Although the Rother is only accessible to yachts for an hour or so each side of a neap tide, there is undoubtedly a shortage of moorings in the river. For years now proposals for possible marina sites have bubbled up - and then sunk again, or rather remained quietly floating waiting for a financial life-belt to be thrown. With jobs in mind, the RDA and the County Council jointly commissioned a feasibility study into marinas here, and the interim report has thrown up two new suggestions which will not, we suspect, meet with universal approval. For full details, see page 6.
A social evening at the Town Hall on Saturday, arranged largely by Playden parishioners, was much enjoyed and raised £300. Guests helped themselves to delicious and imaginative food and wine before settling down to the main purpose of the evening. First came a slide show of historic churches, presented by Stephen Ingham, with a standard commentary which he freely edited to suit his audience; afterwards, a short talk by Sir John Winnifrith, in which he spoke both of his own parish church at Appledore and also of Playden Church, finding good stories to tell about both - he said that the old barrel organ at Playden, superseded by a harmonium which was later replaced by the discarded St. Mary's organ, was so indignant that it played "Onward Christian Soldiers" 120 times on its way from the church to the cart, with no-one able to stop it!
The final attraction was the draw for the raffle, with four handsome prizes of pictures by local artists. The evening's proceeds are to be divided equally between the Sussex Historic Churches Trust and Playden Church.
The Rye Dance Centre's Christmas show, "Showbiz III", has a cast ranging in age from 24 to - well, let's just say there are 30 adult tap-dancers. The 130 performers include a handful of boys. There are lots of costume changes, and some interesting sets, and the show starts at 7.15 on Friday, 5 December, and Saturday, 6th, at Upper School. Tickets are still obtainable from the Woolwich Building Society in the High Street (£2 adults, £1.50 children and OAPs); if you decide to leave it and pay at the door, you may not get in and if you do it will cost you an extra 50p.
This seems the place to congratulate Joanne Haviland on the very good results obtained by the Centre in recent ISTD exams. 43 out of 45 entrants passed ballet, modern and tap exams, and Michelle Paine (17) of King's Avenue gained a Highly Commended in her first big exam - a very encouraging first for the Centre too. Miss Haviland is listing all the exam results, with grades, on the programme for "Showbiz III"; we haven't room for them in the GAZETTE, so come to the show, buy a programme, and enjoy yourself.
SOS from Woolworths manager Ernest Wren: who has got the shop's balloon pumps? There are two of them, like large bike pumps, and they are needed urgently by the Chamber of Trade to blow up the balloons which Father Christmas will be handing out on Saturday. Mr. Wren lends this useful equipment out to various organisations over the course of a year, and obviously the last borrower failed to return it - but he can't remember who that borrower was. We hope to stir someone's conscience into immediate action! The pumps should be handed in to Serendipity for Tony Wills; but just in case they are still missing on Friday evening, has anyone else got one which they would be willing to lend (224295)? After all, no-one wants our shopkeepers to end up with burst eardrums - but the children will be very disappointed if Father Christmas has no balloons for them.
2.
Mrs. Daphne Adams, of Military Road, died in hospital on 20 November after years of illness borne with courage and cheerfulness. She leaves three sons and their families, who ask that there should be no letters and family flowers only for the funeral service at Hastings Crematorium on Friday at 2. Mrs. Adams, the daughter of an artist, was a talented painter herself, and her pictures have always been much admired in the local exhibitions. Mr. Dick Revell, of Rope Walk, died in Rye Hospital last week. He was a wool merchant in Bradford until he retired and came to live in Rye some 20 years ago; he had been a Squadron-Leader in the RAF during the war. He is survived by his wife, who is permanently in hospital. Mr. Revell wished his body to go for medical research, so there will be no funeral.
The funeral of Mr. George Shipton, whose death we recorded last week, will take place at St. Anthony's Church at 10.15 tomorrow (Thursday).
An unusual situation is apparent from the list of committee members issued after the recent AGM of the Thomas Peacocke School PTA. Here we are with this big school in Rye, a large proportion of its pupils coming from Freda Gardham School, and yet not one parent from Rye, Rye Harbour or Camber was interested enough to stand for election to the PTA committee (all who did stand were either elected or co-opted). There is one Guestling member (Mr. Hough, the new treasurer), last year's chairman Mr. Kemp continues to represent Beckley, and the new chairman Mrs. Talbot comes from Brede. Mr. Underwood and Mr. and Mrs. Le Roux are from Pett/Pett Level, Mr. Warner, Mrs. Sheppard (secretary) and Mrs. Pope come from Winchelsea or the Beach. There is no-one from Playden or Iden or Peasmarsh; but Northiam parents are pulling their weight most generously - six of the committee come from that village (Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Colegrave, Mrs. Davies, Mrs. Fowles, Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Rolles). Staff representatives are Mr. Fooks, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Taylor and Miss Lewis, while Miss Thomas speaks for Leasam House.
Traditionally, Rother rates have been paid annually, half-yearly, quarterly, or monthly - in the latter case, for ten months in the year with February and March "off". In 1980 the Council decided to encourage ratepayers to use the direct debit scheme of payment, and as an inducement the bill was spread over twelve months instead of ten so that each monthly payment was lower. "At thf time" says a report to Rother's Policy and Resources Committee "there was resistance to direct debiting", and the scheme had a slow start, but now a quarter of Rother's rate bills (over 8,000) are paid in this way.
The Treasurer now feels that the 12-month incentive offer is no longer necessary, and it would be both convenient and financially advantageous to the Council if direct-debit payers too paid ten instalments instead of their present twelve (the additional interest on rate payments would amount to E20,000). He is therefore proposing that as from the start of the next financial year they should be asked to alter their payment dates to run from April to January inclusive - with no payments in February or March.
It sounds all right - and ratepayers will be notified in detail before the scheme starts. But (whether or not rates in general go up in April) direct- debit payers will find that they will be paying in each of the ten months 20% more than before (the total amount of course remains the same). This puts them on a par with their neighbours who pay by cash or cheque or banker's order, once a month from April to January, and there will be no real inducement to pay by direct debit except the convenience of the system.
Mr. Willis's report still has to be approved by the committee which meets this evening, and then by full Council; but we thought ratepayers might like advance notice of the proposals.
3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 26 November 1986
More than 20 embroiderers met at the Rectory last Wednesday to set up a group making kneelers for St. Mary's. With Phyllis Smith in charge, there was a feeling of confidence - and an unusual design by Mrs. Smith incorporating the two buttresses, the arch of the north door and the swinging pendulum, with space at the sides for the maker's initials and date, and for the initials of someone whom the maker wishes to commemorate. Colours are the reds and blues of the Clare Chapel windows. Mrs. Smith has arranged to get all the materials from Penny Royal, and workers were shown how to make simple frames. The group will hold its first meeting on Monday afternoon, 1 December, in the Upper Room at the church, and fortnightly thereafter; the 1986 sessions will be for instruction and practice, and serious work will start in the New Year.
The big tree which grew outside Devonport House is no more. On Wednesday, a team of tree specialists arrived (nothing to do with the previous night's gale) to cut it down. Margaret Owen tells us that when branches began to drop off, SHAA sought an expert opinion - which was that the tree was 40% diseased, and if the dying branches were removed it would be such a peculiar shape that no-one would be pleased. So the decision was made to remove it entirely, and now there is barely a stump to show how big it was. It did have disadvantages, it seems; leaves blocked the gutters, and wet leaves and bird droppings made the path and pavement slippery. But it is much mourned at that end of the town, and now only the spectacular laburnum outside the opticians is left to bring a breath of country air to Cinque Ports Street next summer.
Down by the station the new bus garage is still a steel skeleton; once it is clad, one will no longer be able to admire the pretty little house which forms the back of Rediffusion's shop. Vast digging works are going on all round, and an elderly drain-pipe - could it be the main sewer? - has come to light some eight feet down in the clay. As well as the cherry by the station, another tree has fallen victim to the development - a fig, in what used to be Ellis's yard, which bore fruit and is much missed by the staff! (The supermarket building will be just 41 from the end walls of Ellis Bros and Vidlers.)
Across Station Approach, even vaster digging works on the site of the new loos have produced an enormous hole - which marginally undercuts the (still closed) footpath. Interesting strata are revealed: on top, a sloping layer of humus from generations of decaying nettles and general rubbish; then a layer of beach probably laid down as drainage before the main market site was concreted (though it is more romantic to think of the pebbles as the last traces of the sea, lapping the shores of an island Rye), and then several foot of virgin clay. There the diggers stopped; but we were told that, as usual, the peat lay not far below (building the bogs on a bog, so to speak!). The new car park now has a level rolled surface of stone, brought almost a fortnight ago, in huge lorries which tipped heavenwards to the astonishment of market shoppers; it now awaits its final overcoat of tarmac - a thick one, to judge from the height of the drain covers protruding above the present surface.
Ex-teacher Sandra Sarkies was used to involving her pupils in Blue Peter's fundraising schemes; now she runs The Black Sheep, and has roped in rather larger helpers for the current appeal to save the sight of children and adults in Africa. She has booked the Community Centre from 10 to 12 on Saturday week (6th) and will sell "anything sellable in good condition" plus home-made goodies, plants and bric-a-brac. Goods may be brought to the shop in The Mint, or can be collected if necessary (Rye 224508, shop hours). This is the third event in the town that Saturday morning (St. John Nursing Cadets on Conduit Hill and the Women's BL in the Red Cross); a fourth organisation took a look at the Town Diary and wisely decided to postpone its event until after Christmas!
4.
• There were few hard-and-fast decisions on local applications at Rother's planning meeting last week. The new Fire Station plans were approved, but with conditions about landscaping and boundary treatment and also about the floodlighting of the drill tower. An extension at the Old Customs House in Church Square - for which permission had been given last year - has worked out taller than originally intended, and a site inspection will take place. Permission has been refused for the radio transmitter mast at 63 Ferry Road. Amended plans are needed for work at the back of 42 Church Square and for a garage in Mint Court, and an amended layout at the old bus garage site; in all three cases the Planning Officer has authority to approve the application once he is satisfied. Outline permission was granted for a house to go with the "listed garden" in Military Road. The amended layout for four houses at Cadborough, replacing the cottages, with a new entrance off Udimore Road to serve both houses and farm, was approved, as was the small kitchen extension to Gun Garden Lodge. (All this comes from the draft minutes; don't start work until you get it in writing from Rother!)
• Two Rye applications in the current list. Leo Bonassera of The Grist Mill is applying to use the vacant garage at the Quayside Service Station in connection with his furniture-stripping business (hitherto housed at the Drill Hall the site of the new Fire Station); and a couple from the Beach are applying for change-of-use for 3 Cinque Ports Street (the little house next to the Wool Shop passage), with shop use of the ground floor rooms and living quarters above. Plans for an interesting - and almost certainly controvesial - development on the site of the Dairy Market in Cinque Forts Street and the land behind, to provide seven flats and a cottage and parking for 8 cars, were sent us yesterday - full details next week.
• Puzzled by a press story about "a coastguard house" being built at the Harbour without planning permission, we made enquiries. To begin with, this is not a dwelling, but a single-storey garage and coast rescue equipment house for HM Coastguard. It is being built by the government's Property Services Agency, and it is true that such work does not require planning permission; but the proposals do go before the Planning Committee just like any others. The outline proposal was considered in September 1985 and the committee "raised no objection" (the standard phrase when actual consent is not required). Construction details came before Planning in March of this year (GAZETTE no. 166); again the committee raised no objection, and Icklesham Parish Council supported approval but considered that the views of the owners of The Old Vicarage should be directly sought by the Planning Officer. The owner is not at all happy about the proposals - though there is, according to Rother, a 2m-high hedge between his property and the new building; but all the correct planning procedures have in fact been observed. The choice of site (a corner by the car-park, involving a minor footpath diversion) was governed by access to drainage.
• The point of a shop window used to be that potential shoppers could see the goods for sale inside. Not any more, apparently - not in multiple-store circles, anyway. Boots, the exception, has extremely pretty Christmas windows, using the backs of the display stands which face inwards into the shop. But what do blanked-off windows normally imply (other than empty shops)? Sex-shops, said someone to us: Is this really what Woolworths and Seeboard wish to convey? Of course not; but Seaboard's Market Road window, and the pretty small-paned window in Woolworths' extension shop, are completely blanked out in this way, Woolworths with paint and Seeboard with some kind of screening/blind. Indeed, it is impossible to see what is inside Woolworths at all, since the main windows are so crammed with posters; and the same applies to Presto further along the High Street (though Seeboard's main windows are only very lightly postered). Now that many of the privately-owned shops are arranging their Christmas windows - and delightful they look - the contrast is pointed even more strongly. Would the multiple managers care to think again - or don't they worry what people say about them?
5.
Readers will be aware that the question of Sunday trading has been exercising the mind of Bother's Chief Technical and Environmental Services Officer - who has plenty of other things for his staff to do than persecute rate-Payers! On 8 July his committee considered an excellent report signed jointly by Mr. Fowell and Mr. Clarke on the present patchwork of Sunday trading regulations which apply in different parts of Bother District during the summer. We summarised this report on page 6 of GAZETTE no. 185, and it appears in full in the agenda for that committee meeting (available at the Council Offices); we haven't room to quote from it now, but believe us, the present position is a real mess, with food on sale legally on summer Sundays in Camber and Bexhill but not in Battle or Winchelsea Beach, and one of Fairlight's "summer" Sundays coming the week before Christmas!
Nothing Rother can do will legalise Sunday trading in the District all the year round, except for certain general exemptions which apply nationally. But it could bring in a Holiday Resort Exemption Order for the whole of Bother District which would give every parish the full benefit of what is legally possible, and at least remove some of the anomalies. In order to do this, the Council has to have the approval of two-thirds of the shopkeepers in the whole District.
In 1983 a questionnaire was sent round to Bother shopkeepers, inviting their views. It was rather complicated, there had been no advance publicity, and a lot of people simply chucked it in the bin - in fact, only 44% returned the form at all, so the whole project had to be abandoned.
Since then the Government failed to get through Parliament legislation to alter the Sunday Trading laws, which means that Councils now have to look seriously at shops which break the existing law (Bother recently prosecuted a privately-owned Battle store for opening illegally, and Payless DIY at Bexhill is also in trouble on these grounds from time to time). Bother is therefore trying again - at considerable expense - to get its two-thirds vote in favour of an Exemption Order for the whole District.
This time the questionnaire is a simple Yes or No answer, and an accompanying letter explains the reason for it. It has to be returned by 30 January - which gives plenty of time for traders to discuss it among themselves before deciding, if they are doubtful. The Order would not, of course, mean that a shop had to open on a summer Sunday, merely that it could legally do so (and then, still, only for the sale of certain things - but descriptions can be "massaged" to cover a surprising range of goods...). It makes sense for a trader to return the form at once, rather than risk losing it in the course of the Christmas rush or the holiday closure; and in our view it makes sense to answer Yes, to enable Rother to tidy up the position as far as possible. The important thing is to send the form back - because even if all the answers returned are in favour of the Order, if there are not enough of them Bother still can't do a thing.
An entry in the capital expenditure programme for Bother's consideration early next year caught our eye: under "Car Parks" there was an item for "Rye (including Rye, Wish Street) purchase and construction ... £175,000 in 1989/90".bWhat is this, we asked Peter Bridges? In effect, it is good housekeeping; when the bypass route is decided, Bother wants to have money available to construct car parking in the spaces left - and they hope that by 1989/90 it may be clear what will be left. To judge from the experience of Winchelsea, this seems a very optimistic view - but once in the estimates, the money can always be moved on year by year until it is needed.
The car-park on the land between the railway and the windmill lane, it seems, has now become a non-starter; BR made so many conditions that it began to look unworkable. As for the Gas Works car-park, that is still in limbo; there was a meeting to discuss the analyst's findings - but these have now gone back for further analysis! There was something to be said for the days before computers succeeded litmus paper…
6.
In July (GAZETTE no. 187) we reported on the feasibility study to be carried out under RDA auspices by LRDC International of Haslemere, about the best place to put a marina here. LRDC's Dr. Norman Cox invited views from groups and individuals before he put together a preliminary report, which has since been circulated - in part anyway - to various organisations which might be expected to have an interest in the subject. We have been shown a copy of the basic model; other versions contain more detail. The final report is due next month.
We listed in July the five sites which were then common knowledge: North Point (the beach-works along the Camber road), the saltmarsh beyond the Sailing Club, the development half-way down Harbour Road, the private moorings in Rock Channel and the SWA moorings upstream of Monkbretton Bridge. (A proposed yacht basin at the corner of Rock Channel and the Rother had recently been refused planning permission.)
The Rock Channel moorings have always been intended for use in connection with the housing now going up on the site; the Monkbretton Bridge plan seems to have sunk. Dr. Cox's report disregards them, but still lists five sites: North Point, the Sailing Club, the Harbour Road development, and two new ones he has identified in the course of his survey, one the other side of Rock Channel from the Le Fevre Wood & Royle development, and one across the Rother from the Fish market and the Salts.
Of these, North Point and the Sailing Club site do not include housing. The Harbour Road proposals would include a lot of housing, shops, etc., and suspicions have been voiced locally for a long time that housing for weekenders rather than any maritime use is the prime object of that development.
The two new sites are both large ones: the Rock Channel field borders Harbour Road for a full two-thirds of the distance from the Jehovah's Witness church to the sewage works (though it does not include the land actually at the confluence of the two rivers); and the Rother site runs between the footpath and the floodbank, from Monkbretton Bridge right along to the border with North Point. Wondering, therefore, whether housing would also be part of these two developments, we phoned Dr. Cox.
He told us that his firm was simply commissioned to investigate the possibility of raising private finance for the provision of a marina. Marinas on their own are not a good bet financially (even the Brighton one ran into trouble); they need some other inducement to tempt investors. In Dr. Cox's view, any large marina in Rye would have to be accompanied by housing. He added, however, that his final report will contain nothing about demolition of existing housing, which was what produced the worrying headlines after last Monday's Town Council meeting, when the LRDC report was discussed in camera.
Far more worrying, however, must be the prospect of housing across the river from the Salts. It seems inconceivable that Planning would allow this - and there is much the same objection to the site across Rock Channel, since permission here could be the thin end of the wedge for ribbon development all up Harbour Road (the site half-way along got planning permission years ago from the County Council and is no fault of Rother's).
Another consideration, of course, would be access. The present access to the field beside the swimming-pool is the narrow one immediately beside Monkbretton Bridge, and parents who have cautiously taken cars in or out of it are fully aware of the hazards at present. If there were houses there as well...!
(An alternative access could be through the Town Council's Freda Gardham field, and round the back of the swimming pool; but Highways won't allow that because the gate is outside the built-up area and on a trunk road.)
And how many jobs would this marina bring? Two? Three? - plus possible spinoffs for the service industries? The Harbour-master and his Deputy administer 500 moorings in the Rother. Would we be paying a fair price for a further three jobs by inviting a developer to build ticky-tacky houses for weekenders in the middle of the view from Hilder's Cliff?
7.
• On Saturday morning between 11 and 12, Captain Pugwash's creator John Ryan will be at River Books in Lion Street to sign copies of his delightful new children's books - "A Bad Year for Dragons" (St. George) and "One Dark and Stormy Night" (St. Christopher). Both are recently published, and would make lovely presents for godchildren or grandchildren (£4.95). There will also be copies of his reissued "Believe it or Not", a little book of cartoons with a religious (or sometimes irreligious) slant. John and Priscilla Ryan already have a house in Rye - and they hope that before long they will be returning to live here permanently; all their friends hope so too.
• We have heard of no startling damage in the town as a result of last Tuesday's wild wet night. But the Salts on Wednesday morning were an amazing sight; the weekend's rain hadn't really had time to soak away, and the football salts were almost entirely under water, the putting green and playground were exceedingly wet, and there were even pools on the sacred bowls green and the bonfire and cricket salts. One Rye-born lady had never seen the water quite so wide- spread there - and she is in her eighties!
• In November 1985 Michael Alford of Rye Harbour visited Ypres Cathedral and laid a wreath on the altar steps in memory of the fallen of Rye and district in WW1. This year a small party from the Harbour went again, taking with them a spray of poppies from Rye Harbour church. They were pleased and touched to find that someone had placed the wreath from the previous year at the foot of the British war memorial inside the cathedral - the poppy spray now lies alongside it.
• The Mayors of Rye and Winchelsea were guests at the National Trust Rye & Winchelsea Centre AGM on 14 November at the Community Centre. Mrs. Mary Weslake retires as chairman, to be succeeded by Mr. Ron Annetta of Beckley, while Mr. Hoskins succeeds Mr. Bosher as treasurer; and thanks were expressed to both the retiring officers. After the business of the meeting, the Coast and Countryside Appeals Manager of the Trust, Miss Horner, spoke on the Trust's work around our coastline and illustrated her talk with slides. This was followed by Alma Fabes's entertaining slide show "Exploring Winchelsea". The Centre's fund-raising is extremely effective; in the financial year 1985/6, £4,500 was sent from the Centre to National Trust funds.
• Welcome home to our Town Clerk, Lesley Scammell, after a few days spent in the Sussex Clinic; she is now on the mend but won't be back at her desk in the Town Hall for several weeks. Councillors are rallying round to help the Mayor fill the gap, and Mrs. Oliver will be opening the Town Hall mail every day except Tuesdays; Council and committee minutes will be taken by Mr. Joy from Rother, who deals with our elections and knows how Rye works.
• RNLI Branch funds are better off by £90 as a result of the Beaujolais Nouveau breakfast and buffet arranged by Dick and Babs Pearce for friends and customers at the Ypres Castle Inn last week. The event was much enjoyed; one couple arrivg for late breakfast were still there at lunch-time, they told us!
• The 1986 Annual Report of the Hastings & Rother Citizens Advice Bureau was published recently. It lists, among others, the members who provide this excellent service at Rye on Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons, upstairs in the Council Offices - Tom Taylor, Shirley Scott and Editha Courtney-Bennett. Tom told us recently that the Bureau is badly in need of new advisers, who must be under 65 and able to spare one day a week (almost certainly in Hastings); six months' training is given, with one-day courses at Lewes or Tunbridge Wells, home study and sitting-in on interviews!
The Bureau is able to offer advice on every kind of subject: family matters, housing, social security, consumer complaints, immigration, the administration of justice... plus unexpected areas such as travel, health and leisure. Advice is free, and many local people have had cause to be grateful to the Rye team, or to the Hastings advisers where of course Rye people are equally welcome.
Thursday, 27th Local History Group (business meeting), Library, 7.30
Rye Hospital League of Friends event, TH, 7 (GAZETTE no. 202)
Friday, 28th Nat.His.Soc., "Snowdonia" (Frank Palmer), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 29th Winchelsea & District Floral Group Christmas Fair, George, 10 to 4
Scouts Christmas Fair, Scout Hut, 10.30 (sorry we were firmly given the wrong date for last week's diary!)
Craft Market, FEC, 11 to 5
Playgroup Christmas Fair (with Father Christmas), Clinic, 2
Father Christmas arrives to switch on town lights, etc. - Station, 3
Monday, 1st Camera Club, "Early Beginnings, Late Start" (Mary Lestocq), FEC, 7.30
Tuesday, 2nd FRAG, Janet Dudley talking about astronomy through the ages, Stormont Studio, 8
Wednesday, 3rd NSPCC Christmas coffee morning, George Hotel, 10 to 12 Hearing Circle coffee morning, Red Cross, 10.30 to 12
• Congratulations to Sue and Mick D'Arcy of South Undercliff on the birth of their daughter Carlie Bianca on 18 November - a fifth grand-daughter and seventh grandchild for Mr. and Mrs. Westley of Cyprus Place, who also have a great-grand-daughter.
• Margaret and William O'Neill of Military Road would like to thank everyone for the cards, presents and good wishes on the birth of their son Edward.
• Guests brought the total number of lunchers to 70 at the WRVS Lunch Club's Christmas meal at the Community Centre on Monday; Margaret Owen served up turkey with all the trimmings, followed by Christmas pudding. There was sherry and wine to wash it all down - and even an after-eight with the coffee.
• Woolworths will be staying open late on Thursday, 4 December, for the benefit of elderly or disabled people who need to take time over their shopping. From 5.30 (when the shop normally closes), wheelchairs and zimmers will be welcome, and St. John Ambulance members will be around to help. Mr. Wren has invited all the old people's homes in the district, but of course the invitation applies equally to people living in their own homes - as usual, if you need transport get a message to Woolworths beforehand (222335).
• Some trains from Ashford to London on Saturday may run later than timetabled owing to engineering work between Dover and Folkestone (nothing is said about Sunday) - but if it matters to you, check the train times first.
• Landgate WI's November meeting was well attended, to hear a talk on the history and practice of lace-making by Mrs. Carol Williamson, nationally known for her teaching on the subject. The Christmas meeting will be held on 17 December.
• The merits of modern reinforced glass were well demonstrated in the High Street on Friday morning. Someone had attempted to break windows at Rye Antiques and Olivers (two panes) next door - without success, though all three windows were heavily "starred". The press book shows no record of any successful attempt that evening - indeed, it has no record of any Rye villainy during the past week.
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. Normal deadline is Monday afternoon for Wednesday morning's delivery to subscribers and pick-up points; the paper costs 30p weekly. A few spare copies and back numbers may be available from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1986)