War and Peace

by Arthur Woodgate

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

Bombed by Both Sides

by Graham Watson. From the November 2010 issue of Rye’s Own

I was born in Rye East Sussex, in May 1936, and lived at Godfrey’s Row which was a terrace of five houses situated opposite the Pipemaker’s Arms Public House, in Winchelsea Road. In 1940 the first kits of the Anderson shelter, the outdoor type, which consisted of a large hole dug by the householder, with curved sections of corrugated iron bolted together and placed in the hole to form the walls and roof . The earth which had been dug out to from the hole was then thrown back over the shelter to give it added protection. Continue reading Bombed by Both Sides

Rye at War

War Comes to Rye

Rye went to war on 3 September 1939 – As war was declared a German Coaster was still tied up at The Strand. The German family who crewed her were well known and liked in Rye, They had been bringing in timber from the Baltic and Continue reading Rye at War