The Great Sacrifice of a Rye Family

November is the month we remember those that fell in two World Wars and other Wars and Conflicts

The Great Sacrifice of a Rye Family

By Roland Jempson

In the June 2003 edition of Rye’s Own. There was an article entitled “The Tiltman’s of Rye”, about the sacrifice of nine members of the “Tiltman” family, by Jo’ Kirkham, also a Further article by Eric Streeton about a Memorial Plaque for Walter Thomas Tiltman. All this prompted me to find out more about my families relations that I had vaguely heard of in my childhood. Continue reading The Great Sacrifice of a Rye Family

The Bus Went to the Cinema

The bus that went to the cinema, or almost, as can be seen from the picture (Electric Palace in the Landgate is the building just beyond the bus with the coloured electric light bulbs in the shape of an arch). It was an East Kent converted charabanc on the Camber Rye Harbour service. Continue reading The Bus Went to the Cinema

Two Ways to Hastings

WE ASKED IN OUR MARCH EDITIONS ABOUT MEMORIES AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF JOURNEYS TO AND FROM RYE, HASTINGS AND HYTHE – EITHER BY TRAIN OR BUS.

Roland Jempson from Bristol sent us this account which included these fine pictures

Continue reading Two Ways to Hastings

The Jempsons of Rye

The Jempsons of Rye, East Sussex

Who are they and where did they Originate from?

By Roland Jempson Family Historian

(With help from second cousin Bridget Ewing Genealogist)

It was also from Arthur born 1833 and Jane Elizabeth that the other well known branch of the Jempson Family in the Rye Area were descended from. “The Jempsons of the Rye Haulage Company based at Slade Yard.. Continue reading The Jempsons of Rye

Hastings 80 years ago

The Story of the Trolley Bus

By Roland Jempson

On April 1st 1928 Hastings experienced a new type of public transport. The opening of the towns new Trolleybus system, it was inaugurated by four of the newly delivered GUY BTX 60 Trolleybuses Nos 1, 2, 3 and 4 with Christopher Dodson open top bodies, on the No 4 route, Hollinton to the Fish Market via Bohemia Road and The Memorial, replacing the Trams on the part of the route to the Memorial (Trams did not operate to the Fish Market or Old Town). Continue reading Hastings 80 years ago

When the Trollybus was King

 

In next month’s issue Roland Jempson explores the history of the Hastings & St. Leonards Trollybus era from spectacular beginnings final eclipse. The picture above portrays the bustle around the Albert Memorial soon after the new trollybus service came into operation. Continue reading When the Trollybus was King

Faces From The Past The Silverhill Club 1912

Roland Jempson sent in this historic photograph depicting members of the Silverhill Club taken at Silverhill Junction, presumably outside the Club Headquarters in Seddlescombe Road North. Continue reading Faces From The Past The Silverhill Club 1912

The Bus that Went to the Cinema

Rye Electric Palace Gets an Unwanted Visitor

The bus that went to the cinema, or almost, as can be seen from the picture (the Electric Palace in the Landgate is the building just beyond the bus with the coloured electric light bulbs in the shape of an arch) was an East Kent converted charabanc on the Camber Rye Harbour service. Continue reading The Bus that Went to the Cinema

The Last of the Prewar Drivers

The Last of the Prewar Drivers

By A. J. Leadbetter

I joined East Kent as a driver in 1937 and am now the last of the prewar drivers to survive. I was with East Kent until my retirement in 1977.

I remember back to the 1920’s when Timpsons were running charabangs in Hastings. They then uprooted and moved to Catford. Maidstone & District were running Tilling Stevens Petrol Electric double deckers in the late twenties. Continue reading The Last of the Prewar Drivers

Ex-Rye Fireman Dies in New Zealand

by Roland Jempson.

How strange, that in the April edition of “Rye’s Own” there should be an article of the Rye Fire Brigade in 1952. This edition dropped on my doorstep in Bristol at the same time as I heard the news of the Death and Funeral of my brother in law Harry Martin., once a member of Rye Fire Brigade. Born in Scotland in 1917, Harry came from a family of fishermen. The family lived at Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre, he was the eldest of five having three brothers and a sister. Continue reading Ex-Rye Fireman Dies in New Zealand