Monthly Publication with News, Views and Nostalgia
Tag: Bonfire Night
The Rye’s Own archive follows Bonfire Night through contemporary reports and later recollections, capturing both the public spectacle and the details remembered locally. Readers can move between “Ye Olde Bell Inn”, “Pen & Ink December 2010”, “Found in Cinque Ports Street August 2000”, and “The Landgate In Old Times”, seeing how the subject appeared at different moments in the magazine. Together they offer a characterful route through the magazine’s record of local life, memory and change.
Warning after fireworks stolen from magazine in Rye
Police are warning people to be cautious of anyone offering large display fireworks for sale as Sussex starts to run up to Bonfire Night on November 5.
The warning comes after a firework magazine was broken into at Rye in the week leading up to Saturday, September 17. Despite a sophisticated locking system, someone gained access to the licensed storage facility and removed around £1,100 worth of fireworks, mainly higher category display items designed to be used by trained, professional operators. Continue reading Fireworks Stolen from Rye
Nearly every week there is an article in the local paper about the parking of traffic in no parking areas in Rye. The problem has got worse since the Traffic Warden was removed. Why the people in control of the town do not employ another, beats me. The cost, they say, does not add up to a profit. Well it would if Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings November 2014
The Store war between Tesco and Sainsbury is becoming a farce, neither of these stores should be allowed to build on the lower school site because of the access problems. Continue reading Pen & Ink December 2010
November rarely saw the first of the winter winds and rain, bonfire night in Rye was lucky as we had a five hour window of dry weather. With the celebrations over the rain fell from the sky in torrents and the wind rose to storm force. Few Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings December 2008
Nice to see another local business getting involved with events in the town. Rush Witt & Wilson, the Estate Agents at the old Vidler’s building, have taken part in almost every organised occasion in Rye this year from the Raft Race to Bonfire Night. Continue reading Having Fun for Charity
While reading the November issue of Rye’s Own, it brought back boyhood memories of life in Rye back in the late 1940’s. I was born at 10 New Winchelsea Road to Jack and Marjory Fuller. Later moving to 46b Udimore Road, where the bonfire night procession used to start. My brother and myself were ‘Bonfire Boys’, as our father was. We wore the badge with the ‘burning boat’ emblem upon them. A few days before the “big night”, all the Bonfire Boys would meet up in Bedford Place, at the back of the old cinema in the Landgate. This is where the torches, which were soaked in paraffin, for the procession were made. The bonfire had been built on the Salts with chestnut and birch faggots made by Jimmy Dewhurst at Udimore. Over the years he must have made thousands of them. On bonfire night all the local children would follow the floats around the town, their pockets full of penny bangers! A very dangerous practise, but we all did it then. As we all followed the procession, we would pick up torches which had been dropped in the gutter. We used to get covered in paraffin as it ran down the handles. The best part of the night was eating bloaters, which had been cooked on a brazier in an old steel boat in the procession. The bloaters had been smoked by Frank Jarret who had a fishing tackle and net shop down the Mint. I remember one year my father making a Readicut rug with the ‘burning boat’ emblem on it for a raffle. It was displayed in a shop window in the High Street, and whoever guessed how many knots were in the rug won it. The proceeds from the raffle were given to the Bonfire Boys’ fund.
Bloaters from the Boat
It would be interesting to know if anyone remembers the rug, or indeed if it is still around almost sixty years later! The following day (Sunday) lots of children would go to the fishmarket and around the Nissen huts to pick up rocket sticks. Why we did it, or what we did with them I’m not sure, but it was obviously great fun! I attended Ferry Road Primary School, (now sadly demolished), and can remember the Bonfire Boys putting on a party and pantomime in the school hall every Christmas. They also used to distribute presents, to children in Rye on Christmas morning. The presents were purchased by the parents, and they made a donation to the Bonfire Boys’ fund for the delivery service.
This photograph from the Frank Palmer Collection was taken 130 years ago this very month. More than 20 figures are faithfully captured at that moment in time. Continue reading Busy Day at Landgate 1887
This photograph taken outside The Bell on Bonfire Night captures the very atmosphere of the place. It has always been known as a meeting place for Ryers and holiday makers alike.
It is possibly the oldest pub in Rye, difficult to date historically but some parts are believed to be over 500 years old. A tavern was recorded on the site as early as 1420. Continue reading Ye Olde Bell Inn
J. L. DEACON F. R. Hist. S. printed the first edition his his amazing “Ancient Rye” early in the 20th. century, the fifth edition hit the bookstands in 1927 and contains this great picture of the Landgate in Georgian times. Continue reading The Landgate In Old Times
