Rye Castle Museum

Please choose

Introducing the Museum	Views from the Castle
The Harbour at Rye	The Invasion Coast
Smuggling	The Romney Marsh
The Ypres Tower	Education
Trades and Industries of Rye	Shipwrecks
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve	Rye's Hinterland
Rye Town	HELP with using this site

In this section: Welcome to Rye Castle Museum --- Opening hours and Admission Charges --- Introduction and Ypres Tower --- East Street --- Rye Pottery --- Talks and Events --- Education Team --- Museum Sales

Unless stated otherwise all Talks begin at 7.30pm and are held at the Museum in East Street, Rye, on the second Tuesday of each month, with the exception of August. There are light refreshments at about 8.45pm and admission is £1.50 for members of the Museum Association and £2.50 for guests. Everyone is welcome.

Tuesday, 11th September

E.F.Benson. Allan Downend, Secretary of the E.F.Benson Society, will look at the life and works of E.F.Benson. Come and hear about the man behind the famous Mapp and Lucia books, four of which are set in Rye, and where Benson himself was Mayor from 1934 to 1937.

Tuesday, 9th October

Kent and Sussex Rogues, Rascals & Rebels. Chris McCooey gathers together a collection of the most notorious, infamous and positively outrageous characters who lived, loved and laboured in Kent and Sussex.

Tuesday,13th November

Bordeaux & Rye: a history and the difficulties of the wine trade. A talk by Jane Fraser Hay. This evening begins with a difference; you'll need to be there to find out.

Tuesday, 11th December

History in the Making - The Military Drum. Ray Downes brings a three dimensional aspect to his talk, with demonstrations on the origin of the drum and it's development, incorporating the role of the fife and bugle and other instuments and their part in the development of what we now know as British Military Band Music.

Saturday, 12th January 2008

New Year Party. A fund raising event! More details to follow.

Tuesday, 12th February. Romney Marsh at War. Edward Carpenter will be talking about the preparations for war that took place on Romney Marsh, describing the general defences and landing grounds; air raids and Doodlebugs; spies and the Pluto Line, and finishing with the victory celebrations in 1945.

Tuesday, 11th March

Vita & Harold. This evening takes on a theatrical guise when Nina Thorndike and Vernon Reeve deliver a reading of letters, poetry and diary entries celebrating the lives of Vita Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson.

Tuesday, 8th April

GINN - Girls in Nelson's Navy by Gordon Bentley. From the latter half of the 18th Century to the early years of the 19th, Britain was almost continually at war and reliant upon the Royal Navy. Amongst the thousands of seamen who served their country, there were a number of women also on board the ships. This is their story.

Tuesday, 13th May

Old Ashford - An Illustrated Presentation. Richard Filmer takes a look at a workaday market and manufacturing town. Frequently criticized and often overlooked, Ashford has produced an amazing variety of products ranging from locomaotives to cough lozenges. some of these industries have disappeared for ever leaving little evidence of their existence. Others, such as the market, have developed over 800 years into one of the largest in the country.

Tuesday, 10th June

Hove actually! As well as a visit to the Museum, Geoffrey Mead will be taking you on a walk around the early 20th Century streets of Hove and Ardrington. This area developed either side of WW1 and contains a profusion of elegant architectural styles and features. However, with some keen observation, ther are still many visible features from the early agricultural landscape.

This will be a day out. More details to follow

Tuesday, 8th July

A walk Around Headcorn. As guests of the Headcorn Local History Society, this afternoon will start with a visit to the parish church of St Peter & St Paul at 2.30pm. We will then be taken on a tour of the town, stopping off for tea along the way.

Details of cost and departure time from Rye will be given nearer the time.

There will be Coffee Mornings, on Saturdays 18th August and 15th September at 11 High Street, Rye, at 10.30am - 1pm. These Coffee Mornings are by courtesy of Rae Festing. On Saturday 10th November there will be a Coffee Morning at the East Street Museum, 10.30am - 12 noon.

Medieval Music at the Ypres Tower at the beginning of Rye's Medieval Weekend, which is Friday, July 27th at 6pm. Come and hear Medieval music and songs in our Medieval Herb Garden. This Garden will be open for the whole weekend, same hours as the Tower.

The Museum's annual Discovery Day will be Saturday 25th October 2008 .

If you have any queries, or wish further information, then contact the Museum on 01797-226728.