Rye Castle Museum

  Rye’s Shipbuilding Industry

Rise to Importance

The shipbuilding industry in Rye and the estuary of the River Rother, together with the manifold trades required to meet maritime requirements, has for centuries undergone phases of boom and depression. Its varying fortunes have been brought about or accentuated by physical changes in the Harbour, by wars, by technological developments and by trends in the national economy.

In the Middle Ages two factors were immensely favourable to shipbuilding in the Rother estuary, neither of which can be said to obtain today. The first was the ready supply of timber from the forest of Andredsweald and the second was the navigability of the rivers Rother, Brede and Tillingham.

There is firm evidence of shipbuilding in Rye in the form of a royal order of 1223 which forbade the export of timber because the King (Henry III) was proposing to build ships and galleys. Eight years later Winchelsea (i.e. the old port before being evacuated) was ordered to send a carpenter for the King’s ship at Portsmouth. Between 1237 and 1243 the King’s galleys were lying at Rye and Winchelsea and in the last year seven were laid up in Rye. By this time Rye and Winchelsea had royal dockyards and storehouses which were essential both to meeting the considerable fishing requirements of the royal household and also for supporting overseas trading which extended to the Spanish coast.

Repairs to the King’s galleys were carried out at Rye in 1252 and again in 1253. In 1294, following a typical engagement in the Channel with the French, general preparations for the defence of the English coast were made known and the King (Edward I) ordered two galleys of 120 oars to be built at the new town of Winchelsea. This was only six years after old Winchelsea had been completely evacuated so little time had been lost in re-establishing the reputation of Winchelsea shipwrights. Out of 10 ports including London only Winchelsea and Bristol were given orders for more than one galley.

When the Hundred Years War with France started in 1337, Rye was building at least four ships which were to form an important part of the Cinque Ports Fleet. They were La Michael’(244 tons), La Nicholas (120 tons) La Palmere (60 tons) and La Edmond (60 tons). These square rigged ships with stern-mounted rudders and forecastles and after castles at bow and stern are well depicted on the seals of the Cinque Ports. The La Michael was the largest English vessel to take part in the battle of Sluys near Blanckenberg in 1340, during which bowmen firing from the high decks were able to kill hundreds of the enemy before fighting between the boarding parties even began.

Further up the Rother shipbuilding was taking place at Smallhythe which served as the port for Tenterden. In 1420 under the auspices of the King (Henry V), a 120 ton ballinger (a clinker-built two-masted ship) was built at Smallhythe by William Catton who had the title of ‘Keeper of the King’s Ships’. Catton is also accredited with the building at Winchelsea of the 1000 ton Jesus which was the second largest ship in Henry V’s fleet.

Decline in Fortunes

15th Cenutry Cog

By the middle of the 15th. century there were unmistakable signs that the natural advantages which Rye and Winchelsea shipbuilders derived from the forested hinterland and the navigable rivers flowing down from Sedlescombe (on the Brede) and Bodiam (on the Rother) were diminishing. The iron furnaces of the Weald using water power for smelting had been devouring trees so rapidly that timber for shipbuilding was becoming relatively scarce. Rather late in the day there was legislation (in 1558) prohibiting the use of timber in the furnaces. At the same time geo-physical changes were taking place in the Rother estuary which spelt difficulty and even disaster for some shipbuilders.

The sea, having overwhelmed old Winchelsea at the end of the 13th. century, now proceeded to build up a bar in the new port, causing the River Brede to become increasingly narrow and shallow, and enabling acres of land formerly part of the. tidal lagoon to be ’inned’, i.e. reclaimed for agriculture. In consequence, well before the end of the 15th century, Winchelsea’s shipbuilding industry had ceased to exist. If there were expectations that Rye shipbuilding would benefit from the demise of Winchelsea such hopes were not fulfilled. Even for the purposes of the Agincourt campaign in 1415, the King (Henry V) had to supplement his fleet by hiring transports from Holland and Zealand.

The practice of ’inning’ which had brought about the closure of the Port of Winchelsea was also affecting navigation in the upper and middle reaches of the Rivers Rother and Tillingham. The consequential adverse effects on shipping interests were further aggravated by the fitting of merchant ships with guns above the bulwark rail. Such ships had to be deep draught to maintain stability and were therefore quite unsuited to the shoals and shallows of Rye Harbour. Nor could it have been easy for Rye shipbuilders to change from clinker planking construction to carvel as became necessary when water-tight gunports had to be cut close to the water line. Men of war now began to be differentiated from merchantmen and with the reign of Henry VIII the era of impressment of ships came.

Taking into account the cumulative effects of siltation through inning, the diminution of local timber resources, the evolution of deep draught men of war and recent appalling outbreaks of the plague, it is not surprising that the response of Rye to Queen Elizabeth’s urgent request for ships to fight the Spanish Armada in 1588 was meagre. In the event the only contribution made by Rye was a 50 tonner supply ship which was hired and fitted out with the assistance of Tenterden.

Under the Stuart kings and well into the 18th century orders for new ships from Rye were rare but the shipyards would have been occupied servicing the numerous merchantmen colliers and fishing boats which continued to use the port. A cross-channel passenger service to Dieppe was running in the 17th century and there were river barges on which the famous gun foundries near Battle, Robertsbridge and Seddlescombe depended for the carriage of their heavy cargoes down to Rye for export. Even in 1700, except for the roadway leading northwards from the Landgate, Rye was still an island relying largely on water transport. In the absence of bridges, three ferries owned by the Rye Corporation had to be maintained to save travellers undergoing circuitous journeys on bad roads.

While the Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum in the latter part of the 18th century in the Midlands and North, the Port of Rye was being held back first by the disastrous attempt to create the New Harbour mouth at Winchelsea Beach and later by the serious threat of an invasion by Napoleon..

An exceptional event was the launching in 1787 of the Salisbury, a 200 ton cutter which was the only sizeable ship to make the passage out of Rye through the shortlived new outlet to the sea. Unfortunately little seems to have come to light about the builders of the Salisbury or other shipyards at this difficult time. Nor is it known whether any of the rafts for the floating batteries manned by the Sea Fencibles were built at Rye before being superseded by the Martello Towers.  

Prosperity Returns

By the time the threat from Napoleon had finally lifted, the Industrial Revolution was beginning to have a dramatic impact on shipbuilding along the South and East coasts. After centuries of square-riggers and the battleworthy ‘wooden walls’ of the Royal Navy fundamental changes in ship design were taking place. The requirements of commerce boosted by the development of trade with North America were increasingly for fast sailing vessels which could be sailed close to the wind with the benefit of fore-and-aft rigging.

Prominent amongst the early Rye shipbuilders in the new era was the firm of Harvey and Staffell whose yard was situated below the Green Steps at the end of Watchbell Street and well known for its sloops, cutters and schooners. By mid 19th. century the demand for merchant ships had created a boom of which Rye was taking full advantage.   In the wake of Havey and Staffell came the brothers Henry and James Hoad. They were the first of several generations of a family which achieved widespread fame both as shipbuilders and shipowners.

By mid-century other builders like Hessel and Holmes had won reputations for the design, craftsmanship and sailing qualities of their ships, several of which were owned and traded on their own behalf.   One such ship was the clipper schooner Marian Zagury built for the fruit trade.  The Illustrated London News credited Hessel and Holmes with having built the handsomest vessel ever built in the Port of Rye.  

 Later came the firms of G & T Smith (which succeeded J C Hoad and became celebrated for ketch barges), the Rother Iron Works (which built steam ships in iron and wood near the mouth of Rock Channel), W E Clark (which built smacks and river barges off the Winchelsea Road) and H J Phillips whose clinker-built fishing boats made in Rock Channel are to be seen today all along the Sussex coast.

 A sketch map prepared by researchers for the Rye Museum Association shows that these yards and their sail lofts were all situated near or between the Strand Quay and the confluence of Rock Channel with the River Rother.

 The Rye Museum Association has collected much detailed information about the ownership and output of the 19th. century shipyards. Amongst the very large numbers of ships launched in this active period the following are only a few examples:-

Keeping Afloat in Changing Times

It might have been difficult for shipping interests to realize that the Industrial Revolution was a two-faced friend. Before the end of the century the arrival of the railway and later the internal combustion engine started to darken the outlook but there were still some bright intervals.

In 1855 each of three Rye shipyards was given an order for a £7000 mortar boat destined for the Crimea and all three were launched between February and March 1856. Not long afterwards, the shipyards started to receive contracts for the building of lighters which for the next 50 years were needed to carry caissons made from Rye Harbour shingle to build the new outer arms of Dover Harbour.

Between 1882 and 1890 there was a decline in the number and tonnage of vessels entering the Port attributable to the partial blockage of the harbour mouth which in turn had created a crisis in the Harbour finances. It was therefore an act of faith in the future that induced John Symonds Vidler (Chairman of the Harbour Commission) and a number of friends to pay for a small fleet of ketch- rigged barges to keep the Rye-based coasting trade alive. Each of five ships ordered was built at the yard of G. and T. Smith in Rock Channel and the enterprise proved commercially successful. Some ships had up to 40 shareholders but nobody who retained his shares until the outbreak of war in 1914 suffered any loss.

During the 1914-1918 war shipbuilding in Rye ceased with the exception of two steam drifters built by G. and T. Smith. The same yard was chosen in the 1939-1945 war first for making wooden pontoons to enable magnetic mines to be exploded at a distance and later for building eight 75 foot minesweepers, two of which sailed to Singapore.

It was not until the dogs of war had been brought under control in 1946 that any revival of traditional shipyard activity could be contemplated. Remarkably enough, one firm — that of H J Phillips, which started business in 1913 at Rock Channel House — managed to survive the 1930s world slump as well as two world wars and was ready to resume its peacetime role of building and repairing boats for fishing, commerce and recreation. Under the management of Derek Phillips, son of Henry Phillips and grandson of H.J. Phillips this yard continued to thrive.  [Ed. note: It is now gone too] The continuing problem of the Harbour mouth, the poor quality of berthing facilities and a Harbour management whose dominant priority was land drainage were not factors to encourage new shipbuilders and shipwrights. Defying these disadvantages several small boatyards and chandlers, in addition to Phillips, established themselves in the Rock Channel area to take advantage of the unprecedented post- war growth in amateur sailing.

Three Brothers

The largest of the pleasure boats used by amateur sailors was The Three Brothers which was originally a fishing smack built in 1896 by G & T Smith but later converted to a cruising yacht.

 The popularity of boating and sailing for pleasure in the second half of the 20th. century contributed to the bulk of the Harbour’s revenue and provided a variety of maintenance and service work for never less than four small yards. H.J. Phillips, the doyen of the builders,  continued (albeit infrequently in recent years) to launch small fishing vessels built in wood using time-honoured methods.

Other yards have endeavoured to take advantage of the plastics revolution but competition from large-scale producers of fibre glass yachts and dinghies in the Solent area  precluded a steady flow of orders. One firm, Lochin Marine at the mouth of Rock Channel, successfully built lifeboats for the R.N.L.I. before being taken over for other non-maritime purposes.

The owners of the small Rye shipyards still operatin in 2000   had to adapt themselves to developments in electronics and technology which have transformed the ancient arts of ship design and navigation. They survived so long only because they were versatile, skilled and dedicated to their calling.

John Collard 1998

Jean Floyd

Once on Watchbell Street with photos from Victorian times

A visitor from the 1840s visiting Rye today would recognise much of  it:  the Landgate, the street pattern within the walls, Ypres Tower, the stone buildings that survived the fire of 1377,  many of the houses, the cobbles, but oh, how much else has changed!   Take Watchbell Street as an example:

First, note that the visitor’s Watchbell Street  included the south side of Church Square whose four sides lost their original names only in 1859.   So  what follows applies to the original Watchbell Street

Population

• Today fewer than 50 people live on the stretch between the Hope Anchor and the Methodist Church (which of course was not there in our visitor’s day)–and not a single one of them is a child.  In the 1840s there were nearly five times that number (285 persons in 1841), and a third of these were children!  
• In that year a detour down Hucksteps Row would have found  some 80 futher residents, over half of them children,  in 17 houses.  (Today would find fewer than 10 persons in  6 houses).  There were multiple interretionshps among neighbours.  A child might have 35 cousins living nearby.
• Households contained up to 10 people, usually a mixture of generations and relatives. For example,  in one household lived a widower with a grown unmarried daughter, a widowed son with his child, a niece, a couple of lodgers or ‘scholars’,  an annuitant relative and a relative of ‘deranged mind’ (a census term)….    Some households  had live-in servants. 
• Though Rye’s mortality rate was better than many towns,  there were many widows of men who drowned at sea and many children being raised by grandparents, single parents or aunts because their mother had died in childbirth.  With no provision for the unemployed there were many paupers, and there was no provision for the ‘mentally deranged’.   
• Rich and poor lived cheek by jowl in the 1500s and 1600s, then separated for tax reasons. but in the 1800s they were well mixed again:  fishermen, agricultural labourers, journeymen (carpenters, blacksmiths, bootmakers without their own work premises);  shipbuilders, merchants,  solicitors, gentry;  people who became mayors, town clerks, head of the workhouse or borough officers.  One solicitor/town clerk sent his son to Oxford.

Occupations

• Most men were in marine occupations:  shipwrights,  mariners, pilots, smack owners, fishermen,  ships’ carpenters, etc. — or in related services (mainly provisions and clothing). They  would be up and down the various steps then leading  down the cliff to the shipyards because the Strand in the mid 19th century was busy and prosperous–(and noisy with all the hammering, loading and unloading).  Large numbers of well-regarded ships were built here and travelled all over the world carrying emigrants as well as goods.   Regular packets sailed to Boulogne and  London. 
• What of  the women?  Spinsters and widows were female servants,  charwomen, laundresses, dressmakers, milliners, straw bonnet makers, shrimpsellers;  there was a lady who ‘picks and gets ready all kinds of poultry, game, etc. in the shortest notice’. But there were also a growing number of schoolmistresses, governesses and ‘companions’.   Although a wife belonged to the husband and had few if any rights to property, children or even their  own inheritance, there were some notable exceptions on Watchbell Street:  grocers,  pub managers, property owners, gentry….  (They deserve an article of their own.) 
• Few children went to school in 1840; parents couldn’t afford the penny a week  fee, or shoes for their children who in any case were needed  to work. However, schooling was slowly becoming ‘normal’  even before it became compulsory in 1880, and during Victorian and Edwardian times there were at least ten schools of various types and sizes on Watchbell Street.  You can read about them in the Schools and Education article.
• During the Victorian years (1837-1901), Watchbell Street provided ten  of the town mayors. serving up to 11 years each–and that doesn’t count five times mayor Jeremiah Smith who owned houses on Watchbell Street but did not himself live here. The street also  provided all three Town Clerks of the period, as well as Clerks of the Peace, Justices of the Peace, the Headmaster of Thomas Peacocke, heads of shipbuilding firms, the Harbourmaster and the Clerk of the Rye Union (workhouse).

 Living Conditions

• Water had to be fetched until 1880, and there were outdoor privies, usually at the bottom of the garden, until the 1920s and later.  You would probably rather not imagine how the street smelled what with no indoor sanitation and fish drying everywhere.  Candles were used for lighting into the 1930s, though there were some gas street lights from 1846.   
• For most people, the only means of transport was their own feet, though boats did ply the river.   The town was transformed by the railway which arrived in 1841.  With the railway came new blood. No longer had everyone who lived here been born within a radius of a few miles with everyone related to everyone else.

There is lots more to come on the streets of Rye in former times!   In the meantime here are some photos of  Watchbell Street, mostly from the 1890s.    Can you spot the changes betweenthen and now?    Click on the iimages to see them full size. 

by Frank Palmer

The Borough Arms and the Ship Inn circa 1900

Of the earliest Inns and Alehouses little or nothing is known and all that exists are a few early cellars beneath later buildings. What we do know is that by the sixteenth century, the Inn and Alehouse was a significant part of the Rye scene.

As an important port of embarkation the town was always busy with travellers. Merchants and the military were crossing to and from France and all required sustenance and accommodation whilst awaiting the tide.  For example, Lord D’acre stayed at Le Crowne (at the corner of West Street and High Street) on the way to meet Henry VIII at Calais in 1520. In 1574 some twenty six Inns and Alehouses could be found with ninety four beds for strangers.  

The Tower Inn circa 1890

The occupation of licensed ale housekeepers was a privileged one and  found among the more affluent members of Society, often the town’s Jurats. One of these was Richard Pedyel, owner of the Mermaid, who died in 1536.

Yet earlier at the Cinque Ports Brodhull (the name for the meetings of the Cinque Ports Confederation) held at Romney in 1465, it is recorded that no Mayors or Bailiff sha1l retail bread or ale during his term of office. Likewise breweries, of which there were several, were expensive to set up and, therefore, the preserve of the more wealthy.       

The Red Lion cirfca 1860

At times Alehouses could be of considerable concern to the town authorities, because they provided shelter to vagrants and other suspicious persons, including ‘harlotts, hores and comon women’ (sic). Various Acts gave powers to Justices to deal with these, and an Act of 1495 gave powers to suppress Alehouses. Later, an Act of 1552 gave authority to the Magistrates to licence and suppress such premises.            

  In 1581 twelve ‘common dronkards’, were banned from every tippling house in Rye. At this time some of the Inns and Alehouses were:

The Mermaid
The Red Lion  (located  where the Further Education Centre now stands but burnt down in 1872)
The George and The Swan – both at this time in the Butchery (now Market Street)
The Three Kings in Middle Street (now Mermaid Street)
The Blew Anchor (later The London Trader and now The Borough Arms, at the Strand)
Whyte Vyne (in Longer Street now the High Street)

There were many others but the principle inns were the Mermaid, the Red Lion and the George.  These were often used by the Corporation for celebratory dinners. 

The George circa 1890

 However, the Mermaid had closed by the mid eighteenth century. Louis Jennings, visiting Rye in the 1870’s wrote,

The Mermaid — still I looked about for the Mermaid Inn, I roamed up and down Mermaid Street, over rough cobble stones, loathe to give up the search. . . . ‘ . . . at the helm A seeming mermaid steers’ .                                                             

At last I met an ancient man, who looked as if with a little effort of memory he might recall the Mermaid, or perhaps be the merman who married her.  ‘Ah Sir ‘, said he, with a sigh, ‘the Inn has long since closed. How curious you should ask for it. Gone ever so long ago, Sir’.

Throughout the centuries there were always some unlicensed presmises trading illicitly and it was the duty of the constables or Sargeant at Mace to bring the offenders before the Courts.   Fines and license fees brought in necessary income, so, despite pressure from the Privy Council in London to reduce the numbers of Alehouses, the Town Council tended to impose fines that were not too punitive and tried to persuade offenders to obtain a license.

 The brewers also had an interest in supplying as many outlets as possible. It is perhaps interesting to note that in 1609 four brewers were fined for supplying beer to unlicensed tippling houses;  two of these brewers were town Magistrates.

A glance at the Passage Book of the Port of Rye, shows that in the year 1635 many important persons sailed from Rye to the continent including merchants from London, Plymouth, Norwich, Hull, Bristol, Exeter and Barnstaple, as well as Scotland and Ireland. Some forty Inns and Alehouses offered their services in the town. However, at times this proved to be a mixed blessing.

The Kings Arms and the Pipemakers Arms circa 1890

 A  report to the Council of State in 1651 stated ‘the causes of injury to the trade of the ancient town, the multiplication of strangers and the superabundance of beer houses are alleged as the chief impediments to the prosperity of the market’.

Early in the eighteenth century we find; the Two Brewers (now the Queen’s Head) the Ship without Landgate (no longer in existence) and the Dolphin, Gungarden (pulled down in 1837) for the enlargement of the Rye Union Workhouse. 

However, in general the number of inns and alehouses was falling. The billeting of troops in the town was at times a source of difficulty. Many Acts of Parliament were passed over the years that attempted to control the problems of excessive drinking. This had an effect on the number of inns and alehouses in the town.

In 1830 another statute was passed, popularly known as the Duke of Wellington’s Beerhouse Act. This Act enabled any householder assessed to the poor rate, on payment of two guineas a year, to obtain an excise licence to retail beer from his own dwelling either on or off the premises. This was an attempt to reduce the abnormal amount of spirit drinking, but resulted in a considerable increase in the number of alehouses. 

The Jolly Sailor circa 1870

At the beginning of the twentieth century a number of inns were closed down because the police opposed the licence.

Those affected by this were; the Foresters Arms and the Swan, both in the Mint, the Jolly Sailor in Church Square, the King’s Arms in Cinque Ports Street, the London Stout House (formerly Sawyers Arms) in Ferry Road, the Borough Arms in the Strand, the Tower Inn in Landgate and the Oak in the High Street, amongst others.

Sources 

Records of Rye Corporation, 1962
Tudor Rye, Mayhew 1987
A New History of Rye, Vidler, 1934
The English Public House, Monckton, 1969
Sussex Archaeological Society Collections.

FOLKLORE and SMUGGLING

 BRITISH FOLKLORE WEEKEND:  25-27 September
 A talk, a film and a travelling mini-museum

Talk and film:  Friday, 25th September:  7:30 p.m.  3 East Street

Simon Costin, , founder  of the British Folklore Museum will talk on British Folklore and show a film by Doc Rowe. The evening will include refreshments and a raffle.      Members 2.00  Non-members 3.50.   

Folklore Museum in a Caravan   Friday-Sunday    Beside the Ypres Tower

Simon is bringing with him a caravan fitted out as a mini-Folklore Museum.  It will be parked outside the Ypres Tower and can be visited on Friday afternoon 2-5 p.m.  and from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.  Entrance is free, but donations are welcome.

DISCOVERY DAY:  SMUGGLING   Saturday, 24th October

The Surprise

How much does your family know about Smuggling in and around Rye?

• Why did the men of Rye and Winchelsea turn to smuggling? 
• What kinds of things were smuggled in—and out?
• What was ‘owling’?
• How did smugglers hide goods from the customs men?
• Why and when did smuggling decline?
• What smugglers’ gang used to congregate at the Mermaid Inn?

Bring your children and grandchildren to the Rye Museum Discovery Day to learn and have fun:  Further details to come.      For an article on this site about Smuggling in Rye, click here.

In the 1980′s, several members of the Rye Museum Association saw the need for a group interested in researching Rye’s history, and eventually, in 1984, an independent group was set up.  Alan Dickinson was the first Chairman of sixteen Founder Members of the Rye Local History Group, which aimed to research and record information, and hold monthly meetings with lectures and discussions, in Rye Library.

With a new Chairman, Eric Wetherill from 1992, the membership grew apace, needing steadily larger premises.  Outside visits and a regular Newsletter were developed.  A specially commissioned Rye Pottery mug was made available to members in 1994, to mark the Group’s first ten years.

The Group was authorised by the County Archaeologist to to observe and record archaeological and historical aspects of excavations in Rye.  1994 saw Group members working in this way on the Hospital site on Rye Hill, and in 1996 the Group ran its own Archaeological ‘Dig’ in the centre of Rye.

An Index of Holloway’s ‘Antiquities of Rye’ (1994) and an illustrated book of the monumental inscriptions throughout Rye Cemetery (1996) were published, having been researched in detail by Group members.

Much material of historical interest has been given to the Group for preservation and research over the years, and we are grateful to Rye Library for their storage of, and allowing members access to, our well-filled cabinet.  Progress in organisation and growth to 100 members continued for the society which took pride in  its reputation as a friendly group.  

Jo Kirkham, Chairman of the Rye Museum Board of Directors was a recent Chairman.   She was succeeded by Brian Hargreaves who, with his wife Joyce,  produced the excellent Newsletter until December 2004.   It was then decided to amalgamate with the Rye Museum Association.   Local history research continues, and the former Newsletter became the  Rye Museum and Local History Group Journal  in January 2005. It is  still produced regularly by Brian and Joyce Hargeaves.

Updated from an article  by Jo Kirkham in  Rye Millennium

Women’s Tower Project

Since the launch of the Women’s Tower Project on 25th August,  those yellow forms for buying bricks, stones, castellations and other parts for the restoration of the Women’s Tower at the Ypres Castle have continued to come in.  Is yours among them?   Once the necessary repairs have been completed we hope to use this rare survival of a Women’s Tower to house displays showing the life of Rye’s women and children in the past.     

                                                 �
 

Mayor Sam Souster and MP Michael Foster were among the guests at the launch .  

Brian Hargreaves had drawn a large picture of the Women’s Tower with numbered parts for sale.
Many guests took the opportunty to choose a brick, a stone, a castellation, a window or some other part of the Tower to buy as their share in restoring it.  When the work is done, with the help of English Heritage, it is planned to open the Tower  to the public with displays on the lives of women and children in Rye in times past.   One very special donation was that of Priscilla Ryan, in memory of the town’s much-loved John Ryan, creator of Captain Pugwash. 

Women's Tower

The challenge  of  raising  the £74,000 needed to restore the tower is an immense one, but the evening–a beautiful one enjoyed by many Ryers–got the project off to an encouraging start. 

 If you too would like to be part of this project and have not received a leaflet providing details and a form,  do visit either of the Rye Castle Museum sites or contact the Museum  (01797-226728 or info@ryemuseum.co)    You would have the satisfaction of knowing you had helped to save  a special building of our town so it can not only be used by  Ryers but also  provide yet another attraction for visitors

Captain Pugwash Treasure Hunt 

Captain Horatio Pugwash

There are new Captain Pugwash Treasure Hunts at both museum sites.  Have your children (or grandchildren) tried them?  Each month there is a draw from submissions with correct answers and a small prize is sent to the lucky winner. 

More on Captain Pugwash

There is a display case at East Street featuring Captain Pugwash too.  John Ryan, Captain Pugwash creator, lived in Rye for 20 years until his death in August.  His wife, artist Priscilla Blomfield Ryan, as well as his children, were all involved in the animated TV Captain Pugwash programmes, and thanks to them, the exhibition at East Street will shortly be expanded,

Save These Dates!

25-27 September

A travelling folk museum in miniature is coming to Rye for three days at the end of September!   Simon Costin, collector and curator, is bringing a part of his folklore collection in a converted Castleton caravan whch will be outside the Ypres Tower from Friday afternoon, 25th September 2-5 p.m. and from 10:30 to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday,  26th and 27th Sepbember.  Entry is free, but donations are welcome.    The Ypres Tower and East Street Museums will  be open as usual.  

And that’s not all!   Simon will give a talk on Folklore and show a film by Doc Rowe at the East Street site on the Friday evening (25th September).  Time: 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be  available on the door:  £2.00 for Rye Museum Association members, £3.50 for non-members.

Don’t forget to check the Talks Programme for the year so you get those dates in your diary!

Monday, 5th October:�
Volunteers Evening  

Our active Museum would not exist without its splendid team of volunteers who contribute in a very wide range of ways.    If you think you might like to become a volunteer  too, come along to the evening to find out what the possibiities are for you.  A good way to make new friends too!

Tuesday, 13h October:�
Geoff Hutchinson on Smugglers of Kent and Sussex  

Geoff is one of the Museum’s most popular speakers.    (He also recently became Rudyard Kipling for our Museum trip to Batemans.)  Come early to the East Street Museum for his 7:30 talk. It will be an informative and entertaining evening.

Saturday, 24th October:
Discovery Day

The theme is Smuggling and there will be lots of exciting activities for children and their parents (and grandparents).  Watch this space for details.

And in November and December

Two Craft Fairs,  the Christmas Grotto… Do you see why more volunteers are always welcome?

 Chairman’s Report         A Year at the Museum       Christmas Grotto Photos  

Chairman’s Report on a Year’s Achievements

At the AGM of the Rye Museum Association on July 28, the Chairman, Jo Kirkham, reported on  the substantial  progress and the wide range of activities during the past year.  What follows is a summary, without the  names of the many people who made so much happen.  A separate Who’s Who at the Museum will follow shortly.

•  The Tower is at last warm and dry and access is easier through the re-opened original door
• A  Buildings Committee is working with our architects to ensure proper care and maintenance of the Ypres Tower–a scheduled monument– through a programme of inspections and reports by professional advisors
• Acquisitions this year include:

A portrait of Thomas Lamb, 20 times mayor of Rye, by Allan Ramsay, Royal Painter to King George III
A document with Rye Seal attached dated 1554 recording the sale of part of St Mary’s Marsh (now the site  of  Rye College).  Donations from Rye Town Council and individuals made possible the successful bid at  auction.
Rye Embroidery made for the Millennium in 2000–now in the Tower
Photographs and memorabilia from Tilling Green and Freda Gardam Schools

• Conservation and Documentation continue to be upgraded to ensure we meet MLA Accreditation Standards
• The Medieval Garden has been replanted and opened to the public, with special displays and a Still Room in the Tower for the herbs
• New Displays, organised by Claire Eden, Curator 2008-2009

Rye Seals  from the reigns of four monarchs
Toys  through the Ages
Victorian Rye
 A Year in the Life of Rye Museuma
 Captain Pugwash (to be expanded)
 Smuggling in the Rye area

• Community Events:

Queen Elizabeth I in Rye 2008 Discovery Day

Bygone Summers

in August which was well supported by Rye businesses as well as the public and raised    £1600.
Discovery Day when Queen Elizabeth I and her entourage attracted a large following along the streets of      Rye   and the Longbowman demonstrated their skills at the Tower
Children’s Activity Days which attracted more and more children and parents
The Christmas Grotto as part of the Rye Festival when children and parents formed a long queue to meet   Father Christmas–and enjoyed bubbles en route
A monthly series of excellent talks and a special visit to Batemans to meet Rudyard Kipling himself

• New Website:   http://www.ryemuseum.co.uk
  This has been relaunched and will be regularly updated. Articles are being edited and new ones written.
• Contributions of Volunteers:  the lifeblood of the Museum!

Thanks to a dedicated band of volunteer stewards both sites–the Ypres Tower and East Street–are open 5    days a week to visitors.  Would you like to join the band?
Volunteers also join publicity and cleaning squads, keep the two gardens immaculate, staff Coffee Mornings,  Craft and Antique Fairs and other fundraising events and help at the excellent monthly talks.
More volunteers help with the Education Programme offering school visits, project boxes for schools, children’s  activity days…and more.

• Quarterly Volunteer Evenings–a chance to exchange ideas and information and get to know other�
   members and staff
• The Rye Museum and Local History Group Journal (latest issue No. 67) continues to appear regularly. Contributions welcome!

….and thats not all! 

How You Can Help

• If you are not already a member, we invite you to join us
• Come to the launch of the Women’s Tower Project and find out what you can do
• Volunteer to be a steward once a month (or more!) at East Street.  You will meet interesting people and learn more about Rye
• Buy a Rye Museum sweatshirt, Museum publications and books from our bookstall
• Offer your special skills:  fund-raisng, publicity, researching, writing and web skills, making coffee or cakes, craftwork, handyman skills…..

  Next:  Prospects for 2009-2010
                Who’s Who at the Museum?