Keith Spence, the journalist who came to look at Rye's A259 problems with a view to airing them in "Country Life", tells us that (all being well) this week's issue of the magazine will carry a four-page article on the route. It is not easy to get spare copies in Rye (glossy magazines can't be ordered "sale or return" by newsagents), but we have forewarned the three Rye paper shops and they may get in a few extra copies. Anyone who can't find one locally should ring Ken Clark (Rye 223222), as the Action Group can probably arrange for a member to pick up more copies in London - assuming the article is in, of course.
Councillor Roy Pulford, chairman of Rother, was among the guests at the Conservation Society's very enjoyable "informal gathering" for members at the Town Hall last Wednesday. He spoke sadly about trees, and Rother's trees in particular. The Council's own nursery, with numbers of baby trees awaiting permanent homes, was not seriously damaged in the storm, so they have a nucleus for replanting and local people (including Jim Fiddimore at Iden) have offered seedlings and young trees to add to their resources. Total cash subscribed to his appeal has not been overwhelming - yet; but Rother is making a token start this autumn, though the main work will not be able to begin until the autumn of 1988, when clearing-up and site preparation have been completed. The new trees, Councillor Pulford said, will be hardwoods; there is no way Rother will be setting up conifer plantations.
The cost of providing and planting a single tree varies, of course, according to the type chosen; but people thinking of contributing to the fund may like to know that donations of £10 or £20 would certainly cover one or more trees, and just a fiver would allow you to feel you were putting something back; but Councillor Pulford will be happy to receive donations of any amount - from 1p upwards, he says! He wonders if small groups might like to take collections at their meetings, to contribute to the appeal?
One of Rother's first plantings will be in Rye, on Tuesday 1 December at 11, when Chairman and Mayor will jointly plant an acer in St. Mary's churchyard to replace the casualty there.
The Age of Chivalry exhibition at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly opened last month to a blaze of publicity. "Rye Museum has been honoured" writes Geoffrey Bagley, "by the inclusion of a piece of Rye pottery from its famous collection of C13/14 ceramics - a pitcher (illustrated in the catalogue) which, though damaged, is regarded as unique. Its aesthetic value consists of its decoration, which features that well-known device of an elephant carrying a castle: the medium is an incised drawing in the wet clay. The mediaeval artist may be imagined rapidly working the unfired vessel as he sat beside the kiln on the slope of Rye Hill, where nearly 700 years later it was found by Leopold Vidler." The exhibition closes on 6 March.
Saturday was a lovely day; but on Friday and Sunday, it poured. So on Monday we went along apprehensively to inspect the Salts - and were astonished and delighted to see that although there were still a few wet patches, practically all the water which had been laying for weeks had vanished, and the area was looking drier than it had even before the storm. What did you do, we asked Colin Hudson? The trouble had been, of course, a blocked drain - but blocked in a place which could not be reached until the water-level had dropped enough to let the engineers get at it, a real Catch-22 situation with which the gardens at the back of the Sports Centre were all too familiar earlier in the year! Pother staff will be aerating the damaged patches of turf as soon as possible, to give them a good start for next year; and all Rye will be glad to see the Salts dry again.
2.
Mr. Robert Gent, who died on 5 November, was 97. He served with Allenby and won the MC in WW1; before that he had been in the (British) administration in Egypt, and when this passed to the Egyptians he remained in Cairo as the main Ford agent there. Although well over military age in WW2 he became a Brigadier and was able to serve his country again. When he retired in 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Gent came to live in Sussex, first in Northiam and then in Rye; they bought Hillyfields on Rye Hill in the mid-1950s and only left when Mr. Gent became ill a year ago. He had to give up driving a car when he was 92, and thereafter walked down into (and of course up out of) the town with the shopping - to the great admiration of those who were several generations younger but found it quite an effort to do the same thing. Mr. Gent is survived by his wife Dorothy (now at Burwash Place, Spring Lane, Burwash) and their three children; the funeral took place on Friday.
The funeral of Mrs. Maria Coster, of Poppyfields, Playden, takes place today at Charing with the full panoply of a gypsy farewell. (It is the first gypsy funeral over which Michael Howard at Ellis Bros has presided.) Mrs. Coster, who was in her seventies, was the little blonde lady, a regular member of the flower-selling groups and jumble-sale queuers who are so much a part of the town - and she will be missed not only by her own extended family but by many other local people.
Twenty years ago, Graham Clarke was sketching on Strand Quay. An obvious "local charact'r" loomed up - and Graham's portrait of Johnny Dowty was swopped for a dozen eggs and two smoked bloaters! Even in those days, Graham normally got money for his pictures, but not a lot - and at the Arts Centre Appeal launch ten days ago he told his audience that the proceeds from his annual August show at the Easton Rooms was sometimes the family's entire income. Never precious, never pompous, he said, the gallery always encouraged young artists; and over the years 150 artists have been treated with respect there. "And you couldn't have a better captain of the ship than Eric Money" he added. His gratitude to the gallery was expressed lightheartedly, but his underlying message was absolutely serious, and he subsided amid great applause.
The evening's guest of honour, Elizabeth Esteve-Coll of the V & A, was stuck on the Ml with a broken clutch, so Frances Smith, visual arts and crafts officer of South East Arts, voiced official support for the Appeal. Canon David Maundrell, chairman of the Trustees, had opened the proceedings with a brief recap of the present relationship between the Easton Rooms and the Stormont Studio - the Appeal, as readers will already know, is for a new building to connect them, which will used for talks, recitals, etc., as well as for running exhibitions right through the complex. This, as Tim Bishop (chairman of the Friends) said in his commercial break later on, will cost £150,000 to build and run; he admitted he saw his audience as £5 and £10 notes rather than as faces, because local support was so badly needed to convince national grant-giving organisations that the Centre was needed. The Mayor welcomed the new project; Rye would be very proud to have such a centre, she said, and she was sure that it would be alive with activity. Eric le Fevre was not well, but Dax Copp read his description of the plans which he and Joanna had drawn up for the extension, after earlier work by Ralph Wood and the late Peter Shephard. They include the removal of the central chimney breast in the Easton Rooms (ground floor), giving a much more impressive entrance into the whole building from the High Street.
The audience was privileged to listen to Patric Dickinson reading some of his poetry, before Graham Clarke rounded off the proceedings; the party then adjourned downstairs for refreshments. Some people had been standing throughout - a situation for which Canon Maundrell apologised, pointing out that it wouldn't have arisen if we could have held the meeting in the new Centre!
Colour brochures have been produced (we can get you one if you like); and offers of cash, subscriptions, deeds of covenant or just helpful suggestions can be made at either gallery or by writing to Eric Money or phoning him or Len Smith. The dream is that the Centre could be open by the 1989 celebrations.
- 3 - THE RYE GAZETTE, 18 November 1987
Thursday evening saw the first meeting of the Town Council's A259 sub-committee - complete with its outside representatives: John Silver from the Action Group, Tony Wills from the Chamber of Trade, Norman Bennett from the Hotel & Caterers, Alan Crick from the Conservation Society, Phyllis Smith from the Rye Group of WIs, Nick Ramus from the northern parishes, and Geoff Lewis from Udimore. The Camber representative did not, as far as we know, appear; but half-a-dozen Action Group members had come along to listen.
Although the consultants' report on the DoT traffic figures was expected any day, it had not arrived in time to be discussed at the meeting - and anyway the Town Council, who commissioned it, would have to have first look. As for paying for it, ESCC is putting £800 towards the £1,700 cost, and Bother is considering whether it can contribute; the GAZETTE has promised £100, and perhaps other businesses or individuals or groups might be able to chip in?
Alan Crick made the point that whatever the report said, it would still only be concerned with the figures collected by the DoT in the past (mainly in 1984); the sub-committee agreed with him that future prospects must also be taken into account. (Eg. Lydd Airport, and the Channel Tunnel HGVs at Willesborough - Ed.) Jo Kirkham suggested that our Euro-MP, Sir Jack Stewart Clark, might be asked to, find out the French side's view of the likely infrastructure on this side in terms of roads - there were odd stories which seemed to imply that the French were expecting a pod deal more than the English were so far offering. It was agreed that the Town Clerk should write to Sir Jack asking for his help.
The draft compulsory purchase order for the Winchelsea route was mentioned, and the Town Council is to object to that part of it which lies within the boundary of Rye parish, on the usual grounds that the route would preclude any but a through route for a Rye "bypass".
The Action Group is urging people to object to the compulsory purchase order, whether or not they have land involved, on the ground that the money would be better spent routing the land around the town anyway. (One of the land- owners affected tells us that nothing was said in the letter about money, nothing at all.) Those not wanting to write their own letters can pick one up at the Wool Shop or from any committee member, add their address and signature and hand it back to be sent on by the Group; others are reminded that objections have to reach the Department (Federated House, London Road, Dorking Surrey, TH4 1SZ) by 27 November - quote reference RSE/A259/14B/12/8/1.
Work has now started on the major repairs necessary at St. Anthony of Padua. The builders are underpinning the Sanctuary first, and Father David's newsletter says that he expects the work to go ahead for the whole restoration scheme. Money already received for the Appeal totals £6,200. We are pleased to learn that some of this came from people away from Rye who read about the Appeal in the GAZETTEway to go, and it is hoped that the proceeds of the Christmas Fair (CC, 28 November, 11.30) will help to bridge the gap. Gifts of goods for sale are now being collected; there is a box at the back of the church for toys, and for tins, bottles, packets and boxes of food - and potential donors of raffle prizes are being asked to sign a list.
The total amount of money required is, however, £28,000 - and even though Father David is aiming to raise only half of this by the end of the year, the Fair would have to be a real humdinger to bring in that sort of money: We hope the £5 "talents" scheme is going well, and will gladly publicise any sales of work or other events that members of the Catholic congregation and their friends are arranging.
On his way to the Friary at the weekend to collect his mail was a heavily rucksacked traveller - Peter Lake from Newport, I.o.W, walking 2,500 miles round the coast of England raising sponsor money for holidays for children from damaged families, run by an organisation called the Adam Ministries.
4.
Some time ago the owners of Saltcote Place sought planning permission to use the stable block as a nursing home run in conjunction with the main home. Subsequently the block was converted into flats, and the company is now asking for permission to build a single-storey extension on to the house on the far side of the building from Point Hill. This would be quite sizeable, with 16 beds - seven bedrooms and a lounge run along one wall. (Permission for two bungalows on land once part of the gardens was refused several years ago, as was permission for a house at the gate end of the drive.)
The owners of Chequer in East Street are applying for change of use and conversion work to turn it into two maisonettes: one incorporating the basement and ground floor, the other the hall and two upper floors. As far as we could see from the plane, the only work visible from outside would be on the Salts side of the house - new doors and a window, and alterations to the retaining wall; inside, fire precautions mean that the lower-floor alterations are faay complicated.
There is a renewed application for permission to erect a house at the foot of the surgery garden at 112 High Street (opening onto Fishmarket Road); in July a similar application incorporating a garage was rejected, mainly for access reasons, so this proposal has no garage or parking space at all, merely a small garden shown in front of the three-storey house.
Out in Harbour Road, Spun Concrete are asking to demolish an existing corrugated iron building and replace it with a new one (steel-framed with corrugated asbestos panels). Finally, there is an application from Thomas Peacocke School for use of land for a caravan rally from 12 to 19 August.
We failed to observe the full threat of the McCarthy & Stone application on which we reported last week; the company is asking permission to erect the six large advertising boards and six flagpoles for a maximum of five years! The Town Council has now recommended that the firm should be allowed just one board and one flagpole, and for the duration of construction work only.
Copies of the Lydd Airport document are now at the Council Offices, and they are certainly not very helpful; the map only shows the proposed new runway in the centre of its immediate surroundings, which is not much use to Rye worriers. Anyway, it runs roughly parallel to the existing runway on the seaward side, but on a more north-south axis (say NNE to SSW) than at present, and would be 2098m long. The present runway, 1504m, is not long enough to enable a plane to get airobrne if it is carrying a commercially worth-while load - nor is it strong enough for commercial safety, say LA-UK. Their letter to Shepway says that take-off would be to the SW at all possible times "thereby decreasing noise nuisance" - but nothing is said at all about turning left once the plane is over the coast, as LA-UK had told us (GAZETTE no. 246). A survey by the British Air- Ports Authority apparently shows nearly 400,000 people, "passengers and tourists ... as a 1988 immediate potential"; and in view of this the developers are about to put in a planning application for a leisure complex (exact nature not stated) on the site.
It might be of interest that a BBC travel programme, surveying the various resorts in Corfu, remarked of one place that you certainly knew there was an airport nearby. The airport was in fact 20 minutes' journey away - about the same distance as Rye is from Lydd...
Rye crops up on television in some very unexpected places. Recently the Mayor was on the box in Hungary - and what's more she has the English-language video to prove it! The Hungarian camera team were filming in various towns - why they chose Rye particularly isn't clear, but we hope any Hungarian readers managed to see the programme... Japanese television was filming at the Mermaid last month, and that film is likely to be seen in Japan before Christmas, doubtless boosting Rye tourism there - though the Mermaid already has many contacts with Japan, including the Crown Prince's signature in its VIP visitors' book.
5.
Last week we referred to Jim Elliott's plans for the Monastery as intriguing but complicated. After an hour spent on site, it was clear that they were not nearly as complicated as we had thought, but a good deal more intriguing. Mr. Elliott is hoping to create for Rye a tourist attraction of just the kind the town wants; and if he gets permission from Rother's December planning meeting, from St. Mary's PCC who own the Monastery, and from the DoE (the building is an Ancient Monument), he expects to be in full operation at the start of the 1988 season.
Jim Elliott trained as a potter under Wally Cole at Rye Pottery, and was George Gray's production manager when Cinque Ports Pottery first opened in the Monastery in the mid-Sixties. From his experience in both potteries, he knows how much the general public enjoys watching the whole production process - and also what a liability the workforce finds an audience breathing down its neck. The vast Monastery building would enable him to provide the best of both worlds.
If the plans go ahead, visitors next summer, climbing the steps up from Conduit Hill, will find themselves first in a passage running alongside a studio pottery (the present showroom) in which local potters will be throwing and decorating one-off pieces. The route then leads up steps to a walkway running virtually the full length of the main building, but 6'6" above first-floor level; here visitors can watch the mass-production machines in operation. At the end of that walkway steps descend to another, some 8' up from ground-floor level; here the visitor can watch the painters at work, and see the loading and unloading of the kilns. (These, well-insulated, will be repositioned below the walkway - and the heat can be salvaged for drying pots, etc., when it is not needed to warm the building.)
At the end of this return walkway, our visitor will find himself in a newly-created room, some 30' x 308, formed by installing a mezzanine floor over the Conduit Hill end of the ground floor (which will, incidentally, be lowered by 18" to give the necessary headroom). Constructing this will mean that much of the rather insensitive building work done when St. Mary's bought the Monastery in 1906 will go; the space provided will be used for a cafeteria for both staff and visitors (the present staff kitchen is really rather inadequate). Here visitors can stop for a cup of tea and a sandwich; or they can descend straight to the showroom and sales area below, the last stop in their tour before they leave by the double doors onto Conduit Hill. At this point Mr. Elliott has a brilliant idea. He has noticed how visitors like to stroll round the town in the summer after normal business hours; so he intends to arrange the foyer so that the big outer doors can be left open, allowing evening passers-by to see into the lit show-room through glass inner doors - whetting their appetites for a return visit next day. ("You will have to shut the outer doors some time" we asked? No problem - because Mr. Elliott will be living in the Monastery cottage, and will merely slip the catch when he goes to bed!)
Artists as well as potters will benefit from the project, since the wall space alongside the walkways offers an ideal hanging area - a permanent art gallery for local painters; potters (and Mr. Elliott is well aware that Rye has some excellent potters) will have the opportunity to work in the studio. When the centre is in full swing he expects to employ some 20 people full-time (the present workforce is four full-time, seven or eight part-time).
He is working to a very tight timetable. If the permissions come through as he hopes, Mr. Elliott intends to start on the building work over Christmas, when the pottery closes down anyway for a fortnight; by the end of January the worst should be over and the kilns repositioned so that production can start up again - and the staff, returning to work in the New Year, will be offered the chance to give a hand with the painting, etc., until they can get back to their regular jobs in the pottery.
This scheme provides not only a most imaginative use for a historic building (it will not be altered at all from the outside), but also a very desirable attraction for our visitors (who won't have the Model next summer), as well as an outlet for the area's artists and craftsmen. We do hope that Mr. Elliott will go ahead.
6.
For people who started their book-buying during or just after WW2, the phrase "a Batsford book" meant quality: a book which was not only interesting in itself, but also strikingly well-produced and illustrated - the kind of volume any bookcase would be proud of. This reputation had been building up long before the war, and the books were easily recognisable from their jackets - in vivid if improbable flat colours on rough-textured paper, usually on countryside or architectural subjects.
Several years ago the Arts Council became interested in these jackets, and an exhibition organiser set out to track down their artist: someone who signed his work Brian Cook, and who had worked for Batsfords from 1928 until the early 1950s when he completely dropped out of sight. The obvious place to start was by visiting the retired chairman of the firm, ex-MP for Ealing South Sir Brian Batsford, and in due course the Arts Council man appeared on the doorstep of Lamb House, clutching a book jacket and asking if Sir Brian could help him locate the artist. "I did find it rather amusing" recalled Sir Brian later to a colour-supplement journalist. Amusing indeed - because, as most GAZETTE readers will know, Brian Cook was Sir Brian Batsford's name for the first 36 years of his life.
Now Batsfords have repaid the designer who did so well for them in his early years, by publishing a collection of his book jackets and other illustrations for their books on Great Brian - "The Britain of Brian Cook" (Batsford, £14.95) by Brian Cook Batsford, with a foreword by Sir Hugh Casson and a preface by Ian Logan. Its frontispiece is a photograph of a very young Brian (Cook), while the jacket carries a delightful photograph of the Brian (Batsford) whom Rye knows so well. Sir Brian's introductory text starts with his schooldays at Repton (and includes a superb drawing of the Art School there, done when he was 17); he describes his early days in the cramped production department of the Holborn-based family firm - his mother was a Batsford. Soon after he arrived there, financial stringency meant that most of the firm's books were in fact written by the chairman (his Uncle Harry) and the principal editor, while young Brian was left to deal with all the illustrations and design both book and jacket.
He was then 20: He pioneered the Jean Berte process of colour-printing (which he describes in detail on page 39), but later deserted it for gouache in more natural colours printed by lithography - and continued to do occasional designs for the firm until the 1950s, still painting as Brian Cook. By then, however, he had taken his mother's maiden name at the request of Harry Batsford, who was anxious that the family name should remain at the head of the family firm. He succeeded his uncle as company chairman in 1952, and six years later was elected to Parliament for Ealing South - a seat which he held until 1974 when he was knighted, and came to live in Rye, having been Brian Batsford for nearly 30 years.
Sir Brian's book will give particular pleasure to those who can remember the countryside of pre-war days. The jackets are now period pieces - there are no television aerials on his cottages, very few cars in his country lanes, and hay was still pitchforked loose onto farm wagons in 1940. But his technique was far from old-fashioned, and this book is a must not only for Batsford fans generally but particularly as a handbook for art students and teachers, since it chronicles a remarkable period in British book design. Signed copies are obtainable from Martello and from D & P Street; unsigned ones, of course, from any bookshop.
Christmas-present buyers will be glad to know that Frank Palmer is reprinting the charming edition of his mother's reminiscences ("Childhood Memories of Rye and Winchelsea, 1910 to 1918" by Margaret Palmer nee Muggridge) - easily postable and obtainable from D & P Street at £1.25, or from Mr. Palmer at 4 The Strand. The TPS edition of Arthur Woodgate's memories, equally interesting but running some ten years later, is also available in the town, price £1.99. Ken Clark has recently produced a useful leaflet on the historical background of the St. Mary's church clock, giving all the facts and a nice picture; this is on sale in the church, price 20p.
7.
(see page 2 last week)
Because of difficulty in getting a drinks licence in time, the A259 Action Group has postponed its wine-and-cheese party from 4 December to 8 January. They had intended to hold it on 15 January (as being further away from New Year hangovers!) but realised in time that the Hospice wine-and-cheese (postponed because of the storm) was to be on the 16th - and fund-raising parties two nights running are not really a very good idea for either organisation. The Movie Society's meeting has also been altered from 4 December, to the following Friday (11th). So if anyone wants to slot in a short-notice event, there is presumably space available at the FE Centre on Friday, 4 December.
Tickets are now available at Lower School, from Mrs. Davies, for the Christmas entertainment which takes place there on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 8 to 10 December. Three performances instead of the usual two allow for less seating and more acting space in the hall; another innovation will be the lack of an interval, with coffee being served after the performance instead of in the middle so that parents with small children can make a quick getaway if they wish. The main item is "Wacky and his Fuddlejig" (words by Arthur Scholey, music by Donald Swann, and we know no more than that), and there will be other musical items. Tickets cost £l (children and OAPs 50p).
The entertainment which was a possibility at Upper School on 11 and 12 December will not now take place, though Head of English Jan Ridley is hoping to put on a production in the spring term instead. However, there are still four events that Friday evening and one on the Saturday!
Other events new to the Diary are a coffee morning for Rye Art Gallery at the Stormont Studio at 10.30 on Thursday week, 26 November; and (for people hanging about waiting for Father Christmas to arrive?) hot-dogs and teas served by the Women's British Legion at the Red Cross from 2.30 on Saturday, 28th. The Community Centre Association's AGM will be held at the Centre (in the Chapel) at 7.30 on Monday, 30th. There will be a blood donor session on 4 December, usual time and place. And finally, Rye Festival Council's AGM is on 8 December at 8.
Chaucer's, the restaurant at the George Hotel which opened a fortnight ago, caters for modern living with an old-style menu and presentation. The oak beams in the dining-room blend well with the branded wooden bread-platters and unglazed pottery for jugs and cruets (though your meal comes on a perfectly normal plate complete with knives and forks, and diners are not encouraged to gnaw their chicken-bones before throwing them over their shoulders!). The George, John Pearmain tells us, has one of the first Chaucer's restaurants, but they will soon appear throughout the Trust House Forte domain; diners can help themselves from a wooden mini-cartwheel, or eat their meal off a sword, or of course choose from a whole range of less dramatic dishes. (The George retains its popular fish menu, and its Hungry Bear children's meals.) Lunch is a really good buy - abandon the appe- tiser, and you can end up paying less for a main dish, dessert and coffee than you would pay in the evening for the main dish alone - and on Sundays the restaurant caters for lie-a-beds by serving lunches right through until 4pm.
Dilys Mayor's shop window (ex-Crafty) in Ferry Road now has a new look. As well as blown-up versions of the Observer article and the piece in the Daily Telegraph about the proposed A259 route, there is publicity for forthcoming Action Group events - and even a competition (no prizes, unless anyone would like to donate one?). Mrs. Mayor has produced another parody, "Coming Through Old Rye" ("Heavy lorry, gravel lorry, coming through old Rye - heavy lorry, gravel lorry, need a body die? When a body meets a body, you will hear them sigh 'The traffic should be going round, not coming through old Rye'.") She suggests that other people might like to try their hand at this sort of thing; the best entries will appear in the window, and could even be sung in public if anyone felt like putting on a charity concert for the Fighting Fund!
Beaujolais breakfast, George Hotel, £5 includes buffet and two glasses of wine (profits to Mencap), from 8.30 am Beaujolais breakfast, Ypres Inn, £3.50 includes buffet and one glass of wine (profits to RNLI), from 9.30 am
Thrift Shop, Red Cross, 10 to 4 (and Friday and Saturday)
Museum Association, "Looking Back" (Joe Pilcher shows slides), FEC, 7.30
St. Mary's Charities Committee wine-and-cheese (Rev. C. Hopkins on Apartheid), St. Mary's, 7.30
FRAG: Folk and blues night, with Martin Simpson (£2.50 at door), Stormont Studio, 8
Playden Church Christmas Fair, FEC, 10
Cubs and Scouts Christmas Fair, Scout Hut, 10.30
Conservative Association Antiques Fair, CC, 10.30 (not 10) to 4
Playgroup Christmas Fair (with Father Christmas), Clinic, 2
• Congratulations and best wishes to Mr. Jack Ades, of South Undercliff, who was 70 on 8 November. Mr. Ades has also retired from his building business - and he and his wife Violet were thrilled to be given a surprise party to celebrate both events, arranged by their daughters Maureen Sherwood and Valerie Ades.
• Rusty Ellis would like to thank all the local businesses who have housed Cancer Relief boxes over the past year; the annual emptying has brought in £164.
• The Action Group's jumble sale produced an astonishing £350 (before expenses) perhaps reflecting the support in the town for what the Group is doing - or perhaps just thanks to the very good jumble handed in. Badges (el), car stickers (50p) and draft letters to the DoT were also available, and can still be obtained from committee members or from the Wool Shop, 5 Cinque Ports Street.
• A coffee morning held at Osma Jones's North Salts home recently raised £107 for the Hospice Appeal; the wine-and-cheese party at the Town Hall for the same cause will be held on Saturday evening, 16 January.
• Advance notice that the Sports Centre will close down over the Christmas >period (even the energetic young men who run it are due for a Christmas break!). It will be open on Wednesday, 23 December; closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day inclusive; and open again on Saturday, 2 January.
• Recently the DoT assured Ron Lampon that the average waiting time at a level crossing was 90 seconds. If so, Rye is singularly unlucky! Mr. Lampon's house overlooks both Rye crossings, and over the past two months he has been busy with a stopwatch: the average time for the gates to be down when two trains pass in Rye station is 5-6 minutes, 3 minutes for a single train. "If this is the sort of rubbishy research the Department are basing their plans on, God help Rye" says Mr. Lampon in a letter to Ken Warren.
• Among those taking part in the BBC's Children in Need Appeal (blanket coverage on radio and television on 27 November) is the Eastbourne Mutual Building Society. Donations for the Appeal may therefore be handed in at the Rye office (12 High Street); cheques should be made out to BBC Children in Need Appeal, but gifts in cash will be equally welcome, says Mrs. Pulford.
• Crime: a peaceful week in the town. A window was broken at Duncan Grant's on 9/10 November; but out along Military Road an £800 outboard motor (Yamaha, 25hp long-shaft) was stolen from a boat moored in the Rother, between 31 October and 2 November.
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 through Cinque Ports Stationers of Rye. Deadline is Monday afternoon for Wednesday's delivery; subscribers pay in advance on the basis of 40p a copy, and spares are available at 45p from Young Ideas, 7 Cinque Ports Street, Rye. (Copyright Mary Owen 1987)