Have you ever parked your car on a foggy day and left the lights on? Have you ever had to bawl a warning to people standing behind you when you were about to reverse? Everyday problems, you might think, but not catered for in the design of the average car. True, the buses make it quite clear when they are reversing; but how would the neighbours feel if your Mini did that, backing into the garage at one in the morning?
BP's "Buildacar" competition, held every two years, attracts a good deal of publicity, but another contest run in connection with it gets less attention, and it was in this second contest - "Build-a-bolt-on-bit" - that Mr. Dave Hancock, in charge of Control Technology at Thomas Peacocke School, decided to enter two teams. A team here can be a twosome, but in fact the Thomas Peacocke entries were designed by Mark Osborne of Love Lane, and Crispin Scott of Winchelsea, each working on his own. Mark dealt with the provision of a reversing warning signal, incorporating an after-dark cut-out operated by a photo-electric cell. Crispin's gadget bleeps if the driver's door is opened while the car lights are on.
Both entries were accepted for the final, and on 3 October Terry and Sally Osborne drove the boys to the REME School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Bordon in Hampshire. Although Mark and Crispin were not among the eventual winners, they found it a most interesting experience and enjoyed the splendid hospitality provided by REME. (The winning entry was a water-pump run from a car engine and intended for Third World use – not perhaps the kind of bolt-on bit we most need round here.)
The actual entries, wired to a board, look unbelievably simple, but the secret is in the little black box with the micro-electronic bits inside. Each of the gadgets costs well under £5 in materials and can quite simply be fitted to a car.
The school is running a Young Enterprise business scheme again this year. Last year the scheme's end-product was wooden key-holders. Perhaps this year they might be really enterprising and think about putting one or both of these sensible devices into production?
For a year now the concrete look-out platform at the end of Watchbell Street has been roped off as unsafe, and at Rother's September planning meeting the Planning Officer, Mr. David Powell, reported on the position. Apparently, the original slippage was only very slight, but a careful eye was kept and recently the cracks became much more noticeable. Experts were called in, and on their advice the load on the cliff edge was lightened by removing the brick wall beside the look-out, but no decision has yet been taken about the best permanent solution.
There is a tricky problem over who is responsible financially for long-term repairs. The County Council is the highway authority; is the look-out a part of the highway or not? Now that the wall is down, it looks rather as if it is; but of course things are not that simple. Negotiations are proceeding.
The judges certainly weren't giving away marks at the FE Centre on Saturday, when the Rye Group of Women's Institutes held their Autumn Produce Show. Nonetheless, the Group's home economics leader Mrs. Betty Cramp, of Ashenden Avenue, reports that 22 gold stars were awarded to entries gaining full marks in their class. There were some 375 entries in this splendid display, but the actual competition was between six of the seven Institutes in the Group (Udimore was unable to enter this year) and not between individuals, and honours were well distributed. Iden was awarded the Silver Challenge Cup for gardening, Beckley won the Silver Rose Bowl for cookery, and the cups for flower arrangement and for a buffet lunch table went to Playden and Peasmarsh respectively. Rye's trug of vegetables was judged best in its class, and Playden's pedestal flower arrangement was the winner from a very attractive group.
2.
Editorial unanimity splintered on "Yellowbeard" and its effect on the town. We have therefore reported the pros and cons as each of us saw them.
Mary found a great many people thoroughly enjoying the excitement. Nothing ever happens in Rye? - well, here was something happening. Housework - and homework - was left undone, lunch hours expanded indefinitely, some devotees even turned out to watch the long-after-dark sessions around the churchyard. Apart from the interest of the proceedings, there were casual jobs going with the sort of pay that Rye normally only reads about in the papers. The hotels were full, the pubs and restaurants were happy. Many of the shops were very pleased to have seen the film-makers, and it seems clear that they made a point of buying locally, if possible, both for props and for the commissariat generally. (Monday's downpour meant that there was not a cagoule to be had in the town by mid-morning, and even so the driers at the laundry ran until the small hours drying out soaked costumes.) The Farnborough Engineering building hummed like a beehive once more. Mary heard from various sources that the film people were very pleasant to deal with, anxious to fit in as far as possible and willing to pay compensation for the inconvenience they caused to individuals as well as to businesses. Her feedback says it was definitely a Good Thing and wishes them well on their next location in Mexico.
Joan's feedback, however, was different. She found that some pubs and restaurants were happy; others were completely cut off - and no compensation. She saw two elderly ladies who couldn't get into their houses in Church Square, and they didn't appreciate being called "Darling" and told it would be only five minutes before they could. Laundry vans were also told "only five minutes, mate" and waited to deliver for nearly an hour. Hucksteps Row was more or less inaccessible for days, whether for social visiting or business. One resident of Church Square, returning from a fortnight's holiday and quite unaware of what was happening, had her taxi stopped in Market Street and had to stumble through a dark churchyard, bruising her shins on a totally unexpected - and unlit - hay-cart parked under the flying buttress.
Joan felt that the attitude of the film-makers - "Stand there, Martin, and stop the so-and-so's coming through the churchyard" - left much to be desired. At the end of the filming, nails were being yanked out and hammers wielded on the centuries-old timbers of Church Square with apparently wild abandon. Most of us can remember other films being made in Rye - "Dunkirk", "Dr. Syn", "Follow that Camel" - but Joan does not remember any such lack of consideration being shown then.
Tailpiece: when one of the film's donkeys, patiently waiting by the churchyard on Friday, deposited the traditional offering on the pavement, a sharp-eyed Church Square gardener appeared very promptly with a bucket and shovel and bore it off, triumphant - too promptly for a second sharp-eyed Church Square gardener who appeared, similarly equipped, just too late!
A little book of 50 recipes, thoughtfully designed to be sent by post at the standard letter rate, was published last week in aid of the local branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Kath Elworthy, of 22 Ferry Road, herself a sufferer from this mysterious and crippling disease, has compiled the book from her own and her friends' favourite recipes. The pages, garnished with wise words, household hints and little drawings, cover a wide range of dishes, intended perhaps for more skilled and dedicated Cooks than "A Feast of St. Michael's" published earlier this year for Playden Church. Roast marinaded venison, for instance, needs thinking about three days before you intend to eat it. But they all sound quite delicious, and the GAZETTE intends to take up the challenge offered by Impossible Pie as soon as possible.
"Auntie Kath's Fifty Favourites" is available from 22 Ferry Road, price £1.60.
A record 71 members attended the Club's annual autumn mystery drive. Graham's Coaches devised a lovely journey across the Marsh, and the weather was perfect. The outing was rounded off by an excellent evening meal at the Royal Oak, Beckley, and the two coaches operated a doorstep taxi service on the way home.
The Club hopes for plenty of buyers at its annual Sale of Work at the Clinic on Monday next, 18 October, at 2.00.
3.
Rye's youth club, RX75, has moved its base from the Community Centre to the FE Centre, with the first meeting there on Tuesday of this week. The Club caters for boys and girls from 14 upwards and meets on Tuesdays from 7.0 to 10.0. When it is fully operational, there will be opportunities to play table tennis, pool, snooker and darts. It will have a television set and various forms of music, and the use of the Centre's refreshment counter to serve coffee, etc.
The leaders are Mr. Barry Newton, who used to live in Rye, and Mrs. Stella Mitchell. Both Barry and Stella now live in Hastings where they have for some time been working with young people. They see RX75 as a social centre primarily for its own members, but Barry says that the coffee bar will be open to anyone who likes to look in, including grown-ups with a little time to spare on Tuesday evenings. Money will of course have to change hands, since the Club needs to cover its expenses – grants are continually being cut - but Barry hopes that on Tuesdays RX75 will be not only a legal but also a cheaper alternative to the pub for many young people in the town.
A great sigh of relief will greet the news that the new owner of Landgate Stores is a Rye man, Mr. Ken Vicarey of New Road. Mr. Vicarey, who used to work for Griffin Boon, will be opening the shop in a few weeks' time to sell a full range of frozen foods.
The South Eastern Electricity Consultative Council sounds like yet another of those official bodies which most of us do well to keep away from. But when it turns out to be represented locally by Councillor Robert Bromley, of Little Orchard House in West Street, it immediately takes on a more friendly face - which is as it should be, since its purpose is to act as a buffer between us and Seeboard. A recent press release quotes widely different examples of the kind of problem that the Council has helped to solve, and although the GAZETTE has always found the staff at Rye's Seeboard showroom able to cope with most things, there are certainly horrifying tales from - we feel sure - other areas. Anyway, if you have a problem with your electricity supply, or with any equipment bought from Seeboard, and normal complaining does no good, go and talk to Councillor Bromley; he will be very ready to help you.
Since Rye's Town Clerk, Mr. John Baker, has refused to take several recent salary increases due to him, the Town Council feels justified in taking on extra part-time clerical help so that the Town Hall office can be staffed in the afternoon. We understand that the job will be advertised shortly.
Since we reported (GAZETTE no. 4) in the conditions underfoot at a recent Thursday market, matters have improved. The public health people from Battle came to have a look the following Thursday and discussed the problem with the cattle market staff, and certainly, things were very much better last week, despite the rain. There was still manure lying in a few pens, but some way from the stalls (and by mid-day on Friday the whole area was immaculate). We understand that part of the trouble was due to a drain which became blocked at 6.0 a.m. on that very wet Thursday, as well as to the particularly large number of sheep sold the previous day. The basic problem, of course, is that Wednesday is followed so inconveniently closely by Thursday; but presumably neither market would want to change its day now.
An innovation for first-year pupils at Thomas Peacocke School this year is a new system for practical subjects. From time immemorial, with a few exceptions girls did needlework and "home economics" (cookery to the older generation) and boys did metal-work and woodwork. Now, in the Lower School needlework room, boys as well as girls have learnt the workings of a sewing machine, and in the second year both sexes will slave over a hot stove; and many girls are really enjoying the chance to use the tools and machinery in the craft workshops. The GAZETTE (whose editors have between them sent six girls and three boys through the state educational system in Rye) heartily applauds this new development.
4.
Mr. Gordon Stanbridge, secretary of the Northiam and Rye Branch of the RAF Association, is pleased to report that the Wings Week appeal this year raised £535 in the Branch's area, £200 more than in 1981. The money will be well spent, since the RAFA exists to help past and present members of the Royal Air Force, whatever their problems may be. The Association deals with pensions, jobs and a wide variety of welfare difficulties. It also runs two homes for those who are either convalescent or permanently disabled. There are nearly 700 branches at home and overseas, with more than 100,000 members, and the nine Area Headquarters have access to a range of specialist services whenever they are needed.
Incidentally, the Association was the only one of the three organisations holding jumble sales in Rye this Saturday to "book in" the date in the Town Diary. It seems a pity that there should be three on one day, and none at all on either the previous or the following Saturday. (See Bulletin Board, The Week's Events, p.6.)
Referring to our mention of possible advertisements on Rother Council vehicles (GAZETTE no. 3) Sir Brian Batsford, Chairman of Rye Conservation Society, says that the Society would strongly object to such a move. (He points out that many of the Society's members object just as strongly to advertising on milk-bottles - now part of breakfast for those of us who put the bottle on the table - and to the occasional all-over advertisement bus seen in the town.) However, Councillor Shackleton tells the GAZETTE that Rother Council has now asked for a detailed report on this type of advertising, as part of the overall drive to keep down the rates. The Council would, of course, retain control over the sort of advertisements allowed.
In the same report we referred to the bottle banks, and a curious situation seems to have arisen here. The Strand Quay and Tower Street banks are sometimes full to overflowing, though Rother Council's Rye office assures us that they are normally emptied three times a week. However, it appears that the Tilling Green bank is hardly used at all (which may well account for the complaints about noise, since the bigger the drop the louder the smash). It is, for whatever reason, not popular with the neighbour's on its present site near the Estate shops, and there is now a suggestion before the Council that it should be moved to Gibbet's Marsh - which would certainly be more convenient for ecology-minded dwellers in Udimore Road.
Perhaps it is worth a mention that bottle banks are intended to salvage all kinds of glass, not just wine bottles...
Planning permission has now been received for a new Social Services office to open in Rye, for the convenience of those who find it difficult to get over to Hastings or Bexhill. The office will open in the spring in the building at present used as the Renault showroom in Cinque Ports Street. We will have a fuller report in a few weeks' time.
The £190 raised from Saturday's concert in St. Mary's, when Leo Halle, Lesley Brownbill and Anne Whiteman played and sang music by Schubert to an audience of 120, means that the John Williams Sail Training Appeal has now topped its target. The fund has £2,750 in the bank, with interest and tax refunds to come, which will mean that for the next seven years a representative of the Rye group of parishes will be able to go on a sail training cruise. The Committee members - Kate Davson, Robin Paine, Jo Kirkham, Peter Dee and John Coles - are delighted with this result, all achieved since the beginning of the year, and they look forward to receiving plenty of applications from the under-25s for places from 1984 onwards. The first winner, of course, is Andrea Wickenden who goes in April 1983.
The other appeal in memory of Canon Williams, for improvements to the St. Mary's organ, is also going well. It has now reached the stage where an up-to-date estimate is awaited from the specialists; some £1,800 has already been raised but more than this will be required to do the work needed. Organist Charles Proctor regularly gives a short recital in the church on Sundays before evensong, in aid of the fund, and churchwarden Ken Gasson reports that a particularly effective way of raising money has been a collecting box in the shape of an organ which garners up to £50 a week from visitors to the church.
5.
We originally promised subscribers a four-page paper, but you will have noticed that four out of our first six issues in fact contain six pages. We feel therefore that we are not robbing anyone by taking up space this week to record the GAZETTE'S policy and progress.
Our intention is simply to put on record and circulate to those interested a weekly account of what goes on in one very small town. It is clear that a great deal goes on, and our difficulty is not finding enough news for the space but finding enough space for the news - hence the extra pages, which will continue to appear when they are needed, not necessarily every week.
We have been criticised for being too parochial, and for not having a proper newspaper format. We are extremely parochial, and proud of it; although occasional outings to Rye Harbour and Playden sneak in, we do not normally cover anything beyond easy walking distance of the middle of the town unless we think it is of real interest to Rye people. As for our format, it is admittedly unusual, as newspapers go. It looks stodgy and is certainly a very solid 'read'. But eye-catching headlines not only take up expensive space but are also technically impossible for our very limited facilities. Pictures mixed in with print don't always come out too well (and also take up space), though we do have in mind the possibility of an occasional 'picture page' later on. We think that people prepared to spend 20p on us deserve to get 20p's worth of reading matter.
Advertisements are another possibility. But we worry lest they might sometimes tend to influence the editorial content; we would rather continue to give a free mention to new businesses, and to any particularly interesting venture, at the discretion of the editors. However, if anyone in the town would take responsibility for producing it, we might be open to suggestion about a separate sheet of advertisements, for local businesses only, slipped inside occasional issues of the GAZETTE.
Incidentally, we don't regard ourselves as being in competition with either FIXTURES or the free paper, EAST SUSSEX NEWS. FIXTURES of course has excellent advertising coverage of the Rye area, plus advance notice of some forthcoming events (though the GAZETTE'S Town Diary has even more advance notice in most cases). The NEWS covers the ghastly-accident department in a way we could not and do not attempt; it also deals very thoroughly with matters arising from Town Council meetings, which leaves us free to concentrate on other stories. We think there is room for all three of us.
You may have noticed that we photocopy in Hastings. We would have liked to produce the GAZETTE entirely in Rye, but this would have meant charging at least 30p a copy. As it is, the photocopying costs 15p for each A3 sheet (including our transport), and we are grateful to our printers for this very good price. This week we are ordering 150 copies, as against 75 for our first issue; photocopying double the quantity takes double the time, so we are now putting the paper together on Monday instead of Tuesday morning. It would therefore be helpful if we could have items for inclusion over the weekend where possible, though panic corrections can still be squeezed in on Tuesday first thing.
Inside the last issue covered by your current subscription, you will find a form inviting you to renew it if you wish - we do hope you will. People better at sums than the editors will realise that our original offer of a subscription from the first issue till the end of December for £2.40 was a "good buy"; those who took advantage of it, and whose receipts for £2.40 are dated 8 September or earlier, get a free December with the compliments of the GAZETTE, as a thank-you for taking us on trust. Forms for 1983 subscriptions will appear in a December issue, for all our subscribers; if we have by then turned into a regular six-page paper, we may ask you for 25p an issue instead of 20p as at present. In the meantime, we now enclose one of our current forms in case any of your friends would like to take the paper.
Please keep on sending in the news, even if you don't have the full story. We do have very helpful contacts, and just a brief word will set us going. We do not print stories about individual people without their permission, and we much prefer good news to bad.
encouragement so far. It has been an enormous help with an otherwise impossible project.6.
Thursday, 14th Christian Lunch Club, CC, 12.00 for 12.30
Friday, 15th Bridge Party (Conservative Association), Peppers, 7.30 (see below) Papa Joe's film: "Kramer vs. Kramer”, Pizzeria, 9.00
Saturday, 16th Jumble Sale (Cancer Relief), FEC, 10.15
Jumble Sale (RAFA), Thomas Peacocke Upper School, 2.00
Jumble Sale (Rye Sea Angling Club), CC, 2.30
Monday, 18th Monday Club's Annual Sale of Work, Rye Clinic, 2.00
17th - 24th Week of Prayer for World Peace (see Church notice-boards) - >more in next week's GAZETTE.
• Please pass the word round: visiting Rye Market this Thursday from 9.0 to 4.30 will be a mobile unit representing jointly Social Security and Social Services. The staff will be glad to advise on problems to do with benefits, pensions or welfare help generally.
• Advance notice: next week sees the monthly Red Cross Shop - garments can be handed in on Wednesday morning (20 October) and selling takes place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
• Supporters of the NSPCC who were not at home to hand over their envelopes to last week's collectors might like to deliver them, within the next week if possible, either to The Mint or to Udimore Road, so that their donations can be added to the Rye Branch's total.
• St. John Ambulance are once again holding a course of First Aid lectures, open to the public, at their Conduit Hill headquarters. The course consists of six lectures, under the supervision of Dr. Thomas, and costs £7.50. Enrolment on the first evening - Monday, 25 October at 7.30.
• Orders for cards and presents from the Multiple Sclerosis Society brochure can be left with Mrs. Kath Elworthy at 22 Ferry Road (2738) or with Mrs. Goldsworthy, Houghton House, Playden (Iden 312), so that a bulk order can be sent in - by 18 November, please. Orders for Mrs. Elworthy's cook-book (see page 2) can be sent to the same addresses.
• Bridge enthusiasts may like to note that on Friday (15 October) at 7.30 the bridge party at Peppers Restaurant, though organised by Rye Conservatives, will be open to all players whatever their political opinions.
• The Camber tram, which ran from Monkbretton Bridge to the golf course before the war, is only now a part of history to many of us. But to Kenneth Clark, one of Rye's keenest local historians, it is a particularly interesting part of the town's story, and he has now prepared a new illustrated talk incorporating his latest researches on the subject. There will be a chance to hear Mr. Clark give this at the FE Centre on Thursday, 28 October, at 7.30 (60p admission).
• Anne Swaine at the FE Centre reports that the adult education classes are now well into the autumn term; some had to be cancelled for lack of support, but most are well subscribed. There are still vacancies on the art appreciation course - "Art of the Western World" with Mrs. Barbara Whelpton as tutor - and on the lace-making class. Those who want to begin disco dancing will be welcome, though the class for more advanced dancers is full. There is still room in another class which begins in early November, teaching Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement.
• Barbara Fearon reports that the three WEA study groups are all established, though there is still room for new students who missed the original registration evenings. For the details see GAZETTE no.2, Bulletin Board.
THE RYE GAZETTE is published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 2303) assisted by Mrs. Joan Parkes, Bridge Place, Rye. We are always glad to receive news items for inclusion in this weekly publication - normal deadline is now Monday afternoon, though minor alterations can be made before 9.30 on Tuesday morning in case of emergency (Rye 2303 only).
Photocopied by Sussex Secretarial Services, 11 Claremont, Hastings (942 2633).
THE RYE GAZETTE costs 20p a week, delivered to subscribers in our area on Wednesday of each week. (Deadline for news for the GAZETTE is Monday evening, to Rye 2303.)If you would like to receive copies, please return this form completed and with the amount due (cheques to THE RYE GAZETTE) to one of the Editors - Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye, or Joan Parkes, 5 Bridge Place, Rye - by the Monday of the week in which you wish your subscription to start. Your receipt will come with your first copy.
Subscriptions are payable in advance, to the end of any month. We publish four times in October, four times in November and four in December (but not on the 29th). So, if you are starting with our 6 October issue, you can pay either 80p to the end of October, or £1.60 to the end of November, or £2.40 to the end of December (we are not taking subscriptions for 1983 until December). If you are starting in the middle of a month, deduct 20p or 40p from the above, as appropriate.
Joan Parkes acts as retail outlet for people who prefer to pay weekly. We do print a few spare copies, but not many, so if you want to be sure of yours you should let her know in advance. Udimore Road is the subscription department and does not deal in single copies.
Our delivery area is bounded by the top of Udimore Road, “Top o' the Hill" (Rye Hill), Pollards Wharf (Military Road), Freda Gardham School (New Road) and the Tollgate Garage (New Winchelsea Road). If you live beyond this, we shall need a delivery address.