THIRD AND FINAL WARNING: Most copies this week will bear one tick (for a 12-week subscription) or two ticks (for 23 weeks), or will be marked 5 (for standing order). If your copy is not so marked, and you want to receive the next issue on 9 April, we need from you by 4 April either £3.60 cash (for 12 weeks) or £6.90 cash or cheque (for 23 weeks) - or, of course, the standing-order mandate which was enclosed two weeks ago. All receipts go out on 9 April. There is no GAZETTE next Wednesday.After today, cash should not be delivered to Cyprus Place until Tuesday, since it could go unrecorded over the Easter holiday.
Last week's shortage of spare copies may well happen again from time to time; it is a risk which non-subscribers just have to accept - sorry!
The "preferred route" for the Winchelsea bypass was announced on Friday. For the details, and an assessment of the decision's implications for Rye, see the Lull story on pages 4 and 5.
... to Mrs. Phyllis Davis, who works for Adams the Printers. Mrs. Davis was taken to RESH on Monday after an accident in the High Street at lunch-time outside Woolworths, when she fell under the wheel of the dustcart. Mrs. Davis, who lives with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Hickman in Ferry Road, is the mother of Mrs. Anne Whiteman, well-known as a soloist with Ryesingers. The hospital had not been able to give Mrs. Hickman full details of her daughter's injuries when we spoke on Monday evening, but it is thought that Mrs. Davis has an arm broken in two places, a cracked pelvis and possibly other internal injuries. However, she was able to speak to her mother, and said that she thought a sudden gust of wind had caught her off-balance and tipped her into the road. We do hope to have better news in a fortnight's time.
... to David Payne, of Eagle Road, and Helen Martin of Hastings, who were married in Guestling Church on Saturday, with a reception at Fairlight Lodge. He was attended by her sister and cousin, both dressed in pink; David's best man ias his elder brother Chris. The couple have bought a house in St. Leonards, where Helen works as a care assistant in two residential homes. David - at present stationed at Portsmouth - has been in the Royal Navy for three years. Both bride and groom were pupils at Thomas Peacocke School.
Rye Branch of the NSPCC excelled itself last year, Wednesday's Annual Meeting at the FE Centre was told: £12,132 was sent to IN in 1983! The £4,000 over the 1984 figure was in effect the money raised by Anne Wood's weekly Friday visits to the Camber Sands Leisure Park during the summer (GAZETTE no. 150). The house-to-house collection raised £1,245, the Summer Fair £955 and the Christmas Fair at the George Hotel £371; four coffee mornings in private houses in and around Rye brought in a total of almost £1,500. £777 came from the Raft Race, £122 from the Bonfire Night collection, and there was also a £550 bequest from a local source which went direct to London but has been credited to the Branch total. Assorted donations totalled £2,374.
In her Secretary's report, Anne Wood mentioned the arrival of the new NSPCC team based in Hastings (the two Inspectors were present at the meeting). This will cost £100,000 a year to run, so Rye's contributions are really needed. The speaker was Mr. Kevin Pettican from HQ, who spoke about the problems of child abuse. The Mayor and Mayoress were present at the meeting, and chairman Mrs. Beryl Rixon thanked all the committee members for their hard work - particularly Mrs. Wood (loud applause).
2.
Mrs. Bessie Deeprose, of Greyfriars and formerly of Lea Avenue, died on 20 March in St. Helen's. She was almost 84, and had been in failing health. Mrs. Deeprose was born in Rye and brought up in South Undercliff, Russell Place and Watchbell Lane; she married Harry Deeprose, also a Ryer of long standing, in 1920. Before her marriage, both she and her mother Kate Rhodes had worked in various Rye hotels, and throughout WW1 Bessie had been employed at the Mermaid. Later she was on the staff at Hill House Hospital, working with the Downs Syndrome patients there. She was a member of Rye Bonfire Society in its post-way heyday, and a regular collector for Poppy Day and other appeals – "a wonderful worker for the town of Rye" is Monica Oliver's tribute. Since her move to Greyfriars, Mrs. Deeprose had greatly enjoyed her visits to the Day Centre, which enabled her to keep in touch with her Rye friends - she had been a member of Playden WI, and a founder member of the Monday Club. Her great- nephew Peter Ewart tells us that as a child she had of course scrambled for hot pennies on Mayoring Day, and it had given her very special pleasure to be one of the guests at a 1970s Mayoring - at the other end of the shovel, so to speak. Mrs. Deeprose is survived by two of her three sons, six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. The funeral is tomorrow at Hastings, at 4.0.
The spring issue of Radio Sussex's newspaper Sussex Scene is now available at EMBS in the High Street, and it brings bad news to the eastern end of the county. The "Lunchdate" programme at 1.10 on 258 medium-wave, which features interviews of particular interest to people at this end of Sussex and on which quite a few local people have spoken, is vanishing. Instead, from 7 April, there is to be a programme at 2.30 entitled "The 258 alternative". The change has something to do with the fact that the Eastbourne team (David Arscott, Candida Watson and Jim Beaman) are to take over the Joanna Hollis programme which has followed the 1.0 news on weekdays. But since "Lunchdate" always was bitten out of that programme anyway, why not put it on tape and leave it where it is? The new time is no good to people at work or simply out shopping, and a good many who are at home in the afternoon turn on Woman's Hour at 2 and stick with it. "Lunchdate"-and- lunch is one thing; remembering to turn on the wireless in the middle of the afternoon, or to switch over from BBC4, is quite another. Think again, Radio Sussex, please!
An astonishing £600 or so was raised for the Sports Centre Equipment Fund on Saturday at Thomas Peacocke School, despite the unspeakably awful weather. is is not counting the sponsorship money for the 24-hour basket-ball and the Lower School relay marathon; Rowena Varley, chairman of the steering committee, says the whole lot could add up to as much as £1,600 when all the sponsors have paid. Thanks are due to a great many people who helped - steering committee members, TPS parents, staff and pupils, Rye Rotarians and Rye Cricket Club supporters, to say nothing of the sellers who braved the weather for the Boot Sale and found themselves invited inside to fill up the odd corners.
One undoubted attraction was an intriguing new blow-up - a multi-coloured series of tunnels which half-filled the courtyard by the hall and was very popular with younger visitors. This was its first appearance in the Rye area, and for the benefit of other people with events to organise we give the phone number of its proprietors, Prestige Leisure of St. Leonards: Hastings 426011.
Mrs. Varley tells us that Walls are running a promotion involving tokens which can be exchanged by schools for sports equipment; even if you haven't a child at school, please save these tokens and we will tell you in the next issue where to leave them so that they can be used for the Sports Centre.
It was extremely heartening to see that work is progressing well on the Sports Centre site, with the foundations laid out and the workmen there even on a very wet Saturday morning. This is something which really is happening.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 26 March 1986
We hear from Ward Construction, the firm building the supermarket, that British Rail Property Board has now removed its finger to the extent of appointing a member of staff to deal exclusively with the final legal and other details. Ken Warren has written to the General Manager of British Rail (South) asking him to investigate the delay. We hope for good news soon.
There were plenty of eyes, feasting, at the FE Centre on Saturday afternoon at the WI Group Craft Show. The co-operative class is always a favourite with visitors, and this year pink was a favourite colour for the theme "Span of Life". Rye's display included four gold-star winners (20 out of 20 marks), and they won the class with a total of 136 points, followed closely by Idea (also mainly pink, with a delightful bridal coronet in what we were told was tatting) who tied with Beckley (one of whose gold stars went to the staging, with a painted churchyard scene glimpsed through a window); both Institutes had three gold stars and 132 points. Peasmarsh, also pink, had two gold stars and 131 points, Playden had 127 and Rye Harbour 121 (their maternity smock seemed particularly appropriate to the theme!).
The other two sections had room for a wide range of art and craft. There were beautifully-knitted sweaters and baby-clothes, some interesting cushion covers, dressmaking and patchwork and crochet; and there were also wood-carvings, paper sculpture, embroidery, a Chinese brush-work painting whose artist had asked the Chinese restaurant how to sign it, delicate underwear trimmed with fragile handmade lace, au embroidered picture of blue-tits with free-swinging fluffy catkins, a knitted Chinese doll, a spring mobile of lambs and tiny felt flowers - all sorts of pretty things, beautifully made and judged to a terrifyingly high standard.
Rye won the Silver Cup for the most marks overall, Peasmarsh the Pottery Vase for the highest average marks in the craft classes, Playden the Imari Plate for the highest average marks in the art class, and Peasmarsh the Pottery Cup for the highest number of gold stars in relation to the number of entries. There was applause for Landgate WI, brand-new but still runners-up for both the Pottery Vase and the Pottery Cup.
Rye Library has an amnesty during the first two weeks in April: all overdue books, records and cassettes returned between Wednesday 2nd and Saturday 12th, inclusive, can be handed in free of any fine - or even put through the letterbox 4 the borrower is too embarrassed to appear in person. The library service all aver the county is just anxious to get back the considerable number of books which have been borrowed and not returned over the years. It would also like to get back the regular borrowers who have "lost the library habit" because they haven't returned overdue books; now, for the fortnight after Easter, this can be done for-nothing, and a fresh start made. The amnesty also applies to short-term borrowers (a week overdue costs almost 50p, 7p a day, any other time).
The enquiry in GAZETTE no. 169 about the broken stone at the foot of the Landgate Arch has been answered by Mrs. Talbot of Fishmarket Road, who knows exactly how it got there; it very nearly got her! She was walking under the arch on the cliff side. Suddenly there was a crash, and for no reason this lump of stone lay splintered on the ground. It just missed a car which came under the arch immediately afterwards; if Mrs. Talbot had been on the other side...
David Cranston at the Council Offices told us, when we hastened to report this, that a Rother inspection team had just been looking at the Landgate. Mr. Bird of the Battle staff was one of this team, and he says they found nothing worryingly wrong, though there is work to be done on the pointing, etc., once the risk of frost is over. The stone which fell could well have been loosened earlier by a nudge from a passing lorry; but it was still an unnerving experience for Mrs. Talbot!
Last week the long-overdue announcement of the Winchelsea bypass route was made: the D o T has chosen the Green route, the one beside the railway. The relevant map and accompanying statement are available for inspection locally at the Town Hall, Library, Council Offices and Rye Harbour and Winchelsea post offices.
The public exhibition on the Winchelsea route was held in November 1983, and because of the long delay in announcing the chosen route there were hopes that the Winchelsea decision would be delayed until after the Rye public consultation.
These hopes are now dashed. There is no date indicated in the statement for the start of consultations for the Rye "improvement" (note the significance of this word as opposed to "bypass"). However, the statement says that "each of the alternative routes offered at public consultation for the Winchelsea bypass could be matched with all the options for a Rye improvement, including southern and northern routes if acceptable on other grounds, and the Green route does not pre-empt the choice of a route for Rye. The consultants currently investigating proposals for Rye have not been constrained in any way by the present Winchelsea proposals." (The consultants for both routes are Messrs. Cooper Macdonald & Partners, of Epsom.)
In 1983 the Green route was the longest and most expensive of the Winchelsea options: 3.1 miles, costing (then) £3.2m and using up 21.4 acres of land. It is described as a "single 2-lane carriageway" which the D o T tells us means a. road 7.3m wide, with a lm hard strip each side - total road width 9.3m, about 30ft and apparently the standard trunk-road size. It leaves the A259 just this side of Icklesham, runs down into the Brede valley as far as Winchelsea Station (where Station Road will cross it by bridge), and then runs immediately alongside the railway - without crossing it - until it comes level with Gate-borough Cottage. Here it pulls away from the railway down Gateborough Farm lane, to emerge onto the A259 via a roundabout. The bungalow in Farm Lane, which had been occupied by the Whiting family in 1983, was later bought from them by the D o T and is now let on a short lease; the roundabout will mean its demolition.
The decision means that unless the Rye route leaves the Winchelsea one before the proposed roundabout, all the traffic - including, remember, what will be generated by the Channel Tunnel - will come belting down a nice long straight highway slap into a stretch of road about which the D o T was so solicitous a year ago that it refused to allow car parking in the Farnborough yard - because of the traffic hazard!
Work on the Winchelsea route could begin as early as next year, but "the actual start date will depend on the completion of the statutory and other necessary procedures" once the draft Orders giving the detailed proposals are published; a public enquiry might have to be called, if landowners object.
So what are the prospects for Rye? In January 1985 the GAZETTE leaked the details of a consultation document put out by the D o T with suggested routes and variants for Rye. Assuming that the railway route does turn out to be the final choice for Winchelsea (which seems certain), Rye's options a year ago were as follows. Routes A and B crossed the railway at Gateborough Farm; route B continued immediately north of the railway, route A looped madly away via Gibbet Marsh, Mason Field and the TPS playing-fields to rejoin route B just before the Grove level crossing.
Routes C to F stayed south of the railway. Route C ran immediately beside it as far as the corner of King's Avenue, and then turned east to join the A259 beyond the New Road houses (or continued on beside the railway to join it later). Route D ran round Strand Quay, past St. Margaret's Terrace and across the allotments, crossing the Rother at the Rock Channel junction - with a variant running
across the Salts which can hardly be taken seriously! (This was the favoured route when ESCG was considering a bypass in the 1960s, but there has been a lot of building there since then.) Routes E and F ran from Gateborough behind the Farnborough buildings, across Winchelsea Road near the Martello Tower and then, staying south of Rock Channel, crossed the Rother at different points, both ultimately joining the A259 at the far end of New Road.
(continued...)
5.
Rye's next stage is our public consultation (with maps, questionnaires, etc., plus an exhibition which has already been postponed twice). The latest fore- cast (from Lynda Chalker in November) was "spring at the earliest" - but then she also said that the Winchelsea decision would be announced at the beginning of the year, and it is now almost the end of March...
Ken Warren rang the GAZETTE on Monday to make sure that we had heard "the good news about the bypass". Not good news for Rye, we said; but he assures us that all Rye's options are still open. However, he feels we are unlikely to get a route south of the town because of the expense of bridging the Rother, and he understands that there are technical difficulties over a route running north. So it suddenly turned into a very depressing conversation, because the only option left seemed to be the route that nobody wants, the through-way cutting the town in half - a bisection rather than a bypass, splitting off more than 50% of our inhabitants from the shops, station, surgeries and one school, while the rest would be separated from the other two schools and the clinic.
When we put this point to Mr. Warren, he said cheerfully that there were ways for pedestrians to go under or over a main road. As far as "under" is concerned, however, the water-table is only a few feet down in St. Mary's Marsh; and railway users know how difficult it is to get anything on wheels (or even on wonky legs) over quite a small footbridge. Very well, said Mr. Warren, what about traffic lights or pelican crossings? So these presumably are allowed on a trunk road, which surprised us; and Mr. Warren is certainly aware of some of the problems which a through-way would cause.
Another of Rye's young men has completed his tough six-week Service training: Graham Vincent, 17, son of Bob and Jenny Vincent of Cadborough Cliff. Graham was watched by his proud parents as he took part in the passing-out parade at RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire last Wednesday. It was, says his father, a super parade, with displays of marching and drill by the 154 lads who remained from the original entry - there is a considerable drop-out rate of those who can't stand the pace, but Graham, who was in the ATC, at school, enjoyed it very much. He is now looking forward to his new posting to RAF Lochin, near Weston-super-Mare, where he will be trained in telecommunications. He hopes to be hone on leave over Easter.
• Carol Farrow is now offering a secretarial service in Rye, something which the own has lacked for some time. She will type just the occasional letter, come to the rescue of an overwrought office, or help with book-keeping and accounts. She is also taking on the job of secretary to the Rye Museum Association after its AGM on 11 April, and has already taken over from Sally Greenhalf as secretary of the Rye Society of Artists. (What about the Chamber of Trade, we said hopefully? - but Carol reckons she has enough to be going on with.)
Carol is based in her husband Peter's workshop above Rye Tiles in Wish Ward. It is best to phone first, to save slogging up two flights of stairs only to find that she is out on a job...
• An interesting-sounding "workshop" is being held at Southlands School, New Romney, over the weekend of 12/13 April, arranged jointly by Mid-Kent College and the Manpower Services Commission, and aimed at the whole of the RDA (not only the Kent side). It offers training in the basic skills required to run a small busi- ness, and is intended for self-employed people who are already in business as well as those planning new business ventures. There will be an appreciation of self-employment together with basic training in such skills as marketing, planning, finance and taxation, and details of further free courses will be available. The course is free, and no pre-booking is needed; for more details, contact Leslie Bulman at the Guildhall, Lydd (Lydd 20115). The course, says the press release, "is aimed at reducing the first-year mortality rate for new business start-ups which currently stands at 25%, a statistic that covers a massive cost in personal and financial grief".
6.
On Monday afternoon, with the wind howling in the chimney and the wireless talking about Force 12 hurricanes, we phoned round to see who was in trouble. Not us, said Carl Bagwell at the Harbourmaster's office; not us either, said the SWA though the point-8 surge which brought the tide a metre higher than expected could have been a problem if the week had been one of springs not neaps. Michael Bourn's fire-engine has been busy since the beginning of the year, but recent call-outs have been mostly to chimney fires locally (and an electricity sub-station which blew up at Camber), and even for him Monday afternoon was quiet.
• At St. Mary's on Saturday evening, a vocal quartet called "Farfalla" (Italian for butterfly) is giving a concert of "Songs of Love and Laughter", by classical and modern composers. Tickets are £2.50 (£1.50 for children, OAPs and unemployed) at the door or in advance from Hamilton Furnishings; programmes with the English words of the songs will also be on sale at 50p, with the proceeds going to the church. A donation from ticket sales will be made to the Sports Centre.
• At the Community Centre on 11 April at 7.30 and 12 April at 2.30 and 7.30, Doom Productions present a play "The Weaker Vessel" by Alice Sackur (tickets £2.50, concession price £l). This travelling company is coming to Rye because they felt the town ought to be a suitable setting for a play about pirates - they are doing it again in Portsmouth early in May, presumably on the same basis! The leaflet says "Where is a woman's place - on the hearth or the high seas? The Weaker Vessel, a musical drama based on the life of Anne Bonny, the famous woman buccaneer, plays with the questions and the answers. Pirates and petticoats, swordfight and song - in the battle of the sexes, whose side are you on?" It is a pity that they have chosen two nights already busy in the town, but at least there is no competition for the Saturday matinee.
Rae Festing, back from the Far East, has been catching up on local news and only heard recently about the flag-day problems in the town. She asks us to say that the doorstep at 11 High Street is always available for a good cause which has been denied an official street collection - as the RAFA found last year. She will be happy to lend it to them again, and also to Mencap - anyone else with the same problem should get in touch with her.
Mrs. Festing went out East to pack up for her husband Conrad, whose tour of duty there has finished. Their return to Rye will be followed in due course by a container full of possessions, but Conrad is already starting consultancy work from home. Mrs. Festing's mother, Mrs. Varley, spent the three weeks of the family's absence in Rye Hospital - where she was looked after with the most loving and efficient care, with familiar faces round her and her sons near at hand.
All the people who have been complaining about the red paper napkins, which litter the town (particularly towards the end of each week) and in wet weather look like the remains of a nasty accident, will be glad to know that action is being taken. The napkins do not come from the Oasis, but from a hamburger van which parks in the Goods Yard on evenings when the disco is open. David Woodhouse, Traffic Manager at Ashford, tells us that he too has received complaints about the litter, and he is taking up the matter with the proprietor of the van.
Mr. Woodhouse also assures us that there will not be a recurrence of the problem which confronted Mrs. Gray when she went for an early train and found the station gate locked. The difficulty arose from the use of relief staff, and it certainly won't happen again. He adds that we really should not have suggested, under any circumstances, that people should walk along the line.
Easter train services: Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday as usual, Sunday service on Friday, Sunday and Monday. For our line, this means the official two-hourly winter Sunday service set out in Fixtures. You have been warned!
• Jim Fiddimore at the Iden Kennels has an attractive if somewhat boisterous springer spaniel dog, two or three years old, in need of a good home. It was found wandering at Ore, and he has been looking after it for the police. It is trained to heel, and has clean habits. If you could offer a home, please ring Mr. Fiddimore at Iden.
• ESCC Highways Department gives long notice that it will be necessary to close a section of the A259 for resurfacing work between 21 and 25 April; large machinery will be used, and as the road is very narrow there is no alternative to closure. The map shows the section of road affected as lying between Offen Farm and Lamb Farm, East Guldeford, where the road runs along the county boundary. The diversion route, which will be signposted, is via Camber and Lydd and back on to the A259 between Old and New Romney.
• This week's planning list includes a change of use from cafe to shop for the ground floor of 72 The Mint. (it closed as a cafe some time ago); and an alteration to the plan for 11 new houses at the top of New England Lane (GAZETTE no. 169) - the one beside the main road has been taken out, but the ten in the field at the back remain.
• Is Reginald Henry Cooper of Rye, who was an RAF aircraft apprentice in 1936, still around? If so, the Secretary of the RAF Halton AA Association, RAF Halton, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP22 5PG, would like to hear from him. There is to be a reunion for all ex-aircraft apprentices at RAF Halton in October, and the Association is trying to track down as many as possible before then.
• Looking anxiously for its mum or dad every time the door opens, a plump brown knitted teddy-bear is sitting on top of the leaflet rack at Rye Police Station; obviously much loved, it would like to be claimed, please (Rye 222112).
• The police press book has a tale of woe from a Military Canal fisherman who left his rods for half-an-hour on the afternoon of 15 March; when he came back, the two rods and two reels had gone.
• The Old Scholars Association newsletter contains an invitation from Mr. S. Taylor, who taught at the Grammar School from 1925 to 1930. He is now 83 and no longer drives a car, and lives in Lingfield, Surrey, where he would be delighted to be visited (ring 034 287 429 first). Is it not rather touching that someone who was only here for five years, some 60 years ago, should still remember Rye?
• Rye Young Farmers Club are using National YFC Day (Saturday, 19 April) for a piece of really admirable public service. They are mounting a spring-cleaning operation in the cattle market car park - and the very best of luck to them!
• A horse called Hansel, grazing the verge near Playden Church on Monday evening, turned out to be a contender for the Guinness Book of Records. Its rider, Geoffrey Hough, is nearing the end of a 3,000-mile ride round the coast of Britain (he has to get back to Clacton). It has taken him nine months. He is being sponsored for Age Concern, but his advance publicity is obviously non-existent! There is no Age Concern representation locally, but doubtless the Maidstone branch (5 Ashford Road) would be happy to receive donations from people impressed by Mr. Hough's enterprise. The Menzies-Sachers in Leasam Lane put him and Hansel up for the night, and waved them off Kentwards on Tuesday.
• Plenty of jumble sales coming up, for people intending to have a spring clear-out over Easter: two in the next fortnight (see back page), followed by the Scouts on Saturday, 19 April at the Scout Hut at 1.30, and on Saturday afternoon, 26th, a sale at the Community Centre to raise money for the proposed footpath/ wheelchair track from Cinque Ports Street up to the Community Centre, avoiding the problems caused by the cobbles - more about this nearer the time.
• 60 TPS pupils, including six orchestral players and 11 singers from Lower School, were among the performers at the East Sussex Schools Festival Concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 20 March; it was, we are told, a splendid occasion.
(no GAZETTE on 2 April)
WI Market, CC, 10 (instead of Good Friday)
Easter coffee morning, Red Cross, 10 (hot-cross-buns, etc.) CoSIRA information van, Rye Market, 9.30 to 4 (see below) Local History Group, business meeting, Library, 7.30
Exhibition of postcards and cigarette-cards, in aid of Scout funds, George Hotel, 10 to 5 (GAZETTE no. 170)
RH Nature Reserve work party, RH car park, 10 (and Saturday)
Ambulance Social Club jumble sale, CC, 2
Cancer Relief coffee morning, Red Cross, 10
Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30
Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
St. Mary's children's party, CC, afternoon
Old Scholars Association annual reunion, Mermaid, from 7.30
Movie Society AGM, FEC, 7.30
Methodist Church jumble sale, Methodist Hall, 2 "Farfalla" vocal quartet, St. Mary's, 7.30 (see page 6)
Term begins
Camera Club AGM and knock-out competition, FEC, 7.30
FRAG talk, "Romney Marsh wild flowers" (Breda Burt), Ockman's Lane gallery, 8
Rye WI, speaker from Potato Marketing Board (social half-hour appropriately given over to making potato prints!), FEC, 7
• CoSIRA's information van will be in Rye Market tomorrow for the benefit of people wanting to walk about business problems. Leslie Bulman, the RDA Field Officer, will also be there "to deal with more general Community Affairs issues" says the press release, which unfortunately arrived too late for last week's paper - so it is all rather short notice.
• Miss Ella Harvey asks us to say that, because she is a Council tenant, she is not allowed to give music lessons; we are sorry that we mis-stated the position when we welcomed her home from hospital last week.
• The quilt raffled at the recent WI coffee morning was won by Mrs. Pearce of King's Avenue.
• The recent Ploughman's Lunch filled the Community Centre and raised X205 for ARC.
• Two temporary teaching jobs were advertised by Rye schools on Friday: Hill House School needs a half-time teacher for the summer term, and Thomas Peacocks School a Scale 1 biology teacher from May (to cover maternity leave for Mrs. Jasper).
• Mayoring Day this year will be held on Bank Holiday Monday, 5 May.
• Rye Old Scholars won both the football and mixed hockey matches against the school on 17 March, by five goals to two in each game.
• School House at TPS is giving a trophy cupboard to the Sports Centre.
• Finally, an apology: because of the bypass story, some material has had to be left out this week. We hope to catch up on 9 April. Happy Easter!
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye, TN31 7DR (0797 222303), and printed by Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. News items for inclusion are always welcome deadline Monday afternoon (Tuesday 9 am at latest and only 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)