Jimper’s Jottings

 

THINGS LONG AGO

Once on Romney Marsh not so long ago, it was a very unhealthy place to live. There was a dreaded thing that was called the Ague, a disease we now know was a type of malaria, caused by the mosquito which lived in the water that covered a lot of the flat land. The local remedy for the Ague was said to be to swallow a spider, whole, wrapped up in its own web. The sheer thought of doing so must have made many people suddenly recover from the illness rather than take the cure! Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings

Jimper’s Jottings

                   GREETINGS FROM THE AREAS

“All right young un?” That greeting to you, no matter how old you are, must surely mean one is in Rye Harbour or meeting someone from the village. Long have the welcoming phrases been local to different areas. Anyone greeted by “Watchya,” was a common sound on Romney Marsh between neighbours and strangers alike.

Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings

Jimper’s Jottings October 2005

Where is the Rain?

Where is the Rain? The grass of Romney marsh has not greened up like a lot of the sheep farmers had hoped this year, all the showers of rain seem to have missed this little part of England, the land is crying out for a good drink. From Hythe to Winchelsea the fields of grass look like hay stubble; the old sheep will have to survive on hand outs of fodder. Who knows maybe the next two months will be wet and warm but I would not hold my breath the way things look. The Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings October 2005

Town Crier

News And Gossip Pages

By Jim Hollands

Great Job Rye Harbour Boat Owners Association put on a grand show to commemorate the 200th. Anniversary of Horatio Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar.

The Strand was awash with red white and blue flags that decorated every boat moored. The weather was kind, the crowds were happy and everything came together to make it a family day out.

Lets have something like this every year, Rye is an historic port and needs to keep a close contact with its past if it is to prosper in the future. Perhaps the event could incorporate a regatta with all sorts of boat races on the river as happened throughout the latter part of the 19th Century up to Edwardian times. An event that embraces those that live in the town. It may be that the event could ‘spill’ over onto terra firma and include athletic, even cycle races again. There seem to be many more folk about with the will and ability to organise than there have been for many years.

      Connie Lindqvist Retrospective

Peter Etherden has asked Heidi Foster to take on the daunting task of putting together an exhibition that captures the enormous range of Connie’s work as an artist in Rye between 1972 and 2002. Continue reading Town Crier

Things Long Ago

Jimper Reminisces on a Lost World

Once on Romney Marsh not so long ago, it was a very unhealthy place to live. There was a dreaded thing that was called the Ague, a disease we now know was a type of malaria, caused by the mosquito which lived in the water that covered a lot of the flat land. Continue reading Things Long Ago

Dredging Strand Quay

Dredging Strand Quay

by Peter Etherden

This is a cautionary tale and I have cut corners in the telling. Rye’s trawler fleet has been decimated by the European Union over the past few decades and although a new Fishing Quay is finally under construction the part played by the Rye Fishmarket Project in the whole story has been written out of this shortened account which focuses on our failure to dredge Rye’s Strand Quay…something which has been done every few years since time immemorial. Continue reading Dredging Strand Quay

Sprocket Page Oct 2004

Three Races in Three Days

The racing members of the club were busy over the first weekend in September with some riders competing in threee time trials. The final Tenterden Evening “10” 0f the year was won by the Wheeler’s man of the moment Barry Goodsell. He has been the fastest rider in no less than nine of the Tenterden events this season against riders from all the prominent local clubs. Continue reading Sprocket Page Oct 2004