Oct 18

News 19 October 2009


Discovery Day: Smuggling!
Saturday  24th October, 10-4 

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.

 For more dates to put in your diary, check the Events and Talks pages.

 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.

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

 Please scroll down to the bottom for news of another project you may wish to help with.: Rye Castle Museum website!

Museum of British Folklore

Did you miss Simon Costin’s talk or the chance to visit the  delightful folk-museum-in-a-caravan parked by the Ypres Tower last weekend?   Judging from both verbal and visitors’ book comments, those who came were convinced that a permanent Museum of British Folklore would be a Very Good Idea.   You an find out more at  www.museumofbritishfolklore.co.uk or by emailing Simon at scostin@dircon.co.uk 

And in November and December

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

Rye Castle Museum Website 

We’ve been busy re-organising and adding articles to the site www.ryemuseum.co.uk.  Just uploaded are articles on Romney Marsh, Rye Harbour,  Trades and Industries (Inns, Shipbuilding)  and more are on the way so keep checking.  … The possibilities are endless but we could use some help in getting articles ready to publish.  Could you help?

Here are three ways you might contribute:

As Typist.  We would especially like to find people who could key in existing content.  It’s easy: you register as a User, type and save your work as a Draft.  An editor then opens your draft, checks the formatting, inserts some illustrations and maybe a link or two to related pages or sites, and clicks Publish.  Think how fast we could develop the site with this kind of help!   A simple instruction sheet is available.

As Photographer/\Photo editor  Do you work with photos on the web?  Perhaps you use Photoshop? Besides a photographer or two we could use the expertise of anyone who could help us select, edit, resize and label photos and other illustrations for the Media Library within our site–the collection of images available to insert as illustrations for articles.

As Researcher/Information source/Writer  Do you know a lot about some aspect of Rye’s history?  A business, craft or industry?  A street or building?  A neighbouring village?  Rye in WWII?  Earlier military history?  Schools or leisure pursuits of times past?  Or would you like to research some topic?  Or, if you don’t want to write, what about being interviewed?

If you would like to know more about helping in any of these–or other–ways,  please contact us!