Explore Watchbell Street through Rye’s Own, from remembered scenes and historical detail to the news and personalities that gave the place its character. Stories such as “Phillips Boatbuilders”, “Easter Visitors Guide to Rye”, “Rye Catholic Priest is Sentanced”, and “Town Crier” give the collection its range and its distinctly local texture. The result is less a formal history than a lively bundle of evidence, voices and remembered moments from the magazine’s pages.
05 February 2016
Paul Clarke, 71, a Roman Catholic priest, now of Urmston, Manchester, but formerly of Watchbell Street, Rye, East Sussex, pleaded guilty to offences relating Continue reading Rye Catholic Priest is Sentanced
The news that St. Anthony of Padua, the beautiful Catholic Church in Rye’s Watchbell Street, was about to close came like a bolt out of the blue to Rye’s Catholic community. Continue reading Editorial March 2015
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
The Jolly Sailor first opened its doors as a beer house in Watchbell Street in 1830. Landlord Thomas Hearsfield applied for a full licence in 1831, and again successfully in 1832. Both applications were supported by a petition organised by local vicar John Myer who was mayor of Rye in 1828. He urged the magistrates to consider: Continue reading The Jolly Sailor
Each year we in St. John, had an annual dinner, when it was organised just to have fun, so we proved. The old saying “That all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Being store keeper, it seemed it was my job to organise the dinner, so I did my best to do so. We used The George Hotel. My job was more than just Continue reading Fun in St. John
One of Rye’s most famous cobbled streets is Watchbell Street. Set at the very top of the town it is steeped in history. Walking over the blue boulders on a wet winter evening it it easy to imagine the rumble of brandy kegs being rolled by smugglers and hear the impatient whinney of horses waiting to pull their illicit cargo to inns and ale houses throughout Sussex & Kent. Continue reading Watchebell Sreet
There’s a pull here felt. And felt again. Pictures have it. That arrest… This pull is a place. And if you please; a picture. Continue reading A pocket full of Rye
My father, who had four brothers living in the town, was the only male member not to earn his living from the sea. Continue reading A Rye Childhood
This personal account of life and times in the town of Rye, East Sussex, is written some seventy five years later, from memories which are still as bright now as the day they occurred. Continue reading A Rye Childhood
If proof were ever needed that Rother District Council has failed this town then I ask readers to read the words in the following columns that have been reprinted as they were written in November 2001. Continue reading Town Crier
