On Sunday morning Lochin Marine handled their biggest boat ever. Built by R. Wright & Son of Poston, Derbyshire, the 47' steel hull had been on the road since Thursday. She was delivered to Rock Channel at 8.30 by Lochin Marine's regular transport contractors, specialists Phoenix Marine from Hailsham - and would have arrived even earlier if the Ferry Road level crossing had not been shut when it was supposed to be open. Waiting for her was a big Coles crane from Ashford, with the Lochin staff whose job it was to ease her passage into one of the two vast hangar-style workshops.
Everything went off beautifully. Frank Nichols is full of praise for the enthusiastic co-operation Lochin received throughout the undertaking praise for the police all along the route, and in particular for the Rye officers; praise for the drivers of the lorry and crane, whose fingertip control amazed the bystanders; and praise for the neighbours for their forbearance.
If the operation has taken place in normal working hours, no cars should have been parked along the approach road anyway (see Inspector Legg's warning about this in GAZETTE no. 194); but since the single yellow line does allow parking on the Salts side at night and weekends, a special warning notice had been put up to keep cars out of the area while the outsize delivery took place. Diversion signs guided Rock Channel traffic round the back of the Lochin buildings until the road was clear again.
Mr. Nichols is specially grateful to Duncan Grant, whose kindness in allowing the use of the loading-bay at the back of his fish-processing building meant that the big artic could sit sideways across the road, with the hull in the right position for the crane to lift.
Once the lorry (which lingered to deal later with another Lochin load) was clear, leaving the boat swinging high in the air above the road, an enjoyably low-tech process took over. The builders of Stonehenge are thought to have used timber rollers to move their monoliths; Lochin substituted greased planks under the heavy steel cradle as it slid out to receive the hull and was then winched cautiously back, inch by inch, through the doorway.
In about ten months' time the hull will leave Rye as ,a fully-fitted-out Tyne-class lifeboat. Until then she will be providing work for ten or more of Lochin's skilled workforce, and it is hoped that a second hull will arrive in a few months - and then, perhaps, another...? This is the firm's second major RNLI contract; the first was for the twelve Brede-Class lifeboats, with fibreglass hulls, designed and built entirely at Lochin in conjunction with the RNLI technical staff.
When anyone down at Rock Channel can spare the time for a briefing, we hope to tell readers something more about the Bredes and the other boats which go from Rye all over the world. One, almost ready, is a fishing-boat which will be working out of - would you believe? - Boulogne!
Matthew Wilkinson of Udimore Road is a pupil at Thomas Peacocke School - and a very promising cricketer. This summer he was chosen to play for the Sussex Schools Under-13 team for its tour of Jersey; next summer offers an even more exciting prospect. Matthew - who suffers from asthma, but doesn't let it bother him - has been picked for the Under-14 team to tour Barbados for three weeks! As far as Matthew's parents Michael and Nicola know, this is the first time, anyway for many years, that a Rye schoolboy has earned such an honour - and earned is the word; Matthew has worked hard for this. (So, of course, have his parents, who have to act as a taxi service all over the county.) Congratulations to the whole family, and good luck to Matthew.
2.
• After a recent meeting with a delegation from Rope Walk and Eagle Road, Ken Warren, MP, has written to the Chief Executive of Rother about the proposed coach exit into Rope Walk from the railway car park, and the traffic problems in the area generally. One suggestion is that if Landgate were to revert to two-way traffic, the congestion in Deadman's Lane would vanish, since it is caused by people coming down Rye Hill seeking to avoid the long way round into the town; a traffic count taken on 14 July (a Monday) showed over 1000 vehicles a day using the lane. Mr. Warren was also shown proposals for an altered layout for the coach parking "made by a professional coach operator who certainly seems to know what he is talking about". Our MP asks Mr. Powell to review the situation "and let me know what can be done to deal with what will otherwise become a very difficult and dangerous problem for people in Rye". We await developments.
• Monkbretton Bridge is now in effect free of the painters - certainly free of the scaffolding, with only a little tidying-up still to be done. It looks extremely classy now, painted in a light stone colour which shows off the structure without being obtrusive. Many thanks, ESCC; it took time, but it was worth it.
• From a large bridge to a small footpath: Ralph Olesen hopes that the footpath beside Devonport House, from the road to the Community Centre, will be done by Christmas. He expects the contractor, a small Battle firm, to start work early in December.
• As for the cobbles, Mr. Olesen is aware of the public concern about them and the top-of-the-town road surfaces generally. Some of the problems are simple wear-and-tear, some are due to the activities of the public utility companies (the Gas Board helpfully put back the Mermaid Street cobbles without finding out the proper way to do it). Mr. Olesen is hoping to set up a small contract for a rolling programme of repairs to the cobbled areas, with an annual survey pinpointing what needs to be done; this would include such places as the paved area at the top of West Street, which seems to have sunk recently. The tarmac "puddles" in Mermaid Street will be dealt with as part of this programme.
• Finally, a commendation to SE Recovery Services, summoned to a lorry whose clutch packed up just as it was rounding Bannister's Corner on Wednesday. We watched them tow it away: the proceedings, from arrival to departure, took approximately four minutes!
TPS PTA made a profit of approximately £1,500 from the Michaelmas Fair; thank-you donations have gone to St. John Ambulance Brigade, Rye Fire Brigade and the Coastguard Service, who all turned out to help, and also to Leasam House in gratitude for the help from the boarders.
TPS parents have elected two new Parent Governors to the school's Governing Body, to serve until the end of August 1988. The full list reads:
Appointed by East Sussex County CouncilMr. John Smith, of Rye
Mrs. Anne Wood, of Icklesham
Mrs. J. Roxburgh, of Salehurst
Mrs. Joan Yates, of Rye
Mr. Will Dunlop, of Pett
Mr. Brian Champion, of Rye
Mrs. Pauline Tomich, of Rye
Mr. John Cawdron, of Rye
Parents: Mrs. Anne Collins and Mr. Roland Hunt, both of Northiam
Teachers: Mrs. Joan Nunn and Miss Margaret Marshall
Co-optative (chosen by the other Governors)
Mr. John Lutman of Fairlight Mr. Geoff Wickenden, of Pembury
Mrs. Janet Glazier, of Hastings (ex-Leasam boarder).
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 15 October 1986
We all associate peat fires with Ireland; but maybe mediaeval Ryers also heated their homes in this way? Certainly there is more peat around Rye nowadays than might be supposed...
When we asked William Ellis, who are building the Sports Centre, how deep the foundations were going, they explained that they would be wide and shallow so as not to break through the clay crust into the peat below. Rother Council adopted the opposite approach in Ferry Road, and will be drilling down 100ft to reach the basic bedrock. In the Goods Yard and Rock Channel, the drills hit bottom at lesser depths; but the workmen still found plenty of peat en route to load into bags for their gardens.
Now peat turns out to be the trouble in Cooper Road. After last week's Housing Committee meeting the Chief Housing Officer has issued a press release setting out the story so far:
"During an inspection of a vacant property in Cooper Road, it was found to be suffering from severe subsidence. As other dwellings in the road were also showing some indication of a similar problem, a survey was undertaken on this part of the estate to establish the possible cause. The survey report gave details of ground conditions including the presence of peat deposits at relatively shallow depths. The conclusions drawn were that these conditions have contributed to movement of the structure. Further investigation is being undertaken to establish to what extent the buildings are defective."
Mr. Catt hopes to be able to put the result of this investigation before the Housing Committee when it next meets on 10 November, when the whole matter will be discussed.
Twice last week local London-bound travellers missed their connection at Ashford. On Wednesday the 11.08 from Rye was the culprit, on Friday the 10.08. The 11.08 had arrived at Rye three minutes late, which wouldn't have mattered if it hadn't then sat outside Ashford for a further five; the 10.08, as far as its passengers knew, was running on time.
So what happened, we asked David Woodhouse at Ashford? A signal failure at Appledore may have accounted for one delay. There is normally, says Mr. Woodhouse, no problem with the regular.08 connections which are supposed to arrive at Ashford at .32 to catch the fast leaving at .39. The fast is not held unless the train on our line is actually coming into the station when the whistle is due to blow - in which case the fast does wait, but passengers have to sprint very briskly across the platform. If the Rye train is more than seven minutes late, the connection will have left without it. For this to happen twice in three days is really rather a nuisance.
Two signal failures within a week don't inspire confidence, either. When we spoke to Harry Holt about the crossing-gate hold-up on 4 October, he told us that the new signalling system was not yet in use. But, as an Ashenden Avenue resident points out, BR has taken down the old "arm" signal by the Gibbet Marsh crossing, and particularly on foggy mornings people need to be extra careful now to look and listen for an oncoming train before venturing onto the line.
BR's winter timetable, now in operation, only affects our line on a Sunday when the trains go back to running two-hourly each way (Hastings 429325).
As for the buses, everything is due to change dramatically on Monday, 26 October when the bus companies go private. The no.12 route, via Iden to Tenterden, will be operated by Fuggles. Timetables are now printed, and will be available from the Council Offices and elsewhere; travellers will require three (County Rider, Fuggles and Hastings & District) if they want to be fully informed on all routes out of Rye.
4.
You don't believe it? In fact there are two, part of the terrace which curves round the corner from the Town Hall and came to Rother, with other Rye Borough property, at the time of the 1974 handover. One house is empty; the other is so lacking in amenities that the Housing Officer lists more than £9,000-worth of work needed to bring it up to standard. No bathroom, no indoor loo, and the roof will need re-doing within the next few years... So Mr. Catt's recommendation to the Housing Committee that the Grade II Listed council-house should be sold on the open market was accepted. If Council agrees, the tenant will be invited to move to more comfortable accommodation next door, and someone looking for a Conservation Area cottage with scope for imagination will have a lovely, if expensive, time!
Rye seems to be full of young poets. "Book Quest", the magazine of the Brighton Poly Literacy Centre for Sussex Schools, recently ran a poetry competition, and the winners are announced in the current issue (a copy is available in the Library). The theme was The Elements, and there were three age-groups. Rebecca Martin of Gun Cottage and Freda Gardham School won the prize for 8/9-year-olds, and Julie Young of Tillingham Avenue (now first-year at TPS) won the 10/11 prize. The winning entries were published in the magazine, plus a number of commended ones which included work by Martyn Woollett of Cyprus Place and a second poem by Julie. Her father Bob tells us that she has also had work commended and published in competitions run by Cadbury's and W.H. Smith.
Three of the present third-year pupils at Thomas Peacocke School - Barry Stunt, Emma Cook and Paul Starling, all of Rye - will be at Hastings Town Hall on Thursday as prizewinners in the Hastings National New Poetry Society 1066 Children's Poetry Competition. There were some 20 entries from the school for this rather awkwardly-titled competition, held during the summer term when the pupils were still at Lower School
Several years ago the County Council set out elaborate proposals to improve the street lighting in the centre of Rye; before anything actually happened, the money ran out. Ever since then the Ratepayers Association has been gently nagging at Lewes to do something about the lighting - which is sometimes out for nights at a time over considerable areas. (Complaints which have reached the GAZETTE are more often about lamps where the timers have gone sad and light the street from 3 am till noon!)
At the Town Hall on Monday, the Ratepayers' chairman George Shackleton proudly produced a letter from County Hall - a long letter replying to the various criticisms, and with good news at the end. ESCC is expecting to do something about the lighting in 1987/8 (if, says the writer cautiously, there are no unexpected urgent calls on the appropriate pocket). Consultations will take place before anything is done, because of the planning-sensitive aspect of the area.
Neither of the street lights in Needles Passage was working at the weekend - not the one at the bend nor the one by the steps. Except outside the clock shop, the passage is therefore pitch dark at night; people uneasy on their feet may prefer not to use it until the lights are back.
George Cumming completed the Guildford Marathon on Sunday in 4 hours 33 minute (it was, he said, a tough course!). The local MSS Branch hired an ambulance and went over to cheer him on, 84 miles into the race and again ten miles on. Miss Jenkins and Mrs. Twine reckon to collect most of the sponsor sheets personally, but they would be glad if any they don't get round to could be returned Ferry Road (with the money, of course) by 22 October. The draw for the portable colour TV will be made by the Mayor at 149 Pottingfield Road on Saturday week, 25 October, at 10, when the amount raised for MSS by Mr. Cumming's run will be announced.
5.
• Apologies to the St. John Nursing Cadets, whose Christmas coffee morning at the Conduit Hill HQ on Saturday, 6 December from 10 was by mistake left out of the list we printed last week. Since coffee is served by beautiful young ladies, and the goods on sale include an excellent selection of Christmas cards and decorations, this event should not be missed.
• Other dates notified to the Diary since last week include a talk and video about the work of the Sussex Spinal Injuries Association, under the auspices of the Women's British Legion, at the FEC at 7.30 on 27 October; the Red Cross annual meeting (with a raffle and cards and diaries for sale) at the FEC at 2.30 on 6 November; and a blood donor session at the Baptist Hall the same day. On Tuesday, 11 November, the Women's British Legion hold their own Remembrance Service in the Clare Chapel at St. Mary's at 10.45; also on 12 November, ARC have a Ploughman's Lunch at the Community Centre from 12 to 2.
• The Monday Club's Sale of Work is always something to look forward to, for Club members and shoppers alike. This year it takes place on Monday (20th) at the Clinic from 2. There are lots of stalls, and a raffle and teas. The proceeds go towards next year's outings - this summer the Club had six, with all expenses paid, plus a most enjoyable tea-party indoors and out at Cadborough Farm in August (when members presented a thank-you gift to their President, Mrb. Hacking). Support for Monday's sale will mean that next year's outings for elderly people at that end of the town can safely be arranged.
• Rye Day Centre usually holds its fund-raising coffee mornings in the course of its regular sessions at the Baptist Hall. Now the organisers are widening their appeal by having a coffee morning on Thursday week (23rd) at the Red Cross at 10.30. They hope to attract not only cash but also offers of help, particularly from car-drivers who could bring in a couple of the elderly members on a Wednesday morning at around 10 and take them home again soon after 2. Drivers are needed for the Pett/Fairlight area, and also for Northiam/Beckley. If you could help, come to the coffee morning and neet the 'Volunteer team who run the Centre - or ring Mrs. Barbara Wild or Miss Win Allen.
• 19-26 October is the Week of Prayer for World Peace, and on the final day there is to be a Vigil from noon until midnight at St. Anthony's Church, by kind permission of Father Maurice. Those who can, are asked to sign the list in the porch in advance to say when they will be coming; those less certain of their plans will be welcome to come whenever they like and stay as long as they are able.There will also be a United Service at St. Peter's, Fairlight, at 7.30 on Wednesday, 22nd.
A long-established feature of the town on Thursdays and Saturdays will have to cease at the end of this month: the Dairy Market, opposite Stocks in Cinque Ports Street, is to close. The tenants have all been given notice. They are assuming that the owners, the executors of the late Mrs. Dorothy Taylor, are intending to sell the site for redevelopment. This is likely to cause hard- ship among the dozen or so stall-holders who regularly sell there, and they would very much like to find somewhere else where they could continue to run this popular market; any suggestions would be extremely welcome, and soon.
Rose-Anne's hats have been a feature of the High Street scene ever since Rosemary Griffiths' late mother started the shop just after the war. But Rosemary certainly doesn't consider them simply as window-dressing. The July issue of Sussex Life ran a very nice article on Rose-Anne and a milliner in East Grinstead who between them cover a good deal of ground (and, of course, a good many heads). Rose-Anne, says the writer, sells £12,000-worth of hats a year - and some of them went to a certain wedding in the Abbey... Rosemary tells us that she has some super winter models coming in any day now - so the headscarf brigade can stand in the High Street and drool!
6.
A great many of Phoebe Merricks's friends flocked to the Rye Art Gallery on Saturday morning, to witness the presentation of a portrait bust commissioned by her family from sculptor Bernard Sindall.
Walter Merricks,on behalf of the family, said how pleased they were that the Gallery had not only felt able to accept the bust but would also be devoting the lower garden to his mother's memory. Canon David Maundrell, who unveiled the sculpture - an admirable, full-size head of Phoebe, with an enigmatic smile - spoke as chairman of the Trustees and also as a friend of the Merricks family ever since he first came to Icklesham. It was, he said, through Phoebe that he first became aware of the Gallery's existence. She had been a Trustee, and chairman of the Friends, and had helped the Gallery in all sorts of ways; tactful yet determined, she had arranged talks and social events and raised money, and it was very appropriate that the portrait should have its home there. The Trustees were immensely grateful to the Merricks family for the gift. Speaking on behalf of the Friends, Tarquin Cole added his tribute:: Phoebe had given the Gallery twenty years of "jolly hard labour" - any job she carried out was immaculately done, anything she undertook she completed, anything she organised ran like clockwork.
The guests at the ceremony included the Chairman of Rother, the Mayor of Rye (Mrs. Oliver was there in two capacities, since she also happens to be the Town Council's representative on the Trustees), and members of Phoebe's family, not all of them local. Whether Walter's two children will remember the occasion later seems a little doubtful; William might (he is 3), but Susanna Phoebe is just eight weeks old...
(We hope to report on the plans for the lower garden in due course.)
In the course of a report to Rother about car-parking generally, the number of spaces in the Rother-owned parks in Rye are listed. Bedford Place holds 70, Lucknow Place 70, the Strand 24, the Gas Works 90, Gibbet Marsh (seasonal only) 300, the Town Wall 40, and the Gun Garden 12: total, 306 in winter, twice that in summer. (The Rye Harbour park holds 286; at Camber Rother has spaces for 2,230 - and often in summer these and more are all full!)
The Goods Yard car park was always said to hold 200 cars, plus coaches. When the supermarket is built, there will be 84 car spaces on that site, 60 in the new railway car park (plus 16 coaches), and a few more beside the station - so150 cars altogether. Total for the town, just over 450 spaces in winter, 750 in summer. The only sizeable privately-owned car-park able to operate on a regular basis is ex-Farnborough, and we understand that Jempsons were not at all impressed by the support for this during the summer. They felt they got no help from Rother or ESCC over direction-signing, even when the Gas Works park almost next door had to be closed. Ought they not to be better encouraged next year - or is 750 to be our lot in August?
There is, of course, still the land north of the railway, on both sides of Ferry Road. This belongs to British Rail. An application from BR some time ago, for 50 houses at The Grove end plus a car park emerging onto Ferry Road, was never seriously discussed by Rother since the D o T promptly put a stopper on it as being on a possible bypass route. However, the D o T's objection was specifically to the housing; the Department had no objection to car-parking, a more temporary use of the site. But BR did nothing about a parking-only application, and the land is still a charming, nightingale-haunted tangle of old apple-trees and wild clematis and dog-roses, backed with willows and with a few well-tended railway allotments keeping a wary eye on the encroaching jungle. Rother did get planning permission for car-parking on the Ferry Road end of this strip several years ago, but this has not been implemented; nor has the permission for a 50-space car-park on the strip between Ferry Road and the Mill. The problem, we understand, is that only BR can choose to put a car-park on BR's land... and BR doesn't choose.
7.
• Two of our local postmen have reached the end of their rounds. Mr. Don Murrell, of Peasmarsh, had delivered letters in the area for 45 years when he finally handed in his bag at the end of last month. Mr. Ralph Holland, of Iden, has been a postman for 27 years in and around Rye, and retires at the end of October. Many thanks to both, from all the householders along their routes over the years.
• The big slide on the Salts playground has gone for good. Colin Hudson tells us that new national safety standards, rather than any particular problem or mishap here, prompted Rother to take it away once the mounded slide in the corner was established. He hopes to put something else in its place in due course, but these things come expensive: the stainless-steel continuous-welded corner slide cost £1,200. In the meantime, his staff are about to build an extension to the log climbing-frame to make it more accessible to very small people, and the site of the slide will be grassed over.
• Recent entries in the Press Book include the theft of a house name-plaque from Mermaid Street (unscrewed from the wall and removed); two leather jackets, together worth £160, stolen from stools in a pub bar while their owners were having a drink; a camera taken from a bag left in a cafe, valued at C80; and a £1,000 generator stolen from traffic lights in Military Road over the weekend of 3/6 October. Finally, not in Rye but an awful warning: a car left locked in the Rye Harbour car park last Wednesday had its side window smashed and a Post Office savings book and other property taken from under the nearside front seat - some (but not all) of the stolen property was found later nearby.
• The current planning list has yet another application for four detached houses to replace the three Cadborough Farm cottages - this time with access from Udimore Road, as recommended by the Inspector who turned down the appeal. The other Rye application is for Gun Garden Lodge, where there is a plan for internal alterations and a very small extension - in brick to match the rest of the wall - between the house and the Rectory next door.
• Sponsorship forms for a Knit-In in aid of St. Michael's Hospice were distributed at Rye WI's October meeting, and the sound of clicking needles will soon be heard throughout the town, says Jeanne Freeman. The members were enthralled by Frank Palmer's magnificent slides of "Mountains and Flowers", which spoke of his skill both as a photographer and a mountaineer. Joyce Clark and Sheila Dee raised over C40 for WI funds with a sponsored walk recently.
• Chris Waters of New Winchelsea Road entered a national competition run by Phillips, and as one out of five prizewinners was invited to help himself, for 45 seconds, at the Virgin Record Megastore in Oxford Street last Tuesday. Young and fit, Chris raced up the stairs and grabbed 24 compact discs worth a total of £3362
• Rye Firemen were very pleased with the record proceeds of £305 from their massive jumble sale on Saturday in and around the fire station (what would they have done if it had rained?). The final leftovers were incinerated in the old car-park, with a hose handy just in case. Professionally, the fireman have had a quiet time since the sad affair at Rye Harbour, with just the odd chimney fire to call them out. (The body in the burnt-out car at Davie's has now been identified as that of Richard Townsend, 45, of Dymchurch.)
• Congratulations to the gardener at the Baptist Church on the roof-high sunflowers in the new front garden there!
• The "Look After Yourself" class started on Friday at the FEC with nine fitness-seekers, all female. Unless you are adamant, they do expect you to jump up and down in public (but not, mercifully, to wear a leotard). The Editor - miffed at finding herself, after an exhausting amount of mental arithmetic, in the "very fat" category - is reserving her judgment for the present... But several newcomers are intending to join the class this week.
Thursday, 16th Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10.30 to 4 (and Friday, Saturday) RCVS Open Meeting, TH, 7.30 (see below)
Friday, 17th St. Luke's Day Service for parishes of Rye Deanery (preacher, Deaconess Una Kroll), St. Mary's, 7.30
Museum Association talk, "Peru" (Michael Tweedie, with slides), FEC, 7.30 - all welcome
Bowls Club AGM, TH, 7
Saturday, 18th RNIB coffee morning and sale of work, FEC, 10
ATC Barn Dance (Catsfield Steamers), Upper School, 7.30
FRAG event (with TVS films at 7.15) for Subscribers, Friends and Trustees, Stormont Studio, 6.30
Sunday, 19th Youth Service, Methodist Church, 11
Monday, 20th Monday Club sale of work, Clinic, 2 (see page 5)
Town Council committees: Outside Activities at 6 and Leisure & Tourism at 7, TH
Camera Club, "Any questions?", FEC, 7.30
Tuesday, 21st Thomas Peacocke School Open Evening, 6.30 to 9
• The Open Meeting of the Rye & District Council for Voluntary Service, in the Town Hall at 7.30 tomorrow (Thursday), will have three speakers. Subjects will be Help for Cancer Sufferers, Care for the Carers (Miss J. Brotche) and Community Work Team (Eric Le Fevre). Everyone interested is most welcome to attend; sorry about the short notice.
• The coffee morning on Saturday week at the Red Cross is being run entirely by ex-WAAF members of the Women's Section of the British Legion. Other ex-WAAFs are particularly invited, either as helpers or customers.
• Bob Bowler would be very glad of offers of help for the British Legion Poppy Day street collection on Saturday, 8 November; he tells us they never have quite enough tin-holders. Phone if you can spare an hour or two. The house-to-house collection begins on 27 October.
• The National Children's Home house-to-house collection raised £208.
• The Rye Mencap Branch made £374 at their Autumn Fayre at the Town Hall on Saturday, and Vickie Piper and her committee are much heartened by the support shown for the group.
• Joan Parkes gratefully acknowledges on behalf of the RNLI a cheque for C50 from the Young Ryesingers and Junior Ryesingers - the proceeds of a recent concert in St. Mary's.
• We get asked from time to time if anyone hires out children's cots, etc. the request usually comes from a grandparent expecting a small visitor. Does anyone offer this service round here?
• The big pipes accumulating on the supermarket site should feel quite at home again once they are buried in the soil of the Goods Yard - they all come straight from Rye Harbour: Spun Concrete is supplying all the concrete pipework for the development, and it is nice to think that Bardens are doing their shopping locally.
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 from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1986)