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"You won't believe this" someone said to us on Monday morning, "but I just saw a man carrying a live pig into the Natwest Bank!" The noise, apparently, had been sensational; but then, a discontented pig does sound just like murder being done. There were in fact two pigs - or rather, piglets - and by the time we got there they were far from discontented: snuggled up together, pink and clean and littered down in straw, in a nice warm bank foyer just out of reach of customers longing to scratch them behind the ears. "They can be cannibals, you know" someone remarked; the topmost piglet looked at her reproachfully, like a maligned spaniel.
The idea is, of course, to draw attention to the bank's piggy-bank children's account scheme, and Natwest's Mr. Lloyd told us they had thought it would be something out of the ordinary to have real pigs; but the problem turned out to be finding some, and the bank are grateful to Nicholas Bellhouse of Guestling for the loan of these two. Mr. Lloyd seemed quite surprised at the attention this unusual form of promotion was attracting; people were asking if they could bring parties from school, he told us. Pig-fanciers will be glad to know that the stars will be there again on Friday. Bacon will never taste the same again!
There were two farewell parties at the weekend for the Warden and Assistant Warden of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, to wish them well in their westward migration - a dinner at the Beauport Park Hotel, and a get-together for about 150 friends at the village hall at Winchelsea Beach. Readers will know that a presentation was being arranged by Pat Bonham of Winchelsea Road; he must have worked very hard indeed, because Richard and Pam were presented not only with two books - "Seabirds: an identification guide" by Peter Harrison, and David Attenborough's "The Living Planet" - but also with a cheque for £600. The card which accompanied the gifts bore a hundred signatures and a further 110 names of contributors to the presentation - not bad, at about three weeks' notice!
Richard Knight's successor as Warden will be Barry Yates, who is moving into the Rye Harbour house next week with his wife Anne and two small children. Still under 30, Mr. Yates has a PhD, and he is particularly interested in wading birds; he has been studying redshanks in the estuary of the River Ribble, and phalaropes (such an improbable name for a British bird) in Shetland while on an RSPB contract there. He is, the RSPB's Regional Office at Shoreham tells us, as much a scientist as a warden, and is keen to foster the insect life of the Reserve as well as looking after its renowned resident and visiting birds. Many people will look forward to meeting him.
2.
STOP PRESS: the Conservative Association coffee morning on Friday at the George is CANCELLED, as Sir Jack Stewart Clark has been recalled to Brussels.
Handsome long-service medals, apparently of silver and certainly satisfyingly heavy, were presented to seven Rye Women's Royal Voluntary Service members who have given 15 full years' service. The ceremony took place during the WRVS AGM at the FE Centre on Wednesday. Recipients present were Mrs. McCaughey of Military Road, Mrs. Preece of West Undercliff, Mrs. Browning of Playden, Mrs. Shearer of Tillingham Avenue, Mrs. Parsons and Mrs. Hargreaves, both of Watchbell Street; and Mrs. Holmes of The Grove will find her medal waiting for her when she returns from cossetting a new grandchild. Mrs. Barton, Miss Galbraith, Mrs. Bull-Marshall and Mrs. Brown already hold this medal; and Mrs. Barton told us that Mrs. Bayley and Miss Cotton would also have received theirs if the AGM had been held rather later in 1984.
In a brief report, Mrs. Barton spoke first of the restored Luncheon Club, starting on 26 March; tickets had sold out, and next month's (at the more realistic price of £1) could be obtained from the WRVS office, with the waiting list getting priority. Girls from Thomas Peacocke School had volunteered to help as waitresses.
(We heard in due course that the first Luncheon Club under the new regime was most successful; Mrs. Margaret Owen emerged from Devonport House to cook a strictly traditional meal of roast beef and apple pie, which was much enjoyed by the "full house" - and, astonishingly, both she and her husband are reported as being quite unruffled at the end of the proceedings.)
Mrs. Barton's report continued with the news that 209 parcels of books had been sent in the past year to troops in Northern Ireland, via Lydd Camp, all packed by Mrs. Chatterton. (The service, of course, continues: more books, please!)
The emergency car service for hospital visiting was running very effectively and was particularly useful for villages where there was no other transport. Rotary, Round Table and Lions drivers usually did the night calls, and WRVS members the daytime ones. The service had been extended to include those going for eye tests, essential medical appointments, etc.
Mrs. Hayward, the WRVS County Organiser, then spoke about the "family" of the WRVS, the largest voluntary body in the country with 200,000 members, and the only one to be funded entirely by the Government. She mentioned its housing projects (some 700 flatlets as well as residential care clubs), and its benevolent fund, both of which offer help to members. A recent extra Government grant is to enable the WRVS to increase its domiciliary help, in order to allow the elderly to stay longer in their own homes. (She then enraged at least one feminist in the audience by asking members to "thank their husbands for allowing them to help the WRVS" - allow, indeed!) Final thanks were followed by an excellent tea.
Interesting plans for the Hastings cinema were unveiled in the Hastings Observer last week. The Classic chain has recently changed hands, and work will start soon to convert the Queen's Road building into a three-screen cinema, with improvements to the foyer and new catering arrangements. But this will mean that throughout the summer and early autumn the Classic will offer only one nightly performance on just one screen accommodating patrons in the Classic One circle only. Startled, we rang the cinema to ask if this meant that there would be no afternoon shows at all during the summer holidays? Yes, they said, it did; but the OAP price concession will be extended to that single evening show on Mondays to Fridays. And the Easter holidays? That will depend, they said, when the builders actually start work; they will continue to open for matinees as long as possible. Phone first - Hastings 420517. But children with summer birthdays to celebrate will have to look elsewhere for a party entertainment.
3.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 28.3.1984
Thomas Peacocke School Art Department finds itself in difficulty over the "somewhat obscure" articles required for this summer's Art 0-level paper - and we are not surprised! Please can anyone lend or even give them any birds' skulls, any tassels or epaulettes, any trumpets or cornets? If so, please phone Mr. Lee or Mr. Stewart at the school (Rye 222545) - they would really be most grateful.
We shall be reporting next week on a new Rye presence for the Youth Training Scheme. But this is not the only project in the area for giving vocational training to young people at post-CSE/0-level. For some time the Department of Education and Science has been urging schools to offer more basic practical courses, and at Thomas Peacocke during the present school year a small group of 16- and 17-year-olds has been pioneering this. They are taking a City and Guilds Foundation course, either in community caring or in engineering, and at the end of the year each pupil will receive a City and Guilds Foundation Certificate - probably also one of the new Pre-Vocational Education certificates, and possibly examination certificates from City and Guilds in numeracy and in communications skills.
(Baffled by all these technical terms, we asked what they actually meant.
Numeracy is the ability to do simple useful arithmetic, preferably without needing a calculator; "communications skills" is basically the everyday use of English, in the sense of how to follow an instruction manual, how to write a job application, how to conduct a business-type telephone conversation...)
The idea is that employers may not always be impressed by a handful of miscellaneous CSE results, but evidence of a good technical start under City and Guilds supervision will carry a good deal more weight.
The structure of both courses is the same: a day's theory work in school, a day's practical work on the job (the community-caring students, all girls, have been helping in two local rest homes and in Freda Gardham, Playden and Beckley schools, while local engineering firms have offered help with the other course). The rest of the week is spent learning numeracy and communications skills (see above) together with careers guidance, and other aspects of general education, particularly related to everyday life and the district in which we live - including a study of the workings of industry both at national level and on the sort of scale which the pupils are likely to encounter locally.
The Thomas Peacocke course is run by Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Turner, with much co-operation from other staff members in a wide range of subjects, who give up free time to help. It is arousing a good deal of interest from present fifth-year pupils, and the school hopes that next year's group will be considerably larger.
The scheme offers fifth-year leavers without immediate job expectations an alternative to the Youth Training Scheme; there is, of course, no £25 wage for these Lower Sixth students, but they will end up with a certificate from a much-respected public examination body and the chance to go on and do further City and Guilds courses if they wish - and, the school hopes, with a really useful grounding for a good job with prospects.
Two members of Ryesingers have lead parts in the Hastings Opera production of Johann Strauss's "Die Fledermaus" at the White Rock from April 5 to 7 at 7.30 - tickets can be booked at the box office there (0424 421840) in the usual way. Janice Reeve, experienced both as a singer and as an actress much further afield than Rye, plays Rosalinda; and Vernon Bedford - such a splendid Dick Deadeye in Ryesingers' "HMS Pinafore" in January - appears with Hastings Opera for the first time as Frank, the prison governor.
The press release refers to "the sublime and intoxicating waltzes, the dazzling and delightful polkas and the outrageously extravagant plot" set in Vienna high society; there are over 50 people in the cast. The production's first night is just 110 years to the day from the very first performance of the operetta. (Strauss again, of course, in Rye on Sunday, 1 July, when Blackheath Opera performs "The Gipsy Baron" at the Community Centre in the afternoon.)
4.
Two familiar faces have disappeared from official duty at Rye Police Station.
Inspector Mobbs, of Camber, has retired from the Force after some 32 years, the last seven or so spent at Rye. We wish him a very happy retirement. His successor as Inspector at Rye is Sid Northern, whom many people will remember from his days here as a Sergeant. He lives in Icklesham and is transferring to Rye from Hastings.
Gordon Stanbridge, of Brede, retires after 24 years as a Special Constable, with two long-service medals, though he will still be working at the police station as a civilian. He has been the Special Divisional Officer for Rye, and it was at the normal training session that he found himself being given a farewell party and presented with a painting, and a bouquet for Mrs. Stanbridge - all completely unexpected. Mr. Stanbridge used to work for Reckitt & Colman in their Rye days, and before that for the Ordnance Survey, doing field work over a wide area. He will, of course, continue as Secretary of the RAF Association's local branch.
The reason why there have been such a large number of Specials around in the last few days is that they are covering for police officers from the sub-division sent for duty in the Midlands. It is in this sort of situation that the Specials really come into their own, and recent recruits at Rye have been very valuable; the unit now has 14 members, but there is room for more - anyone under 50 who thinks about joining should ask at the police station.
Last week's reference to the police poster competition at Freda Gardham School has a very happy follow-up. All four winners received book tokens; but Andrew Joyce's poster, which dealt with thieving from cars, was so professional that the police reckoned they could use it. A print order for 100 has gone in, and we may expect to see Andrew's poster before long not just in Rye, but in the whole of the Division.
Seeing an Ellis Bros board outside a nice shiny phone box in front of Hastings Post Office last week, we rang Mr. Hall to ask if there was more to it than that. Indeed, there was, he said; they have just finished painting the whole of the ground floor of the Post Office. He went on to tell us that because the firm will take on anything from replacing a tap washer to a £1/4 m building project; a large proportion of their business is done away from Rye - they will work anywhere inside a 50-mile radius of the town, and employers include Rother Council, Courage, the National Bus Company, the Post Office of course, and ESCC for whom they have recently built a £50,000 extension to Glynde Gap school. Yet another Rye firm working on a much bigger scale than many people would suspect!
Rye, Winchelsea and District Branch of the RNLI entertained around 100 people at the Community Centre on Thursday evening. Wine flowed, as did conversation, and the delicious food provided by the committee was much appreciated. Over £90-worth of RNLI souvenirs were sold. Then the company, which included the Mayor and the whole of the Rye Harbour crew, settled down to watch two RNLI films. One was a repeat by request of last year's "The Making of a Crew" - certainly of interest to the row of navy-blue jerseys at the back of the hall, though the lifeboat featured was the one serving the Sheerness dockyard area and a very different matter from ours. The second film recorded a ten-hour day in the life of the Yarmouth lifeboat crew, making three rescues in the course of the Round-the-Island race in what one experienced sailor described as the worst weather in 20 years.
It costs £19m annually to run the lifeboat service, all money raised voluntarily; there were some 2,500 calls last year, and a thousand lives were saved. The Brede class boat, designed and made in Rye, costs the RNLI about £100,000 a time, so Lochin Marine are bringing useful money as well as kudos to the town. The new building to house the Harbour lifeboat - and we are told firmly to call it a shed, so (with apologies to Ralph Wood's handsome plans) we shall in future do so – is now out to tender, and Colin Marsh hopes that it will be finished by July. He expects it to cost £18-20,000, of which £15,000 is already secured (£13,000 from a legacy of which we hope to have details later) but they still need around £5,000. Over £600, he told us, has come to the fund from donations in memory of the late Humphrey Lestocq.
5.
We have another leak from the new summer timetable which British Rail is still officially keeping close to its chest until some unspecified time in April. Following up a letter from Mr. Lampon of Grove House, we found that not only have the shopping trains been altered, as we reported some weeks ago, but also the commuter trains. These will, after the beginning of May, leave Rye at 5.58, 6.26, 6.56 and 8.01. The 7.29 vanishes, as does the 7.51. But, says the BR Press Office at Waterloo, according to the still provisional version of the new timetable the 8.01 will reach Charing Cross at 9.37, which is ten minutes earlier than the present 7.51 - it is apparently scheduled to connect with a very fast train at Ashford.
No fast connection from Ashford for the next train, the 8.45. This is the first Awayday train, and although it leaves Rye only ten minutes later than the 8.35 which it replaces, it will not reach Charing Cross until 10.37, just three minutes earlier than the 9.11 which it also replaces. The next train from Rye will be the 10.11.
So, for non-commuters, anyone prepared to pay the full return fare and get the 8.01 can be in London at 9.37. After that, it means the 8.45 on an Awayday, taking just under two hours for the journey. Anyone needing to do better will have to drive to Ashford for the 8.57, arriving in London at 10.07. (Awayday fare from Ashford is £6.20).
Mr. Lampon also tells us that the 18.20 from Ashford to Rye is to be axed, which seems to mean that the 17.05 from Charing Cross (if that is to survive) will be a dead loss for Rye travellers; but we didn't talk to BR about this. Mr. Lampon has written to the Chief Passenger Manager at Waterloo to complain.
Louisa Paris was the Victorian daughter of a London surgeon, one of seven children; and with members of her family and the dog, Muff, she was accustomed to go on sketching excursions to beauty-spots wherever they happened to be staying. Somehow over 70 of her watercolours dating from the early 1850s survived and were acquired recently by the Towner Art Gallery at Eastbourne. Selections from this group were exhibited at the Towner and aroused so much interest that it was decided to mount the whole collection and send this microcosm of middle- class Victorian life to other galleries. It is now on view at the Rye Art Gallery in Ockman's Lane until the end of April.
Doubtless Miss Paris would be extremely surprised to see her work on public display some 130 years after she was painting. The watercolours are, says the catalogue, typical of the work of an accomplished amateur artist of the period; doubtless many family archives include similar paintings. But Miss Paris captioned most of her pictures not just with the subject but with the names of her companions on the outing, the state of the weather (just as unhelpful to outdoor painters then as it is now), perhaps the roughness of the walk or the fact that Mama accompanied them on one or two rare occasions. She records the time when they were "frightened by a madman"; we know which guest missed the train and returned to tea. Eastbourne, frequently depicted, looks about the size of Northiam! The whole exhibition clearly reflects the pleasant and really quite energetic life of a Victorian professional family enjoying its summer holidays. You don't have to be interested in Art to enjoy this exhibition; it is pure Jane Austen, and we thoroughly recommend it.
Arthur Neal's work in the Easton Rooms is confusing, since he works in several different styles - but it does mean that most people will find something that appeals. Some of his drawings are obscure, but he also shows oils traditional in style if not in subject (a skull and a sewing-machine pictured together!). Upstairs, Patrick Crouch shows wooden sculptures, as well as drawings - the piece of beech called "Wing" was so gentle to the touch that it could indeed have been feathered. (And the pile of slabwood in the courtyard is firmly screwed together and not intended for inquisitive figures to pull out the tempting bit at the bottom!)
6.
In view of recent and much-publicised Education Authority cuts, there is considerable surprise - not to say indignation - about a quite unheralded "improvement" at Lower School in Ferry Road. Those familiar with the school in its Primary days will remember the wooden gates which closed the entrances; those familiar with it since then will know that these gates gently disintegrated over the years, and the last relics were removed only recently. They have not been closed, or indeed closeable, for well over ten years.
Last week new gates appeared - stout metal gates, at each of the two Lower School car entrances and at the foot entrance from Tillingham Avenue. These gates have clearly cost a lot of money. We asked the Bursar if he could find out from County why they were being put up at a time of such financial stringency, and he was told, in effect, that it was no business of his!
We asked Mr. Thomas, Head of Lower School. He said he was glad to see the gates, and hoped that they would help with the problem of vandalism in the school. He pointed out that every other school he knew of had gates which were closed at night as well as, in many cases, a caretaker's house in the grounds. (And he said, incidentally, that the new gates had no connection with Rother's proposed car park next door.)
Mr. Thomas also told us that the gates will be opened in the morning when the caretaker (who lives on the Estate) arrives, and closed when he goes home - starting "shortly"; he asked us to publicise this as a warning to the (unknown) people living nearby who have been parking in the playground at night and at weekends for years. So if you know someone who does, please tell them as a matter of urgency that they will have to make other arrangements.
We asked about walkers, with or without dogs, and Mr. Thomas said to our surprise that there is no public right of way through the school grounds. So in future those walking from Udimore Road or the Estate to evening events at Upper School will either have to go right round by the station or along the lonely Tillingham Avenue footpath; or, of course, not go at all...
There seem to be three issues involved here.
First, the money. Why are the County Council spending money on gates which the school has managed without for possibly its entire existence as a comprehensive, just at the time when they are having to make such bitterly fought cuts in other directions? Doubtless the money is coming out of a different pocket from that which pays the dinner-ladies' wages or buys the textbooks - but there are other improvements which Lower School has been refused which would have cost a good deal less. All that ESCC's Information Officer could tell us was that the gates have been erected to increase security at the school and to combat vandalism; they have been on the list for some time and have now reached the top of it. This really doesn't seem a very convincing argument, under the circumstances!
Secondly, the question of vandalism. Is the peaceful weekend parker or the pub patron - or even the lad who rides his motorbike in the playing-fields - really the same person who paints rude words along the fence and breaks the windows?
We think not. The kind of lout who does that is not going to be deterred by a gate; indeed, it might well be seen as a challenge.
Thirdly, the position about parking. Admittedly those who park in Lower School out of hours have no business there, but they do no harm and don't clutter up the streets elsewhere. And during the holidays, a traditional perk of working at the school for those from the Brede/Udimore area has been to park the car in the playground when they are in the town - indeed, staff members often need to come into school during the holidays on legitimate school business, and the Lower School secretary only gets normal office holidays anyway.
And suppose there should be a fire in the school during the night? The fire engine, based almost next door, would have to go right round by Upper School - if, that is, it can get over the bridge between the two - or wait until the caretaker can be fetched with his keys!
7.
Ladies travelling to Hastings by train recently may have discovered to their embarrassment that there are - or were last Thursday - no locks on any of the cubicles in that station's "Ladies". We went and complained to the Station Master about this, and he said that they had had such trouble with vandals messing about with the locks that they had decided to remove all those which were still functioning. However, he appreciated the difficulty, and is instructing the builders at present working on the station to fit simple bolts instead.
The reason there is no lighting in the Tower Street loos is because Rother has only just received permission from the insurance company to restore it after the fire there on 11 February; Mr. Scott at Battle tells us that they hope to have repairs done in about a month. We have urged him to put an emergency light there to be going on with; ladies who use the loos on an overcast day will know why!
In connection with a forthcoming exhibition (more about this nearer the time) in Rye Library about the recent excavations in Camber Castle, Mrs. Pamela Haines, local studies librarian for the Hastings library group, wonders if anyone has a "before" photograph, print or painting which she might borrow for display?
Those who knew the Castle before the excavations started will be very surprised by what the "after" photographs show; but it would be interesting, for the benefit of people who didn't know it, to see how the inside had looked for the previous 300 years or so. If you can help Mrs. Haines, please contact her via Rye Library; she is hampered in her own search by the fact that Hastings Library is closed for reorganisation.
Our County Councillor, Mrs. Joan Yates, was among a party from the Sports Hall steering committee who went in the TPS minibus to look at two of the sports halls mentioned by Dr. Smith of ESCC recently. The one at Hailsham, said Mrs. Yates, was rather more elaborate than we should require; but the standard Bovis version recently erected at Hampden Park, Eastbourne, seemed just what we needed - and it was, on a Tuesday evening, in enthusiastic use, a real family centre.
Rye Lions are holding a Boot Fair at Salts Farm (the field at the end of the New Road houses) on the Spring Bank Holiday Sunday, 6 May - an all-day event, see posters later for the exact times. The Lions' jumble sale in Peasmarsh last Saturday raised £117. And Mr. Jock Saunders of Cooper Road is very grateful to Lions - a £600 electric wheelchair which they presented to him recently means he can now, after many years, get out of the house and see his friends.
Rye Ramblers held their AGM at St. John's HQ last Wednesday. Mrs. Ungar was re-elected as Chairman and Secretary, Mrs. Simmons as Treasurer, and Miss Dann as Programme Secretary. Mrs. Ungar reported that the Ramblers have now surveyed footpaths for four parishes out of 16 - there is still plenty of opportunity for those who would like to accompany walkers. Volunteers to lead rambles, and new recruits in general, are needed, though the group's financial position is good, and they have recently been able to buy more maps and a book on the legal aspects of footpaths. For more information, ring Mrs. Sheila Ungar.
The Council of Churches has an open meeting at the Baptist Church Hall on Thursday, 12 April at 7.30. Speaker is Sister Doreen Tobin, a field worker for Arundel and Brighton Justice and Peace Commission; Sister Doreen has lived and worked in several South American countries, and her talk is entitled "Biblical Pathways to Peacemaking". We hear that she is an excellent speaker, and the Council will welcome anyone who would like to hear her; they hope for a very good meeting.
(But evenings are busy that week: St. Mary's annual parochial meeting on Tuesday; Rye WI on Wednesday, and also a National Trust talk "Ancient Monuments of Kent and Sussex (J G Coad); and on Friday, Alma Fabes gives her new Winchelsea slide show to the Museum Association - an open meeting as usual.
Full details in "The Week's Events" in due course.)
8.
Thursday, 29th Thomas Peacocke School presents "Guys and Dolls", The Grove, 7.30(also Friday and Saturday)
Hastings and East Sussex Philatelic Society, CC, 7
Friday, 30th Conservative Association coffee morning (with Euro-MP Sir Jack Stewart Clark), George Hotel, 10.30
Rye Ratepayers Association AGM (with Ken Warren, MP), TH, 7
Saturday, 31st Rye Group of WIs Annual Craft Show, FEC, 2.30 Mainly Acoustic concert (Dab Hand), Saltings, 8
Monday, 2nd Monday Club, Clinic, 2
Tuesday, 3rd Hearing Circle coffee morning, BRCS, 10.30
FRAG talk, "English Miniatures" (Lucy Abel Smith), TH, 8
• Congratulations to Anne and Bill Swaine of Fishmarket Road on their silver wedding.
• Congratulations, too, to Rachel Osborne of Love Lane, one of several girls from Thomas Peacocke who have been selected for much-sought-after places on the Hairdressing and Beauty course at Hastings College from the very large number of applicants for this popular course.
• Louise Skinner and Penny Spence, fourth-year pupils at Thomas Peacocke, raised £28 for their House charity on their sponsored walk last Sunday.
• Mrs. Pat Ciccone would like to thank all her friends who visited her, sent her flowers, etc., while she was in the Sussex Clinic; she is now back home in Love Lane, but will be confined to the house for a few weeks yet.
• We hardly need to remind readers of the splendours of the annual WI Craft Show, always something to look forward to at this time of year. As well as the show itself, there will be a raffle, a sales table and teas. Officially it goes on till 4.30, but they clear up pretty sharpish, so we recommend a visit in good time.
• There is to be a coffee morning and bring-and-buy sale - with a raffle, cake stall and jumble - at 67 Pottingfield Road on Saturday, 7 April, from 10.30 to 12; all proceeds are being given to WRVS funds.
• Rye Playgroup (see last week) has now acquired a duplicator.
• Michael Prince of 44 Udimore Road was puzzled to find a 1964 Bonfire Night programme pushed through his letterbox. He doesn't think it was meant for him; would the owner like to reclaim it?
• Just a reminder to notify the Town Diary when you have fixed a public event in the town - or perhaps even to consult it if you are about to do so? It really does help towards detecting awkward clashes before the arrangements have become irrevocable, as two local good causes found last week!
• Congratulations yet again, and the best of luck, to Jo Spencer of Thomas Peacocke School and (now) Brede, who is training with the Sussex County Ladies Basketball team. Last year Jo started working towards the Heptathlon, a 7-event 2-day contest, and hopes to be competing in it this year: 100m hurdles, javelin, shot putting, 200m, long jump, high jump and 800m.
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, and published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 94 Udimore Road, Rye (Rye 222303). News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon, Tuesday 9 am for emergencies. The GAZETTE costs 25p weekly, and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday; extra copies and back numbers can be ordered from 94 Udimore Road, while a few spare copies are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye.
(Copyright Mary Owen 1984)