A third programme change for Rye Festival's jazz evening TONIGHT at Upper School at 8 means that Terry Lightfoot (who had mixed up his bookings) will be replaced by Acker Bilk; Helen Gould and The World's Greatest Dixie Band will appear as advertised. Tickets are E4 and £3.50, as before.
The Festival concert in the Gun Garden on Sunday afternoon gave much pleasure to an audience suitably muffled against the chilly wind - we only hope none of the splendid Hooe Village Band developed pneumonia. Everyone enjoyed their repertoire of tunes we can all hum but can't always put a name to, and there was a pleasant local connection too, since ex-Rye Town Bandsman Denis Batcheler gave us a trumpet solo. Then, towards the end of the concert, the bandmaster turned to someone who had been watching his every movement, and handed over his baton and Mr. Alfred Igglesden was once more conducting a band, as he had done with the Rye Town Band more than twenty years ago. Not long afterwards the rain finally came, and a quick burst of "Sussex by the Sea" was the signal to run for shelter to the Methodist Hall, where warming cups of tea were waiting for the intrepid musicians. Thank you very much, Hooe; see you again, perhaps?
Hearty congratulations to the staff and customers of the Bedford Arms, who have raised the princely sum of E1,225 in recent months to help a local lad. The money is the result of two rather special cricket matches, and a sponsored 68-mile cycle ride by four of the pub's "regulars" - and it is to enable Timothy Vicarey of Marley Road to have a special apparatus bought and fitted to his car so that it will take his wheelchair. Bedford Arms landlady Mrs. Kelly told us that they didn't want a lot of advance publicity; but if they can raise that sort of money without it...!
On Sunday morning a swarm of interior decorators moved into the new extension to Rye Art Gallery - at least, what will be the new extension if all goes well. This was in fact part of Rye Festival for children, and between 20 and 30 youngsters aged from 2 upwards spent a happy morning depicting a circus on what had been the rather boring white walls of the gallery courtyard. In charge were Kitty French and Louis Turpin - and the vivid emulsion paints should last for some time, so do go and admire the results.
In fact the Rye Art proposal is for far more than just an extension to the gallery: the Trustees are talking about an Arts Centre for Rye, based on the two galleries with the linking extension providing lecture and film facilities as well as more display space. The current Ralph Steadman exhibition shows what could be done using the tow as one, and of course the whole area is vastly enhanced by the recent reconstruction of the lower garden in memory of the late Mrs. Phoebe Merricks.
£150,000 is needed to build and endow the new Arts Centre. The Trustees are well aware that this sort of money can't possibly be raised locally, but they do ask for local enthusiasm, at least - for local people to talk about the project, to make suggestions, to call in regularly at both galleries and see what is on display. Some local financial support is certainly hoped for - perhaps, from larger companies who have an interest in the town (McCarthy & Stone springs to mind) and who feel it would be a good way to improve their local image?
The appeal will be launched officially on 30 October, and it is hoped that - just possibly - the Centre could be opened in 1989 to coincide with the town's celebrations for the 700th anniversary of the first mayoralty.
2.
Miss Ada Pettitt, formerly of Pettitt's Stores and Jubilee Villa, Playden, died in a nursing home in Bexhill on 2 September, aged 93. Her death will cause sad- ness in the local Methodist community, in which she played so full a part during her long life. The funeral takes place on Friday (11th) at 2.0 in Hastings Crematorium.
Mrs. Joan Cooke, of Cadborough Cliff, died in Rye Hospital on 6 September. She was the wife of Mr. Alan Cooke, and they had farmed in Camber until his retirement. There will be a memorial service at Camber Church tomorrow (Thursday) at 2.30, after a private cremation.
• Apparently following up the Observer article a fortnight ago, there was useful coverage of Rye's A259 problem in Monday's Daily Telegraph by its local government correspondent John Grigsby. Country Life is also interested, and is likely to be covering the story, with photographs, in a few weeks' time - we hope to give advance notice in the GAZETTE so that readers can order copies. TVS, too, are at last taking an interest; they were due to visit Rye yesterday, the Mayor tells us. Unless the piece was screened the same evening, it will be worth keeping an eye on Coast to Coast for the rest of this week in case they manage to find room for it among all the Maidstone news.
• A new national-level objector to one aspect of the proposed route will be the Railway Development Society. After an informal meeting in Hastings on Saturday of some members of its London and SE Region Branch, when the implications of the route were discussed purely from the viewpoint of railway users, the committee came over to Rye to see the problems for themselves. (They left Hastings by the 5.05 train with no tickets, since the booking-office there was closed; no-one checked tickets on the train, and as the booking-office here was closed too they almost certainly travelled entirely free.)
Anyway, they shared the local view that rail travellers would suffer from the proposed arrangement unless the Department was prepared to provide facilities (at DoT rather than BR expense) to compensate, such as escalators and lifts. Any loss of business on the line could well affect the calculations which Network Southeast's business manager Cedric Nott is now making about electrification. This is likely to cost £6m, and he has to justify the expenditure - taking into account, of course, Channel Tunnel traffic. If he can't justify it and the line is not electrified, Transport Users Group secretary Michael Dearing pointed out that we might yet lose it, since the last thing the new international station Ashford would need would be one little diesel line running out of it!
• Local readers will doubtless be aware that the Town Council is in the midst of setting up a working-party to deal with the A259 problem, with members co-opted from representative groups in the town. It is also thinking of commissioning an independent company to study the DoT's traffic figures and assess their implications. If this study produces different results from the DoT's version, it could mean a new traffic census - but paid for by the DoT, not the town. (A census is where vehicles are stopped and questioned on their movements and motives, and is very expensive to carry out; a count is just what it says, with varying degrees of complexity depending on the enterprise of those doing it.) Such an independent study would cost £1,700 - and the Council's Policy & Resources Committee suggests that this should be shared between the town, the Action Group, Rother and County. Both working-party and study will be officially confirmed by the full Town Council meeting next Monday, and then the Council springs into action.
The Action Group will be asked to appoint a member of the working party, who will in due course be able to hand over the results of its recent traffic count - done on a wet morning complicated by two road accidents on the outskirts of the town and two unusually large loads (one very large indeed and causing chaos at Banister's Corner for quarter-of-an-hour). The results are now being fed to the computer, to be regurgitated as an analysis in a few weeks' time - John and Sylvia Silver reckon it will take 40 hours of their spare time, and they both have full-time jobs...
- 3 THE RYE GAZETTE, 9 September 1987
At Rother's last planning meeting, the McCarthy & Stone plans for Strand Quay received final approval. An objection from English Heritage had put the application back before the committee, and has now led to certain amendments in the plans - mainly connected with the windows - which will be approved in detail by the Planning Officer before things get that far. A press release from the developers says that the £2½m scheme for 46 one- and two-bedroom apartments plus five shops "has been designed to blend harmoniously with the character of the area and is situated close to local shopping facilities and the quay's edge" - prospective tenants may be reassured to know that it is not that near the quay's edge! The work is due to start this month (the site is already cleared) and they expect to employ up to 40 local people while it is going on; thereafter the only job seems to be that of the "resident house manager" on the end of the emergency intercom system - plus, of course, the people working in the shops.
Mencap also got planning permission for the Friary Gardeners horticultural project at Greyfriars (GAZETTE no. 233). An application for a rear dormer replacement (by a much larger window) in Military Road was refused as being "an incongruous feature, out of harmony with the remainder of the listed terrace (Waterloo Terrace)". Also refused was the application to convert an Edwardian summer- house in Leasam Lane into a dwelling.
Permission has been given under delegated procedure to change-of-use of part of the Abbey Auto premises in Fishmarket Road into a manager's flat, for occupation only in connection with the business of which it forms a part; for a double garage and office at Rolvendene Farm; for a shower-room at the back of 5 West Street; for a garage at 40 Military Road; for a roof window at the back of 14 Rope Walk, and another at 25 Watchbell Street; and for a front porch and alterations at 60 Kings Avenue. Roger Bird Associates have lodged an appeal in respect of Rother's refusal to allow a new housing development in Tram Road at the Harbour.
• A report from the Planning Officer to tonight's Policy & Resources Committee sets out the progress of the RDA's Rural Development Programme. Quite a few of the items relate to Rye, and since the report was prepared some time ago we can in fact update two of them.
Already complete, of course, are the Sports Centre and the Strand Quay disabled loo. The Marina Feasibility Study is soon to be considered by ESCC, and then Rother will discuss it. Le Fevre Wood & Royle were appointed to carry out a feasibility study on the Heritage Centre building offered by McCarthy & Stone; they have now completed this, and the Planning Officer will be presenting it on Wednesday. The Lochin Marine slipway, which appears as a "new project under consideration", went ahead regardless, as readers of last week's GAZETTE will know. Other Rye projects already under way my the sheltered flats and the Day Centre in Ferry Road. Development Commission funding is being sought for the Heritage Centre, and also for a multi-purpose hall in Ferry Road (to replace the present playgroup building). English Estates are looking for a site in Harbour Road for small industrial units (smaller than the Hatleys ones).
Finally, another "new project under consideration" is a swimming pool - and the Planning Officer tells us that it is still at precisely that stage. Before even thinking about commissioning a feasibility study, he has written round to the various potential funding organisations to see if any serious money would be forthcoming for such a project at all; whether it then moves on to the next stage will depend on the answers.
Ellis Bros don't just put back tiles on Rye roofs! Martin Hall mentioned to us the other day that they were rather busy: putting up changing rooms and a pavilion for Hastings Council’s-new sports field, and replacing 23 big windows in Council offices on the sea-front; doing work at St. Helen's (Ward 5) and the Post-Graduate Centre for the HHA; and carrying out flat conversions at Torfield House in Hastings, and in St. Leonards for Chichester Diocesan Housing Association. On a rather more domestic scale, they are mending Mr. Hall's mill-pond at Sedlecombs - so that Mrs. Hall's Waterfall Tea Rooms can have its waterfall back!
4.
It is some time since we reported from the various building sites round the foot of the town. In fact, there is not a great deal to report from the supermarket - still, on the face of it, a morass where the bus garage stood, but in fact with various drains, etc., now interred in it, as well as the foundations for the new building. At Ferry Road most of the foundations are complete, and walls are rising to ground level. The Drill Hall met its end quite suddenly towards the end of August, and its site is now levelled and awaiting the Fire Station. The main part of the Alsford site is also levelled, though the older non-listed buildings were still there last week. Work continues on the houses in Rock Channel, and we shall have a report about that next week. There is no apparent work in progress to alleviate the flooding in The Grove which has bedevilled the gardens there since the Sports Centre went up - only reports of meetings about it at ESCC/SWA/Rother level; the residents haven't a clue what is going on, but just hope that something is, so that they can cultivate their ground next summer anyway. It makes one wonder what will happen when all these other large buildings have been erected on the marshy soil round Rye!
The sooner ESCC can formally adopt the new supermarket road, the better - then it can have double yellow lines painted on it at the bottleneck to stop cars and even lorries parking there and part-blocking the exit from the whole complex. Last Thursday afternoon a Carr's Foods delivery lorry did just that for a good 15 minutes, creating horrible problems for a BR staff van trying to get out while buses and cars were trying to get in. This sort of parking also blocks the lowered curbs intended to allow prams, etc., to cross safely, and on the pub side can make it almost impossible to negotiate the tiny footpath with even a pushchair.
Someone needs to speak seriously to the Thomas Peacocke bus children before the road is open to through traffic, or one of them will get killed. Now that term has begun they once more swarm about all over the middle of the road, playing "chicken" with the patient bus-drivers and (particularly with the Camber bus on Thursday) attempting to barge their way into the bus ahead of the civilian queue - we met one lady really shocked at the language she bad heard used. While the road is still a cul-de-sac, they are probably safe enough; but before long it will be a short cut from Cinque Ports Street to Ferry Road, and then...
Western Barn Kindergarten, in Winchelsea Road, opened at the beginning of this week for children aged 3 to 5. Mrs. Jane Horne, who has given up a London teaching job, offers parents a choice of morning sessions for children attending five days a week, or afternoon sessions for younger children who may be happier coming just twice or three times. Her prospectus gives full details of the wa., the groups are taught, particularly during the morning sessions; "taught" is perhaps too formal a word, but Mrs. Horne expects to give her small pupils the opportunity to learn, through play and discovery, in preparation for school in due course. Parents who would like to see the group at work should phone to arrange an appointment which fits in with the curriculum (so that they don't disrupt a story session, for instance) - Rye 224943; they will be able to look not only at the pleasant rooms, well supplied with pint-sized furniture, toys, books and other childish entertainments, but also at the safely-enclosed garden with views across the Marsh. The only tears on Monday, says Mrs. Horne with justifiable pleasures came when it was time to go home!
There will now be two jobs for assistants at Western Barn, one morning and one afternoon; experience is not necessary, and Mrs. Horne would like her helpers to be the same age as the pupils' mothers - either job would suit someone whose own children are established at primary school.
Please, say Rother, complete and return your electoral registration form now, unless you are really not sure who will be living in your house in October. They want to make an early start on the draft register (available for inspection at Post Offices, etc., from 28 November to 16 December). New forms this year are simpler to fill in; but if your name is not on it, you still can't vote!
• One of Rye's longest-established and most respected companies, Vidler & GQ., is now a part of Prudential Property Services. Over the last 18 months, the Pru has been moving into estate agency, and now has more than 560 offices throughout the country. For some time Vidlers had been considering the possibility of wider backing, and Colin Stutely tells us that they were delighted and complimented when Prudential approached them (rather than the other way round). For the time being, trading will continue under the present name, and the present staff will remain with the firm. Letters are going out to clients to tell them of the new ownership: "We look forward to the future with a great deal of enthusiasm, fully confident that the inevitable changes which occur in our offices will be to the greatest benefit of all our clients, both agricultural and urban alike". And the sale-room? Much to our relief, Mr. Stutely said that the Pru is quite used to sale-rooms and has another at Hythe; Rye will certainly not be losing that regular first-Friday pleasure.
• William Dawes & Co., of Watchbell Chambers, are pleased to announce that as from 1 September the firm has two new partners: Mrs. Susan Tarrant of Northiam, and Mr. Rupert Parkes of Beckley (son of the late Dr. Ray Parkes). They join Ivo Fowle and Sarah Jones at Rye, and John Sperring at Northiam, where the branch office is now open full-time.
• A little white van labelled "Just Desserts", which delivers in the town every morning, is transport for a new business at 15 Landgate (Rye 224708). Elizabeth Chapman drives the van as well as cooking the contents. She started "Just Desserts" in London, making puddings for friends' dinner-parties; realising that the future of the business lay in catering for the trade, she gave up her London job and moved to Rye, and although she has only been operating here for a few weeks she has already found considerable interest among local restaurants. At present, most of her meringue pies, gateaux, flans and cheesecakes are made in sizes intended as 8 to 14 portions, though she can produce smaller versions for private customers. In such cases she normally needs 24 hours' notice, since everything is freshly made in the big Landgate kitchen; and, she says, private customers do best to collect their order, since she has to add VAT if she delivers to them. There is a mouthwatering list in the window, with prices, and we hope to have persuaded her to show photographs as well; in the meantime, if your favourite restaurant has suddenly introduced something delicious for "afters", ask them if it is Elizabeth's.
• It is now several months since The Old Vicarage in East Street changed hands, their son Rory has just left school and is at home at present, casting around for an interesting "year-off". The hotel is Mrs. Foster's responsibility, since her husband now has his own engineering consultancy; she has not run one before, but has had a catering training - and anyway, an ex-RN wife can turn her hand to most things.
The licensed hotel has four letting rooms, as well as a pleasant lounge bar and a charming dining room looking over the Salts and the Marsh; non-residents can dine there any evening except Monday, and there is now a fixed-price Sunday lunch. The house dates back to 1705 or earlier, and Henry James lived there for a time before moving into Lamb House; it is one of at least four Rye houses which have, at one time or another, been the Vicarage. Gardeners should take the opportunity to look down the garden - literally down, since the cliff is intricately terraced, with steps which Mrs. Foster was told were built during the war when the hotel housed Bevin Boys working on local farms. Last year, one of them brought his wife back to spend their Silver Wedding anniversary in what had once been his dormitory!
• Finally, readers may not have realised that Presto in the High Street has recently extended its opening hours to 7,pm every day except Saturday, when it closes at 6; the manager told us that they felt it was a service which their customers would find useful. The shop opens at 8.30 am. They have, incidentally, now introduced a delicatessen counter which goes some way to compensating for the lack of a full-scale delicatessen shop in the town.
6.
Arthur Woodgate's father was in the building trade, and later had the mason's workshop in Wish Street; his mother, a Batcheler, came from a fishing family. He is now 74, and spent 51 years as a bricklayer in and around Rye, serving as a magistrate from 1955 until 1984. He visited the Thomas Peacocke School local history group earlier this year, and his account of what he remembered within their 1905-1954 period was so fascinating that they decided to make it the first of their "Rye Memories" booklets. He suggested it should be called "Goodbye Bijou", since so many events fell into place as happening before or after the demolition of the Bijou theatre in 1931.
Mr. Woodgate was, of course, a very small child during the WW1 years, though he can remember his father coming on leave from the Royal Medical Corps and rowing his mother and himself up to Bodiam for a picnic. The family home, Ivanhoe in Winchelsea Road, was large by some standards - seven rooms for the family of four, with a black iron kitchener, a copper for the weekly wash, and four steps down to the loo across the back yard. The children spent their penny-a-week pocket money at Clark's, the baker's at the top of Needles Passage, or at Ellis's sweet shop further up the Mint. He has vivid memories of his schooldays, first in Lion Street and then in Mermaid Street where the water condensed on the painted walls so that those sitting next to them got wet arms; the much-respected Sprigg Walker retired from the headship while Arthur was there, and the lads took a view of his replacement, Roland Roberts, who tried unsuccessfully to make them abandon their Sussex accents in favour of his London one. The boys learned to swim - under the instruction of Grammar School master Sydney Allnutt, to whom t#e book is dedicated - in the Temkin, a 25-yd long canal which ran alongside the Cricket Salts between Monkbretton Bridge and the railway bridge. This was used by the Borough Council for flushing out the town drains from time to time, and by the young of the town as a learner pool in between - which sounds like a recipe for cholera, but clearly was not.
Young Arthur was a Cub and then a Scout; he joined the St. John Ambulance Brigade, the Rye Town Band and the Methodist Choir. In summer he helped with his father's allotment, on land now occupied by Lower School; in winter he stayed home and played with his meccano set - and there were plenty of street games as well. He left school at 14, having had a job as delivery boy for the grocer's shop on the corner of Cyprus Place during the last year, and in 1928 was apprenticed as a bricklayer with WE Breeds & Sons. For his first year he was paid a penny-ha'penny an hour, rising annually by a further three-ha'pence an hour until he reached the full going rate of 18.1d. (about 6p). When he started work, 52 hours was a typical working week; a keen Trade Unionist, he was partly responsible for getting in reduced to 40. As an apprentice, he took the first slate off the roof of the Byjoe, and worked on the present Freda Gardham School (opened in 1934); he had trouble with the herringbone brick panels at the back, and they are still wrong to this day! But he found time for leisure too, and recalls the Rye Sports Day, for years the event of the summer, when he was on duty either as a first-aider or a bandsman. The Rye Marathon run, originally the full 26 miles but later shortened, went from the Salts up Rye Hill to Iden, down Coldharbour Lane to Peasmarsh and back to Rye, then on to Winchelsea, back to the Salts and finally twice round the arena - "We had quite a few casualties to bring in from this event" he remembers!
The 80-page book, with illustrations, includes an interesting account of the Building Workers Trade Union in Rye, which started in 1937 with Mr. Woodgate a prominent member. He also takes his readers on a tour of the town's streets, recording the changes which have taken place in his lifetime. The book is full of fascinating backward glances at life in Rye before 1945, and we are sure man readers will wish to have a copy. "Rye Memories: Goodbye Bijou" is on sale from David Street in Market Road and from Anthony Neville in Market Street; both are being kind enough to sell it (£1.99) without commission, so that all profits go back to the school to finance the next book in the series - Leisure in Rye. Much of the credit for the production of this one must go to Jo Kirkham, whose group had mostly left school by the time it came out; she spent more time with the long-arm stapler than she cares to think about, but will have some young assistants again this term.
7.
• The speaker at Rye Community Lunch Group on Wednesday (16th) will be Rother's deputy housing manager, David Turner. He will be talking about the policies and problems of his department, which have been mentioned at group meetings and on which members felt clarification would be useful. Derrick Carter of Social Services hopes very much that those members of the Group who have not recently attended the monthly meetings will be able to come on Wednesday, since this is a subject about which many people are concerned from various points of view. As our new Social Services team manager, Mr. Carter would also like to meet representatives of the various organisations, and individuals, who have been attending the Group meetings over the years, and to discuss what course they would like them to take in future. He hopes for a really good attendance, from 12.30 with the speaker at 1 (bring sandwiches, coffee available courtesy of WRVS).
• Star performer at Vidlers' sale this month was a Georgian mahogany chest-upon-chest which sold for £2,600. A linen-press, 7' high, went for £400; three bow- fronted chests-of-drawers for £400, £310 and £220; the top of a mahogany chest-upon-chest, £200; a stained-pine dresser, £290; a 1905 Scottish silver teapot with kettle and spirit-stand, £500; a little Sheffield-plated tea-caddy, £350; a 9" bronze horse, £400; a pair of Globe-Wernicke bookcases, £210; and, perhaps rather unexpectedly, a 5'3" brass fender with corner seats (not even antique), £500! 22 more lots each fetched over £100.
• The new Mencap project, Friary Gardeners, celebrate their planning permission with a morning garden party at 11 High Street on Thursday week (17th) from 10 to 12; anyone with garden tools, etc., to give them can bring them along then - but of course financial support will also be welcome. Friday, 18th, sees the Museum Association's illustrated talk by Alma Fabes, "Stately Homes and Gardens", (non-members welcome) at the FE Centre at 7.30. On the Saturday and Sunday (19th and 20th) Rye Lions hold their annual Charity Shop at the Community Centre from 10 to 5 - always a mecca for those in search of a bargain.
• A County Council press release warns about the appearance of "money-making chain-letter schemes", and mentions particularly the "UK Fund Raising Club" which operates from a PO Box in Brighton. They urge anyone thinking of entering into such a scheme to be extremely cautious, and would be glad to hear from anyone who has already lost money in this way; contact the Trading Standards Officer at County Hall, Lewes, so that he can investigate possible breaches of the fair trading laws. Take advice from a solicitor - or, free, from the Citizens Advice Bureau (Council Offices, Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons, or Hastings 430400).
Your money, please
The new subscription period for the GAZETTE begins on 30 September. Rates, on the basis of 4op per issue, will be as follows:
Quarterly payment (cash only), 12 weeks to 16 December £4.80 or Half-yearly payment (cash or cheque), 24 weeks to 23 March £9.60.
Subscriptions should reach 2 Cyprus Place by Friday, 25 September at latest, please (earlier if possible) - cheques payable to THE RYE GAZETTE, cash or cheque in an envelope with your name and delivery/pick-up point. Copies will be ticked once a subscription has been received (once for quarterly, twice for half-yearly) and all receipts will go out on 30 September.
Postal subscribers (half-yearly only) should pay either £13.92 or £12.72, depending whether they want their copies sent first- or second-class post.
Those who intend to pay by standing order are reminded that the forms should be returned to us by 18 September so that the banks can deal with them by the 30th.
As usual, we add that if the paper were to cease publication suddenly in the middle of a subscription period (which Heaven forbid!), all outstanding subscription money would be given to the RNLI rather than any attempt being made to return it to individual subscribers; subscriptions are only accepted on this understanding.
Thursday, 10th Film, "Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow" - the 1960s version filmed in and around Rye - CC, 4 (tickets £1, 50p children)
Harp and flute recital, Playden Church, 7 (tickets C3)
Louis Turpin and his band, Ypres, 8
Friday, 11th Exhibition arranged by Conservation Society and Local History Group (Rye past and present in pictures, local archives and artefacts, model trains, bookstall), Town Hall 10am to 9pm. CSRF, "Photography" (Bill Webb), FEC, 11
Blood Transfusion Service, Baptist Hall, 2 to 4 and 5 to 7.45 "The Fairer Sax", CC, 7.45 (almost certainly sold out by now)
Saturday, 12th Palfi the Clown performs at Tilling Green, 11
Busker entertainment on Town Hall steps, 11
Firemen's jumble sale, Fire Station, 1.30
Greenpeace jur,ble sale, CC, 2
Festival closing concert, St. Mary's, 7.45 (tickets £5, £4, £3)
Monday, 14th Enrolment for Adult Education classes, FEC, 7 to 9 (booklets available from FEC or Library)
Town Council meeting, also committees (for times see TH board)
Wednesday, 16th Thrift Shop (handing-in only), Red Cross, 10 to 12
Landgate WI, Dylon talk and demonstration, CC, 10.30
Community Lunch Group, Clinic, 12.30 for 1 (see page 7 for talk)
Crime Prevention Panel, Police Station, 7.30
• GAZETTE subscriptions have increased so much lately that last week we printed 485 copies. This - almost 2,000 sides - is more than the copier can be expected to deal with in one day. So for the next few weeks, until we see what effect the new subscription rate has, the load will be spread over two days, and WE SHALL NOT BE DELIVERING UNTIL WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.
• Miss Edna Bilsby, of Woolworths and Winchelsea Road, would like to thank all her friends and business associates for the cards and flowers which she has received during the two weeks she has just spent in hospital in Ashford. Miss Bilsby is now home again, though it will be some time before she can return to work; she was injured in an accident at Ashford Station.
• The RAF Association has already started its house-to-house collection in Rye and district, which continues for a fortnight (they need a collector for Military Road and North Salts. Wings Week ends with a street collection on 19 September, when the new Branch President, the Mayor of Rye, will be among those collecting. Anglia Building Society will have a window-display of RAF memorabilia, and Women's British Legion members will serve teas in the Town Hall on the Saturday afternoon in aid of the Wings Week appeal. On Sunday (20th), the RAFA will take part in the Rother Civic Service which is being held this year in St. Mary's at 10.30.
• Rye Chamber of Trade has been sent tickets for a meeting organised by Hastings Rotary Club at William Parker School at 7 on Tuesday, 29 September; the Consultations and External Relations Manager of the Channel Tunnel Group Ltd. will be speaking on "Eurotunnel Project". The tickets are available, free, for anyone who would like to go - call at the office of Mannington, Bishop & Briant, 21 High Street, and ask for one.
• Someone who regularly drives into Rye from Icklesham asks us to thank the team - whoever they may be - who have been doing such a good job tidying up the verges and collecting litter alongside the road - and also along the coast road to Pett. Can anyone tell us who these benefactors are?
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. Deaiine is Monday afternoon for Wednesday's delivery; as from 30 September the paper will cost subscribers 40p an issue. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)