Field Marshal Montgomery’s Rolls Royce will almost certainly be one of the attractions at this year’s War & Peace Revival at Hythe.
This 1939 Rolls Royce Wraith was used by Field Marshal Montgomery as his staff Continue reading Monty’s Rolls
The phrase “all but the kitchen sink” did not hold out when the Germans smashed Havelock Villas on the Strand for, large as life, there was the kitchen sink sitting on the top of one of the houses of “T square”. As it and the other contents of Havelock were blasted out, my dad working in his work shop, heard and saw a piece of rock drop through his roof and finish by his foot. The whole roof had to be replaced after the War. Continue reading War and Peace
John Mills and Richard Attenborough starred in the War epic, but it was not just these two famous stars they had gone to see.
People from Lydd, New Romney, Hythe and Rye had gone to catch a glimpse of themselves! Continue reading Memories of a Great Actor
1945 saw the end of World War Two. VE Day (victory in Europe) and
VJ Day (victory in Japan) came and went. Rye, along with towns all
over the country, licked it’s wounds, mourned its dead and rejoiced
in the return of many servicemen who had been away from their home
for as long as six years. Continue reading Rye 1946
One of the best and most realistic war films ever made was created in and around Rye. ‘Dunkirk’, made in 1957, recorded the epic evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the open beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. Rye was chosen for the film’s location because the beaches and area around the real Dunkirk had become too populated in the seventeen year period that had elapsed since that time.
As a young fellow from 1936 onward I was working as an under-gardener at Leasam House, Playden, Near Rye. I really enjoyed this work and each Friday morning I used to harness up the black pony onto a buggy trap, going into Rye High Street, to a greengrocers with any surplus vegetables, tomatoes and lettuce that was going at the time and come autumn 1938 the Government stated that all men who were twenty years old would be compelled to either the T.A. for weekend training or join the forces the following spring for six months training plus two weeks further training yearly. This I decided to do myself. If war was going to happen, I would be in it anyway. We would be known as Millitia Boys. Continue reading The Long Journey
By Jim Hollands
In Wartime Britain Rye became one of the few ports on the South Coast
allowed to send its fishing boats to sea. The beach boats of Dungeness,
Hastings and Eastbourne were unable to launch, due to the steel anti-invasion
barriers that were erected to stop the imminent German invasion.
VE Celebrations are Remembered The heroes of the Second World War donned their medals and paraded through the streets of Rye to mark the sixtieth year since Victory was declared in Europe. Continue reading 60 Years On
These great photographs of John Mills and the filming of “Dunkirk” at Rye and the local district in 1957 were brought into “Rye’s Own” by a local lady. Continue reading Dunkirk Film Photos
Less than fifty years ago large coasters were coming right up into the Strand and unloading timber and other cargo. This picture shows the Tubo’, a Dutch vessel, unloading a cargo of timber for Thomas Hinds & Sons whose Timber Yard was where Strand Court Senior Citizens Residence stands today.
