All white and fluffy, it was, and it undoubtedly stole the limelight at the Michaelmas Fair at Lower School on Saturday. Other entrants in the well-patronised pet show run by Jim Fiddimore were a rabbit, a tortoise, assorted gerbils, hamsters and birds, a chinchilla (a proper one, with little ratty feet) called Jasper, and lots and lots of dogs. We don't know who won, but that wasn't really the point on this fun occasion.
The Lower School field, on a sunny afternoon, made a charming setting for the Fair, and people were remarking that there was a real village-fete atmosphere which was much appreciated. Sideshows and stalls were ranged along the sunny side of the field (condolences to the few relegated to the willowy shade), and there were excellent refreshment facilities. The main arena event was the model aircraft display by Tim Ruck and his friends - the little planes swooped unnervingly above the nightingale spinney (what would happen, we wondered, if ----one of them fell into it?) and a mini-helicopter buzzed convincingly over the field. As well as other not-too-serious arena events - welly-throwing, etc. there was the traditional opportunity to throw wet sponges at staff members and senior Vlth-formers; we couldn't bear to watch, but later met three evil-minded little girls who had clubbed together for a £1 dustbin of water to pour over Frances Paintin - perhaps they didn't like Latin! Music was provided by the school orchestra, and later by the Jazz Taverners, old friends of the Fair - and here the PTA are particularly grateful and apologetic to Jempsons' transport staff, who not only lent the trailer but came and pulled it out of a boggy bit of field on Friday evening. (The ruts, conservationists will be pleased to know, were recycled as the barbecue pit for the roast lamb...)
The St. John Ambulance was in attendance, as usual - and this time there was a real accident for the young team to deal with; not at the Fair itself, but at the Lower School entrance where a lad had collided with a car and come off his motorbike. It was the County ambulance which eventually removed him to have his ankle seen to - which left Ann Newman in the St. John's one to show us their latest gadget - a manual resuscitator, bought out of the proceeds of the Strawberry Fair arranged by St. John's earlier this summer, and better than mouth-to-mouth because of the increased amount of oxygen made available to the patient.
In the playground, as promised, were two Rye special constables with a set of die-stamps and a stout hammer, plus a list of post-codes; by the time we took the Owen family wheels along, Rae Bark told us they had marked some 30 bikes, and still had half-an-hour to go. She is thinking of holding another session at the police station (where they can work under cover if need be) in a month's time; so if you missed it on Saturday, keep an eye open for notice of this second opportunity.
Final figures are not yet available, but the Fair will certainly have made a profit of well over £1,000 for PTA funds.
Ann Swaine at the FE Centre still has vacancies in the following adult education classes:
RE13 Dressmaking and tailoring (7 to 3, Thursdays)
RD16 Tracing family ancestors (2-day school, 9 and 16 November)
RD21 How does your garden grow? (2 to 4, Thursdays)
RE23 Guitar playing (just turn up, the group will probably run privately)
RE24/59 Herbs and homeopathy, 7.30 Thursday and 2 to 4 Monday (5 weeks)
RD27 Ladies' Keep-Fit (10 to 11.30, Thursdays)
RD29 Patchwork and quilting (2 to 4, Wednesdays)
RE36/37 Spanish (Thursdays) RE38 Typing (7 to 9, Thursdays)
(See the blue booklet, at FEC or Library, for details of all these courses.)
2.
Mrs. Jessy James, known since her childhood as "Peter", died very peacefully in Ledsham Court nursing home on 19 September. She was 86, and had lived in The Jolly Sailor in Church Square from 1958 until May of this year, when she felt she could no longer cope on her own after the death of her great friend Maisie Callender. Peter James trained as a cordon bleu cook just after WW1; the wife of Herbert James, VC, she was widowed many years ago. During WW2 she cooked for hospitals and then for a maternity home for officers' wives, Frimley Chase in Surrey, before going back to Woking to care for her elderly parents. Here she first met the Callender sisters, and when her parents had died and the Callenders had retired from nursing, they decided to share a household. They had no particular connection with Rye, but found The Jolly Sailor on the market in 1955 and finally moved in permanently a little less than thirty years ago. Mrs. James's cousin, Joan Taylerson of Watchbell Lane, tells us that Mrs. James was a great benefactress to Rye, and many people here bless her for help quietly given when they were in trouble. Despite increasing arthritis, she remained cheerful and courageous and will be remembered with great affection. Cremation has taken place privately, but there will be a memorial service for Mrs. James in St. Mary's at 11.30 on Saturday, 10 October. Donations in her memory for the NSPCC, in lieu of flowers, may be sent to Mrs. Anne Wood, Apex, Icklesham - secretary of the Rye & District NSPCC Branch of which Mrs. James was at one time the chairman.
Mrs. Phyllis Farnham, sister of Joan Parkes, died very peacefully in St. Helen's Hospital early on Monday morning; Joan cannot speak too highly of the loving care Mrs. Farnham received in Ward 3. The funeral takes place on Friday at 2, at Hastings Crematorium.
Mrs. Jeffery Waters and her family are most grateful to all who have sent donations to the British Heart Foundation in memory of Bernard. £469 has been passed on by the family, in addition to money sent to the Foundation direct.
County Council engineers were in Rye recently looking at the menace which regularly arises for the cottage on the corner opposite the Pipemakers Arms - the cottage where passing lorries lean over and knock bits off. The trouble seems to be the camber of the road, which slopes downhill towards the terrace; the traffic island may not help either (but if that goes a good many lives are likely to go with it, so we would need it moved rather than removed, please).
The owner of no. 2 Ferry Road, the cottage in question, is Mrs. Judith Hubbard, and she is not anxious to make a great fuss. But she points out that those cottages are in fact listed and part of Rye's heritage, and should not be put at risk in this way. By no means all the vehicles which have damaged her house have been passing straight through Rye - a recent major attack came from a lorry bound for the Goods Yard site - and she is not personally shouting for the through road. However, although she never risks using the front door, no. 2 is her home - and her parents, both in their seventies, were staying with her when the most recent bang shook the house. She is also very worried that a pedestrian might be badly or even fatally injured on the narrow pavement next time a lorry swings round just too close.
Presumably the solution would be either to lower the road on the Wool Shop side, with a deeper curb to the pavement there, or to raise it on the inside curve - in which case there would have to be a small wall, as at the start of Udimore Road, to prevent surface water running into the cottages?
Years ago John Smith, then Town Clerk, learning that the row of cottages was on the market, wrote to ESCC suggesting that the Council should buy them to improve the corner. The reply came that the Council had no plans for road improvements there - and now it has a real problem.
- 3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 30 September 1987
Two pigs, two kittens (one black, one white), two furry mice, two ferocious crocodiles, two parrots, two lions, two fish, two white rabbits, two butterflies, one ewe lamb and a solitary bee crewed Noah's Ark in St. Mary's on Sunday evening. They were shepherded by Sunday School teachers Rachel Sarrieddine and Jeanne Freeman, in decorative rather than historical costumes themselves, and accompanied on the guitar by Tony Thompson wearing a biblical-looking caftan out of someone's very welcome bit-bag. Up in the pulpit Janet Waddams (shining, as the Sun) and Ann Hamilton (shimmering, as the Moon) shared the readings which told the story of Noah's memorable conservation venture - what would he have thought, we wondered, of white rhinos being slung in nets under helicopters! Down at floor level the group of evacuees peregrinated the church, so that all the audience could see them - pausing to sing and clap, and finally standing in the chancel while a huge rainbow arose behind them and proud parents took photographs. Rachel was the chief begetter of this delightful entertainment, and made all the superb masks, but she is anxious to thank her helpers - Jeanne, Tony, Janet and Ann, and also John Breeds who was in charge of sound, Simon Earl for his superb tape of a real thunderstorm (no messing about with shaken tin sheets here), and her daughter Rose raising the rainbow at the end. This was just made of crepe paper and 8-foot garden canes, the paper cut and joined to stretch the full width of the chancel from pillar to pillar like a vivid giant fan. Thanks also go to the Mothers Union who provided refreshments not only on Sunday but also for the children after rehearsals; and, says Rachel firmly, to the parents who got the actors to the church on time. The youngest child was only 3, and they all did extremely well - so well that next summer there may be a Sunday School float in the Carnival (since everybody will be nearly a year older) so that other people can see the masks and the rainbow too.
In his report to ESCC's Strategic Planning Sub-Committee on 22 September, the County Planning Officer set out in some detail the background and findings of the Marina Feasibility Study consultants, LRDC. We have a copy of the report, and will gladly lend it to anyone interested. 31 people wrote about the Study, and their letters are summarised by the Planning Officer. Only two (from the late Frank Barrett and from the Hotel & Caterers Association) appear to be entirely in favour of such a development, while John Silver supports it in principle, with some reservations. The remaining 28 writers either support a development at Northpoint Beach or in Harbour Road; or are in favour of the navigation lock scheme (somewhere between Rock Channel and Alsfords Wharf) suggested by John pollard, which had the support of the Harbour of Rye Advisory Committee at its June meeting; or just say in effect that Rye does not want a maritime housing estate, particularly on the New Road site opposite the Salts. Suspicion is voiced that the consultants' "40 jobs" would be pie in the sky; and the Rye Ramblers object because the open yacht channel would block a footpath. There is, however, clearly plenty of support for a marina without a housing estate. Southern Water and Rother have yet to consider the results of the Study.
The Planning Officer made four recommendations to the committee, and the last three were accepted. The committee confirmed that future development proposals for marina development on the sites suggested by the consultants will need to meet Structure Flan policies which, in particular, will require the achievement of a high standard of design, consistent with the character of Rye and its landscape setting; it indicated that Structure Plan policies are more likely to be met by development on the New Road site and that the County Council is less likely to give support to development on the Rock Channel site; and confirmed that implementation of any development scheme must be phased so as to ensure achievement of all elements of the scheme (this is to stop a developer building the houses and then saying he can't afford to do the marina!). However, the first recommendation was altered, so that instead of "accepting" the findings the committee "received" them, without commitment at this stage, as a basis for discussion between prospective developers, landowners and relevant local authorities and further work on future proposals for marina development at Rye - ie. the committee was rather less enthusiastic than the Planning Officer had been, much as happened over the A259 route.
4.
Thursday of next week (8th) is the Open Evening at Thomas Peacocke School. The full programme was not available as we write, but both Upper and Lower School will be open from 6 to 9, and there will be appropriate displays in classrooms and both halls. Lower School from 6 to 7 hosts a re-run of the Great Egg Race, which we wrote about at the end of last term, and from 7 to 8 a display of music, dance and drama from pupils taking part in the Combined Arts Course. Between 8 and 8.30 et Upper there will be a performance on the Wurlitzer organ by Nigel Spooner, with a demonstration of handbell ringing - but presumably not simultaneously. There is also a chance to see the reorganised Upper School kitchens, where refreshments will be on sale at moderate prices. We hope to have more details next week, but it will by then be very short notice so note the date now if you are thinking of going.
Friday, 9th, is a very popular evening. If there are any tickets left by now for the St. Mary's Harvest Supper (Community Centre', 6.45 for 7, entertainment 'by the Mothers Union) they will be available at £2.25 from Mr. Hickmott. Starting at 8 the same evening is a Fun quiz (Trivial Pursuit rather than Mastermind, we are assured) organised by the TPS PTA in the Upper School hall. The audience will be competing in groups of eight - bring your own eightsome or join one when you get there - and a fish-and-chips supper is included in the ticket price of £3 (tickets from Upper and Lower School offices). This is a new venture for the PTA and they hope for good local support; it sounds fun. Finally, tt the Stormont Studio (8 for 8.30, admission £2 at the door) the Friends of Rye Ari. Gallery are putting on "A Celebration of Childhood" - a lighthearted evening of words and music with local writers and musicians, including Pie Corbett, Basil Dowling, Seymour Leeds, Miranda Leonard, Eric Money, Brian Moses, Tony Norman and Louis Turpin - also a new and interesting venture. Many people are going to find them elves with a difficult choice to make - including your reporter!
Saturday week (10th) is also a busy day in the town, with two big evening events and two bouquets of flowers during the day. At the FE Centre from 10 to 4.30, Rye & District Flower Club is holding its annual exhibition and competitions, "Rye in Flowers", always a pleasure to visit - with stalls selling cakes, plants, dried flowers, etc., and refreshments including snack lunches available; a donation from the proceeds will go to Mencap. At the George Hotel, from 10 to 5, the Winchelsea & District Floral Group is holding its popular annual show and competitions, "Autumn in Rye" - stalls will include bric-a-brac and items of special interest to flower arrangers, but the elegant George ballroom will all be needed for the flowers and there will be no room for refreshments here.
At 7.30 that Saturday evening, the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve have one of their rare Rye events, "Wildlife in Sussex", at the Upper School Hall. Two well-known local photographers, both members of Rye Camera Club as well as Friends, are giving talks illustrated by their own slides: Colin Page on "Wildlife of the Seashore" and Melvin Smith on "Marsh Life". There will also be small art and photographic displays, and a stall where RHNR souvenirs can be bought (we particularly recommend their charming mugs, if there are any left); and there is the opportunity for anyone wishing to join either the Friends or the Camera Club to do so. Admission is £1 for adults, 50p for children, and there is ample car parking; proceeds will go to the two organisations. As Colin Page says - a good evening's entertainment with educational value and at modest cost. (Just in case anyone doesn't know, Upper School is reached over the Rope Walk level crossing, turn left at the end of The Grove - or, going very cautiously, down Deadman's Lane from Rye Hill.)
People feeling sprightly may prefer to go along to the Community Centre at 8 (we are still on Saturday, 10th), where Rye Playgroup are holding a "Nosh Night" and dance in aid of Playgroup funds (tickets are £2.50 and include supper - and a night out at £5 for two really must be a bargain!). There will be a bar, and a raffle - and Ringo will be in charge of the music, playing hits from the 60s and 70s and a disco. Tickets from the playgroup (next door to the Clinic), Monday to Friday mornings and some afternoons.
It is a pity about the clash between these last two events; but the following Saturday is even worse...
5.
This excludes regular meetings of clubs, and specialist events such as parents' evenings, Town Council meetings, etc. - which will of course appear in the weekly back-page diary in the normal way.
Friday, 16th Museum Ass., "The Glory that was Greece" (Brian Soper), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 17th RNIB coffee morning and sale of goods, FEC, 10 Women's British Legion, teas, Red Cross, 3 to 5 Old Scholars Association annual dinner, George Hotel ATC Barn Dance (Catsfield Steamers), Upper School Ryesingers, Mendelssohn's "Elijah", St. Mary's, evening Hospice wine-and-cheese party, Town Hall, 7.30
Monday, 19th Monday Club Annual Sale of Work (stalls, teas, etc.), Clinic, 2 Thursday, 22nd Tilling Green School Autumn Sale, 6
Saturday, 24th RNLI coffee morning, FEC, 10
Wine-and-cheese party (talk and slides) for Playden Church, TH
Friday, 30th FRAG Folk and Blues night, Stormont Studio, 8
Saturday, 31st Nat.Trust, "Venice and Venetian Art" (Mrs. G. Julius), CC, 2.30
Monday, 2nd Community Health Council meeting, Town Hall, 7.30
Tuesday, 3rd FRAG: Basil Dowling on Hardy's philosophical poems, Studio, 8
Saturday, 7th Poppy Day: Women's EL Ploughman's Lunch, FEC, 11 to 2
Film, "Jesus", Baptist Hall 2.30, Thomas Peacocke School 7.30
Tuesday, 10th Arthritis & Rheumatism Council Ploughman's Lunch, CC, . to 2 Wednesday, 11th Rye Conservation Society, informal gathering (members), TH, 6.30
Friday, 13th National Trust Centre AGM, CC, 7.30
Saturday, 14th TPS PTA jumble sale, Upper School, 10
New Sussex Opera Group, Puccini's "Suor Angelica", St. Mary's, ev.
Semi-Quavers Jazz Band, CC, evening
Thursday, 19th Play, TPS (also 20th and 21st - but tentative dates only)
Museum Association wine-and-cheese party (members), TH
Women's BL Christmas Fair, Red Cross, 10 to 1
NSPCC Christmas coffee morning, George Hotel, 10 to 12 Lower School Christmas Concert (evening, also 10th)
Confirmation Service, St. Mary's, 7.30
National Trust Christmas supper (members), CC TPS PTA Christmas entertainment (also 12th)
Action for Epilepsy Christmas Fair, teas, Red Cross, 1 FRAG Christmas Party, Stormont Studio, 8
Upper School carol concert, evening
... and at present, as far as we are aware, that's it. Additions will go into the Diary as and when organisers let us know - as early as you can, please.
6.
People have been remarking lately how every small village in the area seems to have Neighbourhood Watch signs up - while Rye, the very first scheme in the South of England, has none. We raised this at the Crime Prevention Panel and were told firmly that it was a matter not for the Panel but for the Neighbourhood Watch Committee. Since Neighbourhood Watch is part of the crime prevention drive, this seemed so illogical that we have embarked on investigative journalism.
The signs are made by the British Legion Industries at Maidstone, and cost £10 each. East Sussex Highways are willing to attach them to existing road-sign poles, insure them for public liability, and issue a licence permitting them to be displayed on the highway, all for a further £10 a sign. Or, they say, if a landowner at the appropriate point is willing to have the sign inside his or her fence and the group itself erects it, there is no ESCC involvement and no charge. Planning permission is not necessary (and all the Rye signs would be well outside the Conservation Area).
Mr. Brooke at the Bexhill Highways office recommended that if ESCC is to put the signs up, the Neighbourhood Watch committee should first decide roughly where they are to go, and then meet him on site before actually ordering them; a suitable post having been selected, he can then specify what kind of fixing is -- needed on the back of each sign. The order then goes in to Maidstone - and the three signs at Camber, he told us, were up within a month of the original enquiry.
When the matter was first raised, well over a year ago now, the Town Council expressed its willingness to pay for the signs required for Rye (one on each road entering the town - five in all, assuming the Harbour is regarded as part of the town). But the Crime Prevention Panel is entitled to a grant of £25 from the Home Office, and the Council felt that this should be contributed towards the signs; so, presumably, once things actually get started the Council will be Prepared to pay £25, with the Panel paying the rest. If ESCC is putting up the signs, the whole enterprise will cost £100 in all (less if private citizens are willing to offer sites), so up to another £50 will be needed.
If Rye doesn't have some signs soon, word will get round among the burgling fraternity that here is a place worth trying, since it doesn't appear to have a Neighbourhood Watch scheme. Admittedly, our scheme seems to be in rather low water at present, with no overall co-ordinator; but the initial impetus has not quite worn off yet, and perhaps one of our Town Councillors might feel inspired to jolly things up?
At last week's planning meeting Rother granted permission for two sets of units at Hatleys to be used for wholesale distribution (J & F from Tollgate, for fruit and veg, and Hastings Leisure, for soft drinks); and for alterations connected with the absorption of the Sheffield Place cottages into the George Hotel; and to new door canopies for Barclays Bank. Outline permission for houses at the south-western end of Tram Road at the Harbour was deferred for negotiation and site inspection. A carport on Cadborough Cliff, in front of an existing garage, was refused. Change of use at the Old Brewery in Wish Ward, to four shops and four maisonettes, was delegated to the planning officer to grant subject to various conditions; and he was also delegated to grant permission for the reorganisation of the Winchelsea Road Martello Tower and land, subject to the DoT withdrawing its direction to refuse. La Rochelle has had permission to repaint, under the delegated procedure.
The current list has an application from the Frenchman's Beach caravan site to be allowed to open from 1 March to 31 October, plus from noon on Friday to noon on Monday at weekends in November, December and January, plus from 10 December to 10 January. The applicants do not, naturally enough, point out that if this is allowed the only time the site will be closed will be in February, and midweek during a further eight mid-winter weeks - when doubtless there is not a great deal of demand for caravan life at the Harbour anyway! As wedges go, this one seems to have a surprisingly thick end, and could be setting a precedent for other sites in the District.
7.
Notices in the window of Holloway House in the High Street may, we feel, have given a misleading impression of the new owner's intentions for it - so we went round to talk to her.
Sheila Brown is not new to Rye - she had builders in at Swan Cottage for a year before she felt she could open it to the public as a tea-room, and there was a further six months' work to be done before the whole building was up to her high standards. She is looking forward to the challenge of doing the same excellent job on Holloway House - but it is old and has not been in full domestic occupation since Dr. and Mrs. Hartley moved out, so there is inevitably a great deal of work to be done. It has, of course, been an antique shop for some years (part of Rye Antiques across the road, which is contiuing in business there since Mrs. Deslys Turner is now the owner of another historic Rye property, Cannon House in East Street). Mrs. Brown is now anxious to hear from people who would like to have antiques or similar stalls in the two big front rooms - thus continuing the existing use of the building for the time being.
Her eventual plans, however, are much more far-reaching, and she will shortly be seeking planning permission for change of use. What she would like to do is bed-and-breakfast in the big first-floor rooms, with their panelling and stone ''.replaces, with a restaurant at street level; the top floor she intends to keep as her own quarters - and Lara, the family's Old English Sheepdog, has at last found a house the right scale for herself: If permission is granted, the antiques stalls will be a temporary measure while the builders are working in the rest of the house; in a year's time, she hopes, things will be very different...
Before the builders really get going, Mrs. Brown has invited the Rape of Hastings group to survey the house from the historical point of view; and since Alan Dickinson is a member of that group as well as working for Mrs. Brown's architects, Le Fevre Wood & Hoyle, Holloway House will be in good hands. Certainly a tour round it was a real eye-opener; even allowing for later modernisation, Sarah Holloway (nee Meryon) would have had a full-time job as its mistress in the 1840s - and it would be fascinating to know which room was the study in which her husband William wrote his History of Rye.
When Rother Council was invited to appoint a second representative to the Community Health Council, its Environmental Health Committee agreed to recommend Mrs. Constance Owen, of Playden - not a Rather Councillor herself, but a co-opted member of the CHC for the past two years, playing an active part in its work nd particularly interested, of course, in matters affecting the Rye area which is not very well represented on the CRC.
However, at full Council last Monday the committee recommendation was ignored; it was felt that a Rother member should be appointed, and Councillor Side of Bexhill was chosen. Doubtless he will prove a worthy member of the CHC, if he has time to spare from his Council duties, but he is not going to be any help to Rye. We mention this, not simply to condole with Constance Owen, but to point out to any other body in need of a CHC representative that there is an experienced and keen existing member in need of an official seat - whom Rye would very much like to see appointed.
League winners (Prebble Cup) The Standard Inn; runners-up (Newman Cup) Iden Putting Club. Team knock-out (Horner Shield) The Standard Inn; two ball foursome (Rye Putting League Cup) Winters Dairies. Lowest individual score: Ladies, Mrs. S. Sutton (43); Men, Paul Sargent (36). Best average (Chamber of Commerce cup) Paul Sargent (40.80). Individual knock-out winners: Ladies, Miss B. Pope (Men's contest still unfinished). Most improved Junior (Norman Hutchings Trophy) Joanna Dixon.
League Table: The standard Inn 113 points, Iden Putting Club 95, Winters Dairies 91, RAFA 90, Fire Brigade 69, British Legion Men 34, British Legion Women 12.
Thursday, 1st Nat.Trust talk, "Path Law/Lore" (C. Wade), CC, 7.30
Friday, 2nd Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
Movie Society, "Welcome Back" (bring a film), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 3rd WI Group Home Economics Show, FEC, 3 to 5 (cookery at its best!)
Sunday, 4th St. Mary's Harvest Festival service, 10.30
Monday, 5th Camera Club, "First Steps on the ladder" (Roy Stubbs), FEC, 7.30
Tuesday, 6th FRAG talk on the early history of jazz, with slides and music, by Keith Beal (entrance £2 at door), Stormont Studio, 8
Wednesday, 7th Hearing Circle, Red Cross, 10.30
• Congratulations to Amanda and Philip Martin of Nutley Close on the birth of their son Nigel Patrick James, on 21 September - a brother for Christopher and Emily and an eighth grandchild (second grandson) for Mr. and Mrs. H. King of Mason Road. Mrs. King is extra proud of Nigel - he had the tact to be born on her birthday!
• On Saturday, 10 October, Sharon Cocks of Military Road intends to cycle from Rye via Boulogne to Samer in France - a round trip (not counting the ferry) of 80 miles. She is seeking sponsors, in aid of Mencap's Friary Gardeners. Vickie Piper tells us that there will be sponsor forms in various shops in the
town, including Spar. As well as plenty of sponsors, we must wish the enterprising Sharon a fine day - and no sharp stones...
• Congratulations and thanks to the Methodist Church members on their most attractive Harvest display, with home-grown and home-made produce mingling with gifts from the far parts of the earth - and a most ingenious pergola arching over the doorway.
• We had intended, this week, to congratulate Devonport House on their splendid 8-foot sunflower growing up against the wall by the street. However, early on Sunday morning, to the accompaniment of a lot of noise, vandals pulled it up and scattered it all over Tower Street, so we can only condole instead.
• The police drink-driving campaign moved into Rye on Saturday; four people were arrested, three had positive tests and the fourth is awaiting the result from the Home Office laboratory. The press book also records the theft of a blue Citroen Dyane, UJK 450T, from the Tennis Club between 26 and 27 September.
• Rye Playgroup committee is most grateful for two recent donations: £50 from the St. Mary's Parochial Church Council, and £25 from the Bowls Club.
• Rye Goldsmiths needs a part-time person - "mature" says Sally Todd - to work flexible hours which will definitely include Saturdays. Call at the shop and talk to Sally, if you might be interested.
• A repainted hanging sign in the High Street proclaims a change of ownership for the off-licence at 101: Frymans in 1876, Chapmans in 1898, much later Style & Winch, subsequently Roberts, then Arthur Cooper (or was it the other way round?) - and now, evidently, Peter Dominic.
• Finally, we have received a complaint about a section of the population which we don't remember mentioning before in the GAZETTE - the Rye mosquitoes! There do seem to be a great many this year, and someone who has only just come to live permanently in the town wonders if it is like this every autumn? They come in all sizes, he says, and they all bite - symptoms of malaria have not yet appeared, but he is waiting... Would anyone care to comment?
THE RYE GAZETTE is regis;ered 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 is Monday afternoon for Wednesday's delivery; the paper costs subscribers 40p, payable quarterly in advance. Spare copies are sometimes available from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)