This year the Royal Maundy money will be distributed by the queen at Chichester Cathedral - the first time ever. Among the recipients on 27 March will be Mr. Ernie Stevens - as far as we know, the first-ever local person to be so honoured. Mr. Stevens, who moved recently to Kings Avenue from Udimore, has a remarkable record of service to that village; he was the verger of St. Mary's Church there for 37 years, was associated with the Youth Club for ten, and on the Parish Council for more than 20. But that is not all. In 1984 Mr. Stevens retired from the St. John Ambulance Brigade after a total of 55 years' service with the Battle and Rye Divisions!
He joined the Battle Division in 1929, and the Rye Division soon after he came to Udimore in the mid-1940s as a teamer at Court Lodge Farm (going over to tractor-driving ten years later, when the last of the farm horses died). He was a part-time ambulance driver before and after the ambulance service was taken over by the NHS in 1968, and finally retired from the Brigade shortly before his 75th birthday.
Now this splendid record is to receive its accolade, Canon Peter Harvey of Udimore and Canon David Maundrell were among Mr. Stevens' sponsors, and Canon Maundrell will be taking him and his wife over to Chichester. There is to be a special outside broadcast from Chichester Cathedral on Radio Sussex - what a pity it has to be sound only!
Peter Hall of LWT tells us that the newest time for the transmission of the second Mapp & Lucia series, filmed here last summer, is now to be Saturday evenings at 9, starting on 19 April; there has been, he says, a fair amount of chopping and changing, but this is thought to be a firm date. Even firmer (sorry we didn't know last week) is the repeat transmission of the first series, which started on Sunday at the rather unhelpful hour of 11.30 pm; it will continue, presumably, over the next four Sundays (or five if they miss out Easter Day), so that the new transmission will follow immediately afterwards. And all this publicity for Rye comes just at the start of the tourist season thank you very much, ITV.
Unexpected relief for summer parking problems may be found in Winchelsea Road if Jempsons get the permission for which they are applying this week, for occasional car and coach parking in the former Farnborough yard. An earlier application, some time ago, was for car parking only, and was turned down on the recommendation of the D o T because of access from the A259. This time coaches are included, and it is hoped that the advantages of this to the town will out-weigh the D o T objections. Agents Dyer & Overton tell us that the application is a flexible one and only intended to help out with domestic parking when the other parks in the town are likely to be full.
Another relief car-park, very much appreciated, will open again on summer Thursdays in 1986: Edward Mills's field at the end of Love Lane. This private enterprise was welcomed last year by police, visitors and Love Lane residents, as well as Mr. Mills's own lorry-drivers who had been unable to get in and out of the farm because of market-shoppers' cars parked along the narrow road.
Friday was the 70th anniversary of the death of Henry James (who died in Chelsea, not in Rye as The Times persists in saying). Sir Brian Batsford paid a tribute to the memory of his distinguished predecessor at Lamb House in the form of a laurel wreath with a suitable inscription, which hung all day below the plaque commemorating James's residence at the house.
2.
Mrs. Betty Breeds, of New Winchelsea Road, died in Rye Hospital on 25 February. She was 73, and had been in poor health for some time. Mrs. Breeds was the second of four daughters of Frederick Carey, manager of the Harbour Road chemical works; the family lived at a house now demolished, next door to the works. When she left the Collegiate School, Betty Carey went to work in the Mantle Department at Plummers, and then to Bourne & Hollingsworth in London; after her marriage at St. Mary's, she worked for a time at the dress shop in what is now the Mariners, and then spent 20 years as laboratory assistant at the Grammar School. She and her husband Ken lived for most of their married life in New Winchelsea Road; Mr. Breeds, who died in 1973, was deputy postmaster at Rye and well known and respected in the town - as was his father, builder William Breeds. Mrs. Breeds is mourned by her son Roger - our present Mayor - his wife Amy and daughter Joanne, and by a number of Carey relatives and many friends in the town. The funeral is at Hastings Crematorium today at 11.30; donations in Mrs. Breeds's memory may be sent to Rye Hospital League of Friends, c/o Lloyds Bank, Rye.
Mrs. Mabel Austen, who died in a Hastings nursing home on 2 March, was 97. She had been ill for a long time, and had been a regular day-care patient at Rye Hospital before spending several weeks as an in-patient there shortly before her death. Mrs. Austen was the widow of Mr. Henry Austen, a senior steward of Rye Methodist Church (the original church, of course, before the bombing), and in the 1920s she had helped with the family's Cinque Ports tea-rooms (where Barry Rivers now has his shop). Later she and her husband kept the shop selling seeds and sweets in the Landgate, which they gave up in the early 1950s after almost 25 years. They moved away to Ashford, where Mr. Austen died in 1979; increasing ill-health brought Mrs. Austen back to Camber to live in Lydd Road with her sister-in-law Mrs. Reed. The funeral takes place at Hastings Crematorium on Tuesday, 11 March, at 2.
Mrs. Playford of Pottingfield Road is most grateful to the relatives, friends and neighbours who have contributed £143 to the Rye branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in memory of her late husband George.
At the meeting of Rother Council on Wednesday to set the rate for the coming financial year, most of tlE proposals went through as expected. There were some minor alterations - including the matter of £10,000 which appeared in the estimates for the provision of a dog warden. The appointment had been vetoed by the Council several weeks ago (on the grounds that one person couldn't possibly do the job properly); but the money for it had somehow been left in the estimates, and George Shackleton tells us that it took the united exertions of a group of Councillors including himself to have it removed. Agreed, it only made a difference of something like one-tenth of a penny on the rate; but the principle is there.
Today week, 12 March, sees two very different gatherings at the Town Hall. In the morning some 40 crew members from HMS Illustrious, the ship with very special Cinque Ports connections, are coming to Rye to meet their hosts from the 14 towns; each town will then entertain its own small group, and then deliver the sailors to Margate in time for the Civic Ball there on Thursday evening. On Friday they all rejoin their ship at Portsmouth. Rye Town Council are planning an early-evening reception for our guests, with a tour of the town next day; the party should be out of the Town Hall by about 6.30. Then Gus Gale moves in swiftly to sweep up and set out the chairs for the second event of the evening, CND's public debate entitled "Disarmament - How". For this, Lord Ritchie of Dundee will be in the chair and Canon Maundrell will introduce the speakers: Canon Paul 0estreicher, Assistant General Secretary of the British Council of Churches and Vice-President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and Captain LA Bird, MVO, RN, a member of the British Atlantic Committee and Peace Through NATO. The debate begins at 7.30.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 5 March 1986
In the autumn we remarked, only half in jest, on the fine crop of blackberries growing from the wall of the Old Grammar School. Even then it was a case for more than just a cosmetic snip of the secateurs - and looking at the building this week, it seems that in fact nothing at all has been done about the vegetation behind the parapet.
If you or I, gentle reader, choose to grow blackberries out of our roof, it is our own business - though ultimately a disastrously expensive form of horticulture. But the Old Grammar School is one of the glories of Rye; damage to its parapet would be a loss to the town - and also, of course, a considerable hazard to shoppers in the High Street (one very bright slice of brick could imply that something has dropped off quite recently). Now the Town Council has referred the problem to Rother, who in turn have passed it to the D o S in view of the importance of the building. Duncan Starkey, a long-standing member of the Conservation Society committee as well as a Town Councillor, tells us that for such a building there is the likelihood, even nowadays, of a repairs grant from one or other of the national conservation groups. Grant or not, it is obviously vital that any repairs to the brickwork should only be done under expert guidance; but surely a certain amount of gardening is needed now, before the growing season starts?
Mr. and Mrs. Mounsey, who have the Peacocke gift shop on the ground floor, are not the building's owners, and would like to have this made clear. The Old Grammar School has for a long time belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Clive Bennett, of the Flackley Ash Hotel, and we spoke to Mr. Bennett about the Council's worries. He tells us that he intends to remove the vegetation before the spring, probably on a Tuesday afternoon when the pavement is not congested; the problem has been in contacting his top-floor tenant to gain access. He thought he had beaten the brambles several years ago, and is anxious to kill them off thoroughly now before doing roof repairs a second time. We shall be glad to report that he has succeeded.
Really good news this week about Councillor Menhinick; he is now in Ward 6a at St. Helen's, able to have visitors, and with his return home in sight. Mr. George Finnis, of Seymour House, is 92, and recently spent some days in hospital; we are very pleased to say that he is now back home in Landgate.
Michael Dearing of the Transport Users Group has kindly sent us a copy of the draft timetable for our line, to start on 12 May. There are various small changes of timing, introduced to fit in with the revised main-line timetable at Ashford. (Commuters may not be pleased to find that the 6.35 am will run a few minutes earlier!) The regular day-time trains will all run four minutes later; so although the Rye times aren't given, it seems likely that the cross-over times here will be four minutes later too. The only possible confusion lies with the Sunday trains. They will leave Ashford for Hastings every hour at 40 minutes past (until the winter, when they run two-hourly). But going the other way, they leave Hastings alternately at 51 minutes past and 42 minutes past - though they all arrive at Ashford at 37 minutes past; so presumably every alternate train on a Sunday from Hastings sits somewhere for ten minutes!
This earning weekend, BR warns that trains will be peculiar at both the Ashford and Hastings ends of our line, so check if it matters to you. We have heard various horror stories about delayed trains lately, including an account of a Sunday mid-day journey which was shunted onto a siding at Appledore and abandoned, with no information at all given to the passengers. They finally got fed up and went off to the pub, where a bus eventually collected them; the pub landlord commented that he hoped BR would make a regular habit of this! The trouble was apparently a cracked rail; but the passengers would have liked to be told.
4.
The start of this year saw a rather special twentieth birthday celebration that of the Monday Club, the group for older people which meets on the first and third Mondays in the month at the Ferry Road clinic. At the Club's AGM in February, Mrs. Hacking reminded members of its early days, and has been kind enough to lend us her notes. In December 1965, after a preliminary meeting at Mrs. Phyllis Smith's, a general meeting was called over tea &t the Clinic; those present voted to call the group the Monday Club, with an annual subscription of one shilling (even then, at one ha'penny a meeting it must have been remarkable value!) Mrs. Berkley was in the chair; Mrs. Reynolds agreed to be President and Mrs. Bayliss secretary. The Club was formally inaugurated on 3 January 1966 by the Mayor and Mayoress, Mr. and Mrs. John Hacking; it had 40 members.
There are now about 90 members (all aged over 60). Miss Chatterton succeeded Mrs. Reynolds, but in 1969 Mrs. Hacking was elected President and has now held the job for 17 years. The Club started under the auspices of the Red Cross, but is now financially independent, doing its own fund-raising and very grateful for the free use of the Clinic for its meetings. There are, of course, lots of helpers, whom Mrs. Hacking regularly thanks when she makes her annual report. Some of them, however, aren't there to hear her: the Clinic staff, particularly Mrs. Thomas and caretaker Mrs. Masters; the drivers, including Mr. Phil Ellis, Mrs. Betty Brodrick and Mrs. Scotcher; the members of Inner Wheel who cope with the serving and washing-up at the annual birthday party, so that all the members can sit down and enjoy themselves; and the Ryesingers who lead the carols at the Christmas meeting. Graham Trill, who has now given up his coach-hire business (though he still does taxis) was an old friend of the Club and will be much missed.
Mrs. Garrett, the Club's treasurer, had an excellent report to present. The Club has an enviable bank balance of almost L1,400 - much of which comes from the very successful annual sales of work. Mrs. Taylerson runs the bring-and- buy and other stalls at the regular meetings; she and the committee put a great deal of work into the Club, as do the "tea ladies" whose efforts are greatly appreciated.
Members look forward to each summer, when the Club's outings give great pleasure; the excellent cash position means that this year it will not be necessary to put up the price. It is nice to report that three of the founder members still come to Club meetings: Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Cornish and Mrs. D. Martin. And finally, we are well aware that everyone's thanks go to Mrs. Hacking for all she does for the Club; she would protest, but in the town generally the Monday Club is held to be her private show!
• A firm of London accountants, Messrs. Cooper & Lybrand, is bringing a useful booking to the George Hotel, plus welcome trade to the town generally, with a series of executive conferences over the next few months. Those involved, and their wives, are also staying at the George. It is pleasant to note that when the hotel heard about the Gas Board's excavations in the High Street, they asked timidly if the work immediately outside could possibly be arranged not to coincide with the first of these conferences, taking place behind the big windows of the ballroom? "No problem at all" said the Gas Board, and shifted the diggers well away from that section of the High Street at the relevant time.
• CoSIRA has booked in at the Saltings Hotel for two days in mid-March for a Builders' Estimating Seminar, open to builders from Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Hampshire. (If any of our local builders want to go, the deadline for applications is next Monday, and the two-day course costs £55; contact CoSIRA at 212 High Street, Lewes.) So, if you notice a lot of strange men on 18 and 19 March looking with a technical we at the buildings in the centre of the town, don't panic; it is not the bypass coming through the High Street, just CoSIRA's builders taking a coffee-break...
5.
• Rother's February planning meeting was a very long one; the chairman finally shut it down just before 10pm, having started at 2.30, and some applications were left undetermined. These are being considered later this week, and we shall have the verdict on the three which concern Rye in our next issue (the Tower Forge alterations, the new doorway at Rye Tandoori, and a workshop/garage change at 53 Ferry Road). As usual, the information which follows is only taken from the draft minutes, and should not be acted upon until the applicants have it in writings
• There were 9 objections from local residents to the proposed new house in the garden of West Point; the County Engineer also objected because of the difficult Point Hill turn-out. Astonishingly, Rye Town Council had approved the proposal (none of the Councillors lives on Rye Hill) - apparently they could find no planning reason for refusal. Rother, however, did find a planning reason, and turned down the application.
• A request from Jempsons for the renewal of temporary permission for parking on land in Harbour Road is approved subject to various provisions about landscaping of the site. The conversion of the Saltcote stable block into flats is approved subject to a Section 52 agreement to keep the open ground adjoining it as part of the building's surroundings, not to be built on subsequently. A bungalow xt to White Cottage, Playden, will be allowed as long as there is to be only one new dwelling on the site. The Monastery Cottage plans have been deferred pending negotiations about the design (the Conservation Society deplored the proposed demolition of the chimney).
• Mencap has been given permission to use the Hill House tennis courts for horticultural training for young mentally handicapped adults. Permission has also gone to a first-floor extension at 26 New Road; to the removal of a conservatory and other work at 24 Military Road; to building work at the Kettle o' Fish; to a change of paint colour at the Mariners; and to the proposed tea room above Serendipity, linked with the ex-Anglia shop next door. Under the new arrange- ments for some Planning Committee agendas, permission had already been given to a health food restaurant in part of the Decorator's Warehouse and to extensions at 82 Kings Avenue and 12 Cyprus Place.
• The current planning list includes an application to demolish the existing single garage at Goodfellows, Playden, and replace it with a double garage and toilet with a playroom above. There is a proposal for a two-storey extension at 87 Fishmarket Road; for a new garage, altered vehicular access and other work at The Rise in Udimore Road; for the erection of a conservatory and porch at Military Road; for the erection of a detached house and garage adjacent to Cornworthy, Rye Foreign; for the replacement of a non-illuminated hanging sign for River Books at 19 Lion Street. There are also proposals for a blaze of lights at the Pipemakers: one 40ft and one 20ft strip of "trough lighting" on the single-storey part of the pub, with lanterns beside two doors and floodlights in the angle of two gable-ends.
• jWriting last week about the Magdala House site, we deplored the lack of liaison between the planners and the local Day Centre management. It seems fair to point out that where the Day Centre is concerned, Rother's Housing Department is merely implementing the requirements of ESCC's Social Services Department, who will be paying for that part of the development. It is therefore Social Services at Lewes, and not Rother, who have failed to liaise with Barbara Wild and her team. County Councillor Joan Yates was surprised when we told her about this, and has promised to make enquiries at Lewes; she feels (as we do) that it would be useful to have the plans for the whole development on view in the Rother offices here, so that comments can be made by all concerned before matters have gone too far. The more detailed plans become, the more expensive it is to alter them; but it is even worse to go ahead and provide something unsuitable for its purpose simply because the people involved weren't consulted at all.
6.
"Come and see what we do" said Peter Greenhalf, after reading last week's plea for a photographic centre in Rye. We rang the bell at 2 Eagle House, Landgate - and stepped, not into the partitioned-off Labour Exchange which used to be there, but into a surprisingly large and tidy studio. Off it lead a darkroom and an office; the firm occupies the whole of the ground floor.
Peter's family come from Lindfield, but they have all gravitated towards Rye: his parents, his artist brother Robert and sister Mary (Bonham). After three years studying photography at college, Peter worked for a design company in East Grinstead, mainly on catalogue photography; during this period he was awarded a Kodak bursary, and gained Associateship to the Royal Photographic Society.
Six years ago he set up on his own, working first from his home in Rope Walk and since 1983 from the Eagle Square studio. His wife Jean helps him when she is not working at the Library or wrestling with the minutes of the Local History Group, and the third member of the team is an experienced photographic chemist, processor and printer.
When Peter first set up as a commercial, advertising and editorial photographer, he started at the top, looking for jobs from advertising agencies rather than from small individual businesses. These big firms are still his bread and butter - last winter he spent some three months producing all the photographs for the Embassy coupon catalogue, and his work regularly appears in national and overseas advertising campaigns. (Two recent cover pictures for "Period Homes" were his, one a memorable study of The Old Vicarage in Church Square on a snowy evening.) However, he has always undertaken jobs for local firms, on location as well as in his studio - and tells us that he scales his charges accordingly. He had hesitated to advertise locally until recently, as there were other people here in the same line of business; now, however, the nearest competition is some distance away, and he feels free to look for local customers.
Photographers are welcome to hire either studio or darkroom (fitting in, of course, with Peter's own needs); they can bring film in for processing; and Peter already stocks a wide range of photographic materials, both for his own use and for sale - his wholesaler delivers weekly on a Wednesday, so special orders can be taken.
The firm will, if required, produce a complete design for a brochure or catalogue or just do the photography. They have a huge picture library - mostly taken by Peter for his own pleasure but available to anyone who wants an illustration for a particular purpose; the cross-referencing of some 5/6,000 colour transparencies is Jean's job, though Peter reckons he can remember most of them! The only sez vice the firm doesn't offer is "social" photography such as weddings, portraits and so on. This apart, Peter would be glad to hear from anyone with any sort of photographic problem or requirement.
A recent British Telecom seminar in Hastings introduced the phonecard to the area. This admirable arrangement won't reach Rye until June, when we will write about it in more detail. But it will mean new phone boxes, and the Town Clerk and two of our Councillors, Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Nelson-Barratt, took the opportunity to do a bit of lobbying for the installation of one at the top of the town (at the moment, all Rye's boxes are at Cinque Ports Street level). Staff agreed that it might be possible to move one of the three Station Approach boxes to (for instance) the little Town Hall garden beside the church door. We wonder, too, whether the box outside the Borough Arms might be more conveniently sited alongside the A259, near the bottle-banks and loo - handier and more obvious to drivers. What do readers think? Now is the time for constructive comment about any of our boxes, either via the Town Council, the GAZETTE, or direct to British Telecom at Tunbridge Wells.
(The seminar watched a video about vandalism. e all - Councillors, press, BT staff - sat there virtuously, wondering just how likely we were to climb on top of a phone box and chuck milk bottles down!)
7.
• Rye has a new agent for General Accident Insurance - and it's all in the family. Chris Waters has taken over the agency from his father Bernard, and will be pleased to discuss with people in the Rye area plans for Home, Car and Life Assurance, and to arrange pension schemes especially for the self-employed. Contact Chris (once he has finished his milk-round) at the dairy, Rope Walk, or at home in the evening.
• People who address envelopes on a regular basis will be glad to hear about a service now available at Cinque Ports Stationers. Francis will supply a ruled-up A4 sheet to be used as a guide for 24 addresses. From your typed master-copy made to fit the guide, his photocopier will produce your addresses transferred on to A4 sheets of peel-off labels (no more feeding envelopes into the type-writer). You can have a week's worth or a year's worth, whatever you like to pay for; and if you don't want to commit yourself too far ahead, the same master-copy (perhaps with tippexed alterations) can be used again, month after month. Price works out at 30p a sheet (ie. 8 labels for 10p), less for large runs; and bigger labels come 16 or 8 to a sheet, at the same price. A certain amount of care is needed when typing the master-copy, to get the spacing right; but the subsequent saving in time, week after week after week, is fantastic.
• A sharp-eyed Daily Telegraph reader was intrigued to see an advertisement on last week's business pages for a warehouse in Rye with a 10Oft frontage onto the A259, 43 acres of land and "residential opportunity subject planning consent". Where on earth could it be, he asked us? We asked the agents, Geering & Colyer. It seems that this was one of the Telegraph's less good moments: the acreage is in fact 0.45, and the warehouse is the old bus garage in South Undercliff. (We are a bit puzzled about the residential opportunity', though...)
• Dr. Andrew Woodcock, the Museum Association's lecturer on Friday evening, has been East Sussex County Archaeologist for 8 years. A former curator of Chichester Museum, he has a doctorate in prehistoric archaeology, and his favourite research project is peat deposits! However, Friday's talk will cover a rather wider field, and is a compilation of recent work in the county - it seems likely that he will refer to last summer's dig at Broomhill, but he also advises on all sorts of planning applications which might have an archaeological interest. It should be a very interesting evening.
• Eric Wetherill of New England Lane was much interested by a recent reference to 'Johnny Clock" - John Neve Masters. He is making a study of this great Rye businessman, and would be extremely glad to hear from anyone who remembers him or who has documents or photographs which they would be willing to lend.
• At the last meeting of the Local History Group, a member brought along a map showing the town in 1839 - the late Wee Nestie is clearly shown, so it must have been 150 years old. But alterations have revealed a much older ancestry for a building in the High Street. Conversion work in the roof-space above Baxters has revealed fragments of a mediaeval house; a pair of rafters, sooted on one side, could either be the side wall of a C15 hall house or the smoke bay of a C16 one, Alan Dickinson tells us. The whole house was largely rebuilt in the seventeenth century anyway - but it shows that you never know what lies be the most ordinary frontages in the town.
• Has anyone any old box-files they don't want? Jean Greenhalf would love to reorganise the local history collections which is building up at the Library, but she has nothing to put it in. If necessary, the Local History Group may have to buy files out of its very limited funds, but we thought it was worth asking just in case anyone is chucking out tatty ones in favour of something smarter (or even putting all their filing onto a computers). Any messages left at the Library will be very gratefully followed up.
Vidler & Co's monthly auction sale, 10
Women's World Day of Prayer (speaker, Mrs. Frances Avery), St. Anthony's Church, 2.30
ATC Presentation Evening, Upper School, 7.15
Museum Association (Dr. Andrew Woodcock, see p. 7), EEC, 7.30
Movie Society, RX Trophy, FEC, 7.30
Rye Conservative Association AGM (with Ken Warren, MP) TH, 7.30
Methodist Church Home Missions supper (Rev. Gordon Chambers) tickets 75p (children 50p) from Mrs. Tillman, Peasmarsh 488. TPS PTA Barn Dance, Catsfield Steamers, Upper School, 8
Methodist Church Home Missions Service, 11
Rye Town Council meeting (for time see TH board)
St. Mary's Tuesday Club (Mrs. Iris Laker "In the Steps of the Master"), Rectory, 7.30
Rye WI, "From Laundry to Loofas" (Mary Howes), FEC, 7 CND Debate, "Disarmament - How", TH, 7.30 (see page 2)
• Congratulations to Charles Reid, assistant manager of the George Hotel, who was married on Saturday to Sonia Dunk from Winchelsea. The wedding in Winchelsea Church was followed by a reception at the George. Sonia was attended by her sister Beverley and two extremely small girls, Rhia aged 2 and Beverley's daughter Rachel aged 1! The honeymoon is being spent ski-ing in Austria - though to judge by Saturday's weather, they might as well have stayed put in Winchelsea...
• Many happy returns of Friday (7 March) to Susan Wooding, of Phipps & Co and White Cottage, Slade Yard, who will be celebrating her 21st birthday that day.
• Tickets for "Pygmalion" are now on sale in the High Street as well as at Upper School (see last week, page 4), from Penny Royal and the Martello bookshop. The performances are on 13, 14 and 15 March, at Upper School at 7.30; tickets £1.25 (60p for children and OAPs).
• New chairman of Rye Chamber of Trade is Mr. Clifford Wall, of chartered accountants Mannington Bishop & Briant in the High Street. Amy Breeds is continuing to hold the fort as secretary, but looks forward to handing over the job as soon as a replacement appears.
• Still just time to buy tickets (if there are any left) for the PTA Barn Dance with the Catsfield Steamers on- Saturday; they are on sale at Penny Royal and EMBS, and a buffet supper is included in the price of £3 (children £2).
• Congratulations to the winners of the Rye Snooker & Billiards League Knock-out contested at the British Legion Club on 26 February. The winning team, Cinque Ports II (who beat Dungeness I) consists of players from Rye Police - Sgt. Tony Prout, PC Derek Baker, PC Phil Hopkins and DC Mick Poulton - and it is the police side's first trophy since they were promoted to the League's first division at the start of the 1985/6 season.
• Is a musical treat in store for the spectators at Vidler & Co's regular monthly auction sale on Friday? Lots 294 to 297 are a mandolin, a saxophone, a trombone and a euphonium - and someone will surely be expected to prove that they are all in working order!
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye, TN31 7DR (Rye 222303), and printed by Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. News items for inclusion are always welcome – deadline Monday afternoon (Tuesday 9 am at latest and only for real emergencies). The GAZETTE costs 30p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday. A few spare copies are available from Squirrels, 9-13 Cinque Ports Street, and back numbers from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen, 1986)