The Library hours are now secure at least until September, Mrs. Yates told us after the Library Committee meeting at Lewes on Friday. The Chief Librarian had made various small savings in the service (2nd class postage instead of 1st, ditto for travelling expenses, and economies in purchasing new library furniture, for instance) which added up to a useful total, and the County Council had agreed to find £11,000 out of other resources. The Policy and Resources Committee is being asked to look at next year's estimates with the Library Service very much in mind, and Mrs. Yates is optimistic that they will be able to help. She had made very forcibly at the meeting the point that Rye Library had a much larger catchment area than most, with people coming in from as far away as Northiam and even from Hastings, as well as from across the Kent border (and of course these people don't come into the town only to go to the Library - they do their shopping at the same time, particularly as country buses are so few and far between, so other trade in the town benefits as well).
Rye Pottery came home from the Birmingham Trade Fair in February well pleased with the attention their stand had attracted, particularly from foreign buyers. The French were especially interested in the Pottery's new range of tableware in pastel colours, and the up-market chain Au Printemps negotiated for a trial order. Now they have come back for more, to be delivered in time for a British Week in September which means completion by the end of July - and their idea of "more" is a total of 17,000 separate items! Since the pottery's average annual production is perhaps 19,000 items, this new order represents almost a year's work to be produced in three months - no wonder things are humming in Ferry Road. Rye Pottery and Rye Tiles, who employ about 20 people between them, are also jointly involved in a big November promotion at a Kansas store, which is setting up a Rye room and stocking items from the entire range; Biddy Cole wonders if she and Tarquin will be invited over for the opening. This order is now almost finished, but Rye Tiles still have their sights on the USA, with an order for a country cottage in Connecticut - since it has five bathrooms, it requires some £6,000-worth of tiles... (Confused about the set-up? Just after the war, Wally Cole and his wife Eileen reopened the long-established Rye Pottery in Ferry Road. Their son Tarquin and his wife Biddy in due course founded Rye Tiles in the Old Brewery in Wish Ward, with a London outlet and some very interesting London contracts lately. Wally and Eileen recently retired, and Tarquin took over the Pottery while Biddy continues to run the Tiles; and it is Tarquin's sister Tina who has an exhibition at the Easton Rooms - see p 7.)
We wonder how many other Rye firms are quietly into big business in odd corners of the town? It would be a real pleasure to hear about them. This week's second story about a successful business venture appears on page 4.
Mr. Jonathan Jempson tells us that contracts for the sale of the Farnborough Engineering premises to John Jempson & Son have now been exchanged. The firm intends to use the new premises mainly for parking and warehousing, thus making more room at the main Slades Yard site. They do not need the whole of the vast building for their own use and invite enquiries from people interested in renting part of it.
Mrs. Judy Brown is not well and asks us to make her sincere apologies to the 60 people who had booked for the WRVS Lunch Club on Bank Holiday Monday (30th) - she is very sorry that this meeting will have to be cancelled and does hope that no-one will turn up at the Community Centre on Monday - only to find themselves suddenly dinnerless!
2.
Mrs. Edith Eden, who died on 14 May after a short illness, came to Cliff Cottage, out along the Military Road, when she and her husband Tony retired from their teaching jobs in Surrey. Mrs. Eden had a keen interest in antiques and ran a stall in "A Pocket-Full of Rye"; she was also well-known as a breeder of Siamese cats. But she will be best remembered in the town for her WI work - not only at Branch level, as a member and for a time Secretary of Playden WI, but also at County and indeed National level for her skill and experience as an expert in home economics. In 1982 she resigned as Controller of the Rye WI Market after three very successful years in this demanding job, and she will be much missed locally. The funeral took place at Playden Church on Friday.
A very pleasant ceremony in the Town Hall on Monday evening marked the inauguration of Councillor William Simpson for his second term as Mayor, with his daughter Mrs. Dodds once more his Mayoress and Councillor Mrs. Kirkham his Deputy; and the rescued 1951 pennies were duly handed over to him for safe keeping during the year. In his report, the Mayor referred to the work of the Council over the past year, and paid a tribute to Mr. Dick Prebble, for so long the Father of the Council - a position now occupied by Mrs. Kirkham! He spoke of the success of the bowling green and of the Town Model - the latter boosted by Joy Harland's interview on "Down Your Way", which had prompted extra party bookings for this season (April receipts this year were twice those of April 1982). He felt that the bottle banks could be used more and was not happy about the state of the cemetery, where recent improvements made by Rother were not considered adequate. Illness had delayed progress on the Mayoral lists in the Town Hall, but he hoped matters would soon improve. A new Lottery was to be launched on 1 June (see GAZETTE no.31). The Mayor also to the Council's purchase of land at Freda Gardham, to the reprieve for the Library (see page 1), and to the successful conclusion of the town's fight for fair concurrent functions rating, with thanks to Councillor Shackleton and to Rother's Treasurer Mr. Allen.
The Council, minus Mr. Wiseman who was not able to be present, then adjourned to the church for a short service taken by Canon Maundrell, the Mayor's Chaplain, and returned to the Town Hall for refreshment and the ceremonial hot-penny-throwing to the waiting mob beneath the windows; some Councillors had provided themselves with a private supply as well as the official shovelfuls heated up by the Town Sergeant on a small electric cooker in the lobby. (Watching from the courtyard were ten ladies from Greyfriars.) The final adjournment was to the George Hotel for dinner.
In view of concern among the town's business community over the new Sunday trading situation, Mr. Bird and Mr. Dennison of Rother's Technical Services Department were invited to attend a Chamber of Trade meeting on Wednesday. Also present were Rye's two new Rother Councillors, Mr. Cawdron and Mrs. Tomich. It was clear from what the Rother officials said that the Council had received complaints from within the town, both in 1982 and 1983, about unauthorised Sunday trading (despite what the GAZETTE understood from the Technical Services Officer the previous week). With plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion, there were complaints about the obscure wording of the form Rother had sent out, and also about the shortness of the time allowed for replies; and Chairman Maurice Blackman finally received an assurance that in his report to the Committee the Technical Services Officer would include the Chamber's view that more time was needed for all the local Chambers to discuss the matter thoroughly. It appears that once the views of shopkeepers have been ascertained, the Council intends to canvass public opinion before any order is actually made. The degree of enforcement would be for the Committee to decide; this is, of course, linked with the proposal to take on extra staff for the purpose. Another matter raised was which 18 Sundays should be specified in the Order - there was support for the view that it would be better to have them in the spring and autumn rather than at the height of the season. Mr. Bird and Mr. Dennison went home with plenty to think about.
The Chamber is circulating a letter on the position to all traders in the town, and enclosing a very straightforward questionnaire to be returned to its Hon. Secretary.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 25.5.83 - page 3
With a new constituency, a new Returning Officer: instead of Mr. Harding and his deputy Mr. Lee from Rother, who supervised the local government elections, we now have Mr. Adams, based at Hastings Town Hall, for the General Election. The NFU are as usual inviting all the candidates to speak to members at a meeting in the course of the campaign; now, instead of just the one meeting, they have to hold two - one here on Thursday morning for the Hastings and Rye candidates, and one at Battle next day for the Battle and Bexhill set (where the Liberals have apparently selected a new candidate just as the campaign begins, to complicate matters even further!).
We shall, it appears, be having not three but four candidates seeking our vote: David Amies, Nigel Knowles and Kenneth Warren, as we all know, and now also Gordon McNally, who is standing as an Independent Representing Voters' Views by Referendum. Mr. McNally is 58, lives in Battle, and is chairman of a Hastings travel agency. We tried to contact him on Tuesday to ask for light to be thrown on his unusual political affiliations, but unfortunately, he was out of the country, and his agent (and wife) was quite adamant that the statement being prepared for the press could not be released before today, so we are unable to offer readers any further information. Perhaps next week.
The Liberal meeting on Saturday turns out not to be the first of our election meetings after all; the Conservatives, who have opened a committee room at 72 The Mint, have booked the Town Hall for the previous day, when Mr. Kenneth Warren, now just the Conservative candidate for the Hastings and Rye constituency, will speak (see "The Week's Events").
The Labour meeting, we are told, will be after the Bank Holiday, though Nigel Knowles will be canvassing in the town on Thursday. Ken Warren was in the High Street last Saturday; what about it, Mr. Amies? And, for that matter, Mr. McNally?
Builders spent two days last week, as shoppers may have noticed, apparently breaking out of Woolworths! Having taken back the former antique shop next door, the store is set to expand, and manager Mr. Wren and his staff hope that the new sales area will be ready in time for the Bank Holiday trade; among the sections moved into it will be a larger range of cards and books. The store has already taken on two young people from the YOP scheme, and if the extension brings good business they may well have room for a third, which is all good news.
The Monday Club for over-sixties, which meets every first and third Monday at the Clinic, recently held its annual birthday party - a great success, with most of the Club's members present. Among the guests were the Mayor, Canon Maundrell, James Gladstone, Mrs. Bolton of the Red Cross and Mrs. Brown of the WRVS Lunch Club, Mrs. Scotcher, and the Club's transport drivers, Mr. Phil Ellis and Mr. Hackman (now much better after his recent illness). A delicious tea was provided by the Committee, and served by Inner Wheel members so that the Committee could enjoy the party too. After tea, a singsong, with Mr. Ball of Rye Harbour at the piano; a thoroughly good time was had by all.
The first two outings in the Club's summer programme were a blossom tour with a stop-at a farm shop and tea in Wittersham, and a trip yesterday to Leeds Castle.
A welcome addition to the Town Hall's collection of portraits is that of Councillor Simpson, which he has presented at the end of his first year as Mayor. It was painted by his son-in-law Tony Dodds, husband of the Mayoress, and now hangs in the lobby the other side of the window from the photograph of Jo Kirkham. Is this perhaps the start of a pleasant precedent, with all future Mayors contributing a portrait of themselves in some form, for the interest of generations yet unborn?
Just lately there have been few GAZETTES which did not include at least one story involving the Planning Department, so it seems very tame to record that the only Rye application in the past three weeks is for a non-illuminated sign for the Midland Bank! However, there will be various Rye applications on the agenda for Thursday's Planning Committee, whose composition we hope to publish shortly.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 25.5.83 - page -4
Sixteen successful entrepreneurs met on business for the last time on Thursday, when Rye Young Enterprise held its final meeting to wind up the company. Under the rules of the Young Enterprise scheme, each year's company has to go into liquidation in May — largely because its members will be taking O and A levels in June. The Thomas Peacocke group, all Lower VIth were already finding themselves with exam complications, since four members are due to go over to Eastbourne in mid-June for a competition connected with the scheme, run by South East Forum; they have also entered for a national competition sponsored by the Midland Bank.
We last reported on R.Y.E. before Christmas, when they were producing a magazine rack and a car accessory pack, both designed with the gift market in mind. They added to their range a candle holder ingeniously designed to use scrap wood from the magazine rack; and, to provide variety after Christmas and still tempt the gift trade, a Rye tile pot-stand in a stout wooden frame. This sold extremely well, and by the end they were having to refuse orders they knew they would not have time to fill.
In February, as part of the scheme, the management team changed, and Julie Hare took over the hot seat as Managing Director from Marc Chapman; Tracy Kirkham handed the account books to Louise Hickman; Julie Moug continued as Secretary, while Stephen Pearse, John Bolton and Nigel Thompson replaced Richard Fry, Paul Farley and Andrew Maylam as Production, Sales and Personnel Managers respectively.
Marc and Julie jointly produced the company's excellent Annual Report - excellent both in content and appearance, a very professional document that any small company would be proud to put its name to. It goes into considerable detail about pricing, work-flow, and the - technical side of production; the accounts are set out in detail, audited for the company by the school bursar. There were 53 shareholders, with a total of 75 25p shares, and the company was in the happy position of being able to pay a 100% dividend out of its profits, and on top of this to hand the Headmaster a cheque for just ever £50 for school funds. £25-worth of unsold stock was given to local old people's homes, and we saw two magazine racks very well-stocked with literature in the Badger Gate common-room on Saturday. The company also paid £80 VAT and corporation tax as part of the scheme. They found themselves dealing with a surprisingly large amount of money - sales worth over £400 - and one conclusion was that the accountant should not also be expected to work at the factory bench.
Other lessons learnt were various and useful. Designing a product to suit a known market is well worth doing, but expecting the workforce to carry out dull production jobs without any variety can lead to absenteeism. The management changeover, intended to give experience to as many of the group as possible, produced certain labour relations problems, but confidence was restored in good time; a bonus scheme, introduced towards the end, improved attendance records. Taking deposits on orders meant that they did not need to use their £30 overdraft facility at any point. The paperwork, especially the writing of the Annual Report, proved to be extremely time-consuming, the Managing Directors told us ruefully.
The Advisers from Rotary - Mr. Popple, Mr, Perry, Dr. Jeelani and Mr. Tuck - and the school are very proud of the company's success; and something like this on a school record must surely carry weight when it comes to a job or university entrance. In, perhaps ten years' time it could also make a big difference to the success or failure of up to sixteen small businesses - indeed, one member of the team has already set up his own company marketing computer software, and the best of luck to him!
A pair of mallard at Strand Quay on Sunday found their accustomed feeding-grounds heavily over-populated: the mud-berth moorings were triple- and quadruple-booked to accommodate 17 very smart cruisers not normally seen in the river. As we said earlier this month, a contingent from the Club Nautique at Le Crotoy visited Rye over the French bank holiday weekend, to be entertained by Rye Harbour Sailing Club. Lunch on Sunday was served at the Old Forge Restaurant to over 50 crew members, and in the afternoon the Bayntuns again acted as hosts, this time to tea in the garden of their Point Hill home. The visitors left on Monday, and Rye makes a return visit next weekend, weather permitting. We hear of an interesting suggestion that an informal "twinning" arrangement might be set up between the two towns, or anyway between the two sailing clubs.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 25.5.83 - page 5
What a surprisingly big part chance can play in the history of a town! It was by chance that Geoffrey Bagley decided to settle here - so we have a museum; and by chance, too, that John Everest came - so we have a railway.
When Mr. Everest gave up his builder's business in Croydon in 1968, he and his wife spent a week in Hastings looking at houses along the South Coast. A Surrey estate agent sent them details of one at Rye Harbour; they came to look, decided against it - but saw something they did like, and settled in Winchelsea Road. They knew nobody; and the best way to make friends is to join something, and Mr. Everest joined the Ratepayers Association, "opened his blinking big mouth" (his phrase) and found himself on the Committee and eventually Chairman. It was not his first experience of public office. In 1954 he had been the National President of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood Movement, an interdenominational Christian association which, among other things, ran a hostel for down-and-outs at the Elephant and Castle in London. His successor as President was Mr, George Thomas, then an MP and more recently the Speaker of the House of Commons - which is why, many years later, Mr. Everest was able to take a party from the Over-60s Club not just to the House but to the Speaker's Cottage in the Commons precincts. He is still a member of the Brotherhood, and Vice-President of the Hastings Branch.
It was with this sort of experience behind him that Mr. Everest led the fight to save the railway, from 1969 onwards - without as much support from the town as he might have expected: but then, he didn't know a lost cause when he saw one. Now admitting to 84, he was at the wrong end of middle age when he flung all his energies into blunting the Beeching axe and convincing Barbara Castle that a Ministerial decision didn't have to be final. The Ashford-Hastings Rail Users Association fought the closure on the grounds that ours was not a branch line but an important transport link along the south coast. With Mr. Everest at its head, Mrs. Sheila Stevens of Ham Street as Secretary, Mr. Ed Wiseman as Press Officer, and Messrs. Phil Ellis and Ernest Chandler among the leading activists, the Association pestered the Ministry (and when they got no response, wrote to the Queen; forwarded on from her, that letter produced a reply within three days!). They chartered a special train to take 200 demonstrators to London, to hand in a letter to 10 Downing Street and then call at the House of Commons (Mr. Godman Irvine, says Mr. Everest, was always an excellent letter-box). Eventually an enquiry was set up into the feasibility of running buses to replace the trains; the Association convinced the enquiry chairman that the roads were just not suitable. After five years of very hard work, the line was safe. (And Ken Warren, campaigning in the High Street on Saturday, assured the GAZETTE that it does not appear on a recent list of lines currently at risk.)
There is, alas, no room to list in detail Mr. Everest's other achievements. He was a member of Rye Borough Council and then Rye Town Council, and Mayor in 1976/7. He was deeply involved in the foundation of the Community Centre. He was Chairman of Rye Horticultural Society and Flower Show and is the proud holder of a Banksian Medal for vegetables, following in his father's' footsteps. For a time - against all the rules - he ran the Red Cross Over-60s Club without being a member of the Red Cross; and until very recently he was a Vice-President of both the Cricket and the Bowls Clubs.
And now, with all this behind them over the past 15 years, the Everests are leaving Rye. They go on 7 June. It was not an easy decision but was forced on them by the increasing challenge of too many stairs and too much garden. They are moving to a flat by the sea at Bexhill, with no garden at all but a view from the window over Egerton Park, with every kind of sport and entertainment facility – though Mrs. Everest does wonder where she is going to dry the washing! This home, too, came their way by chance; they just happened to be in the agent's office when the flat went on the market. Of course, it is a wise move, and the Bexhill beach will be a magnet for at least one great-grandchild - Mr. Everest has a son (who, as it happens, works for British Rail) and two daughters, and four grandchildren. His many friends, and the town for which he has done so much, wish him and Mrs. Everest every happiness in their new home, and say not goodbye but au revoir.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 25.5.83 - page 6
We are sorry when occasional typing errors sneak into the GAZETTE, but sometimes good comes of it. Last week's story, about the 1884 by-election which put John Neve Masters on Rye Council, gave his address as 94 High Street. This was very properly queried by Miss Constance Smith, of Badger Gate: she knew John Masters had lived at 95 High Street, because her father had bought the property off him in 1907 and had conducted his hairdressing business there until his retirement in 1931. (It had two further changes of owner before WW2, both hairdressers, and then stood empty for some time before it was reopened in 1951 as Rose-Anne - which, of course, it has remained for the last 32 years.) No. 94, said Miss Smith, was run as a drapery business from before 1907 until the mid-1920s by Miss Annie Sutton and her sister, who then sold the shop to Mr. Adin Coates of Tenterden; his son in turn sold it to Olivers the jewellers in 1980.
Miss Smith tells us that the 1884 by-election was the only one John Masters ever fought; soon afterwards he was made an Alderman, which meant a permanent seat on the Council. Having sold 95 to the Smiths, he moved his business to larger premises at 8/9 High Street, taking with him the large clock which had advertised his watchmaking business at 95; this is still, of course, in Adams' side window, though Clifford Foster has been told that the face is more recent, owing to damage during the war. It was from the Adams premises that Masters built up his impressive mail-order business, and we hope to report on this in a future issue.
Talking to Miss Smith, it is very difficult to believe that she is 89; she has such an astonishing power to recall the Rye of her girlhood. The garden of 95, like the others in that part of the High Street, runs right back to the yard of the FE Centre, then the girls' school, and Miss Smith clearly remembers her mother passing hot cocoa to her three daughters through a gap in the wall on cold days! Inspired by her memories, we are hoping to build up a record of the commercial history of the High Street shops, and others, over the past hundred years; all contributions will be gratefully received and of course incorporated.
Incidentally, the High Street numbering is rather confusing. It runs along the north side from the ironmonger's (no. 1), right down The Mint, up the other side and back along the High Street to Woolgers (114). But whereas Dr. Jeelani's surgery is 31 High Street, the shop next door is 32 The Mint, and on the other side - Easter Cottage is 78 The Mint, while the opticians' is 79 High Street once again. In view of the numbering, addresses must once all have been High Street ones; when did "The Mint", in this context, creep in?
(Footnote: apologies to those who have so kindly supplied information about the Rye Marathon; we shall be using this, but there seem to be several conflicting versions and we need a bit longer to sort them out!)
The Town Council's annual open meeting will be held at 7.30 on Tuesday, 14 June.
The lst Peacocke Pack, Cub Scouts, have a parents' evening on 7 June at 6.30 at the Scout Hut.
Dates altered due to the election include the Rye Conservation Society's AGM, moved from 10 to 15 June (Town Hall, 8), and the Labour Party Bazaar at the FEC, moved from 11 June to 30 July. It appears that some people are not expecting to go to bed at all on the night of the 9th/10th!
Vidler & Co's annual Boat Auction will take place on 11 June at 10 am in the Market.
The Conservative Association plans an afternoon tea on 23 June at The Walled Garden, Playden; a coffee morning on 5 July at The Gables, Iden; a coffee morning on 6 August at St. Anthony's, Church Square; another at the George Hotel on 6 September; and their Autumn Fair at the FEC on Saturday, 17 September at 2,30.
Playden WI's Summer Fair will take place at the FEC on Saturday, 2 July, from 10.
The Rye Dance Centre holds its first show - June Haviland calls it "Showbiz" - on 15 and 16 July, 7.30 at the Community Centre. (The Dance Centre cleared £220 at its recent jumble sale!)
7.
There have been rumours for some months of plans for a day centre in the town for elderly and disabled people. A working group has been set up, including Mrs. Jean Bull-Marshall, Mrs. Monica Oliver, Rev. Stuart Davison, Neil Weatherall of Social Services, and Chris Hamson, a community nurse from St. Helen's. Both the Community Centre and the Baptist Church Hall are under consideration as possible accommodation, and the plan would be to open one or two days a week from 10 to 4, obviously including a mid-day meal. What they now need most urgently is an organiser - someone used to working with old or handicapped people, even if just in their own family, and preferably with some organising experience as well. As we know, most people in the town willing to give up a couple of days a week for the benefit of the community are already bespoken by one of our existing good causes; but people do come new to the town, and perhaps there is someone who might be interested in taking on this very worth-while job? Ring Neil Weatherall (0424 218498) to discuss it, or talk to any other member of the working group.
The day centre scheme will be under the umbrella of the Rye Council for Voluntary Service, and more details will be given at the RCVS public meeting on 23 June at the Town Hall. We understand that two other interesting new projects will also be put forward then, so book the date in your diary now.
Among the goodies promised for Rye Festival, as usual taking place the first week in September, are a talk on Henry James, and another on King George VI and the lady we now think of affectionately as the Queen Mum. Geraldine McEwen, recently seen on television terrorising the Diocese of Barchester as Mrs. Proudie, will appear as Jane Austen - indeed, the Festival does have a strong literary flavour this year; even the films will be Shakespearean in origin. But music-lovers at all levels need not despair; if even Walton's "Facade" is too highbrow, the work of Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller will not be, as rendered by George Chisholm and his accomplices; and the orchestra on the final night will be the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. Shows for children include buskers - appropriately based on a bus; a poetry project which involves Freda Gardham School; and a second opportunity for pavement artists in the Gun Garden.
It was really fortunate that Saturday was such a fine day, since there were two lots of sponsored walkers on the go. The annual Christian Aid walk across the marsh consisted almost entirely of schoolchildren, aged from 8 to 18; there were around 70 walkers, with a strong contingent from Freda Gardham. Until the money comes in the organisers have no idea how much will have been raised.
The same applies to the Rye Firemen's sponsored push (GAZETTE no.34) in aid of the National Firemen's benevolent Fund; they were escorted in turn by the Folkestone, Hythe, Dymchurch and New Romney appliances, and then met at Jury's Gap by the other Rye crew, with the Deputy Mayor as a passenger, and greeted on the final lap by Rye Majorettes.
Sponsor money apart, £400 has already been raised, £200 along the route and the rest in the town last weekend. Pushers were Dave and Bill Paige, Derek Hanwell, Bob Rogers, David Catt, David Giles, Alan Thomas, plus three teenage sons.
What do sheep and deckchairs have in common? They both feature strongly in Tina Cole's delightful exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Easton Rooms (until 14 June). This is, we think, Tina's first solo show in Rye, and her small views of familiar scenes at familiar prices make a pleasant change from some of the large and expensive works which the gallery has shown recently. She is interested in sheep strung like pearls across a folded landscape, in the level lines of waves and beach, hedgerows and horizons, in small country scenes and seaside vignettes, and the rainbow-coloured umbrella of the child watching the rainbow. Seen en masse, Tina's pictures invite us into a simple world of wishful thinking, much more easily reached than when she exhibits in a mixed show.
A complete contrast to these delicate paintings are the ceramics upstairs in the Crafts Gallery, an unusual range from the studio of Carolyn Genders.
8.
Thursday, 26th Sea Cadets coffee morning, Red Cross Centre, 9.30 to 12.30 Poetry reading, Fletcher's House, 7.30 (see GAZETTE no.35) Organ concert, Community Centre, 8 (see GAZETTE no.34)
Friday, 27th Conservative Party election meeting, Town Hall, 7.30 (see page 3)
Museum Association visit to Winchelsea, 6
Saturday, 28th Playden WI coffee morning, Red Cross Centre, 10 to 12
Craft Market, FEC, 10 to 4
SDP/Liberal Alliance election meeting, Town Hall, 7.30 (GAZETTE 35)
Sunday, 29th Boot Fair, New Road (Rye Lions), 10 to 4
Footsloggers "Foot Point-to-Point", Gateborough Farm, 3
• Congratulations to J. Alsford & Sons for tidying up their former timber store on the Strand Quay bend - now an attractive open-air shop window for their various retail products.
• Apologies to the Salvation Army - we understand that the proper term for their HQ is a citadel, not a church as we said last week.
• The coffee morning at the Town Hall on Saturday raised over £100 for the League of Friends of Hill House Hospital.
• Two garden seats, bought with Mr. Leonard Stocks's legacy to Badger Gate, are now in place on the walled terrace behind the flatlets.
• Update on the bypass: it will apparently cost £5m and be finished in the early 1990s. It is reported as being 1.3 miles long, so perhaps someone with a large- scale map and a bit of string would care to research the route on this basis?
• There will be a house-to-house (but not street) collection for the Blind Association from 13 to 18 June, and Mrs. Nelson-Barrett wonders whether there might be any new volunteers to help her small group this year? Offers should reach her (Rye 223408) by 2 June, please, so that routes can be allocated at a meeting that evening. Last year the Branch raised £1,200, including the profits from the annual sale (on 12 November this year) which always has articles made by blind people, some from the group which meets fortnightly at Winchelsea.
• At Rye WI's May meeting resolutions for the national AGM were discussed. Mrs. Mason's delectable pastries won the Home Economics Show competition. Plans were made for a visit to Syon Park including tea with the Asian friends at Wandsworth.
• Playden Church needs an organist, for Sunday mornings and choir practice once a week; Mrs. Barbara Dickinson, organist at the little church for many years, is having to give up for health reasons. If anyone can help, please contact Mr. Dick Wright at Leasam House (222296) or Rev. Ian Pidoux, Fair Meadow (222456).
• Mrs. Paddy Aiken, of Ferry Road, wonders if anyone would be interested in a summer holiday house exchange with her daughter and family (who would bring with them their own cot, etc.)? On offer is a three-bedroomed house in Greenwich, 15 mins. from Charing Cross; and the family want a similar house in Rye, suitable for two small children and a cat, preferably from 13 to 27 August, or failing that for just one week out of that fortnight. Ring Dr. Ledgerwood, 01 692 2377, after 6.
• There were - surprisingly? - no injuries when a minivan tangled with an ARC lorry in South Undercliff on Sunday afternoon.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office. It is published by Mrs. Mary Owen at 94 Udimore Road, Rye (222303), and news items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon, 9 am Tuesday for real emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday morning.
Photocopied by Sussex Secretarial Services, 10 Cambridge Road, Hastings (0424 422633).