Let us take the bull by the horns. There is a love-hate relationship between Rye and Winchelsea. Such a relationship is most commonly found in families, and these two ancient towns are like rival sisters in a powerful family. Winchelsea, the elder, still beautiful in her widow’s weeds, looks down from a height of I20ft. Continue reading Winchelsea
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
Kent and Sussex were hot beds of smuggling for centuries, and to judge by reports, still are. Originally, wool was smuggled out to France, rather than other goods coming in. The reason was that we produced high quality wool, but had not the means of processing it. The French and Dutch did. In 1622, it was made a hanging offence to smuggle out wool. The government then imported French and Dutch weavers and other trades to process the wool. That is why we have many large houses of Dutch style in our area. Many parishes have their Cloth Halls, The Weavers, and so on. Continue reading Smuggling
The late sixties and early seventies heralded the end of a period of great success in the history of Rye Bonfire Society. Bonfire in Rye nearly died as the older members came to their end and the young ones that had taken part in the late fifties and early sixties had much more to interest themselves with. Continue reading Bonfire in Rye
Reproduced from “Gentle Breezes”
Kent and Sussex were hot beds of smuggling for centuries, and to judge by reports, still are. Originally, wool was smuggled out to France, rather than other goods coming in. The reason was that we produced high quality wool, but had not the means of processing it. The French and Dutch did. In 1622, it was made a hanging offence to smuggle out wool. The government then imported French and Dutch weavers and other trades to process the wool. That is why we have many large houses of Dutch style in our area. Many parishes have their Cloth Halls, The Weavers, and so on. Continue reading Smuggling
A description of Rye by Barbara Ballard claims that the word Rye is a corruption of an old Anglo- Saxon word meaning an island. Sounds a quite feasible explanation. There have been others of course, the favourite Rhee, meaning shelter but island does sound convincing. Barbara Ballard’s description of Rye off the “Postcard of Britain website is quite descriptive too. Continue reading The Word Rye means Island
