Soup Kitchen – Rye's Own Magazine

A Victorian Christmas in Rye

What was a Dickens Christmas?

In modern times, with all the comforts that the post war world has ushered in, it is, perhaps, hard to imagine the days which Dickens has so vividly recorded for us when the workhouse and the beggar were part of the daily scene and the world was, as Disraeli remarked, for the few – the very few. Although with the advance of the welfare state the character of Christmas has changed and its true meaning has been lost amidst the onslaught of commercialism, it still remains a season of goodwill and a time when hearts are strangely touched by the magic of the occasion. Continue reading A Victorian Christmas in Rye

How Dare They

How dare Rother District Council even consider selling off the building that fed the town in times of extreme poverty and which has become a friendly landmark set deep in the heart of true lovers of Rye. Continue reading How Dare They

Rye in Edwardian Times

By Ken Clark

Pauperism in Rye remained an unresolved social problem at the opening of the twentieth century. Social reform is this country was confined to filling the most glaring gaps in the existing social system. The bed-rock of social provision was to be found in the Poor Law, first enacted in the time of the Tudors, and re-enacted in 1834. Administered locally by Boards of Guardians and financed from the local rates, the Poor Law provided a minimum subsistence under conditions which were deliberately designed to deter all but the utterly desperate from applying for it. It is little wonder, therefore, that the poor feared the day when, through ill health, misfortune or old age, they would no longer be able to earn their living for, unless they had been extremely thrifty or possessed children who were in a position to help, the workhouse was the only place for them. Continue reading Rye in Edwardian Times

Jimper’s Jottings May 2005

April Showers

April lived up to its usual self. A taste of days to come then the following day the weather we experienced was cold and dreary. Haze from the water turned many a night into a wonderland hanging above the marsh and letting the tops of the bushes of thorn and willow grace the sky.

Two days of light rain on the fourteenth and fifteenth was a boon to the young growth emerging. A few mallard duck broods I saw were huge, many totalling over the dozen. With the mild weather they should manage to grow into adults. Continue reading Jimper’s Jottings May 2005

Pauperism in Rye

Late Victorian & Early Edwardian Rye

By “Rya”

Pauperism remained an unresolved social problem at the opening of the twentieth century. Social reform in this county was confined to filing the most glaring gaps in the existing social system. The bed-rock of social provision was to be found in the Poor Law, first enacted in the time of the Tudors, and re-enacted Continue reading Pauperism in Rye