Category: Local History

The new Lord Warden

The new Lord Warden and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle, Admiral the Lord Boyce, GCB, OBE.,paid his first visit to Rye on Sunday 17 May. Continue reading The new Lord Warden

VE Day in RYE 8 May 2045

By David Pawsey

On May 8 sixty years ago the War in Europe came to a close and the population of Rye, who had been in the front line since War was declared on 3 September 1939, celebrated the news with impromptu parties and the hoisting of flags and draping of bunting across the streets. This, the most famous picture taken in Rye during the War, shows the Rye Home Guard on parade through Landgate. Taken in 1940, at the height of the invasion scare it reflects the determination that these men had to defend their town and country. Many went on to join the regular army. Continue reading VE Day in RYE 8 May 2045

The Winchelsea Pantomime

By Peter Etherden

1953 was the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Six months later the Twelfth Royal Eltham Boy Scouts and Wolf Cubs joined with other local troops for Jack and the Beanstalk at the Eltham Little Theatre. The tradition probably went back to the Gang Shows of the 1920s and 1930s. Continue reading The Winchelsea Pantomime

South Eastern Advertiser Rye Chronicle

Extracts from the

South Eastern Advertiser Rye Chronicle Romney Marsh and District News.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 1, 1894.

Accident.

As the Church Sunday School were passing by the Union at the top of Rye Hill Superintendent J. Brookham, of Ore, was driving past, when one of the banners carried by the children frightened the horse, which turned round and tried to run up the bank, but slipping, it fell over on its side, breaking the shafts. The horse was afterwards got up and found to be little hurt, and luckily the only damage done was the breaking of the shafts. Continue reading South Eastern Advertiser Rye Chronicle

Pauperism in Rye

Late Victorian & Early Edwardian Rye

By “Rya”

Pauperism remained an unresolved social problem at the opening of the twentieth century. Social reform in this county was confined to filing the most glaring gaps in the existing social system. The bed-rock of social provision was to be found in the Poor Law, first enacted in the time of the Tudors, and re-enacted Continue reading Pauperism in Rye

Tommy Sinden

Tommy Sinden Dies in Tasmania

Many older readers will remember Tom ‘Tommy’ Sinden who recently died
in Tasmania aged 83.
Tom Sinden, older brother of Francis Sinden of North Salts, was born
in Rye in 1922. He was educated in Rye and took up an apprenticeship
as a painter and decorator on leaving school at 14. The war came along
and prevented Tom from completing his apprenticeship. He joined the
Territorial Army as a bugler. In 1939, at the age of seventeen, he
was mobilised with many more local lads and went to war. He served
in many theatres of the war until demobilisation in 1946.
Tom did various jobs around Rye in the years after the war but decided
to emigrate on the Australian £10 scheme in 1955.
He lived and worked near Melbourne. On retiring he moved again, this
time to Tasmania, where he lived out his final years doing charity
work.

The Strand 3

The Strand

Part Three

By Arthur Woodgate

As the Strand emerged from War time the scene was not quite what we had been used to, but apart from Strand House and its cottages and Havelock Villas not being there, it was not as bad as one would expect. The timber stacks were still there, and in fact had extended into the space left by the bombed houses and offices, and so they remained into the 60s. The amount of commercial shipping was being replaced by Leisure Craft. Continue reading The Strand 3

Town Hall Packed for Rye in Bloom Awards

 AWARDS CEREMONY 2004

Sarah Raven, BBC Gardener’s World presenter, award winning gardening author and journalist was the star attraction at this year’s Rye in Bloom Awards ceremony. Continue reading Town Hall Packed for Rye in Bloom Awards