Category: Local interest

The Television Aerial Erectors

 

Drawings by Paul Vincent

Times were Tough in the 1950’s

Times were tough, it was hard to earn enough cash window cleaning and chimney sweeping to support a family of five in Rye during the early fifties. Continue reading The Television Aerial Erectors

The Film Extras

TRUE STORIES OF A RYE FAMILY FROM TIMES WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNGER

It was early May 1956 and the chimney sweeping season was over. Window cleaning should be the mainstay of ‘the family’ but an unusually wet April had meant there were slim pickings and times were hard. Continue reading The Film Extras

Pen & Ink Feb 2007

Dear Editor,

The recent article by Rex Swain featuring the life and death of Tony Cager prompted me to search out a photo of the Rye Boys Club gym section, taken in the Mermaid Street School Headquarters, probably in the very early 1960’s. Continue reading Pen & Ink Feb 2007

Town Crier January 2007

Tilling Green in Danger

Councillor John Breeds sent in these amazing pictures of a river of water running down the very field where building development is being planned. Continue reading Town Crier January 2007

Rye in Edwardian Times

 

By Ken Clark

Pauperism in Rye remained an unresolved social problem at the opening of the twentieth century. Social reform is this country was confined to filling 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 in 1834. Administered locally by Boards of Guardians and financed from the local rates, the Poor Law provided a minimum subsistence under conditions which were deliberately designed to deter all but the utterly desperate from applying for it. It is little wonder, therefore, that the poor feared the day when, through ill health, misfortune or old age, they would no longer be able to earn their living for, unless they had been extremely thrifty or possessed children who were in a position to help, the workhouse was the only place for them. Continue reading Rye in Edwardian Times

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

Rye’s Own Editorial – December 2006

Editorial December 2006

Christmas is upon us again. The old saying that time goes faster as you get older seems to be right. In the uncertain world we live in it sometimes seems a blessing to be getting old. A wise old Ryer once said, as far back as 1965, that he had lived the best years but the 40 years since then have not been so bad. What lies ahead for the youngsters of today? War and Global Warming or Harmony between nations and a common will to overcome the obstacles that will be encountered over the next 40 years? “Rye’s Own” takes the optimistic view, there must be a Continue reading Rye’s Own Editorial – December 2006

50 Year Anniversary

OLD SCHOOL FRIENDS MEET FOR 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Rye Old Scholars Association held a very successful reunion on 24th June at Thomas Peacocke Community College for those who were at secondary schools in Rye in the 1960s and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the opening of Leasam House in 1956. (This was the boarding house for boys at Rye Grammar School, with agricultural connections, who came from a wider area of Sussex than the normal catchment). In the early 70s Leasam House ceased to be a farm school, but continued as a boarding house when the warden, Colin Green, did much to develop rural studies. After the closure of Saltcote Place for girl boarders around 1990, Leasam became mixed until its closure in 1992.) Continue reading 50 Year Anniversary