Our information doesn't yet come officially from the school, but we are very pleased indeed to report from a reliable source that the Thomas Peacocke School O-level results (as opposed to last week's A’s) are said to be very satisfactory, with plenty of good grades and around 60% of those entering having achieved at least five passes. Congratulations all round!
Mrs. Dianne James of Rye Harbour is beginning to make a habit of organising Raft Races; Sundays was her fifth, and though she has no idea yet how much money will have been raised, there will undoubtedly be a very handsome cheque paid over to the NSPCC in November. There were 28 entries, and 15 finished the course under their own power - winning time was 26 minutes, in conditions that were far from ideal. Miss Rye presented the cups. The overall winners were VG Electronics, from Hastings, with a gruesome raft called "The Living Dead"; other awards went to “The Wasps' Nest” from Mizpah Guest House, in Military Road (fancy dress - judged before the start, necessarily); to British Rail Social Club from Eastbourne for "The Gravy Train" (most original raft); to the red-and-black stripes of Rye Boys Club (Youth Award); and to Rye Fishermen - the wooden spoon for the last raft to arrive at the finish unaided. Second to finish the course was the George Hotel's "Tuten George" (the Egyptian entry), and third came the white barrels of Hastings Round Table and Amberley, a joint entry. We thought a special prize for sheer pig-headedness should go to the Ferryboat's raft, still rowing up Rock Channel towards the start at about the time that VG Electronics must have reached the finishing line!
Having got her own presentations out of the way, Mrs. James was then seized upon by Rye Lions to draw the winning ticket in their very successful raffle. The lucky man was Mr. R. Tennant, of Peasmarsh, who won the video recorder. The portable colour television went to someone in Northiam, and the cassette recorder to Harrow. (Lions were lucky that the winners were not the Falklands Islanders or the New Zealanders who bought tickets at the sheep-shearing event at Camber a week or two back!) In a separate on-the-spot raffle, Miss Hilda Dann was startled to win £50-worth of whisky in a gallon bottle. Lions are not yet sure just how much money was raised by the raffles and the fete, but they will let us know. In any case, we hear that the fete was a very welcome addition to the afternoon's festivities.
A reception was held at Hill House Hospital on Friday to mark the retirement of the hospital's Senior Nursing Officer, Mr. Paul Handley, after 54 years in the NHS. Mr. Handley received a cut-glass decanter from the Health Authority, and from his colleagues at work came cufflinks, a cheque and a cold-frame for his garden in North Salts.
Mr. Handley came to Hill House in 1965, as deputy chief nursing officer, and in 1973 took responsibility for all the nursing aspects of the hospital's work; his wife Janet has been nursing there but has now moved over to the occupational therapy unit. Mr. Handley himself will not be losing contact with the hospital, but will be helping with the swimming pool, the camping trips, and other activities organised for the patients. His successor has not yet been appointed, and for the moment Mr. Call, of the hospital's present staff, is in charge.
2.
Mr. Frederick Taylor, of St. Margaret's Terrace, died on 26 August at his home. Mr. Taylor, who was 81, had been unwell for some time. He leaves a widow. The funeral is at Hastings on Thursday.
There seem to have been a great many people in the town over the weekend, perhaps because the weather was rather blowy for the beach. But lifeboat and fire brigade both report a quiet weekend, and the police say there were no traffic problems (doubtless any of the other kind will appear in the Press Book in due course).
After the George Hotel's mail-coach recently, Rye was treated to more horse-drawn transport on Saturday. From their wedding at St. Michael's, Playden, Stephen Hadfield and Helen Nunn were driven to the reception at the Mermaid in an open landau drawn by a pair of greys; and owing to our one-way system, the journey took them round South Undercliff, Cinque Ports Street, the Landgate arch and the High Street, so plenty of people had a chance to admire! Mr. and Mrs. Hadfield are driving through France to Italy for a three-week honeymoon - by car, though. Their many friends in the area will wish them every happiness in their marriage.
Readers have been so kind in showing the Editor their photographs of Rye as it was that we have always regretted it was not possible to use them in the paper. Now another possibility appears. Mrs. Aylwin Guilmant has already produced a book on Bexhill and has one on Battle due out later this year, and she wants her third to be on Rye and Winchelsea. Mrs. Guilmant's books are not history books in the usual sense, but collections of photographs of places and particularly of people at work or play; and she does like to add very full captions giving considerable detail, such as the names of the people and why they are there. Each book starts with an introduction, but after that contains between 150 and 200 photographs, mostly of the early 1900s but running into the 1920s and in some cases right up to the beginning of WW2.
Mrs. Guilmant will of course be delighted if people will send her any photographs they think she might like to use; she will rephotograph those she needs, and return the originals safely. But she also realises that some people with beautiful and interesting collections are not all that keen to let pictures out of their possession, and she would like to be invited to come and look at such collections and then make arrangements for some pictures to be photographed in Rye, or to pay for this to be done if people prefer to make their own arrangements. As well as photographs, she would also be interested in old posters, playbills and programmes.
This is a marvellous opportunity to preserve for posterity that photograph of your grandparents outside their shop, of Uncle Bob in knickerbockers on the Cycle Club outing, of Great-Aunt Jane aged eight in her school concert. If you would like to be part of this worth-while project, do get in touch with Mrs. Guilmant; her address is XX Richmond Road, Bexhill, and her phone number Bexhill 2139XX.
Miss Alma Fabes can't remember where she first heard the story of the Trader's Passage ghost; can anyone help her? It is new to us. Anyway, and briefly, Trader's Passage used to be haunted by the ghost of one of Queen Elizabeth I's ladies-in-waiting, bewailing the loss of her mistress's necklace of black pearls. When the bomb fell on Strand Quay, one of the workmen clearing up the rubble found a string of black beads and gave them to his little daughter. It was noticed by someone knowledgeable who took it to London and had it identified as being in fact a necklace of black pearls, likely to be Tudor. The ghost was not seen again.
Any comments? Who was the little girl?
THE RYE GAZETTE, 31.8.83 - page 3
It hardly seems possible that five weeks have passed since Jo Ciccone's private- enterprise summer school opened. Jo had 150 names on the books; the largest group at any session was 43 and the smallest 15, and she never had to turn any-one away because of overcrowding. Total casualties, one grazed knee! But she does have a large box of lost property, and any parent still hunting for a pair of socks or a sweater or swimsuit or lunchbox is very welcome to ring her at Rye 222391 and see if she has it in her collection.
Jo's regular helpers were Susie Glazier and Rosemary Dickinson, throughout the whole five weeks, with Tina Care and Maria White and Jamie Kirkham also lending a hand. She asks us to thank on her behalf all the other people in the town who helped in various ways, plus of course Thomas Peacocke School whose playing-field was her base. (Perhaps thanks are also owed to the Clerk of the Weather!)
We are quite sure that a great many parents would also like public thanks given to Jo herself for this invaluable exercise. She says that the demands of her college course may prevent her from doing it again next summer, but it has very obviously been well worthwhile. In the meantime, we hope she enjoys her own well-earned holiday before her term begins at the end of September.
Udimore Road residents will be glad to know that work is expected to start imminently on the street lighting, though we regret to say that the new lights will be the yellow sodium type. Complaints about street lighting to Seeboard are now out of order, since they no longer have the contract from the County Council; to report a faulty or damaged light, we now have to ring Lewes 77666 - which, of course, costs money so one tends not to bother.
The County Council has plans for new street lighting for the Conservation Area, too. People might like to study the two new lanterns in The Mint, on the right near the bottom, since these are what is proposed for the whole area; very soon one will be replaced with an alternative design in copper. The actual illumination proposed is that used by these two lamps, so to get the full effect you really need to see them both by day and after dark. We hope to have a much fuller report on this next week.
Fifteen very lucky members of Rye Sea Cadets have just spent a week on HMS Illustrious, the aircraft-carrier to which the Unit is affiliated; CO John Whiteman and his son Mark plus Andrew Thomson were in charge of the party. They joined the ship at Portsmouth for exercises in the Channel en route for Plymouth, where she was due to take part in the Navy Days. Also on board was a contingent from Dover Sea Cadets, and there was inevitably a certain friendly rivalry between the two messes!
As Illustrious came into Plymouth, the cadets lined the ship's side in the traditional manner, and Mr. Whiteman thinks that this is the first time Sea Cadets have done this on an aircraft carrier. They were, he says, shown absolutely all over the ship, and he had to be very careful that fingers were not tempted to stray to vital buttons. They were allowed to help with some crew activities, and in Plymouth they were shown over the atomic-powered submarine HMS Sceptre, and also HMS Liverpool, one of our new destroyers, before the long coach journey back to Rye.
HMS Illustrious goes to the Mediterranean next month, so they will lose touch with her for a time. But the Rye Unit has hopes of a visit from her Captain later in the year - and hopes, too, for further visits to the carrier in the future. Fortunately, they were offered fifteen places, and exactly fifteen cadets were on the final list of those wishing and able to go, so no-one had to be disappointed.
4.
Ralph Wood of Le Fevre, Wood & Royle has kindly provided us with footnotes to two of the stories in GAZETTE no. 46.
When St. Mary's PCC decided to change from oil to gas for the new boiler (due to go in last week) the Gas Board had to consult their national computer to see whether they could supply enough gas since the demands of Sunday lunch and Sunday matins obviously coincide. The new boiler's capacity is equal to that of 25 3-bedroom houses, though it is not likely to run at full throttle all the time! Fortunately, the Gas Board found they could manage it - just; but if your Yorkshire pudding goes flat one icy Sunday, you'll know why. And, says Mr. Wood, the Chancellor of the Diocese told Canon Maundrell that it gave him much pleasure to grant the Faculty for the heating works, since he remembered Mr. Leonard Stocks (whose legacy, of course, is paying for it) and used to go to his shop as a boy.
Ralph Wood also annotates our account of the Camber Castle excavations. As for the reputed tunnel from Camber Castle to Winchelsea, "if there was ever such a tunnel it could only have been used by skilled frogmen because of the high-water table!" he jokes. But as for the two wells, he points out that they would almost certainly have been taken down to the Ashford Sand Beds where an under-around stream of clear freshwater flows below the shingle to emerge some distance out into the sea - so that is one mystery solved. Although the castle gives the impression of being built of stone, much of it is in fact brick (this is more noticeable from inside), and these are, Ralph tells us, the same imported second quality Flemish bricks which were used for the building of East Guldeford Church between 1498 and 1505 - virtually unmatchable today.
Paddy and John Aiken, of Ferry Road, went along to the castle the day before the excavators departed, and managed to get permission for Paddy to take a series of interior shots of the work as they left it - not the same as it will be when the "consolidation" is finished and we are all allowed in. They are superb pictures, and although she is not allowed by the D.o.E. to make money from them, she is hoping for an opportunity to exhibit them in the town before long so that we can all have an idea of what has been done there.
One more Camber Castle footnote. Our MP, Kenneth Warren, was shown over the work recently along with members of Icklesham Parish Council, so we wrote to ask if he had any information about when the building was likely to be reopened. In a very prompt and interesting reply, he says that the castle is likely to be open to the public in some three years time, once the walls have been made safe; "a car park will be established and access routes defined for the public which I am sure will preserve not only the integrity of the site but also make it one of pride to all those who live around" he says.
We still wish that earlier access could be provided for organised parties, but perhaps this is something that interested groups (e.g. the schools?) could negotiate with the D.o.E. at Tunbridge Wells.
Thomas Peacocke School's organ fund is £115 to the good as a result of the two concerts given in St. Mary's by Nigel Spooner. Repairs are already under way, and Mr. Spooner says that once the organ is in good order it can - being, after all, a cinema organ - be used for such frivolous events as dances, as well as for concerts; certainly, whirling to a Wurlitzer would be something quite out of the ordinary for Rye!
Mr. Spooner is also Tower Captain for St. Mary's bellringers, and on 11 September they will be celebrating the Patronal Festival by a peal attempt, ringing 5,000 changes of Grandsire Triples on the eight bells, starting at 2.30 pm and taking about three hours. We would like to be able to say that the ringers are local people, but this is not the case; some come from as far away as Bexhill, and Mr. Spooner would be very glad to hear from anyone living rather nearer Rye, experienced or not, who would be interested in joining the St. Mary's team. Eight ringers is enough, but he would like some spares! Practice night is Thursday at 7.30. Contact Mr. Spooner on Rye 224275 after school hours.
5.
The old Boys School in Mermaid Street was replaced before the war by the New Road school, which also absorbed the girls from what is now the FE Centre while the juniors next door went to Ferry Road. But boys still use the Mermaid Street building four evenings a week, when the Rye Boys Club, affiliated to the National Association of Boys Clubs, meets there - the juniors (aged 11 to 13) on Mondays and Wednesdays, led by Mrs. Frances Tolhurst and Mrs. Joyce Haynes, and the seniors (14 to 18) on Tuesdays and Thursdays under the leadership of Stewart Doyle of Udimore Road with the help of Mrs. Margaret Tiltman.
Many of the Clubs in the Association were originally started in the last century for lads who at 14 had already left school - the juniors came in later. Though there are now some 70 boys on the books of the senior section in Rye, with an average attendance of around 30, Stewart Doyle would still welcome a few more older lads, and his adventurous programmes make this clear; he sometimes feels that the title Boys Club is a bit off putting to the young men who would really enjoy the group's activities. Mr. Doyle has been in charge of the seniors for a year now - he is an engineer by profession and had no previous experience of youth club work - and has widened the scope of the Club very considerably already. They now compete in outside events, and earlier this year at the Southern Area competitions at Crawley, Rye members won gold medals for junior darts and were runners-up in the under-19 badminton. Young Gavin Colgan not only won a gold medal for himself but also an Atari computer system for the club, and is likely to be competing in the national championships later this year. Another winner was Richard Hatfield, in the under-16 table tennis.
But it is not all indoor games. A group from the Club recently spent a weekend aboard the "Gerald Daniels", a converted minesweeper owned by Sussex Police moored in Chichester Harbour, very much enjoying canoeing and sail training. The £35-a-head fee was paid by the Club, which recently raised £272 by a "Superstars" competition; competitors took part in any six out of the seven events, with results worked on a points system and sponsors paying out per hundred points. As a spin-off from this project, Mr. Doyle now has his eye on some very promising performers among Club members for future outside events.
We look forward to reporting on Club activities once the winter season gets under way - during August the premises have been occupied by the Rye Society of Artists annual exhibition. Incidentally, has anyone got any photographs of the Mermaid Street building when it was still a school? Looking at it now, it seems to have had bits built on and bits taken off, and the Club would be very interested to know what it looked like originally.
Most heartfelt condolences to the inhabitants of Mill Cottages, next door to the Queen Adelaide, who discovered that suspicious bulges in the front wall of the terrace meant having the builders in in a very big way. The living accommodation has been screened off from the building work, but this has meant blocking the front doors, and visits and deliveries have to be made to the back doors, down the passage alongside the school playground, for the moment. The residents would be interested to know more about the history of these houses; they thought the name came from the present mill by the River Tillingham, but we understand that there was once a mill in Tillingham Avenue to which the terrace belonged. Any information would be much appreciated.
We were very relieved to find that the "To Let" board prominently attached to the front of Rye railway station does not apply to the entire building! What is to let is the flat above the station - and, we understand unofficially, British Rail is not interested in a domestic tenant but intends it for business or office use and on a short lease only. It would certainly be a most unusual office, and we look forward to hearing more.
Two planning applications this week: one from a Landgate address for a non-illuminated sign for 22 Lion Street (formerly Quarter Belle), and one for conversion work at The Garden House in Watchbell Street.
6.
Two coffee mornings are being held under the auspices of the Festival. On Tuesday (6th) the Red cross have one in aid of the BRCS Hearing Circle; and on Thursday, 8th, the Mayor has kindly invited the NSPCC to hold one in the Town Hall from 10 to 12. (As reported earlier, the Multiple Sclerosis event at the Town Hall on the 3rd has had to be postponed until next year.)
Also part of the Festival’s fringe are the Rye Art Gallery’s guided walks. On Tuesday, Ralph Wood guides visitors round medieval Rye; Barbara Fearon takes a route of general interest on the Wednesday; and Basil Dowling tours literary Rye on the Thursday. All three groups depart from the Easton Rooms at 2.30 – which gives time for a look round the exhibition there of drawings by Frank Dobson, RA and of calligraphy in the Craft gallery. We understand that donations of at least 50p will be appreciated from those who join the tours; no need for advance booking though.
We listed the free events in the Festival in GAZETTE no. 46. Bookable events and bookings are going well, so don't leave it too late!
Saturday, 3rd Opening concert, St. Mary's, 7.45, including Walton's "Facade" with Richard Stilgoe (£3, £2, £1.50)
Monday, 4th "Two inches of ivory" with Geraldine McEwen - the novels of Jane Austen (CC, 7.45, £3)
Tuesday, 5th Laurence Olivier's film of "Richard III" (CC, 7.45, £2)
Wednesday, 6th Recital in Playden Church, 7:. Michael Cox (flute) with the Naiades Ensemble (£2.50)
Zeffirelli's film of "Romeo and Juliet" (CC, 7.45, £2)
Thursday, 7th "The Winter is the Spring", a programme of poetry tracing the seasons of the year and the lifetime of mankind, by Patricia Hughes andRobin Holmes formerly of Radio 3 (Town Hall, 6.30, £2.50)
Cole Porter's musical version of "The Taming of the Shrew" ¬"Kiss Me Kate" (CC, 7.45, £2)
Friday, 8th "George and Elizabeth, a Royal Marriage" - David Duff talking about his royal biographies including that of George VI and the Queen Mother (Town Hall, 6, £2)
"The Lion of Lamb House" - Henry James; an entertainment by Gabriel Woolf and Rosalind Shanks (CC, 7.45, £3). Tickets for this will also admit the holders to Lamb House during the afternoon, by kind invitation of Sir Brian and Lady Batsford and the National Trust.
Friday, 9th An evening of Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller music with George Chisholm, Keith Smith, Sweet Substitute and Hefty Jazz (we quote). (CC, 7.45, £3)
Saturday, 10th James Hayes in "A. Horde of Unemployed Ventriloquists" by Flann O'Brien - one-man Irish Vaudeville Theatre (Mermaid, 12 noon, £2). Apparently not an Irish comic as we had thought from the programme.
Final orchestral concert: the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, playing Windsor
Variations by Lennox Berkley, Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor by Bruch, and Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony (St. Mary's, 7.45, £4.50, £3 and £1.50.)
The Rye Art Gallery has, during the whole of September, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Margaret Barnard, who is of course in private life Mrs. Margaret Mackechnie of Rye.
All Festival bookings should be made at the Easton Rooms in the High Street.
7.
A burglary in Wish Ward on the afternoon of 19 August yielded, as well as a cheque book and card in the name of K. Robinson, a toll of silver, jewellery and a couple of watches.
A purse with cash and postage stamps was taken from the vet's surgery on 23 August; 4 wooden pallets went from Martyn Channon's market premises on 25th; washing was taken from a back garden in The Close of 21 August, and earlier in the month or possibly at the end of July pottery materials went missing from David Sharp's pottery in The Mint.
The coming autumn's movie masquerade is apparently to be a TV series taken from the EF Benson "Mapp and Lucia" books. These are set in the Twenties and early Thirties, so we should be spared straw on the streets at least! We hope to have more details later - filming is apparently likely to be in November.
Last year's romp, "Yellowbeard", is due for its British release next month, and the Sunday Telegraph colour supplement published last week had an article on the film and its players. (A few weeks back, and of course nothing to do with filming, the same paper's supplement had an interesting article about Dr. Vidler by Malcolm Muggeridge.)
Keeping a Town Diary beside the phone is one thing, keeping it half a mile away is another, and the Editor is guiltily aware that the multi-coloured spots on the year planner in John Ciccone's Spar shop are not always up to date. Next year, therefore, we shall not be attempting this, though the GAZETTE will issue regular lists of forthcoming events, and we hope very much that secretaries and organisers will continue to notify us of bookings. Quite apart from the convenience of the GAZETTE, the Diary has several times been useful in preventing or diverting prospective clashes during the year, and we do hope that this will continue. Organisers are always most welcome to ask about free dates. The best time to phone (Rye 222303) is between 5 and 7 pm, or on Monday afternoon which is the deadline for each week's issue of the paper.
The Diary of course reckons to include all public events in the town. It also likes to note semi-private events likely to involve a lot of people (e.g. annual dinners, Christmas parties or dances held for organisation members) which would present a threat to another possible booking the same night. The Bulletin Board on the back page of the GAZETTE does not normally list regular meetings of bodies with a restricted membership (e.g. Chamber of Trade), but we do publish details of occasional events which are by invitation only, since reminders can be useful. If you have something for The Week's Events, please do let the paper know by the preceding weekend - or a week earlier if you want a preliminary paragraph about it. All publicity is, of course, free.
After last week's summary of events for the rest of 1983, we thought it might be helpful to mention a few dates already booked in for early 1984. On Tuesday, 10 January, The Friends of Rye Art Gallery have Charles Lines of the National Trust talking on "Gardens of Delight"; and on Tuesday 7 February they have Jonathan Coad speaking on Battle Abbey and Camber Castle. Rye Museum Association has a talk by Miss S. Pigrome of Rye Foreign called "Worms and Epitaphs" (something to do with tombstones, we think) on Friday, 17 February; and Laurie Band will be showing slides of maritime Rye on Friday, 16 March (this is the talk postponed from the spring of this year). We have not yet received the National Trust's lecture programme, but we think they have talks on 10 January, 3 February and 17 March. The Natural History Society holds its regular meetings with speakers on 13 and 27 January, 10 and 24 February, and 9 and 23 March. Thomas Peacocke School is putting on "Guys and Dolls" on 29 to 31 March.
Easter is very late - Easter Sunday falls on 22 April. Term ends on 13 April and begins again on 30 April.
8.
Thursday, 1st Term begins.
Friday, 2nd Vidlers' auction sale
Saturday, 3rd Methodist Church September Sale, Methodist Hall, 10 to 2.30
Rye WI Autumn Fair, FEC, 10.30 to 12.30
Pavement Artist Chalk-in (children), Gun Garden, 10.30 to 12
Bus Stop - entertainment, Town Salts, 2.30
Sunday, 4th Rye Festival Service, St. Mary's, 10.30 - with Ryesingers
Eastbourne Silver Band concert, Gun Garden, 2.45
Monday, 5th Rye Town Council meeting, Town Hall, 6.30
Tuesday, 6th Coffee morning for BRCS Hearing Circle, Red Cross Centre, 10.30 Coffee morning, Conservative Association, George Hotel, 10.30
Guided walk, mediaeval Rye (Ralph Wood), from Easton Rooms, 2.30
Wednesday, 7th Guided walk, general tour (Barbara Fearon), Easton Rooms, 2.30
• Those interested in the proposed Day Centre are reminded that there is a meeting for prospective helpers at the Baptist Hall at 11 on Wednesday, 7th
• The new Rye Area Office of Rother District Council, at 48 Cinque Ports Street (opposite Town Wall car park) will be opened by the Chairman of Rother Council on Monday, 5 September, with business as usual there from 9.30 am. The Tourist Office stays put for the rest of the season, but the Citizens Advice Bureau will also be moving to Cinque Ports Street on Monday, taking with them their phone number and opening at the same times as before.
• St. Mary's Harvest Supper takes place on 16 September at 7 at the Community Centre, offering the usual excellent meal provided by Mrs. Ellwood and her team, plus an entertainment by Caroline and Jim Simpson. Tickets are now available from Mr. Ted Hickmott, 8 Tillingham Avenue (Rye 223457), price £1.85.
• Rye Bowls Club won a very enjoyable evening match at home against Hawkhurst on 24 August, though they lost, away, to Staplecross on 27th and at home to Beckley the following day. Silver spoon winners in the Club's spoon drive on the 21st were Mr. R. Chubb and Mr. J. Oxenham, the wooden spoon going to Mr. J. Sergeant.
• A recent sponsored putting competition made well over £100 for the Friends of Rye Art Gallery, with 104 entries - many from people usually more interested in putting than pictures, which could bring the existence of the Gallery to a wider than-usual public in consequence. Though this year's contest was a trial run, organiser Peter Gracey might perhaps be tempted into a second go in 1984.
• Rye Library will have an exhibition of Fay Goodwin's photographs for her book "The Saxon Shore Way" from Wednesday, 7 September, to Monday, 12th; over that weekend Fay will be the photographer in residence, walking with and talking to a fortunate group of amateurs - details from the Library staff.
• The County Council gives notice that the Strand Gate arch at Winchelsea will be closed for repairs for about a month from 12 September - traffic will be diverted round the back.
• Congratulations to Tony Curd of Peasmarsh, a member of Rye and District Angling Association, who recently won the National Angling Championship in Lincolnshire at his first attempt!
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office. It is published by Mrs. Mary Owen at 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303), and news items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline is Monday afternoon, or 9 am Tuesday for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly and is (DV) delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday morning; a few spares are usually available at Squirrels in Cinque Ports Street.
(Copyright Mary Owen 1983)