SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE NOW DUE. Details appeared on page 7 last week: 5.60 in CASH please, for 12 weeks to 17 December - or £7.20 (cash or cheque) for 24 weeks to 25 March 1987.
If you normally pay when your final copy of the old quarter is delivered (24 September), please have the money ready in an envelope with your name on it; for domestic reasons, next week's round may well be early and we shan't have time to linger in the course of it.
The final date for the receipt of subscriptions at 2 Cyprus Place is Friday, 26 September (to enable the Editor to deal with the receipts over the weekend before starting work on the next week's paper).
Now that we only print just enough copies for our subscribers, and no spares, we have to assume that anyone not paid up does not wish to continue with us; so if you really can't get the money to us by the 26th but do want to continue, please phone to say so - or there won't be a copy for you on 1 October.
Six Rye Sea Cadets covered themselves with glory at national level at the weekend, when they went over to Portsmouth for the finals of the Sea Cadets National Sailing Championship. Rye had done well, earlier in the year, in the District heats on Castle Water, and again at Area level at Portsmouth. But this time, out of a dozen cups awarded in the Championship, no fewer than ten came back to Rock Channel. Not all of these were for individual crews; some went to the Southern Area team of five Bosun dinghies (the class for older cadets) where the Rye boat was backed by two from Sheppey, one from Gravesend and one from the Medway Towns. But in the junior Mirror class, with only two dinghies from each Area, both the Southern entries came from Rye. Competitors from all parts of Great Britain were taking part in the Championship.
Jeremy Gray and Robert Crisp, both 17, won three of their four Bosun races and came third in the remaining one; Anthony Gray and Peter Bishop, both 14, won all three of their Mirror races; and 13-year-olds Martin Phillips and Tristan Booth, competing for the first time this year, came fifth twice (and capsized their Mirror in the third race). The competitors had berths on board HMS Kent for the weekend; all their parents went along to watch the racing. Derek Phillips tells us that the weather was quite awful, and this may have given the Rye cadets a certain advantage- it was exactly what they are used to in Rye Bay:
Francoise Claite, of Rock Channel, and Quentin Thomson were married in the rain on Saturday afternoon - the only wet-day wedding of the year so far. The photographs had to be taken inside St. Mary's, but Francoise's mother Mrs. Nichols tells us that the big window behind made a lovely setting. Francoise wore a Tudor-style dress in oyster colour, with her grandmother's veil first worn fifty years ago; her bridesmaids were her two sisters Heidi and Glenda and two cousins, who wore pink-and-white striped Laura Ashley dresses. The best man, an Army friend of Quentin's, had come over from Germany for the wedding. The reception was at Winchelsea Beach Community Hall - catering by Derek Baker, but Mrs. Nichols made the cake and Alan Webb iced it for her. The wedding is a pen-friend romance; Francoise had been working in Sutton as a nurse when there was an appeal from the troops, in the Falklands and bored and lonely, for girls to write to them. She wrote; her letter was handed to Quentin... and they will be moving into married quarters in Salisbury when they get back from their honeymoon on the Isle of Wight.
(Please, please, will brides' - or bridegrooms' - mothers tell us in advance about weddings - we would hate to leave someone out one week.)
2.
Mrs. Winifred Fannon, of Kings Avenue, died peacefully in hospital on 7 September. Mrs. Fannon, who was 87, was one of 14 children and had a family of 9, and the funeral service at St. Anthony's on Friday morning was attended by a large number of mourners. It was followed by burial in Rye Cemetery.
Rye has two WEA classes this winter: on Monday evenings at 7.30 for ten weeks from 29 September, Karen Rogers will be giving "A Beginner's Guide to Western Philosophy" - an introduction to the terms, ideas, names and history of philosophy and prominent philosophers; and on Thursday afternoons from 1.45 for 20 weeks from 2 October, Martin Ryle will be "Exploring the American Novel" - the rich and varied territory of American fiction, from Hawthorne to Saul Bellow. Both groups meet at the FE Centre, and each session lasts two hours; no need for advance booking, just turn up. For details of fees, etc., phone Mrs. Pat Brady.
Next month a number of local groups start their winter seasons. The first National Trust lecture, on miniatures, is on 2 October at the Community Centre; the first FRAG lecture, on the French sculptor Roubiliac, is at the Rye Art Gallery in Ockman Lane on 7 October, and the Friends have a social event at the Gallery on 18 October. The Museum Association's first lecture is this week (see back page). Rye Coin Club meets at the FEC on 9 October; next day, also at the FEC, Rye Natural History Society members can hear John Goodman on badgers.
Details will appear on the back-page diary in due course, and we are most grateful to the Secretaries who have sent us their programmes - which are also, of course, sent out to all their members. Rye Camera Club, about which we wrote last week, has its next talk, on photography of aircraft, on 6 October; we have not yet had the Movie Society's programme. Add to all this our two WIs, the WEA courses, and the wide range of Adult Education classes (final details shortly) - and it is absurd to say there is nothing to do in Rye!
The GAZETTE is proud to offer its congratulations to a lady regarded with both affection and respect by everyone over - shall we say 35? - who spent their junior schooldays under the State system in Rye. Seventy years ago this month, at the start of the September term 1916, 16-year-old Edie Baker was promoted from pupil to monitor, as an assistant on the staff of the school which she had just left. Two years later, after taking the appropriate examination, she was given her first solo class, teaching girls at what is now the FE Centre. In 1920 she went away to take a two-year teacher-training course, and then returned to teach in Rye for almost another 40 years until she retired - though perhaps "retired" is only technically the word, since nowadays, 26 years later, she still goes along every Thursday to keep the records at the Ferry Road baby clinic.
Miss Baker - who met and married the late Bill Hill after her retirement - has not only a treasury of memories, but also a collection of photographs spanning the story of primary education in the town over the past 70 years. Other Rye people - many of them once her pupils - must also have photographs and other souvenirs; would it be possible to hold a little exhibition one weekend, when these could be displayed? Is there perhaps a colleague of Miss Baker's, or one of her pupils, who might be willing to organise such an event? The GAZETTE would be glad to co-operate, and Mrs. Hill is willing to lend her own photographs. Anyone else who would be willing to lend should let the Editor know (but don't send the pictures yet), and we will get in touch.
Jo Kirkham and a small group of Thomas Peacocke pupils are setting up a local history research project, in an attempt to record valuable information which could well be forgotten in a few years' time. We shall have more about this later - so brush up your memories!
3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 17 September 1986
Although, as far as we know, the supermarket lease is still not signed, a very significant application has come before planning. The developers are asking for permission for a temporary advertising sign to be sited near the railway station, reading:
CROWNFIELDS - a development by Ward Holdings plc in association with British Rail Property Board
New supermarket for Gateway Foodstores
New car and coach park for British Rail
New bus garage for Hastings & District Transport
New toilets for Rother District Council.
Main contractor PA Barden & Sons Ltd., Weavering House, Grovewood Drive, Maidstone, Kent."
Gateway is a subsidiary of the huge Dee complex, and has absorbed the Fine Fare and International chains; but it was announced recently that all their stores would in future bear the Gateway name, so there is no way that we shall get our dear old International back. There are still conflicting views in the town over whether the supermarket will be an improvement or not, and Rope Walk people are very unhappy about the coach exit from the new railway park; but what will be welcomed by everyone is the last item on the lists!
It is thoughtful of Wards to retain the name of part of the site, but what a pity that they have picked the rather suburban "Crownfields" as opposed to the logical version in two words - the field behind the Crown - Crown Field.
Rother is currently advertising (not locally but in a couple of "trade" publiccations) for a manager for the Sports Centre in The Grove. Basic salary is £8,000 pa. but payment for overtime will push this up, and there are "generous relocation allowances payable in appropriate circumstances". However, Rother would very much like to appoint a local person if they can find someone suitable. "The duties include staff supervision, financial control and the promotion of the Centre to achieve maximum use" (ie. good public relations with the local community are very important, a point everyone has been making for some time). "Applicants should preferably possess an appropriate specialist qualification and should be able to demonstrate a career pattern in the provision of sports/ recreation facilities including coaching and a sound knowledge of indoor sports centre management. A minimum of three years' previous relevant experience is required" says the ad.
Note, however, the word "preferably". Rother tell us that they look at all applications for jobs and take into account other things beside paper qualifications, because they find that this often pays off quite unexpectedly.
The deadline for the return of application forms is 30 September (a week next Tuesday) - which doesn't give a lot of time. Forms and further details can be obtained from the Personnel & Management Services Officer, Rother District Council, Town Hall, Bexhill - Bexhill 216321, extension 296. If you, or a friend or relative at present living away from Rye, might be interested, contact Rother at once. We really do need someone good for this job, if the Sports Centre is to have the support, and success, it deserves.
Julia Thomas's summer playscheme was much enjoyed by the 40 or so children who attended, as well as by the four adult helpers and four sixth-formers (one from Bristol!). She is particularly pleased at the way the small group of mentally-handicapped children were able to integrate with the rest of the gang. Whether she can run the scheme again next year is doubtful, and she hopes to hold an open meeting next month to discuss its future. We shall have details in due course; but if your children enjoyed the scheme this year, please try to come along and see if you can help save it for 1987.
4.
Still smarting at the loss of their Wings Week street collection for the second year running, the Northiam & Rye Branch of the RAF Association would have liked to see more of a Rother Council presence among the guests at their wine-and-cheese party at the Town Hall on Friday (which raised £70 for RAFA funds); the only Councillor present was John Lutman from Fairlight, who as an ex-RAF man would probably have turned up anyway. Miss Connie Clark from the Hastings Branch gave the assembled company a very clear account of how the money - £m last year from the Wings Week Appeal - is spent two homes for elderly or invalid ex-RAF personnel (with a long waiting-list already, and a longer one in prospect as wartime fliers reach old age), and a great deal of work by the Association's welfare officers among those still living in their own homes. But all this cost £l.-m last year, which leaves a big gap to fill; Rother's Staff & GP Sub-Committee, please note...
This week, the RAFA begins its house-to-house collection in Rye and the villages, and on Saturday there will be collectors beside (but not actually on!) the town's streets - by kind invitation of John Pearmain of the George Hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Festing at 11 High Street, Mr. and Mrs. Conti at Casa Conti, and Mr. and Mrs. Patel at the foot of Market Road.
The Association's outing to the Duxford Air Show on Sunday was a tremendous success; the weather cleared, the displays were super, and Concorde flew over twice at the end of the show. The only problem was getting away afterwards it took the coach an hour to cover the first 200 yards!
• Vidler & Co's auction sale on Friday, 5 September, produced some very interesting prices. An unusual quantity of high-quality jewellery was well received by buyers (cultured pearl necklace £190, gold cigarette case £270, gold Omega lady's watch £145, two white gold and platimun cocktail rings set with stones, £500 and £160, and a gold brooch set with 35 diamonds £160). Silver was also popular: a pair of 1857 entree dishes fetched £575, two cream jugs £100 and a 1903 3-piece teaset £110. There was a demand for oak furniture, antique and otherwise; an antique dresser sold for £900, a refectory table for £160, a carved hall table for £105, gateleg tables for £480 and £120, a carved breakfront bookcase for £135, and a settle for £220.
Other furniture fetching good prices included, upstairs, a cast aluminium table and 4 chairs for £180, a pine kitchen table for £100 and a green-painted pine chest-of-drawers for £220; downstairs, a rosewood chiffonier embellis' 1 with mirrors and pierced brass went for £280, a walnut chest-of-drawers £410, a small but elaborate French kingwood bureau 0.200, a shaped mahogany work-table £125, a satinwood and inlaid mahogany Sutherland table £210, a Victorian dressing-table and matching wash-stand (one of two sets on offer) £130, and a mahogany chiffonier and a chest-of-drawers £140 each. A large Persian carpet sold for £190, two oval wall mirrors in pretty frames £125, an oil painting (W. Woodhouse) of fishing boats £280, a 9" Wedgewood vase £100, and - to someone planning to be busy - a cantilever toolbox containing a quantity of metalworking and engineering tools, £115. Altogether, a very good sale.
• Conservationists, who can already buy recycled notepaper from River Books, may like to know that they can now have photocopying done at Cinque Ports Stationers in a choice of three (pale) colours of recycled paper, at the same price as for plain commercial white.
• The handsome reproduction furniture produced and sold by Antiques of Tomorrow is nano longer on show in the big window of the premises opposite the Old Forge Restaurant in Wish Street; Mrs. Nabarro tells us that it turned out not to be a particularly convenient display site for the Tower Street firm. The property belongs to the Bayntuns at the Old Forge, but the lease is still in the hands of Antiques of Tomorrow, and it is they who are looking for new tenants for somewhere over 300 square feet of display space. If you think it might suit you, ring Rye 224252 in office hours for details.
5.
Once again Thomas Peacocke School PTA holds its Michaelmas Fair - on Saturday week, 27 September. This year, largely because of the Sports Centre work, the Fair takes place at Lower School, with its entrance from Ferry Road between the crossing-gates and the Queen Adelaide - or, of course, across the playing-fields from Upper School. With the help of the big classroom windows opening onto the playground, to say nothing of the Jazz Taverners perched up on their lorry, the PTA hope to create a carnival atmosphere with stalls and sideshows, contests such as bale-tossing, various displays, a pet show, and the main attraction, a parachute jump by Headcorn Parachute Club at 3.15 - followed by a display of model aircraft flyingiby Mr. Ruck from Rye Harbour.
The Fair will be opened at 2 by actor Geoffrey Chater, who lives in Iden and whose face is familiar from many television plays and series (notably, he played the suave Mr. Wyse in "Mapp and Lucia"). In the course of the afternoon, the prizes in the Grand Draw will be announced. There will be a licensed bar and other refreshments, and if the weather is at all kind it will be a most enjoyable afternoon conveniently near home for most of us.
As well as all this, with most of the PTA committee busy with the afternoon events, a brave few - indeed, we understand, a brave one, chairman Bernard Kemp - is organising a Car Boot Sale at the Upper School in The Grove from 9 am until the Fair opens at 2. Pitches cost £5 in advance or £7 on the day - not a Sunday this time, so there should be no problems. It seems possible that this will be a proper boot sale, with real people clearing out their attics into the back of real family cars - so much more fun than the commercial ones full of peripatetic market traders...
Rother's Chief Technical Services Officer, Bother Clarke, reported to the Council's Environmental Health Committee last week about possible sites for Boot Sales in the town. This first came up in June, when it had been agreed by Councillors led by our three that the Salts were not a suitable home for endless commercial sales of this kind - indeed, the Town Council has since made clear its view that such sales are not in keeping with the town's image at all, though it has no objection to genuine charitable fund-raising events.
Having consulted Mr. Robinson at Planning and Mr. Hudson at Parks & Recreation, as well as the Town Council and Conservation Society, Mr. Clarke lists possible sites (other than the Salts) for consideration and comment. Gibbet Marsh lies too wet in the winter, and is needed as a car park in the summer. Rye Town Council's Freda Gardham field is also unsuitable in winter, and the access onto the A259 would give rise to traffic difficulties in summer; the Freda Gardham School playground has the same problem of access onto the A259. This leaves, in effect, the Cattle Market and the Thomas Peacocke School playground. The Cattle Market Company would be prepared to allow a limited number of sales, held by local organisations for self-help or charitable purposes - but no commercial activities, and nothing at all between April and September (when, of
course, the Market is a flourishing car park except on market days). ESCC is leaving it to the Head to decide about the TPS playground (the report doesn't say whether it is referring to Upper or Lower, or both) - and he has told Rother that he, like the Market Company, would be pleased to consider applications from local good causes only.
So what it amounts to is that no-one wants to house commercial boot fairs. Thomas Peacocke will consider applications from good causes all the year round, the Market Company ditto but in the winter only. Applications should go direct to the school or to the Market Company, c/o Vidlers.
One possibility not mentioned is the former Farnborough yard (now Jempsons). Not too popular as a car park because of the distance from the town, would the same argument apply to its use for boot sales, commercial or otherwise, where both buyers and sellers usually arrive by car? Planning permission would be needed for such use regularly; would the A259 access again be a deterrent?
6.
• Ever since British Rail axed Rye's 8.35 and 9.15 morning trains to London in favour of the compromise 8.45, there have been complaints about the 25-minute wait at Ashford which turns the 1--hour journey into a 2-hour one, arriving at 10.40. In the course of our recent chat about electrification (GAZETTE no. 192) with the Transport Users Consultative Committee, we complained about this maddening timing. "Why not get the earlier train..." said their Mr. Gill, continuing above our expostulations "... and go via Hastings?" He explained.
Day Returns are for journeys which end after 10 am. Via Ashford, the 8.02 gets to London at 9.38 - too early. But going the other way, the 8.03 connects at Hastings with the 8.38, which zooms along the newly-electrified line to reach Charing Cross neatly outside the deadline, at 10.07! The total journey time is, of course, much the same; but going via Hastings, the early start pays a dividend of half-an-hour at the other end. (David Woodhouse at Ashford confirms that this is entirely within the rules; the fare - simply a Day Return to London - is the same.)
• While we had Mr. Gill's ear, we also complained that the useful inter-station bus from Waterloo to Euston, etc., has been taken off ("Not enough people used it", they told us when we went, encumbered with grandchild and luggage, to remonstrate about this). Mr. Gill said that all travellers from here to destinations in the Midlands and North should look at the three all-the-year round services from Ashford, which bypass London entirely (and go eventually to Liverpool or Manchester). Instead of the back-breaking trek up and down the endless staircases of the Northern Line, or expensive taxis across London, you simply go round and then change at Watford for one of the excellent connections if you don't actually want to Ls to Liverpool or Manchester. There are also three daily journeys on the same route in reverse. (But if you are checking on this with passenger information at Hastings, be very firm; they told us that we would have to start from Brighton!)
• BR's second Network Day on Saturday benefited trade as well as travellers. Rye Museum (which is staying open throughout October) had over 250 visitors, almost twice as many as expected; the Town Model takings were double those earlier in the week. At Serendipity, Tony Wills told us that trade in the shop was up by 20% and in the restaurant by 50% - in fact, they sold out of food! If this level of business was reflected in Rye's tourist trade as a whole, the town has cause to be grateful to British Rail (who can hardly be blamed for the rain!). As for travellers, a day out in London (with free underground travel) gave a saving of some £7 on the normal cost; many of the town's shoppers had come a lot further than that; and a lady of almost 80 who just went to Eastbourne was much impressed by the courtesy of her fellow-passengers, though not impressed at all by the amount of litter they left. We heard of trains so long that passengers couldn't get off at Ore at all; step-ladders were apparently produced at Rye! Full marks for the useful Journey Planner, with an underground map as well as one showing the enormous extent of Network South-East - from Weymouth to Birmingham to Peterborough to Harwich and back round the coast.
• BR's next offer is the Network Card, available to anyone from the end of this month and lasting a full year. It normally offers one-third discounts off Single, Return, Cheap Day and Savers tickets - as long as the journey is made entirely within the Network South-East area. Except at weekends, you can't travel before 10 am. There are various ancillary benefits which a careful study of the leaflet will reveal; and for those who reckon it will suit them, the card costs £10 for the year - or C6 if you use the application slip from the Network Day leaflet and enclose your C4 ticket.
STOP PRESS - a change of surgery hours
Page 7 had gone to the printer's before a second phone call from the Hastings Conservative Association reached David Cranston; they were cancelling the Ken Warren surgery booking for this morning "because there hadn't been much response". (No comment...!) The new booking is for a fortnight tomorrow, Thursday 2 October, from 3 to 4 - which allows plenty of time for local people to make appointments. So we retract the last sentence on page 7, and hope that Mr. Warren will be kept busy on the 2nd.
7.
The current list shows three comparatively minor Rye applications, and one major one. At 42 Church Square it is proposed to demolish existing outbuildings and replace them with a single-storey bathroom extension, with asphalt roof and clay-tiled walls; permission is sought for a garage within the existing parking bay at Mint Court Cottage; and Atlas Stone is asking for renewal of permission for its office building in Harbour Road.
In June, Rother turned down an application for redevelopment of the old bus garage site in South Undercliff. The Town Council had approved the application in principle, but disliked the look of the buildings depicted (18 flats, in two 3-storey blocks). The D o T objected on grounds of traffic hazard at a nasty corner; it also recalled that one of the possible bypass routes went that way, and "would therefore request that you resist any proposals to redevelop the site, whether for residential or other use, until a decision has been announced". The Planning Officer's report referred to this, and also to overdevelopment, and said that "the illustrative plans submitted are out of character with the area which is adjacent to the Rye Conservation Area" (immediately below the Gungarden).
Now Le Fevre Wood & Royle are submitting, on behalf of the same Malvern-based owner Sir JL Kennaway, a new set of plans. Again the application is in outline aly, and this time no illustrations of the finished development are provided; out it is clear that the buildings would be more domestic in character, and less reminiscient of the sea-front at Marbella. The plans show three blocks, all
with fibre-slate roofs over brick and black-stained board walls. One block is on the South Undercliff side of the site - two-storey, containing one house and two maisonettes, all with integral garages, plus a further three garages.
Between this and the first of the present South Undercliff houses is the new access to the entire site, with a fringe of trees beyond. The other two blocks, on the Rock Channel side of the site, are each three-storey but with the third storey within a mansard roof; one has three 3-bedroomed houses, and the other six 2-bedroomed flats. In the middle is a parking and amenity area. So the total development would provide 12 units rather than the original 18, with parking or garage space for 19 cars.
But what about the D o T's bypass objection, we asked Eric Le Fevre? He says that this would, of course, still apply until the route is announced; if the outline planning application is approved, it would be likely to carry a condition taking the bypass situation into account. Detailed planning permission will have to be sought in due course if work does go ahead; at this stage, the client merely wishes to establish the possibility of redevelopment. (Since the next stage has to depend on the bypass decision, it begins to seem increasingly probably that most of us won't live to see it; we must hope that Sir JLK is a very young man...!)
It is good of Ken Warren to hold occasional surgeries in Rye for the benefit of those living at this end of his constituency. It would be even better if some- one could give us all a little more notice!
Last Friday, his office rang to book the room at the Council Offices for a surgery this morning from 11.15 to 12.15. David Cranston asked us on Monday if we knew; and we were the first to tell Catherine Straker, who is the local Conservative Association secretary. The publicity seems likely to consist of the poster which Mr. Cranston was hastily doing for the window - but is this the best of ways to publicise our MP's visit, presumably made in order to give his constituents a chance to talk to him?
Both Miss Straker and the GAZETTE have protested to the Hastings CA office when this has happened on previous occasions. Their excuse would probably be that Mr. Warren's time will be taken up with pre-booked interviews, so there is no point in their bothering to contact local people; in turn, we couldn't be bothered to contact them to raise the point yet again. But could we perhaps have a surgery that is properly advertised beforehand, just occasionally?
Thursday, 18th Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10 to 4 (and Friday and Saturday)
Friday, 19th Museum Association talk "Open Air Museums" (Ralph Wood), FEC, 7.30 - members 50p, non-members 75p. See GAZETTE no. 192, but please note that this is on Friday and NOT THURSDAY as stated there.
Rye Putting League presentation of cups, etc., Granary Club, 7.30 for 8.
Saturday, 20th Rye & District Lions Annual Charity Shop, CC, 10 (all day, and on Sunday; Fixtures lists phone numbers for collection of goods for sale)
Sunday, 21st Harvest Thanksgiving (preacher, Bishop Peter of Lewes), St. Mary's, 10.30
Work party, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve (meet at Information Centre 10 or on the Reserve later, with rubber boots, spades or forks, stout gloves, lunch and binoculars)
Monday, 22nd Rye Town Council committee meetings (see TH board for details)
• The Mencap Charity Shop in The Deals raised L540 for local Branch funds. Vickie Piper is most grateful to all who gave goods for sale or bought them or lent equipment, and particularly to John Alsford for his kindness in not only lending but also rehabilitating the building they used, and to Bridgiand who arranged free insurance as their contribution to the cause.
• The auction at Winchelsea Beach on 6 September raised £500 for Rye Harbour Nature Reserve funds. Anne Yates says the Friends are specially grateful to committee member Clifford Percival, formerly of Vidlers, who not only did the selling but largely organised the sale as well.
• The Multiple Sclerosis Society's local branch offers a splendid bribe to those sponsoring the chairman, George Cumming, in the Guildford Marathon on 12 October. All sponsors get a free raffle ticket for a portable colour TV set given by Barry Rivers and the Society. Mr. Rivers has sponsor forms in his television shop in Cinque Ports Street; the draw will be on 25 October at 149 Pottingfield Road. The Branch is aiming to raise money for an ambulance.
• Having sold her guest-house, The Dutch House at Udimore Road, Tanya de Vlam will hold a moving-out sale there on Saturday and Sunday of next week, 27/28 September, starting at 10. The house, about two-thirds of the way up the hill on the right, has a very large garage, so there is no need to worry if it rains. Mrs. de Vlam looks forward to seeing all her friends that weeker. let alone passing bargain-hunters; she leaves Rye early next month.
• The Radio-3-type buskers outside the George last week were Jo Shephard (oboe) and Jane Bowler (cello) - good luck to both girls, who start this week on the prestigious music course at Lewes which only accepts musicians who have already reached a high standard and are aiming at a professional career.
• Wednesday was bottle day at the old Colebrooke warehouse on Strand Quay; endless clinking crates of empties were being transferred from its interesting depths to a lorry, in preparation for the forthcoming conversion work.
• By a curious coincidence last Friday, Rye's neighbours on both sides were featured on television: Romney Marsh in a repeat of the TVS Country Ways programme, and then Fairlight with Linda McCartney taking photographs there on BBC2. The Samuel Jeake Timewatch programme was repeated at the weekend.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7DR (0797 222303), and printed by Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon. The GAZETTE costs 30p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday. A very few spare copies and back numbers may be available at Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1986)