St. Mary's, as usual, was full on Sunday morning for the Remembrance Day service. Led by the Union Jack, the parade included contingents from the Royal British Legion and its Women's Section, the RAF Association, the Sea Cadets, the ATC, the police and firemen (13 firemen to start with, but see below), St. John Ambulance Brigade, Red Cross and WRVS, Scouts, Cubs, Rangers and Guides. The Mayor and Town Council processed in their robes into church; Gus Gale and Les Paine carried the big maces, Elizabeth Goldsworthy and Janet Waddams the small ones (the children of the choir, who normally have this honour, were all wearing other hats). Organist Charles Proctor had a good deal of infilling between the verses of the first hymn while the standards were received at the altar. The reading, from a modern version of Isaiah, was by Bob Bowler, President and Chairman of the Rye Branch of the RBL, and the Rev. Stephen Ingham, the Branch's chaplain, gave an address on the significance of Remembrance Sunday today.
After the standards had been retrieved, the congregation moved out into the windy churchyard, to be joined by worshippers from the Methodist Church and St. Anthony's for the ceremony round the War Memorial. Prayers were said by all three ministers; Father Maurice is in Rome, and his place is being taken for a month (en route for the Order's mission in Kenya) by Father Thaddeus from Gdansk in Poland. Thoughts turned to Sir Charles and Lady Jones, who have been so much a part of the Remembrance Day ceremony until this year. The exhortation was spoken by Bob Bowler; eleven standards dipped and rose as the (recorded) bugle sounded. Wreaths were laid by representatives of all the organisations taking part in the parade, and also by the Mayor, Mayoress and Deputy Mayor, the British Legion Club, the Chamber of Trade, Round Table, Rotary, Rye Lions, the Bowls Club, the Bonfire Society, and the staff and pupils of Thomas Peacocke School.
At a reception at the Town Hall after the service, the Mayor spoke of the importance of the day, and said that the future of today's children lies in the hands of those now middle-aged, whose task it is to see that they do not have to live through another war. Guests drank the Loyal Toast, and the health of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and that of The Town of Rye. (And in the whole course of the morning, incidentally, we didn't see a single poppy that was not the traditional scarlet colour of those which grew in Flanders fields so long ago.)
It is for none of these things, however, that this particular Remembrance Day will go down in local legend. As the members of the parade were waiting at the south door to go into the church, someone happened to glance up at the stone finial at the west end of the main roof. It was swaying in the wind! The contingent from the Fire Brigade suddenly shrank as one crew scrambled itself and ran down to the fire station for ladders and hard hats. The appliance raced back up to the top of Lion Street (unheard by the singing congregation), the ladders were taken off and reared against the end wall of the church (this was when those within began to wonder what the odd noises could be) but they were not long enough to reach the ridge. The firemen then climbed on to the roof of the north aisle (here the noises began to sound like a very enterprising demo, or possibly someone stripping off the lead) and ran the light wheeled ladder up the tiles to hook over the ridge (visions of vandals in bovver boots playing bowls on the roof flitted through the bowed heads below). The finial was lifted off its spike and lowered to the ground, but it disintegrated on the way down; inside we were wondering whether the noise of falling rubble was the prelude to some greater disaster, and some of us shifted nervously in our seats - though to his eternal credit Mr. Ingham continued to preach without so much as a quaver in his voice... It seems likely that this is the first time our firemen have been called away from a church parade to attend to a problem at the same church!
2.
Mrs. Evelyn Bourne, of New Road, died on 5 November. She was 73. A widow, Mrs. Bourne is survived by her two sons. The funeral takes place tomorrow, Thursday, at Hastings at noon.
Mr. Norman Jennings, of Udimore Road, died on 7 November after a few weeks of illness; he was 77, and is survived by his widow, son and daughter, and three grandchildren. Mr. Jennings served with the Royal Signals in WW2, and was taken prisoner in Malaya; he spent several years building the infamous railway and was wounded in a US raid on the bridge over the River Kwai. After the war he became a clerk on the Stock Exchange; when he retired in 1975, he and Mrs. Jennings (nee Hickman) came back to her home town - they celebrated their Golden Wedding last year - and he became keenly interested in short-wave radio listening. The friends he made all over the world in this way will mourn his passing. The funeral takes place at Hastings tomorrow at 2.
Almost two years ago Rother's Housing Committee discussed the possibility of installing personal alarms for elderly and disabled people living alone. Nothing more came of it, from Rother. But last week literature appeared in the town announcing a service which may well be another answer to the problem.
Eastbourne Borough Council is offering to extend its Lifeline to a wider area, including Rye. Anyone can subscribe, as long as they are on the telephone (the new type of phone socket is necessary, but the alteration is simple). Nothing has to be bought outright, all the equipment is rented and the rental charge includes 24-hour monitoring and maintenance. The system uses a special telephone handset and a separate alarm pendant (a 13amp socket is also needed). The telephone can be used in the normal way, but in an emergency just a press of the button on pendant or phone will alert the Lifeline operator, who will speak to you direct over the loudspeaker. You and she then decide what action she should take.
The weekly rent is £1.75 (including VAT). This is a lot out of a single pension - but those who can't afford it for themselves should consider whether their children or other relatives might wish to pay instead - it would surely be well worth it for many families worrying at a distance whether Mum or Dad is all right. And for those who cannot possibly raise L91 a year privately, it seems possible that one of our local fund-raising organisations might be able to help.
Anyway, leaflets are available at doctors' surgeries, Social Services and the Library, and give full details; they enclose a card to be returned expressing interest - or simply phone Eastbourne (0323) 64422.
We would be interested to hear in due course from anyone who does join this scheme; judging from the interest in the 1984 Rother proposals, there are likely to be quite a few people in Rye keen to have the special sets installed.
Our recent reference to kettles which had developed black insides has brought some interesting feedback. The trouble is not fluoride; SWA don't add it to the water. It could be iron; but there has been iron round here since Roman times. It seems to be a Church Square problem (but not everywhere in Church Square) - would people with more outlying addresses like to report to us on what their kettles are doing? The SWA doesn't seem to take much interest, says someone who is convinced that her water supply has been making her ill; perhaps more information might help them to take more interest. In Cyprus Place, anyway, two kettles have gone black, one plastic and one metal, both in regular use but one filled direct from the main and one from an upstairs tap - and the water smells noticeably of chlorine from time to time. At least the problem is not likely to be a repetition of one which troubled Rye several hundred years ago, when the butchers at the top of the town chucked their surplus offal into the water tank!
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 12 November 1986
This was the headline for an April 1984 report in the GAZETTE which recorded the return of the Weslake name to Rye. Weslake Developments Ltd. had then only recently been formed by a group of ex-Waslake & Company staff and consultants; by the time we reported, its workforce included 11 former Weslake & Co. employees, based in two of the ex-Farnborough units.
An ad in last week's Sussex Express, for a senior book-keeper/accountant, led us to ask the Weslake management whether perhaps the time had come for an update on the company's progress. They have been kind enough to let us have the following information.
"Weslake Developments Limited - the reborn Research & Development side of the original Weslake company which ceased trading three years ago - is continuing the gradual expansion of its workforce. This now comprises 27 people and will have become 30 by the end of the year. The company has now built and commissioned four engine test cells and several workshops, stores and office areas. These occupy Units 1, 3 and 4 in the John Jempson warehousing site in Winchelsea Road. Contract research, engine building, testing and manufacturing work is carried out for the Ministry of Defence and the car, truck and light aircraft industries."
As we said last time - good news indeed, which will give much pleasure locally.
It is always a pleasure to record how Rye's young people are doing, and we were very glad to hear from Mr. Christopher Robinson, formerly of King's Avenue and now in Berlin, about his son Colin, an ex-pupil at Thomas Peacocke School. Colin passed out of the Guards Depot on 31 July after a year with the Junior Guardsman Company at Pirbright. He is now serving with the 1st Btn. Coldstream Guards in Hong Kong, and for the past month has been patrolling the Chinese border (it is not just anyone who can spend his 18th birthday touring the New Territories!). Colin leaves Hong Kong shortly for further training in New Zealand, and is due in South Korea for an Honour Guard in the New Year. He expects to return to England in June 1988, when he will be stationed at Chelsea Barracks for public duties.
The weekly planning list has an amended application for the old bus garage site in South Undercliff - the earlier amendment was deferred because of D o T objections to the proposed road access at the South Undercliff end of the site. The new plan exchanges the previous access to the A259 with the single building on the road (northern) edge of the area; this building is now shown close up against the boundary with 139 South Undercliff, while the new access is at the Rother Ironworks end. Although the two buildings nearer the river are three-storey, the one fronting the road is two-storey and will, Le Fevre Wood & Royle tell us, be only inches higher than the existing garage. Last time the D o T said that "the relocation of the access nearer to Fishmarket Road will offer better visibility, though still substandard". The new layout provides parking for 16 instead of the previous 19 cars; the number of dwellings, 12, is the same.
• Last week's London Reunion held by the Old Scholars Association attracted nearly 50 ex-RGS or TPS pupils, about a quarter of them recent leavers. The Rye end was represented by Will Dunlop, John Smith, Billy Cooke and Mary East, with Ray Fooks and Stan Jones from the school.
• "Movie Society enters the Video Age", Fred Masters headlines his report on last week's meeting of the Society, when members watched video tapes made in Rye. The opening of Devonport House, the filming of "Yellowbeard", Phil Martin's fishing competition, Richard Waters on passage to Wisbech - and David Smeed lent his video tape onto which his own 8mm films had been transferred. Members were clearly impressed by "the new science of video, which will eventually link film and video" says Mr. Masters.
4.
• The new post office is now flanked by even newer phone boxes. Last week British Telecom removed the battered old red ones, installed in Station Approach to replace those built into the old post office, and replaced them with three black-and-yellow models with walls of smoked glass and space at the bottom to simplify cleaning (though why there is also space at the back to collect rubbish we can't imagine!). The middle box is coin-operated, taking all British coins (including the £1) except the 1p piece. The two outer ones are Phonecard boxes, about which we wrote in GAZETTE no. 196 when the first one in Rye came to Lea Avenue. The instructions are displayed inside, and the cards (with an explanatory leaflet) are obtainable from the Post Office and from Thunders various prices, and they should be kept in the plastic wallets supplied, so as not to damage the surface. (Even if you don't normally use a call-box, it is probably worth laying out El on a ten-unit card for your wallet - in case you are stuck without change or the coin-phone is occupied just when you might need to use it!)
• The little telly which has recently appeared in the library is not there to amuse the staff during slack periods, but to provide access to local jobs. Funded by the RDA, the Prestel set throws onto the screen details of jobs (both full- and part-time) in various categories within reach of people living in the RDA (eg. in Hastings or Ashford but not Brighton). Any of the library staff will run the programme through for you, and when something of interest comes the machine will hold the "page" open while you take down details so that you can contact the Jobcentre. A telly with a larger screen is due to arrive any time now. We watched the section for clerical, catering and shop jobs; on Monday there were 32, 20 of them part-time and mostly in the Hastings area. We will be very pleased to hear from anyone for whom this system does actually find a job they wouldn't otherwise have known about; it certainly seems a good idea in theory.
• A unique Christmas card for Rye people to send to their favoured friends comes at the opposite end of the price-range from the Scouts cards we mentioned last week. Eileen Jenkin, who designed last year's Rye Advent calendar for the Multiple Sclerosis Stoiety's local branch, wanted something different this year - and different it certainly is, a twelve-sided card which open out into a freestanding decoration illustrating "The Twelve Days of Christmas" - set in at! The appropriate number of participants (in colour) swim, lay, milk or leap in front of Miss Jenkin's charming Rye backgrounds - the ladies dance outside St. Anthony's, the pipers swing down the Ypres steps and the drummers march up Mermaid Street. Five gold rings decorate the Town Hall, and the calling birds are the seagulls above the Fishmarket; three French hens peck about in the Gungarden and the turtle-doves nest on the ledge below the St. Mary's clock, while the partridged pear-tree grows in front of the Rye silhouette. This pretty device would be most welcome to any Rye exile, and comes with a suitable envelope for El from Horrells, Adams, the Freezer Centre, Barry Rivers, Williams & Sons or 22 Ferry Road.
Kenneth Warren has written to the Chief Executive of Rother District Council about fire safety in The Link, and he is going to let Brian Champion know what progress his enquiries make (GAZETTE no. 198). On Monday Rother's Housing Committee received a report on the subject from the Chief Housing Officer. He said that The Link flats were built in the mid-1960s; he is "confident that the construction of the flats and methods of escape do not breach any statutory requirements", but there are other similar blocks in Rother, and both The Link tenants and the East Sussex Fire Authority have expressed concern about the fire-escape situation. Mr. Catt has therefore made arrangements to investigate and discuss with the Fire Authority and Officers of the Council any shortcomings or improvements required relative to fire safety within these properties, and he will report back to the Committee in due course.
The same meeting was due to consider a report from Mr. Catt on the problems of Cooper Road; but once again this was at the privately-discussed end of thy agenda, so we cannot enlighten readers about its contents - yet.
5.
With Christmas Fairs now upon us, it seems reasonable to regard the tourist season as closed - though there were still plenty of visitors in the town at the weekend. Since the beginning of January, 34,194 enquirers have called at the Tourist Office, with every sort of query - ranging from the time of the next bus to a couple of very Welsh homegoing Welshmen expecting David Cranston to know whether - on a day of gales - the Severn Bridge would be closed to coaches by the time they got there! Much of the work, of course, lies in finding accommodation; and as far as the staff can tell, about one-third of the enquirers came from abroad.
Closed for the winter are the Gibbet Marsh car-park (a couple of really wet days could lead to a sinking feeling there!), the Town Model, and the Museum. Its curator Geoffrey Bagley reports that although there were fewer visitors than in 1985, increased admission charges have meant that the museum has not suffered financially (the Model, says the Town Clerk, has found the same). The museum visitors' book shows the signatures of people from 63 foreign countries during the 1986 season; most came from the United States, then Germans, French, Dutch, Canadians, Italians, Spaniards and New Zealanders. Lone travellers were from China, Egypt, Fiji, Hungary, Iceland, Korea and Russia. Comments were 99% favourable, and include "brilliant", "fascinating", "We'd love it as a house" (bet they wouldn't in the winter!), "back to our roots" from a Rye NY visitor, "bloody marvellous", and "sweet little museum" (from "E. Mapp, Tilling"). Underlining all the observations, says Mr. Bagley, there runs a steady stream of appreciation, particularly of the bright and colourful appearance of display and artefact. This is no mean achievement, he continues, when the age and condition of the Ypres Tower is considered; repair work this year was carried out to the roof of the Women's Tower and to the terrace, posing security problems for the staff. Good news was the publication by the Museum Association of Mr. Bagley's "Pictorial Guide to Romney Marsh", about which we wrote in GAZETTE no. 194.
In Station Approach, Thursday was much better last week than the shambles of the week before; the coach trade is now slacking off, which helps. (The bus trade can't spell: the new sign for the no. 11 service reads "Folkstone”)
The problem on Thursday was the spile fence which lay flat on the footpath from Ferry Road to the station, to the hazard of heels and the confusion of pram-pushers. One of the workmen said bitterly "I hope you're going to report that it’s the children who push it down"; he may have been right, but it seems fair to add that a hand laid quite lightly on the remaining upright length brought a further three yards down at our own feet! By Thursday afternoon it had been propped up again, and on Monday proper posts were being set along the boundary.
The whole aspect of the site has been dramatically altered by the skeleton of the new bus garage (no, it is not the supermarket itself) rearing up on the new foundations in the Goods Yard. (The sooner an outline plan of the development goes up, the better pleased everyone will be.) Across Station Approach on Monday, a dinosaur appeared to be grubbing about in the primeval marsh - on closer inspection, it was the Hymac burrowing out a deep trench between the station and the site of the loos, while another long-necked machine foraged among the heaps of earth in the main car-park area.
Walking through the market, it is clear why there were always puddles alongside the railway fence; the old pipes lie beside the new trench - packed solid with earth over the years.
Push-bikers had better beware if they are spending the evening at the pub recently two bikes have been reported stolen, one from outside the Olde Bell on 27 October and one from outside the Standard three evenings later. Other recent crimes include the theft of a motorbike cover from Military Road on 23 October, a break-in at the vet's surgery on 24/5 October (with apparently nothing stolen), and a plate-glass window broken at a High Street antique shop just after midnight on 1 November.
6.
The new deal on the buses has already brought dismay to one local company. This year's Young Enterprise team at Thomas Peacocke School has 13 members; 5 of them live along the route via Icklesham, and instead of being able to stay at school until the 6.20 bus, they now have to pack up and run for the 5.05. Any business which loses over one-third of its workforce halfway through its working day (they start when school ends, at 4), is likely to be in trouble...
... Which is a pity, because Excalibur are an enthusiastic team with two good products: a hot-pot stand, with a choice of tiles set in a wooden frame, and a pad of 20 sheets of quality A5 writing paper headed with attractive black-and-white vignettes of Rye (four different designs in the pack). Here the actual printing is contracted out to Cinque Ports Stationers, but design and marketing is done by the group. (Two other products were considered, a wooden key-holder and a plastic egg-cup; market research meant thumbs down for the key-holder and as for the egg-cup, it melted!)
The Young Enterprise Scheme (this is its sixth year) is run in Rye under the paternal eye of Rotary. Nationally based, it supplies stationery, advice, and a bank loan of £30; other working capital is raised by the sale of shares, and each May the company is wound up and the profits distributed to the shareholders. The idea, of course, is to give participating Lower-Sixth students something of the feel of business life. They decide what the business shall produce, they design, manufacture (when possible) and market it; they learn about advertising, and keeping a workforce sweet, and how to accept help gracefully (and, sometimes, how to accept disaster with equanimity). With a good team - and this year's looks like being a very good one - it is a useful experience for any subsequent career, and one which is bound to impress future employers.
Half-way through each business year, in February, all the officers of the company move round, to give everyone a wider view. The present management team is Mark Curry (chairman), Roheise McGrath (secretary), Joanne Breeds and Rebekah Smith (accounts), Michelle Robus (personnel), Sonya Kemp and Annah Finch (production), Katherine Hunt (sales), Casey Mans-Morris (publicity), and Jane Harvey, Sharon Bradshaw, Carl Lenton and Tim Willett in the research department. The products are regularly on sale within the school, and can be ordered via pupils; they will be sold, too, at the various public events (parents' evenings, plays, etc.) in coming months. We wish the Excalibur team every success, both now and in the future.
At the Annual Meeting of the Rye Centre of the BRCS on Thursday, Mrs. Hilary Bolton reported with pleasure on another successful year. Financially, the Thrift Shop was the star performer; its total 1985 profits were just over £4,000 (reduced to £3,760 by the inroads of VAT). Various other fund-raising, sales and donations raised the year's receipts to £6,426 (£6,062 in 1984). On the other side of the account, Red Cross services cost a nett £459 to run; other expenses, including the Branch target of £1,069, brought payments up to £3,237, leaving a surplus for 1985 of £3,189 (£2,766 in 1984).
But the Rye Centre is not just a fund-raising organisation - far from it. Mrs. Bolton listed the services for which it is responsible. Beauty care at two local rest-homes and Rye Hospital, cosmetic camouflage at RESH, hearing-aid batteries, library books for 18 housebound people and for three OAP flatlet blocks and the hospital, teas served one day a week at the hospital, three over-60s clubs (Rye, Iden and Camber), Hearing Circle coffee mornings, rest-room service during blood-donor sessions, help at the baby clinic, sponsorship of handicapped children for Activenture holidays (a second local child goes next summer), prescriptions collected and other transport help for outlying villages - the list is a long one. The best-known service must be the medical loans, and a Rye wheelchair went to Lourdes this year, lent to Peter Lerouska of Hawkhurst; his wife runs the medical relief appeal for Poland. Each lorry run' costs £1,000, and it was decided to give the proceeds of the raffle at the meeting to Mrs. Lerouska for her cause.
• STOP PRESS: Conservation Society members at tonight's informal gathering will have the opportunity to bid for the framed original of Brian Cook Batsford's St. Mary's Christmas card, to be auctioned in aid of the Society's funds.
• The coffee morning on Saturday at the Town Hall is a contribution from Rye Town Council towards the Sports Centre; money raised will go towards the equipment fund - and it is not long now before that equipment will be needed. There will be a bring-and-buy stall, cakes and a raffle - and, of course, coffee served in the magnificent coral-and-gilt Council Chamber, with the Royal Arms and the names of Rye's Mayors over the past 700 years, with their 65 Town Clerks, all lettered out in gold on the dove-grey wall panels. Was there ever a more elegant setting for a Saturday morning sit-down?
• It would be extremely unfair of Mother Nature to allow it to rain on Saturday, because this is the day of the first event organised in Rye by Greenpeace, and they really are tempting Providence by holding it out of doors - in mid-November! It is a sponsored walk, in aid of Greenpeace funds, and the group departs from Strand Quay at 10. There are expected to be mothers with pushchairs, so the walk will be only a couple of hours, out along New Winchelsea Road and sticking strictly to the pavement. The more supporters the better - and those wishing to sponsor or be sponsored can collect forms from Rye Wholefoods in Cinque Ports Street.
• Needlewomen skilled and unskilled (and of course needlemen, who are often very skilled indeed) are invited to a meeting at the Rectory today week (19th) at 2.30, with a view to forming a working party to embroider kneelers for St. Mary's. Phyllis Smith says that no experience is necessary; tuition will be given. The intention is that the group shall meet regularly in the Upper Room.
• Alma Fabes's talk to the Museum Association on 21 November is the third of her series of slide shows about Rye, following "Unusual Aspects...." and "More Unusual Aspects...". No recommendation from us is needed to draw a large audience to the FE Centre at 7.30 on Friday week to enjoy Miss Fabes's choice of "More Aspects of Rye"; anyone, member or not, is welcome.
• On Saturday, 22 November, Sir John Winnifrith, KCB, will be guest of honour at the Town Hall at an event organised in aid of the Sussex Historic Churches Trust and the church of St. Michael, Playden. A finger buffet will be followed by a slide show. Tickets are available from River Books in Lion Street (L3 includes a glass of wine) - numbers are limited, first come first served.
• Two events at the Baptist Church, also on 22 November: at 2 in the foyer, there will be a sale of TEAR Fund goods made by Third World workers; and at 7.30 in the church a group called The Scratch Band performs, admission free.
• Finally, the Scouts changed their Christmas Fair date to 22 November from 29th to avoid a clash - but the 22nd turns out to be every bit as bad now!
At the recent Rye Council for Voluntary Service open meeting in the Town Hall, Mrs. Monica Oliver - ex-officio, as Mayor, the group's President - was "sitting on the very edge of the Chair" acting as chairman only until someone else was willing to take on the job. Some of those due to report on various RCVS activities were not present, but it did emerge that the Sports Hall was likely to be a Christmas gift to the town, due to be handed over to the Management Committee on 24 December if all goes well.
RDA Field Officer Leslie Bulman pleased everyone when he announced that he now had access to "a small projects fund" which could make grants (.3. for equipment) of between L30 and £500 during the current financial year and possibly for 1987/8 as well. Speakers were Miss J. Brotchie on "Care for the Carers"; Mrs. BarbaiaWild on behalf of Mrs. Linda Porter, about the proposed Cancer Support Scheme; and Eric Le Fevre about the Community Programme team now based in Rye (GAZETTE no. 199).
Thursday, 13th Rye Coin Club, "Medals" (Peter Silk), FEC, 7.30
Friday, 14th CSRF, "Gold Coins of the Renaissance", FEC, 11
National Trust AGM, followed by "Exploring Winchelsea" (Alma Fabes, slides), CC, 7.30
Nat.His.Soc., "The Little Owl" (Ian Rumley-Dawson), FEC, 7.30
Saturday, 15th Town Council coffee morning for Sports Centre equipment, Town Hall, 10 (see page 7)
Playden Church Christmas Fair, FEC, 10 to 12
Coffee morning and sale of preserves (in aid of Arogya Agam, a leprosy centre in India), 34 Fishmarket Road, 10 to 12 Greenpeace sponsored walk, Strand quay, 10 (see page 7)
FRAG, "An Evening with Samuel Pepys" (readings, with musical accompaniment led by George Veness), Stormont Studio, 7.30 - open to all, admission £1
Council of Churches, "Living Christian Community, I" (Father Columba Ryan, OP), Methodist Hall, 2.30 to 9.15
Sunday, 16th Lifeboat Memorial Service, Rye Harbour Church, 3
Council of Churches, "Living Christian Community, II", United Service, Baptist Church, 6.30
Monday, 17th Rye Town Council, full Council plus committees (see below) Camera Club, competition, "Patterns" and "Open", FEC, 7.30
Wednesday, 19th Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10 to 12.30 Landgate WI, "Lacemaking", CC, 10.30
Community Lunch Group (Colin Stutely on the Victim Support Group), Clinic, 1
Meeting about kneelers, Rectory, 2.30 (see page 7)
Salvation Army Band concert, St. Mary's, 7.30
• Congratulations to Margaret and Willie O'Neill of Military Road on the birth of their first baby on 4 November - Edward Lewis, a tenth grandchild for Mrs. Eileen Bennett, also of Military Road.
• Readers are reminded that at Monday's meeting of the Town Council, members of the public are entitled to ask questions of which they have previously given written notice to the Town Clerk; other questions may be considered if time allows. The meeting begins at 6 and the public session comes early in the agenda.
• On Monday, Betty and Keith Spencer of Cooper Road left Rye to return to native Derbyshire, and their friends here will wish them good luck there. Betty's departure means that the GAZETTE has lost an invaluable correspondent from the Estate, and we do hope that Tilling Green readers will continue her good work by keeping us in touch with developments there, in Cooper Road and elsewhere.
• Bob Young of Tillingham Avenue, who was among the stallholders dispossessed from the Dairy Market, has found a new base. He is now in business in the Cattle Market, in one of the buildings opposite the Market Hall, where he will be selling as before plants, pet and garden supplies, and bric-a-brac, every day except Sunday from about 10 to 5.
• One of the first-floor rooms at 7 High Street, no longer required by HM Customs Service, is now to let as an office. Details from Vidlers - and just think of having your customers enter beneath the Royal Coat of Arms!
THE RYE GAZETTE is registered as a newspaper with the Post Office, published by Mrs. Mary Owen, 2 Cyprus Place, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7DR (0797 222303), and printed by Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. News items for inclusion are always welcome - deadline Monday afternoon. The GAZETTE costs 30p weekly and is delivered to subscribers and pick-up points on Wednesday. A few spare copies may be available from Cyprus Place. (Copyright Mary Owen 1986)