Trouble moved into Rye last Wednesday evening, when a group of itinerants took down the keep-out barriers to the Gas Works car park and moved in. The police arrived to point out that the barriers were there for a purpose, and murmurs of "cyanide gas" were sufficient to set the convoy on the move again. Unfortunately the police car was then summoned urgently to Pett and was not able to shepherd its flock safely over the county boundary (they are thought to have come from Eastbourne) - and as the caravans headed towards Monkbretton Bridge, a driver noticed that the gate to the Fair Salts was open. (There was, said the police, no sign that the padlock or chain had been forced.)
We went down at about l0pm to have a look. There were a dozen caravans grouped together at the river end of the Fair Salts, plus five lorries and a couple of cars and a noisy generator. A truculent young man objected to our taking an innocent evening stroll on public land, and threatened us with his mother, but despite our expressed enthusiasm to speak to this lady he didn't produce her. Instead, we were entertained by two little girls, aged apparently 8 and 9, who asked what we were writing; when we showed them, they said they had never been to school and couldn't read or even write their names. However, they obviously constituted themselves the guardians of the colony. "If you're not out of this field in five minutes, missis, set me dog/me gran on you!" - this terrifying threat was mitigated by the gate being within ten paces of where the conversation was taking place... They then picked up gravel from the path and threw it in a symbolic sort of way at your industrious reporter, and announced that they had already wrecked the toilets (not true, as it turned out) and were about to spread litter all over the Salts. In view of this, we hesitated to suggest that perhaps it was time they were in bed, but simply departed to our own.
On Thursday morning Rother sprang into action - backed by the Town Council, some of whose members had not appreciated an encounter with the van people in the course of a tour of inspection of the river-bank the previous evening. Staff members with a police escort served formal notice to the caravan owners that they would have to move; those who did not open their doors had the document taped firmly to the outside of the van. The legal department started on the paperwork to secure a court injunction to be served on Friday morning. If the caravans then did not depart - and they were not expected to - the owners were to be summonsed to appear before the magistrates on Monday.
But the unexpected did happen. An advance party moved off the Salts on Friday afternoon, and just before 6 pm the remaining nine vans were hitched to their assorted cars and lorries and a slow cortege turned out into South Undercliff. It was heading, the police told us, for a car park in Battle where on a previous visit it had been made slightly less unwelcome than it was here. So the ball is still in Rother's court - or was on Monday - but for the time being no longer in Rye's.
On Saturday morning, a Rother officer was on the Salts early, brazing on the hinge fittings of the gate and checking the padlock and chain. The Council has written to the proprietor of the ice-cream van asking her to make sure that the gate is locked. However, our enquiries at the van revealed that neither the driver who was there on Thursday and Friday, nor the driver who was there on Saturday, was the driver who had been there on Wednesday and whose job it was to make sure that the gate was firmly padlocked when he left. Does such a very swift staff turnover really inspire confidence in the locking-up arrangements?
Rother is still considering opening the Salts for parking if necessary (while the Gas Works park is closed) - for alternatives, see page 3.
2.
Mr. Peter Shepherd, MSAAT, of Winchelsea Beach, died in Guy's Hospital on 17 July after four weeks of acute illness and many years spent fighting against ill-health. He was 52. Mr. Shepherd joined the staff of Le Fevre Wood & Royle twenty years ago as an architectural technician; he became a partner in 1980, and Eric Le Fevre told us how greatly he will be missed, both as a member of the practice and as a personal friend of all those who worked there. Mr. Shepherd took a full part in the work of the firm, and was personally responsible for over 25 Anglia offices in the south-east and indeed as far away as Poole; he was in charge of the original conversion of Longs tea-room into the Hastings & Thanet (later Anglia) office, and years later supervised the transformation of Millers into the building society's present premises. Much of the detailed work on Meryon Court was his, and he was also involved in the two schemes on the Tilling Green Estate for which Le Fevre Wood & Royle were responsible in the early 1970s. A lifelong member of the Baptist Church, he was greatly valued locally - not only for his professional guidance for the alterations in Rye recently, but also for work at Bexhill and Rochester churches. He had been a Deacon at Rye, and Chairman of the Diaconate during the interregnum before Mr. Davison arrived; he was a Sunday School teacher and ran a church youth club. Stuart Davison spoke of the loss to the life of the church, and added "Peter was the sort of person who was always there with a screwdriver when there was a job to be done". Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd both came from Orpington, and were married in the Baptist Church there 29 years ago. Their many friends will wish to offer deepest sympathy to Marion and Andrew, Timothy and Joanna. The funeral takes place at Rye Baptist Church tomorrow (Thursday) at 2.30; flowers or a donation to the RNLI may be sent in Peter's memory.
Dame Ruth Buckley, who died recently, had been a distinguished participant in local affairs in East Sussex. As County Council representative on the Board of Governors of Thomas Peacocke School, she was for some years its chairman, and was held in great respect by her fellow-members. John Smith, the present chairman, and headmaster Ray Fooks attended her funeral at Dallington on Friday.
A reader asks us to remark on the flowers in Lion Street this year; he does not ever remember it looking quite so pretty before. He is quite right, of course - and private houses as well as businesses are contributing to the effect there, with one of the Town Hall baskets just visible at the top. But other streets are in flower, too: Wish Ward is certainly worth a detour, and as usual Ockman's Lane is a mass of colour - in fact, once you start looking, there are baskets and tubs and window-boxes visible all over the town, and we are all grateful to those who take the trouble to provide them for everyone's delight.
The Brownies helped - indeed, helped for eight weeks, picking up litter from Church Square and the Gun Garden every Thursday afternoon after school in the course of working for a badge.
Peter Howlett, secretary of the Conservation Society, helped: he collected 14 sacks full of rubbish from the Landgate Square/railway footbridge/Rye Hill area, and as much again between the Agricultural Hall and the station footpath. He was pretty pleased with his handiwork - until he went back 24 hours later and found that another lot had appeared!
Ten days ago your Editor picked up two sacksful of rubbish in the Goods Yard car park, leaving it clear except for the long-grass areas, on Saturday evening at about 7. Next morning at 9 it took her 20 minutes to collect the previous night's crop of food wrappers, cans, bottles and cigarette packets - the prize specimens were a lacy suspender-belt and a pair of stockings: On Monday morning we just glanced round - there were fewer beer-cans and wrappers, but two newly-deposited disposable nappies lying on the ground. What sort of person is that baby going to grow into, with parents like that?
3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 23 July 1986
Motorists may not yet have discovered that the car park at ex-Farnborough (on Winchelsea Road just the Hastings side of the sluice - and nowadays, of course, Jempsons) is open to the public whenever the chap in charge reckons that the trade will stand it: maybe not on a wet Tuesday, but certainly on a Thursday or Saturday and indeed every day during the school holidays. The all-day charge is 50p for cars and £5 for coaches. There is access for pedestrians via Farm Lane on the town side of the site, so they can avoid the main entrance and still find themselves heading for the shops without having to cross the A259.
The other park with pedestrian access to the Strand is Gibbet Marsh, opposite the Estate entrance at the foot of the Udimore Road hill. Those who complain that it is a long way out of the town may not be aware that the footpath over the railway brings them to the Strand in about two minutes - though British Rail's kissing-gate on the sluice side of the railway line is a snag sometimes discovered too late by people with pushchairs. Both Rother and the Town Council have been asking British Rail for ages to replace it with a hand-gate (we hardly like to point out that a similar problem on the Mill footpath was solved when someone apparently threw the kissing-gate into the river...)
The Rope Walk car-park, the property of the Cattle Market Company, is of course closed on Thursdays (30p all day, the rest of the week) - but on Thursdays Edward Mills opens up his field at the far end of Love Lane, and clearly enjoys the enthusiastic feedback he gets from customers, many of whom are now regulars looking forward to a picnic in the field after their Market shopping.
All this means that drivers coming into Rye who are willing to walk quite a short distance rather than attempt to park in the centre of the town should have no problems in finding space - and maybe Rother won't then feel the need to unlock the Salts and risk the return of our unwelcome visitors (see front page).
As for the Gas Works car-park, Mr. Clarke tells us that the soil samples are now being analysed; its reopening will depend on what is found, and what action has to be taken in consequence.
Rye Sports Centre's new management committee held its first meeting last week. The members are Joan Yates (East Sussex CC); John Cawdron, Pauline Tomich and L. Guilmant of Bexhill (Rother District Council); Frank Palmer (Rye Town Council); and Margaret Marshall of the Thomas Peacocke PE Department (School Governors). One ESCC representative has still to be appointed, so a chairman has not yet been chosen.
Rother is looking at an opening date at the end of this year, and the paid jobs are likely to be advertised in September or October; we shall hope to have the details then. As well as part-time jobs in the bar and elsewhere, there will be three full-time jobs: the Manager, who will be involved in promotion as well as in the general running of the Centre, his Recreation Assistant, and a manual-grade Supervisor.
The Sports Centre walls have now risen almost to their full height - indeed, as one knitter put it, the builders are beginning to cast off at one ends
At the Rye WI meeting earlier this month, Mrs. Wakefield embellished her talk on "Victoriana" with items from her own collection. Sheila Dee and Joyce Clark were congratulated on completing a sponsored ten-mile walk in aid of WI funds. A Mystery Drive to Herstmonceaux Castle, the September attraction, sounds like a contradiction in terms - but Jeanne Freeman says the Mystery is where they will be having teas!
Landgate WI had a beautiful day last Wednesday for their garden meeting in Pat Ciccone's gorgeous garden; the meeting brought them several new members. There will be no meeting in August, but a picnic is to be held on the Salts for members' children. The next full meeting will be on 17 September at the Community Centre as usual.
4.
• Twice in the past two years we have made rather half-hearted noises about taking ads in the GAZETTE - half-hearted, because the Editor was daunted by the extra work involved. Quite undaunted is Francis Rook of Cinque Ports Stationers, who reckons that a slipped-in advertising sheet with a number of different ads on it would be interesting and useful (and, we hope for his sake, reasonably lucrative). This will be Francis's venture, not ours, so he is the person to talk to (call at the shop at the foot of Needles Passage) - but we are quite sure that his professional approach and commercial back-up will produce something that the GAZETTE will be proud of. If there is enough interest, the new sheet is likely to appear for the first time in September or October. We would remind potential advertisers that although we only print somewhere over 400 copies, they are passed so widely from hand to hand and family to family well beyond the boundaries of the town that the readership must amount to several thousand, all people with local interests.
• A new shop opened in The Mint at the weekend: The Black Sheep at no. 72 (just uphill of The Mint Arcade). Sandra Parker is an ex-schoolteacher - only just ex, since her final term ended on Friday! - and has been in charge of a unit for disruptive children in London, as well as working for a degree in psychology. (Her partner and fiance Rudi is going to be teaching sociology in Ashford.) We feared that she might find keeping a wool-shop in Rye boring after such a strenuous educational career, but Sandra says not, and certainly hers is a very interesting woolshop. She has a good range of Lister, Pingouin and Avocet wools, and can order any which aren't stocked; she also sells hand-knitted jumpers, and even some unusual jewellery to go with them. As well, she has knitting needles, plenty of patterns, and some pretty buttons including, we noticed, a black sheep or two! The shop will be open every day during the summer, probably shutting on Tuesdays in the winter.
• Conservationists who like to use recycled material but haven't fancied writing letters on brown paper really ought to call at River Books in Lion Street and see Anne Hamilton's selection of Traidcraft paper and envelopes. The pads come in A4 and A5 sizes, and the colours include white, cream, two blues and green. The catalogue offers a range of other papers (including copier and duplicator papers, and even loo-rolls), all recycled and at competitive prices. Traidcraft is primarily a marketing organisation for Third World products, and the company is worried about the deforestation of tropical areas - save the trees, they say, and help the people who need them.
• There must have been some dreamers standing outside the Central Garage last week: not just one splendid Rolls but two were on view. The Queen-Mary-type Rolls 20 in the showroom was built to Malcolm Campbell's own specification in 1926, and was in his family for 54 years; Tim Ledger bought it at a Christie's auction and has been doing it up, and it is already bespoken by a private collector in Eastbourne. However, the classic Silver Cloud II is still available (or was on Friday); supremely elegant, in two-tone green with leather upholstery, it dates from the 1960s and was once owned by Dame Edith Evans. (Although it was parked next to a saucy scarlet Citroen 2CV, it is no good expecting Tim to consider a trade-in unless you have something quite amazingly special to offer him - the asking price would keep you in 2CVs for a lifetime...)
• Wanting to share in the Carnival spirit, Boots in the High Street are running a colouring competition for under-8s, with £2 vouchers for the five best efforts - leaflets to be coloured are available from the shop now. There are also to be attractions for the over-8 customer (including the over-18s, and indeed the over-80s for that matter) - come and find out exactly what is on offer at the shop on Friday of next week and Carnival Day itself.
• A new face at the monthly Craft Market is that of Mary Bartholomew of Udimore Road (who uses her daughter Lucy's name for the business). Mrs. Bartholomew has a knitwear stall, and she also takes special orders - she can be contacted at The Mint Arcade where she and her husband have the postcard stall.
5.
• Considering it was put together in a couple of weeks after the staff industrial action ended, the Thomas Peacocke School Summer Evening of drama, dance and music on Tuesday was quite remarkable. Lower School opened the show with piano solos by Joanna Hollands and Elliott Warner, a flute solo by Laura Epton and a song from the Music Group; Lower School pupils presented two Classical Studies plays written by the performers (or their mates), and the Dance Group gave a fuller version of the presentation we saw on Prize Day - an amalgam of ' pseudo-TV ads, with some splendid moments. The Third Year Play "Star Wreck" was also, we suspect, written by the actors, with lots of jokes and almost no action; the Third and Fourth Year Play "Ernie's Incredible Illucinations" was considerably more complicated and mature, with a good performance from the unnamed Ernie and some ingenious stage effects in a Walter-Mitty-type story. Upper School Music closed the evening: Graham Slack gave a piano solo, Joanna Shepherd played the oboe, the two National Youth Choir members (Catherine Collison and Rebekah Smith) sang Vivaldi, and there were pieces by the Brass Group and the Wind Band.
• We were sorry to have missed "Find Me" the previous evening, but are told it was an impressive performance, though the choice of play was a little depressing. It was well received by a comfortable-sized audience.
Two more very satisfactory degrees have been won by ex-TPS pupils: Mark Griffin has been awarded a 2.1 in Geography from North London Polytechnic, and musician Rowena Wilson has a 2.1 in her B.Ed. degree from Alsager College in Derbyshire - readers may remember Rowena and her friend Diana Sanders busking in the High Street a couple of summers back (Diana has a further year at college).
• This year the summer newsletter has a new format - letters from the Head and the PTA are stapled in with the dates lists under an eye-catching cover (with a tear-off "I-have-received-it" slip for parents to sign and return). So all parents should already be aware that the PTA's Michaelmas Fair takes place on 27 September; it will be opened by the distinguished actor Geoffrey Chater, who lives in Iden (and played the part of Mr. Wyse in the recent "Mapp & Lucia" series). There will be a Boot Fair in the school car park in the morning.
Overall numbers in the school are declining (temporarily only, we are told there is another "bulge" on the way), and there are likely to be 160 first-year pupils as against 240 ten years ago. But sixth-form numbers are at a record high level, and staff and pupils have been reorganising the sixth-form area to prepare for this. In all the school is expected to have about 1,200 pupils in September.
Five new staff members will start next term, but Mr. Bishop (still recovering from his accident) and Mrs. Jasper (on maternity leave) will be missing from the staffroom for a while, and Mr. Fooks reports difficulty in finding temporary replacements. Another difficulty is in having any redecoration done; here parents have helped out before, and he would be glad to hear from any who are willing to do so again. Parental help would also be appreciated in the library in the afternoon - and if anyone has any old sheets suitable for dyeing, or wool for embroidery and weaving, Miss Bean or Mrs. Whiting would be glad of such benefactions next term.
Despite the industrial troubles, school outings have still taken place. The Head led a field trip to Arran at Easter; over half-term, there was a history visit to the Low Countries; the May exchange with French pupils at Bourg-en-Bresse went ahead again. In July chemistry students went to study the Cornish mining industry, and there was an outdoor pursuits trip to the Lake District. All this was in addition to various day trips in the course of the term.
Next term begins on Tuesday, 2 September; half-term is the last week in October, and the school breaks up on Friday, 19 December. Spring Term starts on Wednesday, 7 January, and ends on Friday, 10 April, with half term the last week in February.
6.
One of the Rural Development Area projects in the 1985/6 list was a feasibility study of the various marina/moorings proposals for Rye Harbour; this was then expected to start in 1985, at a cost to the Development Commission of 010,000. A press release from ESCC last week announced that consultants have now been appointed "to carry out a feasibility study of Rye Harbour and come up with a set of firm proposals for new or improved marina facilities at Rye" and "to produce proposals which are both technically feasible and financially viable and yet totally sympathetic to the unique nature of the surrounding area". The project is jointly funded by ESCC, Rother, SWA and the Development Commission; the consultants are LRDC International Ltd., and the contact there is Dr. Cox, at Half Moon House, High Street, Haslemere.
Dr. Cox is inviting local groups and individuals to give him their views. Doubtless the sailing organisations and the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve will be doing so, as will Icklesham Parish Council - and also Camber, since North Point (one of the possible sites) is in that parish. The other two main sites are the Sailing Club's saltmarsh to seaward of the club-house (in fact, the Club's proposal for the SWA's saltmarsh, to be strictly accurate) and the much more elaborate development involving housing and shops as well, half-way along Rye Harbour Road. Moorings in Rock Channel will be ancillary to the housing and boatel development about which we last wrote in GAZETTE no. 181. The SWA's own proposal for moorings above Monkbretton Bridge seems to have sunk without trace.
Incidentally, the barge dug into the bank where Rock Channel meets the Rother is an ingenious way of providing dry-dock facilities for local yachtsmen, the bright idea of Seawitch Marine.
• The current list shows Alsfords applying to erect a vehicle maintenance building at their wharf premises in Harbour Road; the application doesn't give the measurements conveniently (for some reason, Rother's form doesn't ask for them) and the plans were so formidable that we couldn't face hunting through them. Those interested will have to look for themselves - but it doesn't appear to be a very large building by the standards of the warehouse complex. Other applications are for alterations to the parapet and roof, etc., of 4 Wish Ward; an amended plan for 25 Udimore Road - this time a single-storey granny annexe; and a very considerably amended plan for the Tollgate Garage site. The first plan had been for 32 flats in pairs of two-storey houses dotted round the site, with 11 parking spaces - Mr. Chantry felt that this was enough, since the flats were intended as sheltered housing for elderly people. However, Rother did not agree, and the new plan shows 28 flats arranged in one L-shaped terrace round the road corner of the site, with 38 parking spaces on the river side and space for sitting-out in between. As before, access is in the corner opposite the sluice cottage.
• George Shackleton was delighted when he saw Mrs. Anne Moore's letter to the Policy and Resources Committee of Rother (GAZETTE no. 186). He also was aware of the problem, which applies not only to the Hatleys tenants but to others in various new and planned starter units. He is on the committee and she is not, so he formally proposed that the Council's officers should report to the next meeting with details of a possible scheme, and with the support of other Councillors this recommendation was carried.
• Councillor Shackleton is also a member of the Staff and General Purposes Committee, which considered the report on the waterproofing of the Ypres Tower (also GAZETTE no. 186). He had done his homework with the Museum Association beforehand, and knew the background; and he proposed that this time the work should be done by someone with experience of lived-in monuments (the D o E, as he pointed out, knows a lot about preserving ruins, but seemed to have slipped up here). The matter has therefore been deferred for enquiries into the various specialist firms in this field.
7.
Rye may not realise how very lucky the Easton Rooms are still to have the annual Graham Clarke exhibition. Graham's work is now in demand all over the world, but he has been showing in Rye since 1971 and is not abandoning us now. If he were not a painter, it seems likely that he would be earning a good living writing comedy series for television; not only are his pictures witty in themselves, but they appear with notes amplifying the action, which would be well worth reading even if the pictures weren't there at all! This year's offering includes a dozen of the 18 pictures in his History of England:: all the classic bits are there, from the building of Stonehenge onwards, and we were strongly reminded of the frivolous spirit of "1066 and All That". There are also some jolly studies of village craftsmen outside their premises; two harbour scenes - with part of the sale price going to the Jubilee Sailing Trust; a Noah's Ark triptych; and a great many more - all prints in limited editions except for a solitary watercolour (in the window). Allow plenty of time if you want to enjoy the full flavour of this show.
Upstairs in the Craft Gallery, Tony Foard shows ceramics - work in raku with lustre and crackle glazes. At first glance, this seemed a sombre display, but the black inverted-mushroom pots were puddled with glinting metallic surprises, and the contrast between the matt raku and the shining glaze was even stronger where the light caught the plates hanging on the walls. These are not priced for a pie-and-chips supper, but would be an ornament to any room; the pots we were less happy about - they seemed to be looking nervously at elbows and handbags which could so easily tip them over...
It was not enterprising vandals, but Burnhams who removed the weather-vane from its pinnacle on top of the St. Mary's spire on Friday; they were bringing it down for inspection and repair as part of the work being done on the fabric of the church (GAZETTE nos. 174 and 180). The weather vane is dated "A(nna) R(egina) 1703", and Ralph Wood, who is in charge of the work, was pleasantly surprised to find the ironwork in such good condition after nearly 300 years of salt gales.
The vane's absence means that the scaffolding platform is now unencumbered, and we left Ralph trying to lure the Rector and Churchwardens up there for a group photograph - with himself as Church Architect holding the camera.
Two of Rye Town Council's committees are glad of help from non-Councillors. The Bequests Committee, which administers a handful of charitable funds and runs the annual party for over-70s, has several invaluable members who are not on the Council but without whom the committee would be at a loss to function. The Safety Committee exists to keep an eye on safety in the town - public as opposed to domestic, and therefore primarily traffic hazards. Its membership includes representatives of Rye-based organisations who feel they may have a contribution to make to its discussions; the Town Clerk tells us they would like more groups to be represented - if yours is not, you might like to talk to Mrs. Scammell at the Town Hall (Rye 223902).
A burglary at Rye Station on the night of 13/14 July resulted in the loss of £1,226 in cash. There were no further details in the press book - and neither Rye nor Ashford station staff were prepared to comment... Another theft from Rye Station, on the afternoon of 14 July, left the owners of a red holdall short of some £80-worth of personal effects; and personal possessions were also stolen from Camber Beach on 13 July between 8 and 8.30 am. The press book shows several thefts from vehicles over the past couple of weeks; vandals damaged one of the Cinque Ports Streets bollards, £20-worth of copper piping was stolen in New Winchelsea Road, but whoever broke into Lower School on 16/17 July apparently left empty-handed.
Friends of Rye Art Gallery summer party (members only), 7.30
Rye WI Summer Fair, Town Hall, 10 to 12
Craft Market, 11 to 5
Liberal Party garage jumble sale, 139 Pottingfield Road, 1
Open gardens in Church Square, for FRAG funds, 2 to 6, teabavailable (GAZETTE no.186)
WRVS Lunch Club, CC, 12.30
St. John Ambulance jumble sale, Conduit Hill HQ, 6.30
Local History Group (business meeting), Library, 7.30
• Welcome back to two Rye residents of long standing, who returned from hospital to neighbouring Church Square houses last week: Dr. Alec Vidler, who has spent some days in Rye Hospital, and Patric Dickinson, who underwent a hip operation in Hastings.
• Congratulations to Rose-Anne, Maison Fleur, Adams, Penny Royal and Squirrels, whose Royal Wedding windows caught our eye on Monday. Doubtless there are others we missed; please tell us, so that we can record them next week.
• The final total collected in Lifeboat Week is £2,350, and Joan Parkes is most grateful to all her collectors, those who stood in the street and those who knocked on doors - and, of course, the people who gave the money.
• If you missed the "Rye in December" programme on TVS when it was first shown last year, there is a second chance to see it on Friday morning at 11.30 on ITV in the "About Britain" nationally-networked series.
• There will be a street collection on Saturday for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
• At Rye Baptist Church on Sunday, four adults were received into the church including a mother, father and daughter being baptised together.
• Ken Warren, MP, was featured on BBC4's "In Committee" programme on Sunday night, in his capacity as Chairman of the Trade and Industry Committee which is looking into the crisis in the tin industry as it affects Cornwall.
• Bowls: Rye lost to Fairlight on 12 July, but won on the 16th at home to Pett and also on the 20th away to Battle.
• After its very successful half-term scheme, Mallydams, the RSPCA field study centre at Fairlight, is running another series of day courses for children aged 8 to 11. There is one on most weekdays from 4 to 28 August; each day costs £1 and runs from 10 to 3. For further information - and to book, which is essential - ring Hastings 812055 during the day. (Agreed, this isn't in our area - but they are borrowing the TPS minibus, so it counts as local!)
• True to his word, Mr. Trundle of Rye Hill has removed all the barbed wire in Deadman's Lane (except for the top strand, so care is still necessary) and replaced it with a less dangerous form of fencing.
• Dedicated travellers John and Phyllis Smith want to pay tribute to British Rail, for a change. Using their railcards and then a Scotland Rover ticket, they spent a fortnight covering 2,436 miles from Rye back to Rye - and it cost them just 4p a mile each!
• Julia Thomas's playscheme started on Monday. Today there is to be a party at Leasam for the Royal Wedding - the only one in Rye, as far as we know?
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. Deadline is Monday afternoon for each week's issue, delivered to subscribers and pick-up points in the town on Wednesday. The paper costs 30p, and spare copies and back numbers may be available from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1986)