Glimpses of the Past

Glimpses of the Past The three photographs on this page were kindly loaned by Mike Whiteman of Peasmarsh who is the personality in this month’s “Down Rye Way” feature. The ship being launched from Hoad’s shipyard at Rock Channel is

Rye Launching
Rye Launching

probably a 100′ vessel,   of the size and type commonly built by the Hoad Yard right up until the early years of the Twentieth Century. The picture was taken by Whiteman, probably a relative of Mike Whiteman and is dated 1905.

Group of Locals on Giant Hay Rake
Group of Locals on Giant Hay Rake

This amazingly clear shot of a group of Peasmarsh farm workers, possibly taken at Reeves’ Farm, is a late Nineteenth Century photograph. The group is posed around a giant hay rake that must have required two horses to pull it along.

Opening of Rye Memorial Hospital
Opening of Rye Memorial Hospital

This picture at the shows H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll performing the opening of the Rye & District Memorial Hospital on 13 November 1921. The Hospital was designed by Sir Reginald Bloomfield and was made possible by the generosity of Lady Mcllwraith who became the first President. In the following year Lady Mcllwraith was made an honorary Freeman of the Borough of Rye in recognition of her benevolence. Sir Reginald Bloomfield was also the designer of the Memorial Cross that stands in the Churchyard of St. Mary’s. The money for this memorial was donated by Alderman Colebrook, in memory of his son who was killed in the Great War. At about the same time a further memorial was erected in Rye Cemetery in memory of Captain W .J. Foord and the crew of the trawler ‘Margaret’ which was blown up by a mine on 17 December 1917. (The story appears in Dec. 2000 Rye’s Own)

“Rye’s Own” February 2001

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