Readers are reminded that there will be no GAZETTE the week after Easter (25 April). Next week's issue (no. 80) is therefore the last for a fortnight, so if you have anything that needs publicity before 2 May, please let us know by Monday, 16th, at latest.
As well as the re-location of the surviving Weslake sister company "Weslake Air Services" at Guestling (mentioned in last week's Sussex Express), a new enterprise "Weslake Developments Limited" has been formed by ex-Weslake staff and consultants and is operating from Units 1 and 4 of the Jempson warehousing site in Winchelsea Road.
The new company will concentrate on engine research and development work, rather than manufacture, for the motor and engine industries and the Ministry of Defence.
The present workforce includes 11 former Weslake & Company employees, some of whom had been with the late Harry Weslake 25 or more years ago. Hence the adoption of the revered founder's name.
Good news, indeed.
A letter from the TV Licence Enquiry Office in Hastings announces that a TV Detector Car will be visiting the Hastings and Rother areas (including Rye, of course) for two weeks from 16 April. It encloses a press release explaining exactly how the system works, which we should like to use in full but haven't room for - we will gladly lend it to anyone interested. Anyway, the nub of it is that a spot check will be made on households apparently with a set but no licence, and failure to produce a licence could lead to prosecution and a fine of up to £200. "If Enquiry Officers ... discover a licence has recently been taken out, no action will be taken even if there is suspicion of earlier evasion" - which, being translated, would seem to mean "If you haven't got one, get one quick!". During the past six months, adds the letter, eleven people in this area have been prosecuted and fined, with costs, a total of £785; why, it says, should the evader enjoy free viewing at the expense of the honest majority of over 18.5m licence holders?
Round Table hopes to see the cream of Rye's pretty girls at the Oasis in Ferry Road on Saturday, when Miss Rye 1984 Carnival Queen will be chosen. Entry is open, we are told, to all females aged 16-plus; while OAPs are eligible, they are unlikely to win; and transvestites are not invited - though we seem to remember hearing that once, some years ago...? Entry forms don't have to be completed until 10 pm on the night, so last-minute impulses are encouraged. For more confident entrants, forms are available from the Oasis, from James Kimber and from Olivers.
As well as the honour and glory (and an interesting diary for the coming year), the winner will get £50, free Oasis entry for a year, and a free hairstyle from James Kimber. The second prize is £25, the third £15.
In addition to the Miss Rye competition, there will of course be the normal disco.
Doors open at 9 pm for what should be a very enjoyable evening. Do let's have a really representative entry this year - goodness knows, there are enough pretty girls in the town, but some of them just need a good hard shove into the final line-up!
2.
Dr. Guy Milner, who died in hospital on 25 March at the age of 81, was the son of a Manchester surgeon; he was educated at Rugby, King's Cambridge and the London Hospital, and went into general practice in Petts Wood. During the war, he served as a surgeon in the Navy, joining up - in middle life - as a probationary sub-lieutenant. Returning to the practice after the war, he took up several public appointments in London, stood unsuccessfully as an Independent parliamentary candidate for Orpington, and wrote a series of articles for the Daily Mirror under the nom-de-plume of "The Unpopular Doctor" - a series later amplified into a book, "Some of the Answers". Never really happy with the new National Health Service, Dr. Milner retired from general practice in 1957; he and Mrs. Milner settled in Wittersham which they had known before the war, later moving to Meryon Court and finally to Church Square.
Mrs. Gladys Finn, aged 86, died very suddenly at her home at Badger Gate last week; the funeral takes place at Hastings this afternoon. Mrs. Finn and her husband Ed, well known as one of our bus drivers, came to Rye more than 50 years ago and lived for most of that time in South Undercliff; she moved to Badger Gate two years ago. Mrs. Finn was a keen member of Rye WI, and played for its putting team as well as singing in its choir; she was also a member of the Winchelsea and District Flower Club, and of St. Mary's Flower Guild. A widow for some years, Mrs. Finn leaves no family.
Mrs. Lilian Christine Coleman, of Cooper Road, died peacefully in hospital on 1 April; the funeral took place at Playden Church on Tuesday. Mrs. Coleman will be much missed by the Monday Club, of which she was a very regular member for many years.
Mr. George Breeds, of Military Road, died in St. Helen's last week after a short illness. Mr. Breeds, who was 95, had been in the RAF as a tailor until his retirement; he and his wife Lou came to Rye 15 years ago to join his sister, Mrs. Kate Sims. Although Mr. Breeds was predeceased by both his wife and his sister, their friend and neighbour Clifford Jordan tells us that the combined age of the three-strong household was at one point 270 years! Mr. Breeds was sprightly and active right up to the end of his life; he enjoyed watching cricket and was the oldest (and an honorary) member of the local RAF Association. He lived on his own - his only daughter died many years ago, and he leaves grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Cambridgeshire - thanks to splendid support from Meals on Wheels, the Home Help service, good neighbours, and the Hospital Car Service whose drivers not only took him for hospital appointments but also for outings in their spare time.
We are sorry to report that the Rother seal, which has enlivened the river all winter, is poorly. It was reported to the police on Monday evening as having been lying motionless on the far bank of the river below the new sluice all day, and PCs Stenning and Streeter from Rye, together with Rye vet Nick Mills, went to investigate. The animal was clearly in distress, so they borrowed a stretcher from St. John Ambulance, carried it across the sluice roadway to Military Road, and took it back to the surgery. Poisoning was a possibility, but Mr. Mills suspected pneumonia and administered antibiotics; on Tuesday morning it seemed slightly better, and the latest news as we go to press is that the RSPCA were coming to remove it to quarters more suitable for convalescence, probably returning it eventually to the wild near its home base (which they can identify, since it has been marked at some time).
The seal's many friends in the town will wish it a complete and speedy recovery.
We will report on the outcome in due course. (It shows what an unobservant lot journalists are; none of the party being shown over the sluice on Monday - see page 6 - noticed the body on the bank, despite the fact that we had been looking out for the friendly little visitor.)
3.
THE RYE GAZETTE, 11.4.1984
Miss Constance Smith, of Badger Gate, was 90 on Sunday (8th). Miss Smith who came to Rye with her family in 1907, worked in her father's hairdressing business at 95 High Street; she has been virtually a lifelong member of Rye WI, having held most of the offices including that of President, and she was the Rye WI representative at the Queen's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the WI Movement. We're sorry we're late with our congratulations, Miss Smith, but they come from a great many of your friends.
Miss Joan Gale, who lived in Rye for many years and was a sacristan at St. Mary's, will be 90 on Friday (13th). Mrs. Bateman suggests that those who remember her might like to send cards to her at Tusker House, 57 Pine Avenue, Hastings?
(Rye WI has four members celebrating their ninetieth birthdays during 1984: Mrs. Ellis and Miss Smith, plus Mrs. Stubbs in September and Mrs. Jones in November. Jeanne Freeman suggests a new slogan: "Join the WI and live to a grand old age!")
John Collard is the Conservation Society's maritime consultant; he has been studying in detail, on behalf of the Society, the Merton Properties planning application for Rye Harbour which we described last week. Mr. Collard tells us that the sill holding the water in the yacht basin is set very low in relation to the level of the river outside it - presumably so that if a boat can get up or down the river at all, it can be sure of clearing the sill. This, however, means that the tidal range within the basin would be around 11' at neap tides, but more like 20' at spring tides; it would also imply a formidable amount of dredging, even after the basin and channel are dug, to keep the channel clear and stop the silt rising above the level of the sill.
Rother's deputy planning officer Victor Ammoun has kindly looked up for us the details of the original outline planning permission for the site. It includes a legally binding agreement for the developers to contribute a stated sum to ESCC's costs in improving the junction of the Rye Harbour Road with the A259, though they are not bound to pay the whole cost as some people had thought. There is a similar agreement that the industrial warehouses shall not be occupied until the wharfage is substantially completed.
Icklesham Parish Council (which includes Rye Harbour) has always maintained that any development at the Harbour should be maritime-based and industrial, and they regard the industrial side of this proposal as inadequate; they would have liked to see something similar to Alsfords on the whole site, to ensure local jobs and make full use of the port. They are also worried about the effect of such an over-intensive development on the village and its existing facilities - it is, they say, "an area for the amateur boatowner or student of wildlife, not for the kind of high-powered holiday development here proposed".
Red Cross Week this year is from 6 to 12 May, with the street collection on the 12th. House-to-house collectors are badly needed in Rye; volunteers should please ring Mrs. Hilary Bolton as soon as possible, so that routes can be worked out. Mrs. Bolton wonders if there are people in the neighbourhood who might see this service as a way of repaying the Red Cross for help given to them or their relatives - she is thinking particularly of men who received Red Cross parcels in prison camps during the war, but the same argument applies to anyone whose mother was lent a wheelchair or who borrowed a Red Cross zimmer. Collectors are usually women, in fact; but there is no reason at all why they should be.
Last year the Thrift Shop contributed over £3,600 to Red Cross funds. A chart in the Dolphin House window charts the comparative progress of this year's contribution; so far it shows over £900, £200 up on the first three months of 1983. They would like to make it £4,000 for 1984, so do rethink your wardrobe!
4.
Rye Library staff tell us that they have been given a large number of jigsaw puzzles by the Community Centre, whose own plans for a jigsaw club failed to mature. These range from children's puzzles to a 4,000-piece challenge which none of the staff has yet felt able to tackle, though they have taken home and made up some of the less time-consuming ones. They would be glad of more puzzles at all levels to add to the selection; just one or two pieces missing really wouldn't matter, but it would be a help if donors could check their gifts first. The plans for opening the puzzle library are not yet quite decided, but it should be towards the end of the month.
Another form of library is just a suggestion at present: Mrs. Joan Yates is exploring the possibilities of setting up a toy library for the town. Any comments or ideas to her, please.
At the same time, Mrs. Yates told us that the library hours have managed to survive for another year. The County Library people accepted her arguments about the problems of rural transport in relation to library access, and she also heard some very nice things said in Lewes about the Rye library staff. Some months ago, it did seem pretty unlikely that the library hours would remain intact; now, though individually the staff members have had their hours cut slightly, it is clear that continual pressure from our County Councillor, backed by local support, has once again done the trick.
At the Rye and District Movie Society's AGM at the FE Centre on Friday, Bob de Ste Croix was made a life honorary member of the Society (and presented with a bottle of liqueur) in recognition of his constant help to the Club; indeed, he proceeded to enliven the AGM by showing some of his own films. The committee and officers were re-elected en bloc, with the addition of Chris Waters to the committee. The evening was rounded off with a glass of wine. "No praise" adds Fred Masters, our reporter on the scene, "is too high for the officials who run the Club so efficiently."
The March newsletter of the National Trust's Rye and Winchelsea Centre lists a varied and interesting summer programme. The outings are for Centre members only; if you want to go, you will just have to join! There is an afternoon tour of the Romney Marsh churches in May, and a full day at Wisley RHS Garden and Hatchlands; in June, a visit to Chartwell and Quebec House; July sees a trip to Firle Place on a Connoisseurs' Day, when additional rooms are shown, anu another to Syon House and Osterley Park; in August, members can go for a half-day excursion to Michelham Priory, and to Windsor Castle in September; and the programme culminates in a five-day visit to Cambridge from 10 to 14 September with all sorts of delights included and accommodation at the Blue Boar Hotel.
The Theatre Club is proving very popular with members and will have had nine excursions by the time its season ends in mid-May, visiting a truly catholic selection of entertainments.
We notice that the owner of a basically Tudor-mediaeval house in Hastings Old Town - 31 The Bourne - has kindly agreed to open it to National Trust members on Sunday afternoons in July and August. Five rooms will be shown in what is believed to have been the old Court House of Hastings, and contributions will go to the Hastings branch of the Trust. We thought that people with summer visitors might like to make a note of this?
Last year the Rye and Winchelsea Centre sent £2,200 to Head Office, despite increases in administration costs for the Centre which have meant subscriptions rising to £2.50 (on top of the normal National Trust subscription, of course). But with a very full lecture programme during the winter as well as the summer outings, members do get excellent value for their money!
5.
Ever since our original enquiry back in November about a convent at either La Rochelle or Chequer (prompted by one of Laurie Band's slides), we have been puzzled by conflicting feedback. It seems quite clear that nuns ran a hospital at Chequer during WWI; yet Mrs. Brodrick of The Mount still has linen embroidered, so her mother used to tell her, by the nuns at La Rochelle to whom her mother used to go and talk French - they were, she remembered, pitifully homesick.
Now all is made clear by a letter from Father Edmund in Manchester, who sends an article, the fruit of his own research into the history of nuns in Rye. He doesn't mention the nuns at Chequer - who may, of course, have come here just to run the hospital, and then departed. But, he tells us
"In 1890 there were anti-clerical laws in France, and a certain Fr. Lhoumeau came across to see Dr. Virtue, the Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth, as to whether there was a house that could be used by a group of teaching Sisters of La Sagesse. This Religious Order had been founded at Poitiers but had left and established themselves at La Rochelle; they are now in both towns, with a large hospital in the latter.
"Sister Florence from La Sagesse Convent in London wrote in February 1983: 'In 1903 a house was rented in the coastal town of Rye. Here a group of Sisters settled down and were later joined by the Community and Boarders from Montmorency; among these early Sisters were Sr. Gabriel de St. Augustin and Sr. Fernand de la Croix. The former died in 1930 and the latter in 1960. I knew both of them very well. A letter written in 1906 by a pupil of the Sisters in Rye describes the visit of some French officials in connection with the celebration of the centenary of Corneille. It also indicates how homesick the Sisters and the children were for France.'
"In 1906 the convent was closed because the Order disapproved of small convents such as Rye. These Sisters of La Sagesse were the group that lived at 'La Rochelle' in Rye and, no doubt, coming from a town of that name they must have been responsible for the naming of the house. The Order is now well established with an English Province of eleven convents and four in Scotland. After they left, it seems that the little school was managed for a couple of years by the Sisters of the Holy Child from St. Leonards-on-Sea.
"In April 1929 the Mother Superior of the Daughters of Providence came to Rye from their Mother House at Wood Green and signed the contract for the sale to them of Bank House, where Woolworths now stands. This they equipped and ran as a small school, and the following names are mentioned: Mother St. John (superior), Mother Clothild, Mother Caecilia, Mother Vincent and Sister Winefrid. The school opened on June 16th, 1930, with just four pupils. By 1932 the pupils had increased to 24 and the Sisters were managing the choir at St. Anthony's and also the Sunday School. However, the numbers of Catholic children did not warrant a special school, and the excellent Rye Grammar School catered for other children, so after five years of rather difficult endeavour the good Sisters closed the school and moved away.
"Since those days no Order of Sisters has tried to establish itself in Rye, though the Sisters of the Missions from Hastings came at weekends for some years during the 1970s to take the catechism class."
Father Edmund goes on to write about local girls who joined religious orders, and we look forward to publishing this second part of his article shortly.
The WI County Office came to Rye last Thursday, and on display in the FE Centre was a wide range of publications and craft kits, plus samples of WI stationery for use by Branches - former VCO Miss Thomas will bring from Lewes to the WI Market on Fridays anything ordered specially, as well as a smaller selection of WI goods generally. The purpose of the display was partly to recruit new members, so it was rather a pity that it did not have more publicity; we could not, for instance, give you advance notice in the GAZETTE. Perhaps they will come again?
6.
If all goes well - and it is going very well at the moment - the new sluice beside the Military Road beyond the Houghton Green turning will start work in August, controlling the water levels in the land beside the Rother. A barrage for this purpose was built at Newenden in the fourteenth century, but since then the sluices have moved steadily downstream, each protecting a larger area of farmland from the salt water which could otherwise flood as far upstream as Bodiam. This latest sluice aims to do much the same job as the 1840 model which it replaces, only better - with electrically controlled gates responding to sensors which detect the movement of the water in the river as the tide ebbs and flows.
The press - instructed to bring its own wellies but issued with borrowed safety helmets - was taken on a conducted tour of the work on Monday. First, the old sluice, with its largely unused lock beside the main river (this is, as it were, a maritime right-of-way and an Act of Parliament was needed to allow the lock to be moved). Seen from the marsh side, the immediate reason for the new sluice is dramatically clear - evil-looking cracks in the brickwork and rotting piling failing to support the banks. But the renewal is, in effect, the final stage of a major land drainage scheme for the Rother valley which was prompted by the floods in the winter of 1960; £1.2m has been spent on work which includes 20 pumping stations, and most of the surplus water goes down the Rother eventually. Valuable farming land lies on each side of the river; fresh water is needed for irrigation, but salt water would be disastrous. So the sluice is doubly important - which is why Southern Water are spending £2m on its replacement.
200m downstream, the steel and concrete structure - built by W A Dawson of Luton, the main contractor - is now virtually complete, three months ahead of schedule, and the gates are being put in place this week. The four steel sections for each gate arrived from Tinsleys of Darlington and have been bolted together on site; the finished gate looks as tall as a house, and resembles the pusher section of a gigantic bulldozer, swivelling up and down on two great arms. "Down" they keep out the salt water at each high tide; between tides they just clear the flow of the river; and if you see them "up" it probably means trouble upstream, with a great deal of storm water being carried down the river. The lock is being replaced, a little wider - 5m - than the old one; what about some enterprising boat-owner offering river trips for visitors during the season?
Once the new sluice is functioning, the team will have to decide what to do about the old one: probably filling in the lock, leaving the retaining wall on the marsh side and letting the water run unimpeded between it and the landward bank once the main barrier is removed. Certainly most of what is there now will disappear; but that comes later. At present, of course, the site is the most appalling mess. There are two huge cranes there, even bigger than the ones that had such problems getting round Bannister's Corner in May, and up to 20 men have been working on the project. The silty soil turns from mud to dust according to the weather, and on the far side of the river the bank is too unstable to allow machinery close to the water.
The bottom of the river downstream is being lined with reinforcing mats, the banks upstream with a different type to hold the soil in place until the grass gets a chance to grow. The new sluice has straightened out a bend in the river, and what used to be the landward bank is now the middle of the structure, with a fish pass incorporated - the fish did manage to get upstream somehow past the old sluice, but this one is rather more efficient. Also incorporated is a road-
way to connect with the farm track, which was once the main road into Rye, before Monkbretton Bridge was built. Just downstream is a slipway for Southern Water's maintenance barge; and on the far side will be a parking area and the small building which will house the gate controls.
They will, they promise, put it all back nicely when they have finished; and of course, the reach of the river between the old and new sluices will cease to be tidal and eventually look like any normal river with grass up to the edge. They do feel sorry for the neighbours, but the worst is now undoubtedly over.
7.
Antiques of Tomorrow, in Tower Street, have a remarkable line in cats. They don't spoil the furniture, they don't harbour fleas or make messes on the carpet, they cost nothing to feed and are very unlikely to get run over; they will never catch birds or make love under your window at three in the morning.
Their creators, Mary Young and Janet Thorndyke, describe them as "Practical Cats" which they undoubtedly are; they are made out of flat pieces of wood, with brackets at the back so that they will stand up, carefully painted in some 15 standard cat-patterns. The makers might, eventually, take orders for individual models (as a spare, perhaps, in case of a sudden tragedy?).
As accessories for the shop's wide range of reproduction furniture, the cats are a charming idea; they are also, of course, for sale. If they are a success, we wonder what else the makers could try? Peacocks for the patio, perhaps?
A different approach to this idea may be seen at Crafty in Ferry Road, where Sylvia King's "Animal Kingdom" range has been attracting collectors for some months now. Though theoretically soft toys, Marjorie Rust says that they are almost invariably bought by adults for adults; they range from a dormouse to a wolf-cub, some 20 animals in all, and Sylvia is always willing to produce a particular combination of colours to oblige a client anxious to preserve memories of a much-loved pet.
• Congratulations to Gillian Paine of Winchelsea Road, papergirl for Thunders at that end of the town! Gillian, 14, was one of three runners-up in a TVS competition for the best paperboy or paper-girl in the region. She was entered by Mrs. Wickersham of New Winchelsea Road. Both Gillian and Mrs. Wickersham receive TVS Air Mail pens, and Gillian will also be the proud owner of a TVS sweater.
• The Monday Club welcomed 70 members to its Birthday Party on 2 April, along with friends and helpers at the Club. Tea (quite delicious) and raffle prizes were provided by Committee members - everyone had two tickets for the raffle; an "Easter Bonnet" birthday cake, made by Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Williams, was cut by the Mayor. Lew Goddard got the whole party singing, and a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon was ended with linked arms and “Auld Lang Syne". Mrs. Hacking was told that it was one of the Club's best parties ever!
• Damage was caused to two properties in Rye at the end of last week. Fire broke out in the cellar of the David Sharp Pottery in The Mint at lunchtime on Saturday; luckily firemen were able to deal with it before any serious harm was done. No-one was hurt, and Mrs. Sharp tells us that the main problem has been getting rid of the smell of smoke.
On Thursday night in Cinque Ports Street, £400-worth of malicious damage was done when the window of John Ciccone's Spar grocery shop was broken.
• The Rye Harbour lifeboat shed appeal is better off by £161 as a result of a sponsored parachute jump at Ashford airport recently. Roger Angel of Rock Channel and his daughter Gail spent the Saturday training and jumped on the Sunday; they had planned a second jump, but Gail sprained her ankle as she landed - though she was so elated that she never even noticed until she took off her boot!
• Radio 4's Bookshelf programme on Sunday evening - with a repeat tomorrow afternoon - contained an interview with actor Aubrey Woods about E F Benson's Tilling novels. We were surprised to hear that Benson was "ostracised by the local community" as a result of them, and wonder where the speaker learnt this?
Tony Reavell of Martello tells us that Woods is doing a profile of Benson on radio in September, to be followed by a dramatisation of "Queen Lucia" (chronologically the first in the series, before Lucia ever discovers Tilling) – both will be heard before the LWT series appears on the screen in November.
8.
Thursday, 12th Council of Churches open meeting, "Biblical Paths to Peace-making" (Sister Doreen Tobin), Baptist Church Hall, 7.30
Friday, 13th Last day of term
Civil Service Retirement Fellowship coffee morning, FEC, 11
Museum Association, "Winchelsea" (Alma Fabes), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 14th Rye Festival Council Spring Fair, FEC (not TH), 10.30 to 1
Scouts jumble sale, Scout Hut, The Grove, 1.30
Miss Rye 1984 contest, Oasis, open from 9 (see front page)
Sunday, 15th Open Garden, Iden Cottage, 2.30 to 6 (GAZETTE no. 75) Wurlitzer organ concert, Thomas Peacocke Upper School, The Grove, 2.30 (GAZETTE no.78)
Monday, 16th Monday Club, Clinic, 2
Tuesday, 17th St. Mary's Tuesday Club reads "The White Sheep of the Family', Rectory, 7.30
Wednesday, 18th Thrift Shop, open for receiving only, Red Cross, 10.30 to 12.30.
• Two more ninetieth birthdays - see page 3!
• A reminder that next week's WI Market will be on Thursday (19th) not Good Friday.
• We are asked to mention the Sea Cadets jumble sale on Saturday (14th) at the Peasmarsh Village Hall at 2.
• Greyfriars League of Friends committee members are most grateful to supporters who enabled them to raise a record £100 at the coffee morning at the home on Saturday.
• Hill House League of Friends raised about £70 at their jumble sale at Playden on Saturday; leftovers are going to Poland on a monthly lorry trip, we hear.
• The GAZETTE tries to be fair, if not always penitent; it seems that "Guys and Dolls" does have lots of memorable tunes, and it is top favourite musical for many people. (See last week's review!)
• Anyone puzzled about the reference in last week's News to "Rye author John Malcolm" may like to know that in fact he comes from Northiam. It wasn't the fault of the News, but of the publishers; they seemed quite sure, when we rang them to enquire about an interview, that Northiam was a suburb of Rye.
• Those who have so much enjoyed Alma Fabes's talks on Rye will make a point of being at the FE Centre on Friday to hear her new illustrated talk on Winchelsea, under the auspices of the Museum Association - the first time she has given it in Rye, and certainly something not to be missed.
• Joan Parkes, Hon. Sec. of the local RNLI Branch, is rapidly foundering under the weight of the RNLI filing; has anyone a 2- or 3-drawer filing cabinet (condition immaterial) which they could present to the Branch as a rescue operation? Ring Mrs. Parkes on Rye 222717.
• Two bank holidays within a fortnight coming up: Monday, 23rd, sees a coffee morning for Cancer Relief at the Red Cross Centre, and Monday, 7th (when the schools are closed) sees the Mayoring - hot pennies and all - in the morning and a rather splendid garden party at Leasam House in the afternoon.
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 spares are available at Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1984)