Spectacular Day of Christmas Fun in the Streets of Rye.
What a fantastic event – Inspired by Rye Mayor Berni Fiddimore and put together by an amazing team and a mass of volunteers. Continue reading Rye Christmas Festival 2015
Tag: Dragon of Rye
Bonfire Night Rye in Pictures 1945 – 2014
With Bonfire Night looming Rye’s Own has raked through the archives and found these pictures for your enjoyment. Pictures can be enlarged.
Rye Bonfire 1962
“Rye’s Own” Archive Film
Old “Rye’s Own” Archive Film – Rye Bonfire 1962. Includes The Bonfire Boys Song Written by Frank Taylor. The original Fire Breathing Dragon and the HollandsTelevision Float “Locomotion” Sandra Kewell, Helina Greginska and Suzanne Oliver. Continue reading Rye Bonfire 1962
Rye Bonfires of the Past
Recapture Moments from the Past, Worthy of Preservation.
Sixty years ago in 1945 the Second World War had just reached it’s terrible conclusion with the discovery of the death camps in Europe and the dropping of two atom bombs on Japan. Continue reading Rye Bonfires of the Past
Dragons, Barges and Heroes
Dragons, Barges & Heroes Never Forgotten
By Graham Saunders
Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November
Don’t Miss this Year’s Great Event
Rye’s Bonfire celebrations could be older than Guy Fawkes himself. Some say that celebrations with bonfires in Rye were first held to commemorate the young men of the town’s retaliatory raid against the French in 1378 when they returned to wreak revenge, burning and pillaging and snatching back the Church Bells which had been stolen the year before.
Descriptions of the 1840 to 1889 Rye Fawkes Celebrations when burning boats were dragged around the town, seems a re-enactment of the 1378 raid when Continue reading Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November
Original Dragon of Rye
We are told that the history of ‘Bonfire’ in Rye goes back BEFORE the time of Guy Fawkes. Legend has it that the burning boat ceremony was first held in the town shortly after the men of Rye and Winchelsea raided the French town at St. Peter’s Port and retrieved the church bells that had been stolen in the French raid of the previous year. In the course of their revengeful rape and pillage they also pulled French boats out of the water and paraded them blazing through the streets. This event is still remembered in the traditional dragging of a burning boat in the Guy Fawkes procession. Continue reading Original Dragon of Rye