Part Four
By Arthur Woodgate
Bert Tapp, his wife and daughters Molly and Alice lived in the cottage attached to our workshop in Flackely Ash. Continue reading The Stewart May Empire
Category: Country Life
Jimper’s Jottings
By JIMPER’S JOTTINGS February 2007
Winter is now behind us and as the days become noticeable longer, we have the heat of summer to look forward to. You may wonder why I think of February as the end of winter for we can still have snow and ice for as the old saying goes, ‘As the days lengthen so the cold strengthens’. I am not alone in thinking summer is not far away. Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings
Rye Cattle Market 1937
This remarkable account of Rye Cattle Market taken from a 1937 Handbook demonstrates how well Rye Cattle Market was doing in the period just before World War Two. This success was carried into the forties and fifties. From 1970 onwards support dwindled. The Market was closed as a result of the Foot and Mouth outbreak at the beginning of the Millennium . Sadly it failed to re-open and is now a car park. Continue reading Rye Cattle Market 1937
Hop Picking with Arthur Woodgate
by Arthur Woodgate
I have always argued that the villages of the old Rye union of parishes were once part of the Borough of Rye. When I visited the Peasmarsh Spar shop one fine morning at the beginning of September and said it was lovely ‘hopping’ weather, no one seemed to know what I was talking about I thought I had better write something about it and describe how the area was all as one during hop picking, whilst I still can, so that history does not loose it.
It must have been in 1920 or maybe a couple of years earlier when I was initiated into the seasonal ritual of hop picking. Records seem to think I was in the hop Continue reading Hop Picking with Arthur Woodgate
Jimpers Jottings – December 2006
Jimper’s Jottings
We spent a lot of time fishing in the dykes and ditches in my younger years. The other year I bad beard enough from my son: he “could not go fishing with his mate unless I drove three miles to the tackle shop and got him a pint of maggots.” I explained to him and his friend John, that we never used maggots, so it became a matter of pride that I took the two lads up on a challenge
Armed with their rods, reels, floats and modern hooks, valued at around £40.00, and one pint of pink and one of white maggots they set out with me for the big Continue reading Jimpers Jottings – December 2006
When the Horse was King
These two photographs, taken in the 1930’s, demonstrate how important the heavy horse was to Rye’s industry and supply years after the introduction of the petrol engine. These were the days when farm produce was delivered and sold to Stonhams who processed the raw materials and bagged them ready for resale. Continue reading When the Horse was King
Jimper’s Jottings April 2006
Long Live “Rye Royal”
At last its Spring again and with luck I will feel warmer. All this Winter I have felt cold, no matter what I wore or how hot I made my office. Others would gasp at the temperature on entering yet I was still cold. I remember the days not so long ago when Winter meant nothing but inconvenience having to wear rubber boots and something to keep the rain off. But that was before I suffered a stroke and developed diabetes, now my hands are numb all the time and I feel the cold. How old people cope is a miracle and now they are to close the place they could obtain daytime relief. I hope the beurocrats that made this decision get old and suffer alone. Serve them right. I am not one to wish harm on anyone but I truly hope they realise, in their twilight years, what problems they caused for many disabled Rye citizens and their carers in 2006. Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings April 2006
Jimper’s Jottings
Let the wind blow and the rain fall, we desperately need it. January was one of the warmest on record and very dry to boot. Most of the moisture in that month fell as snow and that evaporated rather than thawed. The absence of wind reinforces the fact that is staring us in the face, this Earth, the globe we all call home, is heating up. Iv’e said it before and will say it again, the time will soon come when men will be fighting over fresh water to drink, soon there will not be enough to go around. Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings
Jimper’s Jottings
By Jimpers Jottings.
Let the wind blow and the rain fall, we desperately need it. January was one of the warmest on record and very dry to boot. Most of the moisture in that month fell as snow and that evaporated rather than thawed. The absence of wind reinforces the fact that is staring us in the face, this Earth, the globe we all call home, is heating up. Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings
Jimper’s Jottings – February 2006
Winter on it’s Way Out
Another winter on it’s way out. Daylight is making its presence known, an hour extra light in the evenings since the shortest day. The Arctic weather promised us by the forecasters has failed to show. A couple of cold snaps lasting a few days and three days of horrid snow and that is it unless February holds a sting in the tail.
I like to see a good fall of snow every ten years otherwise a generation of Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings – February 2006