King), TH, 8
• Photographer Paddy Aiken is looking for some really way-out gardens; did we know of any? We didn't, but there may well be fantastic oddities hidden away in obscure corners of East Sussex. Anyway, she is willing to go much further than that in search of the bizarre, and would love to hear as soon as possibl from anyone who either has such a garden themselves or who knows of someone else who has: anything, she says, anywhere, that would make a good photograph. Contact Mrs. Aiken at Ferry Road.
• Despite the dreadful weather last Tuesday morning, the Arthritis & Rheumatism Council coffee morning attracted some 50 people (many of them, says acting secretary Francis Barrett, themselves victims of the disease and not normally inspired to go out in a hailstorm!); £122 was raised for branch funds. The group is still looking for an honorary secretary; please, if you could help, ring Mr. Barrett.
• Peter Greenhalf's delightful photographs of the St. Mary's nativity tableaux (GAZETTE no. 160) are now on display at the church bookstall. Orders (40p a print, colour) can be left at 44 The Mint for Rachel Sarrieddine's attention.
• Ken Warren tells us that, as usual at this time of year, he is beginning to get letters from constituents worried about gas and electricity supplies. He asks us to remind readers that the South Eastern Electricity Consumers Council (50 St. John's Road, Tumbridge Wells, Kent - 0892 20947) and the South Eastern Regional Gas Consumers Council (348 High Street, Sutton, Surrey - 01 642 1127)_, are there to help with problems over bills and other difficulties.
• The new Neighbourhood Watch scheme at Lindfield, as reported on Radio Sussex, seems to have stolen a march on Rye: they have a dog patrol. But it is not what you think. The co-ordinators are merely asking the village's bevy of dog-walkers, who perambulate the roads morning and evening, to keep an eye open while they stroll, and to report anything that doesn't look right. It sounds like a good idea - Rye dog-walkers, please copy!
• British Rail reckons that £10m a year is lost to Southern Region through people cheating over their tickets. New posters point out that the maximum penalty for deliberate fare evasion - on a first conviction - is £200 or three months in jail. Southern asks its honest passengers to mention to rail staff any suspicions of someone perhaps travelling without a ticket - the loss, after all, falls on the travellers who do pay.
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 at latest for real emergencies. The GAZETTE 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)