Saturday's Choral Festival in St. Mary's is a very big event in the history of music in our church. This year is the Diamond Jubilee of the Royal School of Church Music - originally founded by Sidney Nicholson in Chislehurst as the School of English Church Music, but later given its Royal Charter and now with affiliated choirs all over the world. There is to be a big concert in the Albert Hall later in the year, but the various regions are holding their own celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary, and St. Mary's has been chosen for this southern area.
Three hundred singers will be converging on Rye for a rehearsal starting at 2.30 as a preface to the very special sung Evensong at 5.30. The preacher will be Canon Caesar, of the Chapel Royal in St. James's Palace, and the organist our own Charles Procter; the choirs will be conducted by Richard Popplewell, organist at the Chapel Royal. The School's chairman, Keith Warner, will be the conductor in the afternoon.
Much of the music will be by the School's founder; this year is the 40th since his death, and he was a personal friend of both Canon Caesar and Mr. Procter. Nicholson did more for English church music, Mr. Procter tells us, than anyone else this century. (Among the non-Nicholson compositions to be sung is Parry's coronation anthem, "I was glad...")
Evensong is of course open to the public, and indeed the church will remain open throughout the afternoon. Mr. Procter hopes that visitors will bear in mind the rehearsal with its massed voices - in fact we imagine that they could hardly ignore it!
(as they said in The Archers on Monday)
GAZETTE readers really cannot need reminding, at this stage, that there are two elections tomorrow, one for Rother and one for the Town Council (and it is of course GAZETTE nos. 220 and 221 which contain the lists of candidates, not what our slap-happy typewriter suggested last week!) But one candidate, who took his annual holiday in order to go right round the town canvassing, tells us that there is still considerable confusion among voters who haven't been paying proper attention.
Briefly, you have three votes for the much more important Rother Council, out of six candidates; and 16 votes for the Town Council, out of 19 candidates. (If you vote for more than three Rother names or 16 Town Council ones, you have spoilt your paper and it won't count!) Four names will appear on both voting slips, since four of the candidates are standing for both Councils; and in the electioneering literature some names have been grouped together. But voting for one candidate in a group doesn't commit you to voting for the others if you don't want to, and voting for a person for one Council doesn't mean you have to vote for that person for the other Council too if you would prefer someone different. The important thing is to vote for the people whom you can trust to do their best for the good of the town in general, as well as supporting your own particular interests. If you feel there is only one like that - well, vote for that one; but PLEASE DO VOTE.
Friday's count will take place at Thomas Peacocke Lower School (in Ferry Road). If there are no recounts, Tony Lee at the Rother election office expects to be able to post the results, at the Town Hall and the Council Offices, late on Friday afternoon; but in theory the count could continue on Saturday - though everyone very much hopes this won't arise! Voting is from 8 am to 9 pm tomorrow, at either the playgroup hut or the FE Centre depending where in the town you live; your polling card will tell you which you go to.
2.
There are plans for a memorial at the Nature Reserve to the late Colin Green, who did so much for wildlife in this area (obituary, GAZETTE no. 221). A fund is being opened at Thomas Peacocke School, to which pupils and parents will be invited to contribute - doubtless it will also be mentioned in the Old Scholars bulletin. Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve will also find it mentioned in their newsletter, but we write about the fund here for those who don't come into any of those categories. Cheques should be sent to the school and made payable to "Thomas Peacocke School (C.F. Green)".
The money raised in Colin's memory will go towards the provision of a hide at the new shallow wader pool, which will have wheelchair access and is quite near the car park. Planning permission for this was already before Rother, and Barry Yates acknowledges gratefully the help the Reserve has had over the whole pool project, from Rotary as well as Southern Water. Barry has managed to acquire some secondhand timber, and he hopes that a team from Community Services will be able to help with the actual construction, but a good deal of material will have to be bought new, and there are also display boards, etc., to be added as funds permit. It is likely that the whole building will cost around £1,000 in hard cash. A project of this kind would have been dear to Colin's heart - indeed, it doubtless was dear, since it has been planned for some time – and it will be a fitting memorial to him and a tribute to his work.
Last Tuesday there was a presentation at Lewes, when the winners in the Edwardes-Jones Conservation Cup contest for 1985/6 were presented with their awards by the Chairman of the County Council. Paul Bishop of the TPS Rural Studies staff was there to represent the school, in place of Colin - under whose guidance TPS had won fourth place (and a Commendation and a cheque for £50) in this competition. This is the second time the school has come near the top in the Edwardes-Jones awards, and Colin would have been proud of his project's success out of a field of 39 entries.
At the annual meeting of the Bowls Club last week, members expressed considerable dissatisfaction at the present state of the green, and indeed wondered whether they could continue to play on it. One-third of the turf was lifted last month, so that the soil could be improved; the remaining two-thirds were patched a fortnight ago. Rother is proposing to treat a further third of the green next year and the remainder in 1989, but this is quite unacceptable to the Club. If the work had been done at the proper time, last autumn, the green would have b playable by now. As it is, to abandon play entirely would mean cancelling the fixtures made with other clubs, so the Rye club will make the best of it; but they are insisting that the green shall close a month early this year, in August instead of September, and that the whole of the outstanding work shall be done then, in good time for proper play in 1988.
The Mayor told us, at the coffee morning on Saturday at the Pavilion (nearly £50 for Club funds) that she and the other members will expect the new Rother Councillors to support them in this, since the bowls green not only gives much pleasure to residents but brings visitors to the town and generally benefits Rye trade. The players may stay on the Salts - but their sweethearts and spouses are frequently to be found in the High Street shops or one of the town's tea-shops or restaurants!
At the Parish Church Annual Meeting last month, Bob Bowler and Edwin Gibson were re-elected as churchwardens. David Waddams succeeds Chris Dayson as Treasurer, Ted Hickmott succeeds Jean Greenhalf as Secretary, and elected to the PCC were Kate Dayson, Jeanne Freeman, Ken Gasson, Maureen Sherwood and David Waddams. Organist Charles Procter reports that there are now some 35 members in the choir; Tower Captain Malcolm Parry has 15 bellringers, "some in the early stages of learning" but all enthusiastic; Rachel Sarrieddine reports on a good re-start for the Sunday School; and Phyllis Apps and her fellow-sacristans could do with one or two more helpers.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 6 May 1987
The St. Mary's bells rang out on Saturday for Suzanne Quirk, daughter of Josephine and Stewart Doyle of Udimore Road, and Peter Crouch, son of Joan and Dennis Crouch of Udimore. Fortunately the disastrous weather forecast was running late, and the sun shone as the wedding group assembled - Suzanne in a romantic dress with a looped-up crinoline overskirt, a double string of pearls, and pearls edging the veil held in place by a diamante coronet. Her bridesmaids Debbie Gale and Jackie Watson wore simple but unusual dresses in blue-and-white embroidered voile with hooped skirts, and tiny blue flower sprays in their hair. The Rev. Stephen Ingham took the service; the reception was held at Ma Beeton's; and the honeymoon is being spent in the Isle of Wight. The couple will be living in Ore. Peter is an engineer for Stills in Hastings, and Suzanne is in the advertising department of MP Harris at Bexhill
People who wondered why the Scouts' army marquee was erected in the Ypres Castle garden on Saturday will be pleased to know that it was for the wedding reception of Bronwen Burke and Graham Rattenbury, both of Rye, who had been married in Hastings that morning. Both families were represented in force, and Bron's mother Joan Parkes says we really must mention Dick Pearce's splendid catering. The couple are spending a week in Jugoslavia, and will be returning to Fishmarket Road. Bron is the PA/buyer for Brian Lovell at Weslake Developments (and also the secretary of Rye Festival Council); Graham has his own business as a furniture restorer, based in the Agricultural Hall in Rope Walk.
(The third wedding reception in the town, at the George, had us puzzled - until John Pearmain explained that it was a couple from Hastings who came all the way over to his hotel because they liked it so much.)
A change - technical only, to begin with - has just taken place which involves the town's two High Street medical practices. As from 1 May, a group practice has been formed, the partners being Dr. Wali Jeelani, Dr. (Mrs.) R.A. Jeelani (who is now in full-time practice) and Dr. Masood Akhtar.
Eventually the intention is for the practice to have new purpose-built premises, which will enable all three doctors to offer more facilities to their patients - but this is still some way off. At present, both surgeries will remain in use, the main one being at 31 High Street, with 112 High Street becoming a branch surgery. Telephone numbers remain unchanged, and patients who are not clear about the arrangements should have a word with their doctor's receptionist.
(We are assured that there is no connection at all between this news and Vidlers' "Sale Agreed" board on the old telephone exchange - which had planning permission for a doctor's surgery some time ago. Vidlers, naturally enough, are not willing to say at this stage who the currently interested parties are.)
Clinic staff and helpers gathered in Ferry Road on Thursday for a very special tea-party. Guest of honour was Mrs. Edith Hill of Wish Street; now in her mid-80s, Mrs. Hill has just given up her voluntary job at the Clinic. Her friends were there to present her with a gift voucher and a signed card, to enjoy a slice of party cake, and to talk about the last quarter of a century because Mrs. Hill has been keeping the records straight at the Clinic ever since she retired from teaching 27 years ago.
Now they are looking for someone to take over the job, every Thursday afternoon from 2 to 4. She (he?) would be on reception duties: finding the records, making and keeping the register - basically a clerical job, but all five voluntary helpers will turn their hands to anything at a pinch, we gather. The job is unpaid but satisfying, and suitable for someone newly retired and keen to get out of the house sometimes - maybe even a thwarted granny! Contact Mrs. Lee at the Voluntary Help Office, St. Helen's Hospital; new phone number for the hospital is Hastings 720444, and Mrs. Lee is on extension 316/7.
4.
The decision last week by Rye Town Council to withdraw from membership of the Promotion Group must mean, RPG secretary James Menhinick tells us, the Group's virtual collapse under its present constitution; but there is to be a meeting of the "rump" at the end of this month to decide whether or not to reconstitute it, and we hope to have a further report then.
The Promotion Group was started several years ago as an informal body consisting of two members from the Chamber of Trade and two from the Hotel & Caterers Association, who got together to discuss ways of attracting more visitors (preferably financially desirable visitors!) to the town. It was a small, low-key affair concerned simply with immediate tourism prospects, and its first public venture was to raise money for an ad for Rye in the 1987 ESCC leaflet of top Sussex tourist attractions.
The Town Council was asked if it wished to join, and after a period when two Councillors were appointed as observers only, the Council agreed to appoint two full members, the Mayor and John Ciccone. After a reshuffle earlier this year, the Hotel & Caterers representatives were Ron Dellar and Norman Bennett, while Steve Denny and Bernard Waters were the Chamber of Trade members. John Ciccone took over the chairmanship in March, and his predecessor Robert Bromley was invited to continue as a member of the Group in a personal capacity.
However, in March Mr. Dellar - who is chairman of the Hotel & Caterers Association - stated to the East Sussex News his view that the McCarthy Stone development at Strand Quay would not be welcomed by the Association. Three weeks later, he and Mr. Bennett wrote to the News deploring the Town Council's 11-2 vote against the suggestion that there might be a marina village across the river from The Salts. There were also proposals, circulated to Councillors, to expand the membership of the Promotion Group to include other local organisations; a parallel was drawn with Lyme Regis, which does its own very successful tourist promotion (but where the Council has kept its own car parks, etc., and is therefore able to work on a much bigger scale).
At this point some of the senior Councillors became worried. They could foresee a situation where the Promotion Group would regard itself as speaking for the town as a whole, and where a majority decision by the Group could therefore be regarded by outsiders as the opinion of the town - even if the Council's representatives had in fact voted against it. They felt that the Council was the elected voice of Rye, which should not be shouted down by any other group.
Policy & Resources considered the matter, and recommended withdrawal from the Promotion Group. This recommendation was discussed freely and at considerable length by full Council on Monday last week, and despite a proposal to leave the decision to the new Council there was a 9-5 vote that the Town Council members should withdraw from the Group immediately (leaving the Group, incidentally, without its chairman!). Council protocol will allow the matter to be discussed again in six months' time if the Councillors so wish.
Rother's Chief Executive, David Powell, writes "Can I enlist your support by asking everyone in Rye to be litter-conscious and help us to keep. Rye tidy?" As he says, the summer season is here (at least, it was last week, even if it seemed to be over by Monday!) and the problem of litter and rubbish dumping assumes even greater significance. He asks particularly that residents won't put household rubbish in litter bins - "it is offensive and a health hazard and the normal dustbin collection is designed to deal with that sort of rubbish" he says. (Knowing that the street bins are emptied every morning, people do put into them things which they don't want smelling out their dustbins for the best part of a week, and it is no good pretending they won't; but at least such offerings could be adequately wrapped up, and popped in the bin last thing at night so that they are removed first thing next morning! Or could there be one central bin into which householders can put rubbish of this kind?)
5.
When we complained on 4 March about the appearance of 90 High Street (ex-Dewhursts, and empty but apparently bespoken since July 1985), the Eastbourne agents told us that it was about to reopen as a travel agency. This news was greeted without any great enthusiasm here - but at least a travel agency has cheerful windows to enliven one of the town's prime shopping streets.
But the current planning list tells a different story. Travelcade of Hastings are now the owners of 90 High Street, but they have no plans to open up here at present; Cobbs Property Services of Tonbridge, as prospective tenants, are applying for change of use to an estate agent's office.
If they get permission, the name over the door will be Braxtons; the two firms are part of the same group, they tell us, and Cobbs handle the planning side. At present Braxtons have an office in Northiam and are thought of locally as dealing mainly with the villages. The last estate agent to set up in the High Street (a Hastings firm called Farbrother's, in the Apothecary's Shop) didn't last very long here. We have three others, all well-established - Vidlers, Geering & Colyer and County. Do we need a fourth - especially in what ought to be a proper shop, in the centre of the High Street and the last place where the town wants either "dead" windows or browsers cluttering the narrow pavement?
There was a very satisfactory turn-out for the Museum Association AGM on Thursday, with many members doubtless lured by the prospect of Alma Fabes's "Follies and other oddities" slides after the meeting. The Museum finances are in good order, with nearly £55,000 in hand; admissions were down by 6,500 on the 1985 record figure of over 21,000, but increased entrance charges meant that income was still up on the previous year - as was expenditure, both by about £4,000. Treasurer Edwin Gibson was congratulated; Hilda Nelson-Barrett was thanked for her long service as Membership Secretary and Alma Fabes was appointed to take her place; the committee and officers were re-elected unanimously.
Chairman's and Curator's reports both referred to the Museum's perennial problem of water penetration; an expert on conservation from Portsmouth Museum had recently been here to study the whole question, and it is hoped that something will come of his report. The physical state of the Ypres Tower, said Mr. Bagley, is a millstone round the neck of the Museum at present.
There was then a detailed discussion of proposed new Rules and a Trust Deed for the Association, which would mean that the Museum's collection was in the hands of official Trustees appointed by public bodies, rather than at the disposal of the committee as at present. Only minor amendments were proposed, and from the Chair Eric Le Fevre thanked Jim Simpson for his invaluable professional help in compiling the documents. Copies of the amended Rules will be sent out to all members in due course.
Thomas Peacocke School was at a trade fair at the end of April - or rather, not the school itself, but Excalibur, the Lower Sixth Young Enterprise group which makes potstands and notepads. The Fair, at Milton Keynes, was for YE groups from all over the country, some 70 on the Friday and 50 on the Saturday (24/25 April). Excalibur's chairman, Mark Curry from Guestling, spent most of his Easter holiday on the logistics of the trip; 7 out of his 12 "staff" were able to be there on one or other day, travelling tip by cheap train ticket, and he stayed overnight, working from 9 am to 8 pm on the Friday. It was a very interesting experience for them all; they met a great many people - and will doubtless encounter some of them again at university in a year's time. Total sales on the Friday amounted to £13.80, covering the cost of the stand, but that wasn't really the point of the exercise. It is the first time a TPS Young Enterprise Group has been quite so enterprising! Both Penny Royal and Adams have offered to sell off the remaining stock of notepads, with their charming Rye vignettes, and Excalibur are most grateful to Steve Denny and Clifford Foster. A few potstands are available from the school.
6.
The opening date for the supermarket has slipped back from Christmas of this year to Easter of next. Those hoping for a job there will be sorry to learn this, but even more unhelpful to the town is the continued loss of the 80 car-parking spaces, part of the supermarket site and now also not available until Easter 1988. (This car-park, or most of it, will be under the control of the supermarket operators, now Budgens.) The developers point out that once the new bus garage is in operation, likely to be later this month, work will begin on demolishing the present garage and putting up the supermarket building - and all the builders' materials will have to go somewhere, like on the parking spaces. On Thursday we watched with horror as a coach leaving the railway car park chose to back the full length of the parking area and right across the congested Station Approach before fronting out past the Post Office. Once it was out of the way - and the manoeuvre took some time - another coach repeated the procedure.
It only needed one small child to run out from a car unloading at the station end, for there to be a tragedy... We are not clear whether the coaches could or would not use the official exit into Rope Walk - but surely such a dangerous procedure should not be allowed to continue?
PD Fuels are looking for a use for their Strand Quay site. What about a coach park, associated with an unloading bay and convenient for the Model in its new home? Then the coach problem could be removed entirely from Station Approach and there would be a lot of useful extra car parking in the middle of the town where it is needed.
Our MP asks us to say on his behalf that all communications - invitations to meetings as well as personal letters - should be sent to him at the House of Commons, London SW1A OAA (and not c/o the Hastings Conservative Association office); when Parliament is not in session, House of Commons mail reaches his home by special delivery. Despite his invitation to the recent playgroup meeting going astray (a Wednesday night would not have been possible anyway), he has now made enquiries from Rother about future plans for the playgroup, and has been told that negotiations are under way with ESCC and the Development Commission about funding for a small hall on the clinic site (GAZETTE no. 220). However, he detects a lack of urgency in this, and is asking Rother to try and speed things up.
Mention of the Development Commission reminded him to ask how the footbridge is getting on - he wants to come and declare it open! (Yvonne Metcalf tells us that workmen come and go at the site beside the Tillingham sluice, but at the end of last week, anyway, the bridge was still unusable; she is going to keep us posted.)
Parents of TPS fifth-years will be glad to know that their children made a very good showing when Mr. Warren came to the school a week ago to talk to a group of sixty or so about defence and nuclear power. He was, he tells us, extremely impressed by the standard of the questions and by the lively interest shown in both subjects.
There should be no complaints about having nothing to do on Saturday week, 16 May. In the morning, there is the Women's British Legion Spring Fair at the Red Cross and a coffee morning for the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council at the FE Centre; Mill Road gardens are open to the public in the afternoon (see back page); and in the evening you can either watch (or take part in) the Miss Rye contest at the Oasis, or listen to Ian Barnett (guitar) giving a concert of classical and jazz music at the Stormont Studio (admission El for FRAG funds). A further pleasure will be a visit from members of the London-based EF Benson Society, who are holding an informal Rye Day.
(And when is the next jumble sale, someone asked us? Not until 25 July, as far as we know, when MSS have booked ore in; any news of one earlier?)
7.
• The Fiddimore family were much amused to be sent a page from an Australian "Daily Telegraph" (Sydney?) with a full-page write-up for Rye "on the coast of Kent". The writer appears to have been working from the Mermaid bar, but does refer to other aspects of the town, including "at least 13 historic buildings worth a visit". We counted up: the Ypres Tower, Landgate, Lamb House, Old Grammar School, the George, the Mermaid... That's six; which, we wonder, did he have in mind for the other seven-plus? This particular piece of publicity did presumably not emanate from the Promotion Group, since the Mermaid is not a member of the Hotel & Caterers Association and the article is primarily a puff for the hotel - referred to as "perhaps the oldest and most famous inn of England...a portal overhung with greenery beneath the ancient sign..." It is a pity, though,that there is no mention at all of the Town Model.
• Daniel Owen, whose expedition to Indonesia in the coming Long Vacation we wrote about in January, is most grateful to his friends locally for their financial support; almost 30 individuals, businesses and groups in and around Rye have sponsored the expedition (and if anyone has a spare prospectus they don't want, he's be glad to have it back c/o 2 Cyprus Place) He thinks his supporters would like to know that the expedition, to study bats and other cave life, is being taken seriously by various conservation bodies: the Godman Exploration Fund (based at the Natural History Museum) has come up with £200, the People's Trust for Endangered Species £200, the British Ecological Society £250 - and, a real triumph, the foursome have been awarded one of the four top grants for the year (£700) from the Royal Geographic Society. They still have to find £1,500 but, says Daniel, there are some organisations which only make their awards at the very last minute; with the eternal optimism of youth, the group have every intention of departing at the beginning of July and returning just in time for the start of the Oxford Michaelmas Term in October.
• "They managed to deliver our big hole all right, anyway:" said Mr. Wren at Woolworths, thinking ruefully of the other big hole delivered by the Gas Board in the road outside his shop recently. The one we were looking at, however, was a second opening in the wall between the main shop and the smaller one beyond it, which makes a real improvement to the interior layout, opening up the small window again and taking out two awkward corners. There has also been work done out at the back, tidying up the Garden Centre area which is best reached from Market Road - and from which it is now possible (incidentally) to see the site at the back of the Dairy Market which is the subject of a current planning application.
• Summer must be here; last Wednesday a solitary marsh-frog was singing love-songs in the dyke at the end of Ashenden Avenue. The pear blossom at Rye Pottery was disintegrating in a cascade of white drifting petals, and the Ashenden Avenue cherries, although recovering from surgery, will not make such a good show as usual this year; the big conker trees at the entrance to Gibbet Marsh was just coming into bloom - and a final pleasure we had not expected, the doomed pink cherry tree in the Magdala House grounds is in full flower. If the builders had started when they were supposed to, it would have been cut down before it could flaunt its final flowering; as things are, enjoy it while you can, for the last time:
• British Rail has just sent out a press release about the new timetable starting next Monday - which, as far as our line is concerned, is a pure exercise in hypocrisy. "There are a number of significant improvements, many as a result of discussions with local authorities and user groups" says a (perhaps wisely) unnamed spokesman. "These improvements have been made without disturbing the broad pattern of services and the new timetable shows a consolidation of the more extensive changes made last year." Referring to our line, they say that "this service has been completely revised to improve connections at Hastings during the day" - not, of course, mentioning what happens to it for commuters! A final puzzle: "the proposed 148 Ashford to Rye and 19.19 Rye to Ashford services will not run" - but there were no such trains in the draft timetable anyway...
Voting for Rother and Town Council elections, 8 am to 9 pm
Royal School of Church Music, choral festival, St. Mary' (evensong 5.30) - see front page
Multiple Sclerosis Society flag-day
Sunshine Jazz Band, Ypres Castle, 8
Rye WI, resolutions for AGM, followed by an entertainment from the Drama Group, FEC, 7
• A notice in the Council Office window announces a vacancy for an assistant tourist information clerk, to work a 34-hour 5-day week on a rota basis from May to October. Apply at the office, or ring 222293 for information.
• Five or six gardens in Mill Road will be open on Saturday week, 16 May, between 2 and 5. £1, which goes to Playden Church funds, buys admission to the lot, and tea will be available. If the weather is at all kind, there is the prospect of a delightful and peaceful afternoon outing; and those walking up from the town are reminded about the narrow path which branches off from the Rye Hill pavement and delivers pedestrians to the lower end of Mill Road, saving quite a step.
• On Monday, 19 May, Dr. Graham Mayhew gives the first of six lectures at the FE Centre, on 16th and 17th century Rye; the fee for the course is £9, and it in turn is a taster for a series of 20 lectures next winter. For more details, ring Jo Kirkham, Rye.
• We are asked to mention the recent formation of a social club for the disabled, covering an area from Northiam to Bexhill. Meetings take place at Winchelsea Beach Community Hall over lunch-time on the last Friday of each month. Further information from Mrs. Gillian Wood, Tower Forge House.
• The police station press book makes it all too clear that the season of thefts from cars is upon us again. The police urge motorists to lock their cars (it is easier to open a door than to force a lock or break a window), and to conceal anything of value in the boot if possible (a thief is less likely to take risks if it is not obvious that there is anything worth stealing). The shop window at the Golden Fleece recently thwarted an attacker; the glass was starred and spoilt, but it did not break and nothing was stolen.
• A collection from the RNIB boxes in the town recently produced a total of £150.
• Apologies to the Boys Club; our historical account promised for this week has had to be deferred for reasons of space. Next week, with luck.
• Can anyone explain why Soverign Radio, the illegal radio station which was closed down recently, is regularly referred to as "Rye-based"? The 19-year-old operator lives in Peasmarsh, and was broadcasting from ftirlight when his signal was traced and police arrived. At Hastings magistrates' court in March he was fined £250 on each of two offences, £50 costs, and his equipment confiscated. Sovereign Radio has a Rye address, certainly - but only a PO box number, which we would have thought hardly constitutes a "Rye base"!
• Figures for August-October 1986 only issued recently by the RNLI show our Rye-built Brede lifeboats taking their share of the summer's rescue work. They were called out as follows: Calshot (2), Exmouth (6), Fowey (11), Invergordon (3), Oban (11) and Poole (13). The really hectic station over those three months was the one at Tenby, in Wales, whose boats (not Bredes this time) were called out 40 times in 12 weeks. By contrast, our boat at Rye Harbour went out just once.
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. Deadline, Monday afternoon for Wednesday's delivery; the paper costs subscribers 30p weekly, and a very few spare copies may be available from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)