Mrs Longley wrote these recollections in the 1950's:

"Rye has been noted for many things throughout its long history, but during the 19th Century it appears to have been quite a centre of learning.

In 1840, when a coach left the George Hotel daily at 8 am (Sunday excepted) for London, and when our population was 4,893, in addition to the
Grammar School and Sanders' Charity School in Landgate, (Bedford Place) there were five privately owned day or boarding schools in the town, some of them described as Academies.

Watchbell Street and Mermaid Street were, apparently, the most favoured by these select abodes of learning - but how different these two delightful and serene streets of our present town must have been then. Straw-hat makers, milliners
and dressmakers, greengrocers and sweet shops, and public houses, were found in both. The Hope & Anchor at one end of Watchbell Street was
very handy for sailors from the Strand Quay, and I am told that a Mrs Knight of this Inn was famous for the making of home-made sweets which she was so bold as to sell on Sundays! The Jolly Sailor at the other end of the street did a
roaring trade and had a well-known doss-house attached to it. In my young school days, we hurried by this Inn of ill repute with averted eyes, in fear of drunken sailors reeling in the street.

Of the schools before 1840 I know very little, but in an old directory of that year there was listed a school in Watchbell Street, its principal being Miss Charlotte Allen. Miss Allen's establishment would be for the instruction of the very young: progress through the local schools is shown in a fragment of autobiography by Walter Fuller
Thorpe, " the first school I attended was kept by Miss Allen. I left there in 1845 (aged 5 years 6 months). The second school, from which I was removed at
Christmas 1848, was kept by Miss Pink. I then went to Rye Grammar School, Mr George Easton, Master. I was there for five years ......"

Miss Pink's School was kept by two sisters, Jane and Eleanor. It has come down in history as 'the Misses Pink's Academy'. It was situated in Mermaid Street and as a 'Ladies Boarding and Day School' was a popular school for many years. Here is the
Prospectus, which must have been issued in their heyday, for there is a great difference between the tone of this dignified statement and that of the latter days of their school when it was in Cannon House, East Street where. I am told, they had 21
scholars and as many cats.