Jimper’s Jottings
December gone, the new year is here. With December went the shortest day, now summer is on the way but beware the old saying “As the days lengthen the cold does strengthen”.
December was not as cold as it felt, “a miserable damp barn windy chilly month” as the old folk called it. Yes, the east winds were cold but they blew across the ground not into it and so the earth, the home of all our plants, did not freeze, Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings from January 2003
The Cheeky Girls, Monica and Gabriela Irimia, returned to their adopted town of Rye for a flying visit on the Saturday before Christmas to help Santa distribute toys to the children who visited the Ypres Tower “Grotto.”
Monica and Gabriela, identical twins, came to Rye a year ago to live with their mother, Margaret and step-dad Ray. Their amazing path to stardom has come as Continue reading Rye’s Own Pop Stars
I started work in the Rates Office, then at 107 High Street (now the Easton Rooms) in 1936. Mr. Cyril Powell, Rating and Valuation Officer was my boss and Mr. Ambrose Huxstep my Senior. Mr. Huxstep and I were responsible for writing all Continue reading The War Years & Beyond
There are some people who appear larger than life, we call them characters. Harry ‘Crusty’ Crampton, fisherman of Rye, must rate high on the list of the town’s unforgettable characters. Harry’s real name was Henry Continue reading Harry ‘Crusty’ Crampton
Soon after my wife and I moved to Rye in 1980, I took over a French conversation class at the Further Education Centre. At the first lesson, the students told me about Mrs. Michell, an old lady in her nineties who normally attended the class, but was in hospital, having broken her pelvis. She spoke fluent French, and her attendance at the class had always been, the students felt, the highlight of her week. Continue reading Recollections of Mrs. Michell
Looking back through the old Rye’s Own photo files we discovered many local girls from the ‘Swinging Sixties’. Rye’s Own claimed that Rye girls were better looking than those from any other part of the country. Margaret Apps worked at Continue reading Margaret Apps Then & Now
The B.B.C. moved in on the Rye Auction Galleries recently to make an edition of their new antiques programme “Flogit” Continue reading Flogit in Rye
In the late fifties and early sixties Rye was a thriving market town. Each year there was a Trades Exhibition at The Monastery and local enterprises took stands to show their stock in trade, advertise their services and display their products.
There were demonstrations and film shows in a marquee erected in the Monastery Garden. Continue reading Rye Trades Exhibition in 1959
The Visit of The St. John Ambulance Brigade Cadets to Brighton.
Seen in the photograph, taken on board Alex Henshaw’s coach, are some of the Rye Ambulance Cadets on their way to the Royal Pavilion Brighton in the summer of 1956 to be inspected by their Colonel-in-Chief Princess Margaret. Continue reading In Living Memory 2
These legendary workers were famous for their amazing ability to work underground for long periods, sometimes even without lights. Some attribute this low light vision to the ‘Peasmarsh Gold’ strain of carrot that is prolific in the area. Continue reading Treacle Miner
