Category: Nostalgia

Are You in the Picture?

50 Years Ago This amazing picture  represents a generation of Rye history.

The photograph was taken in the Drill Hall for what was almost certainly a Dance put on by 2274 Squadron (Rye) Air Training Corps. Percy Mitchell, the Rye ATC Commanding Officer is seen seated with two Air Force Officers, probably from R.A.F. Rye, the Home Chain Radar Station, locally known as ‘The Pylons’.

The Pylons were at Kent Ditch Corner and the living accommodation for the unit was further on, where the Filipino Village is today. The photograph, taken in 1954 Continue reading Are You in the Picture?

Things Long Ago

Jimper Reminisces on a Lost World

Once on Romney Marsh not so long ago, it was a very unhealthy place to live. There was a dreaded thing that was called the Ague, a disease we now know was a type of malaria, caused by the mosquito which lived in the water that covered a lot of the flat land. Continue reading Things Long Ago

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

All Our Yesterdays

Who were the driving forces in the town forty years ago? Who were in power at Rye Town Hall in 1965? What was it like to live in a democratic Rye that ran its own affairs and was responsible for its own planning? 1965 and ’66 were great years for Rye. Continue reading All Our Yesterdays

Public Transport’s Not For Me

 By Pauline Kingswood

With the increases in the price of oil and pressure on roads the whole question of public versus personal transport again comes sharply into focus, and a little light on the subject is needed. There are a lot of misconceptions about public transport, which makes comparison of what is offered difficult. Continue reading Public Transport’s Not For Me

The Things I Miss

By Jimper

I will not go on about the really obvious like a parking space with no time limit, youth or missed chances, for those are things you can never have again.

So, I hear you say, what else is there to miss in Rye?Well for a start, the clock that used to hang in the window of the post office. At times I still look to see the time at that blank window only to realise it went twenty years ago. The two way traffic system into Rye up Kings Street (Landgate) from Rye Hill. A hospital that catered for the silly little cuts and scratches mothers worry over, and the broken legs and arms they diagnosed and set. Continue reading The Things I Miss