Rye Castle Museum

Jo Kirkham is the principal author of all Invasion Coast articles.

Pre-Roman Times

Stone Age Times: Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic

The southeast coast received many tribes from the ”continent” in pre- historic times.

Between 10,000 and 7,000 BC Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) hunters walked across the land-link which existed where the English Channel now is; they left stone tools and hand axes as testimony.   

During the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) period–7000-4000 BC– the ice sheets began to melt and there was serious flooding — forming the North Sea and English Channel. 

Neolithic (New Stone Age) times, from about 4000 BC,  saw different tribes come across the sea from what is now Northern France and Belgium.  They brought   a ‘revolution’ in life style, having developed farming as a way to live, as opposed to just surviving by hunting and gathering as had previous visitors. 

There is evidence that from about 3000  BC two streams of culture met on the chalk downs of Sussex, one from the south-west, the ‘civilised’ Mediterranean world,  which has been named Megalithic  culture, and the other from the east, the outer edge of Neolithic Europe. The latter came in across ‘our’ coastline.

Subsequently individual peoples can be identified, for example the  Beaker Folk (about 1900 BC), named for their special burials in beakers,  and Wessex tribes  (about 1600 BC), noted for  their skills in designing and trading. A flint ‘factory’ has recently been discovered at Iden.

The Bronze Age is named for the times when the people had learned the skills of metal working – about 700 BC.  Iron Age folk came in waves between 500 and 50 BC. Collectively they have become known as Celtic  peoples.  Britain entered the ‘full Iron Age’ in mid first century BC when the Belgae tribe came from the lower Rhineland.

In our area there was a vigorous and technically well advanced ironmaking industry in existence, based on the Wadhurst Clay Ridge, above Hastings, which had iron ore and timber for charcoal. Ingots were shipped out by small estuarine ports on the Brede and the Rother to other parts of the Belgic south-east — coastwise to the Chichester-Fishbourne area, or to Kent, and across the Channel to Gaul. Other items exported to mainland Europe from our area were hunting dogs and slaves. Our district, around the mouth of the Rother, was the border zone between the tribes of the Cantii (or Cantiaci) and the Atrebates.

Roman Times

Julius Caesar’s Visits

In 55 BC Julius Caesar left Boulogne for Britain as, he said,‘it would be a great advantage to have visited the island, to have seen what kind of people the inhabitants were, and to have learned something about the country with its harbours and landing places.’ He arrived at Dover, but faced with antagonistic tribesman, he sailed on and landed further north with the help of his friend and ally Commenius. Bad weather and the onset of winter forced him to return to Gaul, but he had more ships built and returned in the summer of 54 BC.

The probable result of these two visits was agreement between some tribes and Rome and these arrangements led to increased trade. Caesar records that there was iron production in the maritime region of Britain -– based on Wealden iron ore, timber for charcoal and clay for the kilns being available. There was a great impetus given to iron production during the years that followed these visits, before the Roman Invasion. Indeed, it has been suggested that the existence of this iron industry, and the wish to own and control it, was one of the main reasons for this Roman Invasion.

Roman Invasion and Ironworks

In 43 AD, the Romans began to bring the country completely under Roman control when the Emperor Claudius sent an army which landed at Richborough. The invasion army is described as being in three sections and it has been interpreted that these were divided between Richborough, Dover and Port Lemanis (facing what is now Romney Marsh). After the passage of the Legions further North and West, this region, the land of the Cantaci, with its capital at Canterbury, became a core area for Roman control of Britain.

The Wealden ironmaking areas were ‘nationalised’ by the Romans very soon after the invasion. According to the latest research, they made it an imperial estate, controlled by Classis Britannica (the Roman Fleet), for over 250 years. There is much evidence of Roman ironworks in many local villages, for example Brede/Broad Oak, Icklesham, Beckley, Peasmarsh….. At Beauport Park, outside Hastings, remains of a Ro man bath-house built as  part of an iron-making complex, have been discovered and excavated, although the settlement which must have accompanied it has not yet been found.

The products from these works were sent along several Roman roads, built on the ridges, which linked the works. (Part of one of these was excavated at Icklesham some years ago.) The iron was then exported from the ports on the Rother and Brede rivers and estuaries.

Roman Remains

The most impressive and visble remains of Roman occupation are the ruins of Stutfall Castle, Lympne, 3rd-4th century A.D. fortifications that guarded the coastal inlet which allowed access into the marsh and rivers draining the eastern Weald. The fort was a link in the chain of Saxon Shore forts  constructed by the Romans along the English Channel to guard against increasingly frequent  pirate raids by the Saxon group of tribes during the third century AD.

 A list of 428 AD gives the names of 10 of these forts, and the system had been in place at least 100 years by then, under the command of the ‘Count of the Saxon Shore’. There is textual evidence that  ‘Riduna,’ half way between Portus Lemanis (Port Lympne) and Anderida (Pevensey), was Rye. 

Rome appears to have accepted that Britain was no longer part of the Roman Empire after c.410 AD.

For supplementary and further  information aww  http://www.romneymarsh.net

by Jo Kirkham

The Dark Ages

In the late 4th century, the Romans had brought in mercenaries and their families to bolster the defence of Britain when the legions were being withdrawn.   By the mid 5th century, they had been joined by further waves of Germanic immigrants.

Some were invited by the British to help them in their defence, while others came seeking new land to settle. Many of them came into Britain across our coast. Vortigern, who ruled Kent, brought in Saxons under two chieftains of the Jutes, Hengist and Horsa, the first Saxons whose names are recorded. Initially Briton and Saxon seem to have existed peacefully–living in the same settlements and inter-marrying.

Inevitably, as more and more Saxons arrived in the late 5th century, ttheir demands for land bred resentment in the British. Between 450 and 600 AD there were frequent battles along our coast with many British defeats because  they did not co-ordinate resistance, except for a short period when an ‘Arthur’ was in charge. The border between Jutish Kent  and Jutish Sussex was approximately along the line of the River Rother, i.e. it was already, by 550 AD, a political and cultural border. 

In the next phase  the newly established Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fought for predominance.  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 798 A.D. says that ‘Cenwolf, king of Mercia, ravaged the Kentish people and the people of Romney Marsh; their king, Praen, was taken, and they led him bound to Mercia, and had his eyes put out and his hands cut off.’

The Vikings

By the 8th Century there had been no significant invasions from abroad for 200 years. The sudden appearance of the Vikings in 793 AD, attacking Lindisfarne, was a violent shock. (The word ‘Viking’ is a generic term for Scandinavians — inhabitants of what is now Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.)  They and their longships from northern lands, which the Anglo-Saxons called ‘the force’ attacked the English shores, beginning in earnest in 835 AD. The harassment was in the form of hit and run raids: a landing was made, villages pillaged, the local armies  were fought and defeated, and the raiders went off with their plunder. They rarely stayed for more than a few weeks and seldom went more than 15 miles inland.

Many of these attacks were across ‘our’ coast. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that in 841 AD  ‘Ealdorman Herebryht was killed by heathen men, and many of the people of Romney Marsh with him’. In 851 AD they first ‘wintered’ here.

The Danes

Danes predominated in the raids on southern England.  The Burghal Hidage is a document dating from the late 9th century. It lists 33 sites in Wessex and English Mercia fortified by Alfred as part of his campaign against the Danes. The list goes round the defensive ’burghs’ in order in his kingdom. It begins with Eorpeburnam.   Though not yet definitely identified, this settlement is in Sussex, east of Hastings and is probably Rye. It had a defensive line of 445.5 yards and a later survey of Rye’s town walls and ditch, recorded in 1847, gives the distance as 445.5 yards!

King Alfred (871-899) halted the decline of the English, by organising armed opposition on land. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 892  he had ships built to attack at sea:

 the great force…went … from Boulogne, and there got ships, so that in one trip they set out with horses and all, then came up the mouth of the Lympne (Rother) with 250 ships. This rivermouth is in east Kent at the east end of the great wood we call Andred, the Weald… The river we have spoken of runs out of these woods, and on the river they took their ships four miles from the outward mouth, and there broke into a fort; in the stronghold there were only a few peasants staying, and it was half-built. 

The Chronicle  goes on to say they built a fort at Appledore and continued to harry the land for many years–indeed throughout the 10th Century.

In 978 AD King Ethelred came to the throne  but he was weak and had to pay larger and larger sums of tribute money to King Harold of Denmark,  a strong king who had united the Viking lands, and then to his successor King Swein. From 992 AD the Vikings invaded almost every year until 1014, gaining more and more land and influence. Swein even took over the throne of England for a few weeks before his death in 1014. Ethelred came back from exile in 1014. After his death in 1016 his son Edmund took the throne but died only seven months after his succession. Swein’s son Cnut (Canute) succeeded him.

King Cnut married Ethelred’s Norman widow, Queen Emma, and fulfilled her late husband’s vow to give ‘our’ area–known as the Manor of Rameslie – to the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy. This had great implications, as this Abbey was the favourite Abbey of the Duke of Normandy. From 1012 the kings had had the use of ships paid for from taxation. These were augmented by ships from what became known as the Cinque Ports–Sandwich, Dover, Romney, Hythe and Hastings — when required. For a while our coastline had a peaceful time as one of the main routes into England from the continent.

A series of Danish kings followed, to be succeeded by King Edward the Confessor in 1045. However, Godwine, Earl of Kent and Wessex, really ran the country. After a rift with Godwine, in which Godwine refused to attack his own people in the Dover area, Edward banished Godwine’s family (1051-2) and brought Normans into high government positions, thus antagonising the English.

Godwine fought back and. returning from exile, he tried to regain his position along ‘our- coast. He came from Bruges

with his ships …. and put out to sea one day before midsummer eve, so that he came to Dungeness, which is south of Romney. Then it came to the knowledge of the earls at Sandwich and they went out after the ships and called out the land forces. During this Earl Godwin was warned and turned to Pevensey;  the weather became so violent that the earls could not tell what had become of Earl Godwine. (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

On hearing that the king’s ships had dispersed, Godwine returned to his friends in the Cinque Ports area of the south-eastern ports and joined up with their ships and seamen. At the same time, Godwine’s son, Earl Harold, was on his way from Ireland with nine ships. He met up with his father off the Isle of Wight and

took what had been left behind, and went from there to Pevensey. They took as many ships as were serviceable, so continued to Dungeness, took all the ships that were in Romney, Hythe and Folkestone, then turned east to Dover, went up and seized as many ships and hostages as they would, and fared to Sandwich. There they did the same. (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

Godwine and Harold regained power with the support of the people in this area and they drove out many of Edward’s Norman advisors. In return for Norman support, Edward had apparently promised England’s crown to his great-nephew William of Normandy in 1051, but after Godwine’s death (1053) Edward relied heavily on Harold, who was also his brother in law. The dying monarch allegedly named Harold his successor.   The Rye area was still owned by the Abbey of Fécamp. . . .

by Jo Kirkham

1066

King Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066 and Harold was crowned King on 6 January 1066. William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey with 400 large and 1000 small ships on 28th September 1066. This area of coast between Rye and Hastings and inland to include Brede (the Manor of Rameslie), was a good place to land as it already belonged to the Norman Abbey of Fécamp and was relatively safe for ‘William’.

Harold was in York fighting an invasion by Harold Hardrada of Norway and his own exiled younger brother Tostig. The ships from Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, Sandwich and several smaller ports, were accompanying his army and were in the North Sea.  After Harold’s successful battle against the Danes at Stamford Bridge outside York, on 24 September, he force-marched his troops south on hearing of William’s landing on 1 October. He sent his ships south also, to block off William’s escape route to Normandy. It was a monk of Fecamp who carried William’s challenge to Harold;  the reply  resulted in the Battle of Hastings at Senlac Ridge on October 14 1066.

After his defeat of Harold, William then went through  what he considered the Norman-owned lands of Rameslie to Romney where he proceeded to slaughter the populace. One of his ships had accidentally landed too far East and the Romney people had dealt harshly with the crew. This served as a great warning to Dover, for the custodians of the Castle there handed it to him without a fight. William then went on to Canterbury and London where he was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066.

Cinque Port Power

For the next 200 years, until 1247, our coast, including Rye, became one of the most important routeways to the ‘French’ parts of the kingdom–Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony. Winchelsea and Rye were the northern arm of the wine trade from Gascony. The Channel was an Anglo- Norman stretch of water.

The Cinque Ports rose to great power at this time. They were the key to any sea travel by the monarch– both to trade or to go to war, and ships from Rye and Winchelsea went to fight against Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain and the Low Countries. They also went ‘on Crusade’ against the Infidel– in Spain and in the Holy Land.

One third of the monarch’s ships came from the Cinque Ports. They were the professional nucleus of his navy.

The Violent Century

The 13th century was known as the ‘Violent Century’. It became impossible to keep these superb seamen of the Cinque Ports in check;  violence, quarrels, piracy and wrecking on the high seas have all been laid at their door! They occupied their ‘off duty’ time by preying on much traffic in the Channel and dealing in a lucrative ‘ransom’ business.

The loss of Normandy in 1204 made the problem worse, because the former allies were now enemies!  The friendly ‘lake’ with the same monarch all round its shores now had opponents on each side.  The Channel became a moat of defence, which the  Cinque Ports defended. Many privileges were given to the Cinque Ports towns, including Rye, at this time, in return for their support.

1213
Rye ships were in the fleet which destroyed Dieppe and French ships in the Seine.
Later in the same year they helped to defeat the French at the Battle of Damme.  Some 200 French ships were captured.

1216
The Cinque Ports Fleet (including Rye ships) relieved the siege of Dover Castle and defeated the French. The Fleets met in the Channel at the Battle of Sandwich. This removed the threat of a French invasion for several years.

1217-35
Cinque Ports piracy was rife, and  Rye’s ships took a very full part.

1235
Portsmen seized and plundered French ships when not at war– and threw the crews overboard!

1242
Henry III failed to defeat France. He ordered Portsmen to attack the French coast which they did very successfully until the French ports, unusually, united to retaliate.

1243
Anglo-French truce.

1247
Rye, which had been owned by the French/Norman Abbey of Fécamp, was taken back into English ownership by Henry III, for, as the French and English were at war, it was inconvenient, to say the least, to have part of England owned by the enemy. (Fécamp Abbey was given lands further away from the coast in compensation.)

1249
King, Henry III, as part of the defence against these raids, gave permission for the building of a castle in Rye.This very building, Ypres Tower,   is now one of the sites of the Rye Castle Museum! 

1258-65
The ‘Barons War’ involved many land and sea attacks and the Portsmen supported Simon de Montfort (Henry III’s brother-in-law) who had rebelled. Twenty-eight Portsmen,  representatives from the towns,  served in his Parliament – the very first one.

1260
During Henry III’s reign the  first known general Charter of the Cinque Ports was issued.

1264
The Portsmen’s ships were worn out in the conflict and Simon de Montfort showed his approval of the Ports actions by levying a tax of 1/10th on the Church to pay for new ships to continue patrolling the Channel for him

1278
In this year the first known detailed joint Charter was  issued by the King to the seven Head Ports.

1282
Portsmen joined the King on his Welsh expedition and captured Anglesey.

1290
Portsmen joined the King on his Scottish expedition. Both these expeditions were difficult, as they were also keeping the Channel patrols, as well as fishing, and going on trading voyages and defending the Ports.

1293
Portsmen defied the King in order to try and settle the problems in the Channel. The Irish, Dutch, and Gascon ships joined the Portsmen against the Normans, Genoese and Flemish in the Battle of Mahe, which the Portsmen won decisively.

1294
The next 150 years saw war with France and the King appointed a Captain of the Ports, so that he could ensure control of them.

1295
Gervaise Alard of Winchelsea was  appointed  Captain and Admiral of the Cinque Ports Fleet.

1297
The King led a campaign against the French at Swyn and, within his Fleet, the Portsrnen attacked the Yarmouth men, destroying 20 of their ships and killing many of their crews. The rival groups were kept apart after this!

1299
Portsmen attacked Scotland with King Edward I and this war went on to the next century.

The animosity continued into the next century.

1308
The Ports’ ships conveyed King Edward II and his Court to France for his marriage to French Princess Isabella in Boulogne.

1310
There was an inquiry into the Ports’ piracy against Flanders.

1323
Scottish campaigns ended and France allied with Scotland. The balance of power for the Portsmen changed.

1325
The Queen and her Court were carried to France by Portsmen. This actually led to civil war and the murder of King Edward II in 1327.

1329
 Rye received the first of a series of murage grants for the building of walls and a ditch  with three large gates of which the Landgate is the only one left.

The Hundred Years War 1337-1453

As part of The Hundred Years War (1337-1453), many mutual raids involving burning and pillaging took place; the danger of invasion was ever present and the Ports bore brunt of attack. The Portsmen could be relied upon to fight to the death and to massacre the crews of the French ‘quicker than it takes to eat a biscuit’. However, they could not be relied upon to make careful discrimination between friend or foe!

1337-39
French Fleets improved dramatically and now the small ships of the Ports had to be joined by large ships from elsewhere to fight them. The  Ports  themselves were attacked by the French:  Hastings, Rye, Folkestone, Winchelsea, Dover, Romney and Hythe.

1340
The Portsmen assembled a small fleet of 21 small ships to retaliate, with 9 from the Thames. They beat off French ships attacking Rye and Hastings and chased them to Boulogne causing great damage.  Seventy more English ships, with King Edward III, then arrived and the main French Fleet was defeated in the Battle of Sluys.

This action began a change in sea warfare tactics, from small raids to large sea battles. The small Ports’ ships with crews of 20/21 men and limited days of Sea Service, became only a part of larger forces in future.

1346
Rye ships ferried over men, horses and supplies for the Battle of Crecy.

1347
The siege of Calais had 700 ships fighting, but only a quarter were Portsmen. The vital role of  t
he Ports’ ships then became surprise raids, repelling and chasing pirates and raiding parties,

1348
The Black Death: ‘‘That time fell great dethe of men in all the worlde wyde’.   It is estimated that the epidemic killed one third of the European population, with devastating consequences.  Whole villages on Romney Marsh disappeared, for example.

1350
Edward III and the Black Prince fought the Spanish in Rye Bay with 50 ‘good ships and pinnaces’ against 40 much larger ones. Fourteen  Spanish ships were sunk and the rest fled. The Queen watched from Udimore.

1350-1356 Seven French raids against Winchelsea.

There were many tit for tat raids across the Channel, for example:

1377
Rye was destroyed by the French five days after Richard II came to the throne.  They sacked and burnt until only the four stone buildings of the Church, the Monastery, the Rye Castle and the Friars of the Sack were left standing within the town. The Church bells were stolen and citizens killed.

1378
Rye and Winchelsea retaliated and burned French towns. They found the stolen church bells. One of them was not returned to the Church, but erected at the end of Watchbell Street, to be rung in warning if the town was attacked.

1385
Bodiam Castle was built on the Rother as part of the coastal defences.

1394
Rye men were  involved in transporting King Richard II and his men to Ireland.

1396
Rye men were involved in transporting the King and his men to Calais.

1405
Rye ships and men went to Wales with Henry IV to help put down the rebellion of Owain Glyndower.

1413
Henry V on his accession revived the Hundred Years War. Rye ships carried  men, horses, supplies etc. to the English armies fighting on the Continent. 

1415
Rye ships ferried troops and supplies to Agincourt.

1416
Portsmen, including Rye’s, were called out by Henry V to defend Calais. He had made piracy high treason.

1422
Portsmen  transported Henry V’s body back to England from France.

1449
Tenterden became a Corporate Limb of Rye in the Cinque Ports after years of association.

1453
The end of the Hundred Years War.  England lost all its possessions in France, except Calais.

The Wars of the Roses

1453-1558
Rye’s ships continued to provide vital supplies to Calais.

1459
The ‘Wars of the Roses’ began.
Henry VI’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, gained the support of France (and Scotland) for the Red Rose side, and the possibility of invasion was present  until Edward IV secured truces with both countries in 1463.

Edward’s sister Margaret married Charles of Burgundy, who was based in the Low Countries and much trade was secured – especially for cloth and wool. Large quantities went out through Rye. France looked enviously at this trade and there was an uneasy peace along the Channel coast.

1470
The French again supported Margaret when she and Warwick (The Kingmaker, who had changed his allegiance to HenryVI) invaded and took back the throne . The ‘Readeption’ of Henry VI only lasted a few months, as Burgundy came out on the side of Edward IV of York, and he was back on the throne in 1471.

1475
Edward IV assembled a huge army to invade France, estimated to be 30,000 to join the Duke of Burgundy, 10,000 to go to Normany and 6,000 to Gascony, The Calais contingent actually got to France; they were transported across our coast. The King eventuallynegotiated a Treaty and got a huge pension from the King of France –  for not fighting!
Trade then flourished across our coast.

 Introduction

Almost every building in Rye has a facinating history! Many have parts from two or three different centuries–a 14th century cellar under a 19th century rebuild, a Tudor house behind a Georgian facade…. A shop or school may now be a house, a warehouse a restaurant or part of the Museum. As population pressure has increased or eased houses have been divided, joined together again but differently, added to….

But it isn’t just the buildings which are of interest. Many of the people who lived in them are fascinating to learn about too–their daily lives, the work they did, their role in Rye’s story and England’s too. We even know quite a bit about the personalities (and idiosyncrasies) of our Rye forebears.

So this section will keep on growing along with others on Rye Streets as well as Trades and Industries and Notable People and many others.  To see a particular article use the list at the top. To view  all the articles in this sectioh so far, simply keep scrolling down.

by Jo Kirkham

Rye in Tudor Times

(I am indebted to Dr Graham Mayhew, as much of this information is from his study of the Rye Records. J. K.)

In Tudor Times, the traditional Cinque Ports Service of troop carrying was not as important as it had been previously, but it still went on, as did  empressment for soldiers. But the greatest wartime expenses in the Town Records until the 1580’s had to do with  maintaining the town walls and town ditch, building barriers and barricades and booms in the harbour and  placing and maintaining  guns.

Much of the means was found by a tax levied on French prisoners taken by privateers operating out of the town, and on the value of goods seized For example,  in 1549/50. ten captains captured 226 prisoners and in 1557/8  thirt-two captains took 465 prisoners.

The Camber was the main refuge for shipping for the whole of the eastern English Channel . It is said that up to 300 or even 400 ships could anchor in safety here; . The sea could still surround the town to a depth of 20-30 feet at some tides, except for the narrow stretch of land from the Landgate  and the inhabitants were very worried about the danger of enemy ships getting near the town. More guns were bought  ten or eleven were ready to defend the town. Some of these were stored in the Castle.

Some illustrative details of this period

1488
Henry VII’s largest warship, ‘The Regent’, built at Reading Street near Tenterden, was fitted out in Rye and went into service in 1491. Many other ships were built along the Rother and at Rye itself. Ships for the Crown were built from at least 1410 to the 1550’s.

1489-90
Rye’s town ditch was scoured, walls were repaired, fences covered with thorns were built, cliffs were steepened and a ‘sege hous’ was built to defend the Strand. At this period when large guns were rare, Rye had a least three.

1491
Henry VII and his army were taken by Portsmen to fight in France.

1491-93
A third of Rye’s entire town expenditure was on war preparations during this time.

1495
Rye was regarded as a potential landing point for Perkin Warbeck as he had some supporters in the town.
Five men were found guilty of treason and hung, drawn and quartered.

1512-14
Camber Castle was begun by Henry VIII to defend against the French and repairs were  made to the town defences

1513
Rye (with Dover) was the chief embarkation port for Henry VIII and his army when they went to France to fight in the Battle of the Spurs.   Rye was  ordered by the Lord Warden to send six soldiers as well as Ship Service. The Regent was lost

In May, a Cinque Ports Court met and

 ‘Every man that goeth in the navy of the Portes shal have a cote of white cotyn with a red cross and the armes of the Portes undernethe, that is to say the halfe lyon and the half shippe’.

1520
‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold’. Rye ships were among those which escorted Henry VIII across the Channel to meet Francis I of France.
Sir Edward Guldeford was Lord Warden and Marshal of Calais and had to organise the supplies for the month long event.

1522-3
War with France again and Rye was ordered to send twelve soldiers. Rye again had to make expensive preparations and repairs to the town fortifications. There were great guns on the Strand, on the Landgate and on a platform on the cliff. There is the first reference to a paid gunner in the town.

1531
Cinque Ports Ship Service was demanded again.

1539-1542
Henry VIII completed his Castles built to guard the coast nearest to the Continent and closest to London:   Sandown, Deal, Walmer, Sandgate and Camber, with alterations to Dover. At Camber alone 1210  men were employed in these works. 

1540
A Captain and  twenty-five  soldiers were garrisoned at Camber by the end of 1540. Its men and armour were similar to those in Dover and Portsmouth, an indication of its importance.

1544
Rye was again the main embarkation point for Henry VIII’s troops to France for the Boulogne expedition and the town had to send  twenty soldiers as well as provide Ship Service of three ships.

The invasion scares and this expedition again cost the town a great deal of money, as it made expensive preparations with new town defences. These were much more ambitious than those of 1491, 1513 and 1522. Royal Commissioners took charge and more than forty-seven men (including twelve masons) were employed making the walls fit to hold ordnance, developing the Gungarden and the new ”fortresse” at the Strand which involved demolishing old shops. The work was urgent as they worked all night and on Sundays too, and used French prisoners-of-war.

1545
French galleys (’Galleys and Franche shippes’) appeared off Rye and the people joined the soldiers in defending it. Extra bows, arrows, pikes, arquebuses and shot were bought in the fo11owing years and eventually the north aisle of the Church was taken over as an arms store. The town even owned suits of armour.

1556
Mary I demanded ‘Ship Service  and two Rye fishing boats were employed to watch the French coast.

1557-8
Mary I’s war with France needed great defence preparations as well as  men and ships.  Eighty of its mariners were ‘pressed’ for the Queen’s ships and two ships were demanded  for Cinque Ports service (called here  ‘dolling’).

The Mayor spent time in prison in London because he refused to levy more taxes on Rye people for the war at this time.

A new jetty was built at Budgwell and covered with thorns.  Landgate was narrowed and defended. Eighteen masons were employed on the wall and fifty-one men were employed digging out the ditch.  New portcullises were installed in Landgate and Strandgate. Men had the job of making hail shot.

1558
Mary I lost Calais. Many Rye ships and men became redundant and had to find other trade.

1562
Rye was once more the main departure point for troops, this time for those of Elizabeth I’s Le Havre expedition to France when she intervened in the religious wars there.

The expense was made worse when Elizabeth refused to make a general licence for privateers at this time, from which Rye had raised much of its money. However the town had a large arsenal of weaponry.

Rye  had an ‘invasion’ of 1500 religious refugees at this time.

1577-1580
At least one sailor from Rye, accompanying Sir Francis Drake, completed the second ever circumnavigation of the world.

1585-88
Camber Castle had further modifications to take the larger guns needed to defend against the Spanish threat.

1588
Rye ships and men were part of Queen Elizabeth I’s fleet which fought the Spanish Armada. One plan of the Duc de Guise was to land troops from France and Flanders in the Camber.

Among the fleet of five ships and a pinnace was the ‘Towne Shippe of Warre of Rye’, the William, 60 tons. Under the control of Lord Henry Seymour, this Rye fleet took a full part in the fire-ships attack and subsequent dispersal of the Spanish Fleet off Calais.

Once again the town fortifications were improved, at great expense. These included cutting 240 tons of timber to restore the platform at the Gungarden, maintaining the great guns there and at Landgate and Strandgate; and rebuilding the bridge over the ditch at the Postern Gate. At every ‘scare’ great attention was given to water supply of the townsfolk.

A permanent gunner was now employed by the town and there was a ‘gun house’. Rye was ordered to buy muskets by the Cinque Ports, to increase the number of light weapons available.

1589
Rye was chosen as the rendezvous for ships from London, Dover and Portsmouth for transporting the English troops sent to Dieppe to help Henry IV of France. The town was ordered to provide three ships, but eventually two served.

1596
The Cinque Ports allocation to the Queen’s fleet for the Cadiz expedition was again five ships and a pinnace; the Hercules of Rye, 100 tons, was one of them. Rye was the embarkation point for all of Sussex’s troops.

1597

A list of weapons in private hands is written in the Muster Rolls of 1597/8. It shows that bows and arrows have practically disappeared – but, in order of amount, the townsfolk had calivers, muskets, pikes, bills, swords, halberds and daggers. They possessed armour: skulls, Spanish murrions, corselets, caps, cuirasses, caps and headpieces.

During the last decade of the century, Elizabeth was trying to get the Cinque Ports included in the shire defences.

Stuart Times

1603
The town walls were intact, except on the east side where the river and cliffs replaced the lost part of the wall. The battery at the Gungarden and the bulwark on the Strand still had some guns and the Watchbell was kept in good repair. Camber Castle was still garrisoned.

1625
War was declared on Spain and Charles I attacked Cadiz.

1626
War was declared on France and Rye was put on alert again. It still paid one gunner. Rye ships captured at least one French ship and took prisoners.

1643
Camber Castle was abandoned. The Mayor and Jurats of Rye were given £200 from the monies made from the sale of lead from the Castle, to use on the defences of the town.

1648
The Royal party had a naval force under Prince Rupert and these ships patrolled the Channel from 1648, before the death of King Charles I. One Rye ship was captured by them. This opposition ended in 1552.

1650-59:  The Commonwealth period

The Civil War did not affect Rye directly as the Corporation had been controlled by the Puritans since 1631, but they had to billet Parliamentarian troops on many occasions.

During the Commonwealth there was very strict control over travellers going to and from the town, by land and sea, and reasons for movement had to be sent to the Clerk to the Council in Whitehall.

1652 – 54: The First Dutch WarThere were a great many skirmishes between the Dutch fleet and the Commonwealth Navy, under the command of Admiral Blake, including one off Dungeness. Ships and men from Rye were in the navy. Troops were stationed in the town.

 1655
The Town Council petitioned The Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, for Rye’s ships to be allowed a convoy system.

1657
Two Companies of foot soldiers from Colonel Robert Gibbon’s Regiment were quartered in Rye.

1658
These soldiers were eventually sent to Dunkirk and the Mayor was instructed to enlist townsmen and set watches for the defence of the town. He did have 120 men on patrol, but soldiers were still billeted on the town.

1659
A party of the County Horse and 100 foot from Kent were sent to the town under Captain Heath.

1660: The Restoration of the Monarchy
Charles II reclaimed the throne.

1662
The Mayor of Rye  applied to the Tower of London for some gunpowder saying that the town had more great guns mounted than any other of the ports with the exception of Dover, but they were having difficulty in finding money for the ammunition. They needed it for

ornament upon festival and other public occasions; for the stopping of vessels, which might otherwise steal out of the harbour without paying their dues; for keeping the peace when foreign ships of war, with their prizes, were in the harbour together; and for the safety of the town.

1664 – 74
In  the Second Dutch War (1664-67) and the Third Dutch War 1672-74). Rye was put on alert, but no fighting took place here after the Four Days Battle in the eastern Channel even though the fleets sailed past on many occasions and Dutch privateers did prowl the coast. 

The French were supposed to be our ally in this Third War[  when they didn’t give the support expected, they once more became our ‘rival’. The ‘peace’ virtually prohibited imports from Northern France and so inaugurated a long period of smuggling across the channel for brandy, silks and linens.

1688
The two fleets involved in the Glorious Revolution sailed down the Channel. That of William Prince of Orange, sailing on behalf of his wife, Mary, passed Rye on Nov. 3.  That representing James II followed it on Nov. 4th.

1689
 Thirty-two men and a boy were sent to Chatham on the King’s service to man the King’s ships.

1690
The war with the French was renewed and a  navy weakened because most ships were away on other duties was defending the south coast against the threat of invasion by a very strong French navy.

The great town gates and the postern gate were repaired and turnpikes were made to stop horses going through them without permission. The three  guns at the Castle point were brought into the fort and the gun lying at the Gungarden Rocks was brought up the hill. Sufficient tamkins and aprons were provided to preserve the guns; planks were put under the wheels and the carriage of the great gun in the fort was mended.

The warship Anne was beached off Pett Level after fighting the French in the Battle of Beachy Head on 30 June .  It is still there in the sand. The crew were paid off in Rye. The great ‘Scare’ had mobilised the town for a possible invasion.

1691-2
Nominally the English had the control of the Channel but French privateers attacked ships and threatened places on the south coast. Rye was on the alert. This situation went on throughout Queen Anne’s reign, that is, until 1713.

by Jo Kirkham

Threats and Rye’s Responses in the 18th Century

1739
A new war began, this time against Spain.  Then France joined in on Spain’s side. Rye, once more, was on the alert.

1741
A platform was raised on the Bowling Green which was then in the Gungarden. Eight guns were placed there, and the town bought two barrels of gun-powder and built a store in which to put it.

1743-44
There was a French plan to invade England across the Channel.  In 1744 French troops and transports, joined by the Young Pretender to the throne of Britain, assembled at Dunkirk, which the British Navy then blockaded. The French Brest Fleet were to support the army invasion, but the British Navy faced them at Dungeness. A February gale stopped the French and they retreated without battle.

The town presented a loyal Address to his Majesty the King, describing the failure of the French attempt at invasion  ‘who fled terrified by the Approach of your Royal Navy and only night and tempest gave them opportunity of escape’.

1745
There was another invasion threat when the Young Pretender invaded England from Scotland. The French navy was reluctant to get bottled up in the narrow eastern end of the Channel with a British navy behind it, and so it failed again to support the land forces in their crossing. There were a few days of rea1 threat of invasion but  Rye was prepared once more.

1756-63
The Seven Years War.   In the Channel there were the usual features of privateering and invasion alarms.

1759
Again there was a direct threat of French invasion, but this time further down the Channel coast than Rye. However, Pitt the Elder called out the militias to defend the realm and reserve regiments of regular soldiers camped out along the south coast. Dunkirk was blockaded again and the ships in Le Havre were attacked.

In November,  the French sent a fleet  to escort the invading troops which were assembled at Quiberon.  The fleet was attacked by the British as it  left Brest–and the French were defeated. The invasion was abandoned once more.

1766
There was a period of peace and a section of wall to the east of Rye’s  Postern Gate was taken down to allow carriages to enter the town that way. The arch over the Strandgate was also removed and the stones from both of these were given to the Churchwardens to build the Churchyard walls. A little  later, the Postern Gate was repaired.

1778
A new war broke out, when France declared war in support of the Americans. The Channel was again an important scene of action. The Battle of Ushant was indecisive–mainly because of the neglected state of our Navy.

1779
The Spanish joined in on the side of the French and Americans.  The Cinque Ports Volunteers raised a Company in Rye to help defend the country. The Corporation granted £30 10s, and the townsfolk £89 10s 4d, towards the expenses of doing this. Each company had one captain, 3 sergeants, 3 corporals, 2 drummers and 60 private men at the least.

The Government provided arms: halberds, drums, firelocks, bayonets, and cartouche boxes.  Five new brass cannon, captured from the Spanish, were  on the Green. Regular troops, including the Sixth Regiment and the 52nd Regiment of Foot, were billeted on the town for several years– first in warehouses in the Strand and then on the site now occupied by the Memorial Hospital and Care Centre,Playden.

The French and Spanish fleets combined to plan an invasion of England.  The intention was to dictate a peace in revenge for the Seven Years War and destroy the British Empire.  Fortunately, they delayed until it was too late, again being afraid of being trapped in the narrow eastern end of the Channel with south-westerly winds behind them.

1784
William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister and re-organised both the Army and the Navy.

1789
The French Revolution began.  A first this  did not  involve Britain other than using small boats to get refugees from France, and, of course, smuggling continued. But 1793 saw the beginning of a 20 year-long war with France.

1793
Occasional sea- skirmishes took place along the Channel coast and mock battles of British troops took place on the Downs.  French privateers grew very bold, even sniping at people on the beach at Newhaven. Again Rye was on alert and troops, including the Wiltshire Regiment, were based here.  On 14 February 1793, it is recorded that three French gentlemen arrived in Rye, having escaped from Paris.

1794-1803
The Ports did their duty by ‘volunteering’as they had done for centuries, to defend the country. The idea had developed during the American War and the early part of the French Revolution. Then, when Napoleon threatened, William Pitt, who had became Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1792, decided to strengthen the defenses along this coast. These included:

• Cinque Ports Sea Fencible Cavalry – until at least 1814
• Rye’s First Volunteer Infantry Company – 1794-1802
• Troop of Gentleman and Yeomanry Corps.

1794
A new company of the Cinque Ports Volunteers was raised. It had two field pieces.

1801
The Duke of York came to review the troops stationed in Rye–at Mountsfield.

1802
The Peace of Amiens was signed.

The Cinque Ports Confederation  dates back to the 11th Century, during the reign of Edward the Confessor.  It was started by the ports Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich for mutual protecton and trade.  Edward  gave official recognition by granting a Royal Charter which was later confirmed by William the Conqueror .

Rye and Winchelsea became ’limbs’ of the Head Port of Hastings in the second half of the 12th Century.  They were incorporated as ‘Antient Towns’, which meant they were ‘worthy of veneration’.    Before Henry II died in 1189, he conferred on them the same privileges as were enjoyed by the original members of the Cinque Ports Federation.  

The privileges were in exchange for services; the towns which formed the Confederation supplied ships and seamen for a set number of days per year and in times of trouble,    The privileges they received in return (legalised by Royal Charter in 1278)  enabled the Cinque Port towns to be exempted from many taxes, to trade wherever they wished and to hold their own courts.

12th to 13th Century Cinque Ports Ship

In 1229 Rye supplied five ships for the King out of the Confederation’s total of fifty seven.  In 1337 the Hundred Years War began and the ships of the Cinque Ports were vital to the defence of England and for carrying the army to France. In 1415 the Confederation fleet transported Henry V and an army of ten thousand to Ifarfleur, which subsequently won the Battle of Agincourt.

The importance of Rye and Winchelsea, and the decline of Hastings elevated them to become Cinque Ports and Head Ports in their own right in the 14th Century although this does not seem to have been marked by any special event or legal formality. In typically English fashion the name of the Confederation was not changed, but continued under the somewhat cumbersome title of the ’Five Ports and Two Ancient Towns’.

Although the main duty of the Confederation was providing ships for the Crown, the Cinque Ports also organised and supplied Bailiffs to the Yarmouth Herring Fair,  an annual event which continued until the late seventeenth century. This big market and festival  fixed the price for the herring catch.  There were often clashes between the men of Rye and Winchelsea and the men of Yarmouth who resented the privileges held by the Cinque Ports towns.

 The decline of the ports dates from the mid-14th century when changing ways of warfare made it necessary to have a more permanent marine force and the consequent larger ships were too big for the harbours, which had begun to silt up.   Despite the reduced strategic and tactical importance of the Cinque Ports fleet, the ports remained commercially active.  One Rye seaman accompanied Drake on his voyage around the world.

 The Ports were asked by Queen Elizabeth to provide ships for the  Spanish Armada and in 1588 Rye, with its limb, Tenterden, produced–at twenty days notice–a ship of sixty tons called the William, a feat reflecting its relative prosperity at the time.

By the end of the sixteenth century a professional navy, forerunner of the modem Royal Navy, was established. The Cinque Ports continued their slow decline.

Today only Rye and Dover remain as true ports.   However, by providing ships and men for the Royal Fleet for some 400 years they laid the foundations of England’s maritime power, and their ceremonial importance–at Coronations for example– lasts to this day.

by Jo Kirkham

Napoleonic Times

More Threats to Britain

 1802
A French engineer first proposed a tunnel under the English Channel at the Straits of Dover. Napoleon was interested, but the renewal of the war meant that the scheme was suspended.

1803
War was declared again and Napoleon was now Emperor of the French. The threat of invasion was now more serious for Britain than ever before because this time the French controlled the coast facing us, from Denmark to the Spanish border. By then Pitt was no longer Prime Minister but he took personal command as Lord Warden. He raised three infantry battalions.  Rye was in the 3rd Battalion, and became 1,2,and 3 of its 10 Companies.

•  3rd Battalion Cinque Ports Volunteer Corps – re-formed in 1803-until 1806.
• A Rye Battery of Artillery was also raised by Pitt in 1804 and probably lasted unti1 1814.
•  3rd Battalion Cinque Ports Volunteers did not like being disbanded in 1806, and within 3 months they re-formed themselves and lasted unti1 1808.

Napoleon’s Invasion Plan

In 1803, Napoleon was building the largest flotilla ever seen. He planned to invade in the winter of 1803/4 and had collected together 1000 vessels at Boulogne before December. He was building new ports or basins for the ships and forts to protect them. He intended to cross on a foggy night or after a storm when the British Navy was becalmed, when his troops could paddle quickly to England.   Fifteen hundred barges full of troops were to leave Boulogne, Wissant, Ambleteuse and Etaples; 300 from Dunkirk, Calais and Gravelines; 300 from Niewport and Ostend; and 300 from Flushing with the Dutch Army.

There were to be three types of vessel, all with specially designed landing bridges:

• Prams : large sailing vessels, over 100’ long, armed with 25 pounder guns and with 150 men
• Chaloupes:  to escort them with howitzers
• Pinnaces: most vessels, 60’ long, armed with a small howitzer and 55 men. 

 6000 horses, 120,000 veteran troops and 6000 horses  plus artillery and supplies were planned to invade Britain.

The First British Plan of Defence

The Dungeness Peninsula was vulnerable, The first British plan of defence was to flood the large area which was below the High Water Mark, by opening the sluices in the Dymchurch Wall, Scots Float, East Guldeford and Pett Level, and by breaching the walls along the rivers Brede and Rother.

However no one would approve the plan, so on 25 August 1803, the Duke of York suggested building a line of forts (Martello Towers) from Folkestone to Selsey.

Napoleon’s Preparations

In the meantime, however, the French-controlled ports silted up as they were dug and although the craft and troops gradually assembled, they could only get out of the harbour a few at a time. They were constantly harassed by the British Navy and by bad weather.

By August 1804 Napoleon was ready: 3,000 vessels and 180,000 troops were assembled between Cherbourg and Ostend. Napoleon himself was in Boulogne on August 15th, and it became clear to him that he needed a sea battle first to get the Royal Navy out of the way. His Navy, under Villeneuve, sailed south instead of up the Channel.

The Royal Navy followed and, under Nelson, there was eventually a battle, which resulted in the British victory at Trafalgar in 1805. Napoleon was furious with Villeneuve and eventually turned his attentions to the east and attacked Austria.

British Defences

Britain’s improved defence preparations were of three types:    flooding, Martello Towers and the Royal Military Canal.
 

Flooding

1.  Flooding 

 September 1804, William Pitt,  Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, who had been Prime Minister since May, agreed to  Defence Plan 1, i.e. the flooding, if necessary, of low land.

2.  Martello Towers

In October/November, the Privy Council agreed to have 86 Martello Towers built, two large ones with 11 guns at the east end of the Dymchurch Wall and at Eastbourne, and 84 smaller ones, armed with 18 pounders.

They were  small round structures, built of brick covered with a sand-cement stucco. The bricks were set in a mixture of hot tallow, lime and ash, which set like iron. The walls were 14’ thick at the bottom and 8’ at the top, 33’ from ground to parapet.

Their entrance was on the middle floor, which also had accommodation for the officers and 24 men. The ground floor, reached by a trap door, had the magazine and stores; and the top floor platform held the guns on a swivel.

3. The Royal Military CanalIn September 1804, a second line of defence was suggested; a canal, now known as the Royal Military Canal,  to act as a moat and to  ease  troop movement. It was to be built from Shorncliffe Barracks to the Rother at Boonsbridge.vvOnly one lock was needed at Iden and it was opened in September 1808, linking Hythe with the Rother and Rye Harbour. By April 1809, the Royal Military Canal, built by soldiers,  was virtually finished for navigation and defence,   The canal and its parapets had gun positions at the end of each length, it had a tow path and a Military Road.

 Peace

Napoleon considered reviving his invasion plan in 1811, but the idea came to nothing.   After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, there was a long period of peace.

 Invasion threat of Napoleon III: 1858

Fears in 1858 that Napoleon III was going to invade led to preparations in Rye for resisting:

•  A Volunteer Rye Corps in May 1859 was formed — to be called ‘The Rye District Rifle Company.’
• This became a joint company with Tenterden in December 1859  but was disbanded in 1860.
• In 1861 the Government reorganised the 35th (Cinque Ports) Regiment of Rifle Volunteers into two battalions and Rye sub-division became the 3rd Hastings Company in the 1st Cinque Ports Administrative Battalion.
• This became the 9th Rye Rifles and lasted until 1876. At the same time, and rather as rivals, the 4th Cinque Ports (Hastings and Rye) Volunteer Artillery was formed in 1861 and they called themselves ‘The Rye Marine Cinque Ports Volunteer Artillery’
• They lasted until 1877 and continued meeting in Hastings but with only two Rye members until 1891. Both groups had many prize-firings which helped them train for war.

When was it built?

Nobody is quite sure when Ypres Tower was built. It may have been part of a royal castle built sometime between 1230 and 1250, during the reign of Henry III. Normandy had been lost and Henry  feared more attacks by the French. Certainly, in 1249,  he ordered the Constable of the Cinque Ports,  Peter Savoy, to build a castle at Rye but there is now some doubt whether it was ever erected.

Ypres Tower (Etching by Hooper)

 It is now thought more likely that it was built at the same time as the town wall and gates, during the reign of Edward III or Richard II in the late 14th century. Its architecture is of that period, and some details of its construction are similar to those of the Landgate; in fact, the Tower was incorporated into the town wall.   

 Whichever is the case, it was called Baddings Tower, the name of the ward in which it was situated, and the sturdy square building with three-quarter-round towers at the angles has remained essentially the same since its construction. The stone walls, some forty feet high, were originally topped by a parapet, and the remains of the corbels may still be seen on the east and west sides.

A 1633 drawing by Anthony Van Dyck clearly shows the parapet. (Van Dyck did three other drawings of Rye and the Ypres Tower, presumably while awaiting passage back to the Low Countries.)

Changing uses

The enhanced defences of the town were found wanting when the French attacked and burnt the town in 1377, stealing the church bells and killing inhabitants.  The Court Hall was one casualty of this raid, and while a new one was being built, the Tower was used for Corporation business and the various courts, In 1421, all offenders were ordered to attend here on pain of a fine of 12 pence which suggests that  part of it was also used as a prison.  However, in 1430 the Tower  was leased to one John de Ypres (hence the name), for use as a private residence, with the proviso that ‘the Maior Jurats and Commonality’ could enter it at a time of hostility or war for the purpose of town defence. 

In 1484 or 1494 the Corporation rented the Tower for use as a prison, and in 1518 bought the freehold–for £26; shortly afterwards a new roof and new floors were added.   For the next three hundred years the Sergeant-at-Mace acted as Gaoler of the Ypres Tower, under the supervision of the Mayor and Jurats. (His salary in 1841 was £8.6s.4d rising to £12.12a.0d in 1808 plus fees.) He was assisted by four unpaid Petty Constables who were to summon, apprehend, search for and arrest as directed and to enforce directives such as the many times repeated one prohibiting any person whatsoever to ‘throw or fling at cocks in this town’. The Constables at first received ‘rewards’, such as a pot of beer or ’some small matter of refreshment’, but became more productive when they received 1s. for each vagrant taken inside the town and 2s. for each taken outside.

Ypres Tower c.1890

From the 1740s capital offences were tried at Horsham or elsewhere which meant that Tower inmates were those who had committed felonies or, more often, misdemeanors;  petty larceny accounted for  two-thirds of all indictable offences, the others consistently mainly of ‘offenses against the person’ with a sprinkling of fraud.   Fair time usually meant cells briefly filled with victims of drink. 

 Progress?

A full time ‘Gaol Keeper’ was appointed in 1796 (salary £3 rising to £5 in 1806), and three years later given an assistant by which time there was accommodation for twelve prisoners–stretching to twenty when necessary. However, the Tower was by now in a bad state of repair; the Corporation even considered demolishing it.  Instead, a red brick exercise yard was built  on the north side and, it is thought, the stocks and whipping post removed.

Ypres Castle (Watercolour by W H Borrow)

Equipment at this time consisted of 4 rugs (1 old), 5 blankets (2 thin), 1 round deal table, 2 wood bottomed chairs, 2 coal boxes, 2 fire water cans, 13 padlocks, 2 pair of leg irons, 8 pair handcuffs, 1 Constable’s staff and 1 horn lantern.  While at the end of the 18th century the Gaoler was expected to provide, out of his allowance, bread, beer and soup for his prisoners, by the 1820’s this had been reduced to bread and water though the sick qualified for milk, gruel and wine. Prisoners slept on a truss of straw, though blankets were issued in the early 1800’s and sometimes washed.

More elaborate changes followed the 1830’s legislation to improve prison conditions: a new exercise yard (the present Medieval Garden), four additional cells, and a tower for housing women prisoners (now the focus of the Women’s Tower Project).

As a result of  these ‘improvements’, the total number of prisoners to be housed was reduced to nine.  By this time the Gaoler received ‘a house and firing’  in addition to his salary and his wife  was Matron of the Gaol at 4s. a week. The purchase of two ‘Standard Hard Labour Machines’ in 1855 and 1865 was thought to represent futher ‘progress’, along with the issuing of Bibles (1858) and sheets (1861).  Other expenditure for the gaol included  candles for lighting; faggots, sparingly purchased, for heating; gas, for cooking only (1864), staves, handcuffs, leg and body irons and rattles.

Lock-up, Soup Kitchen and Mortuary

Ypres Tower c.1920

As a result of the Prison Act of 1865, the gaol was downgraded to the status of a lock-up and remained as such until 1891 when the first police station was built on the southern side of Church Square  (Now No. 18, a private residence).

 Before this, however, the Corporation in 1870 resolved that a Soup Kitchen be built at the front of the Tower for the distribution of soup and bread to the poor during severe winter weather.  The original red brick exercise yard was provided with a roof and a chimney for this purpose. Local citizens considered this an eyesore and formed a society which provided funds for its demolition and removal to the corner of Rope Walk and Cinque Ports Street in 1895.

 Meanwhile, the lower floor of the Tower was being used as a Mortuary–and continued thus until 1959 despite objections.  Ex-Mayor John Neve Masters, for example, wrote this to the town clerk in 1894:  ‘Whose business is it to keep the Mortuary clean?  I found this morning that it had never been cleaned out since used, the table is dirty and stinking. Fish are lying about.’ 

Nonetheless, in 1901, there was a request to buy it as a private residence–fortunately rejected.  In 1924, though used only as a mortuary and to house the 18th century fire engine, it was scheduled as an ancient monument.

A Home for Rye Museum

Battery House

As early as 1889,  Rye Literary Society had proposed the use of the Tower as a museum for the town but it was not until1928 that a museum for the town was established–in the Battery House next door. This had been purchased by the Corporation from the War Office and was rented for use as a Museum for £26 a year. Its Curator was Leopold Vidler, who wrote A New History of |Rye 1934.  With the coming of war, valuables were stored elsewhere and the museum closed.  This was just as well as on 22 September 1942 Battery House and the adjoining properties were badly damaged in an air raid, and the Ypres Tower lost the pyramidal roof it had acquired at an unknown date.

At the end of the war, all the cases and exhibits which had been saved were stored in a garage and remained there until Coronation Year, 1953, when celebrations for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II ignited interest in re-establishing the Rye Museum. A Museum Committee set to work and the Rye Museum opened its doors on Easter, 1954 with exhibits on the ground and first floors–and the mortunary still in the basement.

Entrance to Ypres Castle

 The Tower  Today

Today, visitors see the Tower essentially as it originally was, with the main entrance  on the side facing the town.  One difference is that the door originally had a portcullis.   The main door leads into the ground floor, with a basement beneath,a first floor above and a turret at each corner.

Ypres Tower today (drawing by Brian Hargreaves)

 The north-east turret houses the spiral staircase which serves all three floors; the steps are deliberately uneven, to put any intruder at a disadvantage. The other three hollow turrets which originally  formed guardrooms at ground and first floor levels became  cells for prisoners after the tower became a prison.  The ground and first floors each had a fireplace. These are still in place, although the chimneys are now blocked. 

 The windows were originally designed as arrow-slits, and between them they were intended to give  good all-round defence as archers in the turrets could fire on attackers trying to climb the walls.  Now it is all-round views that are wanted by visitors to the Tower and these can be obtained by venturing out onto the first floor balcony

For more information on visiting the Tower today and some views from it, click here.

.

by Jo Kirkham

Rye’s Participation in the Boer War and the First World War

1885-1899
Col. Brookfield became MP for the Borough of Rye in 1885 and took over command of the Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers (1st  Battalion). He immediately formed a Rye company:  the E Company 1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers (Brookfield’s Greys). This was commissioned in 1885 and about 20 members passed into the Regular Army each year, from its annual intake of about 110 men. Some of these (including Col. Brookfield), went to the Boer War in South Africa in 1899.  

•  In 1909 (to implement the Act of Parliament of 1907) these were re-organised as the ”Territorial” and served in World War 1. The Territorial was renamed E Company of the 5th Battalion (Cinque Ports) Royal Sussex Regiment, and became less ‘volunteer’ in nature.
• 3) In 1901 The Sussex Imperial Yeomanry was formed and a Troop was raised in Rye and District by Boer War veteran Capt. Cory. It maintained very close connections with Rye until 1904 and some men saw service in the First World War. It then became the Sussex Yeomanry and was converted to the Field Artillery and served in World War II.
• The 5th Battalion (Cinque Ports) Royal Sussex Regiment was interested in forming the Veteran Reserve in 1911 because of the threat from Germany. This later became the National Reserve, and was open to all Regular, Militia and Volunteer ex-servicemen, and 50 members joined the Rye branch. They were actually at camp at the Watlands Range on Udimore Road when the Great War broke out. They were recalled and sent to Dover Castle, and 40 men went to fight in World War 1. There were heavy losses from this Company in France and Italy.
•  Many volunteers went to fight from Rye, including the whole of the football team and most of the cricketers. The older men formed ‘Supernumerary Company of the Veteran Reserve’ and they defended many sites alone the coast from Dover to Hastings and in 1915, when some of these were sent to fight in India. Others went to defend the north Kent coast.)
• Hospitals were established in the Upper Room of the Monastery and at the convent in East Street. In March 1915 three bombs were dropped by the Germans at Rye Harbour. The Armistice was signed at 11am on 11th November 1918 and once more the Invasion Coast was quiet. Many local families lost men who were killed in the First World War.

The Second World War 1939-45

During the ‘Phoney War’ from September 1939, preparations were  made to enable Rye’s inhabitants to cope with invasion.   These included air raid drills; vehicles being requisitioned for war service; evening classes on Civil Defence; training houses for practice in such things as gas warfare; the appointment of air-raid wardens and a Civil Defence Controller; the organisation of the ambulance, demolition and fire services; the  setting up of a food office; identity cards; blackout arrangements for houses and vehicles; sirens, public and private shelters; water supply (piped and static tanks), and railings pulled down and used for scrap metal.

Children were  received from London for their safety from September 1939 until spring 1940.  In July 1940 Rye’s children were evacuated,  mainly to the Bedford area. Rye Grammar School relocated too.

Key events of the war as it affected the southeast coast included:

1. Dunkirk
   Several boats  and small ships  from Rye went to help in the evacuation of the troops from the Dunkirk beaches in June 1940.
2. The Battle of Britain
   In July, August and September 1940, the Battle of Britain was fought in the skies above this area. The ‘Few’ took off again and again from grass airfields on the edge of Romney Marsh such as Lympne and Hawkinge. Their aim was to stop the Luftwaffe destroying British airpower and bombing the cities, especially London. Several British and German aircraft crashed around here. The High Radar Station to the east of East Guldeford played an important part in this struggle. The Germans tried to bomb it but were unsuccessful. Rye was a heavily defended area, but suffered several fatal bomb attacks.
3. Operation  Sea Lion:     The German Invasion Plan to Defeat Britain

On 2 July 1940, the German troops were told a landing in England was being considered  if they had air superiority. Hitler regarded Britain as defeated by then. The German Navy had a narrow front invasion plan, whereas the Army had a wide front one, with 20 Divisions for defence and 30 for attack. The original Army plan involved 3 assault groups:   

• Calais assault group against Margate to Hastings by the 16th Army ‘A’.
• Le Havre group against Brighton to Portsmouth by the 9th Army ‘A’.
• Cherbourg group against Weymouth to Lyme Bay by the 6th Army ”B”.

 The Navy’s revised plan was to organise two groups, each with three (and later two  for the Calais Group) converted river barges  to cross at the narrowest point. The barges would be towed by motor boats and landed. Dunkirk Harbour was still out of action  this time.  In July the Navy realised that  two of the assault groups  were impracticable.

In August admirals and generals  meeting on a train to the Channel reached a compromise: the Calais Assault would proceed, together with a motor boat landing at Brighton.The Army estimated 2-3 days, while  the Navy estimated 10 days for the First Wave — a great discrepancy!

         The final plan  involved the 16th ARMY which was to secure the bridgeheads ready for Waves 2 and  3

Wave 1: XIII Corps; 17th Infantry Division; 35th Infantry Division;- VII Corps; 7th Infantry Division; 1st Mountain Division; 9th Army

Wave 2 (to secure the bridgeheads for wave 3):  – XXXVII Corps; 26th Infantry Division; 34th Infantry Division; VIII Corps; 8th Infantry Division; 28th Infantry Division;  X Corps; 6th Mountain Division;  XV Corps; 4th Panzer Division; 7th Panzer Division; 20th Infantry Division (Motorised)

Wave 3:  XXIV Corps; 15th Infantry Division: 78th Infantry Division

The Landing Force was:

Transport Fleet B-Tow Formation 1 from Dunkirk – 75 tows.
Tow Formation 2 from Ostend – 25 tows.
Convoy 1 from Ostend – 8 transports.
Convoy 2 from Rotterdam – 49 transports, 98 barges.
Transport Fleet C feom Calais – 100 tows
Convoy 3 from Antwerp – 57 transports, 114 barges. 14 pusher boats.

The Luftwaffe

The Luftwaffe was asked to defend the transports from British Naval attacks. The German Navy only felt it possible to do minelaying, having only a small defensive force and submarines. They were to mount an extensive decoy operation in the North Sea – Code ”Herbstreise”.  

 The Luftwaffe decided to bring Britain down by itself, but by September it realised it had failed . The Battle of Britain, For Britain, had been won by ‘The Few’. 

The German plans had been  made in great detail — even to the names of the officers in charge of various objectives.

The Fuhrer was to decide the start of the operation. Day 1 of the landing was S Day; time of landing S Hours. The operation was to be prepared in such a way that its start could be called off with 24 hours notice. Earliest S Day: 24 September, thus earliest embarkation day was 23 September.’ There were many Special Orders, e.g. all vessels ‘should fly the Reich service flag, artificial smoke was to be used before landing, and all ships  painted: fo’c’s’le upper decks red and the after sector of the ship yellow.

         The Plan of Action for after a Successful Landing on the Beaches:  On to Rye!

After the initial landings, the bridgeheads were to be repaired; communications were to be secured by laying cables underwater from St. Mary’s Bay to Calais; and the first landing would see 138,000 men landed, followed by 300,000. 

The Germans had overestimated the British Forces ready to oppose them. On 24th July Britain had a total of 29 divisions and 8 independent brigades, 6 of which were armoured,  all under strength. Germany thought we had 39, of which 19 were fully operationa1, and 17 partly ready…!

A Commando Unit, under Oberleutnant Dr. Hartmann, with 2 officers, 15 NCO’S and 114 men with 50 motorbikes, was to ”neutralise” bases along the coast and along the Royal Military Canal.  When the troops were landed, tanks were to join them, to be based at Winchelsea. The 1st wave, when it had secured the bridgeheads, was to push to the south bank of the River Rother  A force was also to land in Rye Bay and push across the Rother to the hills NW of Hawkhurst — a rapid assault along the ridges of Udimore, Broad Oak and Beckley, penetrating British resistance. Dungeness was to be taken later. The 1st Mountain Division was to scale Cliff End and penetrate via Hastings to Robertsbridge.  Manoeuvres were held in August 1940 near Bosum, in Heligoland and Halligen Islands,

4.  British Preparations

The British reinforced the coastal defences with mines in the sea, barriers, tank traps and dragon’s teeth (concrete road blocks), and scaffold poles, on the shore and for a distance inland. Hop poles with wires strung between them were erected on the Marsh to stop gliders landing. Plans were made to set the sea on fire at Camber, after successful trials with ‘Greek Fire’. Heavy gun emplacements and pill boxes were built and mobile Army Reserves were assembled behind the line. Stockpiles of poison (mustard) gas were ready and Royal Navy ships shelled the French Channel ports. The whole area had military sentries patrolling as well as the Home Guard, This was called ”Q” Company and was then sub-divided into platoons.

(Further details are given in Wings Over Rye,  a Rye Memories booklet edited by Jo Kirkham).

5.  The end of Operation Sea Lion

By 16th September 1940 the Germans realised the RAF were not defeated and Hitler put the scheme ‘on ice’. He was still talking about it, however, on 24 January 1944! The Plan was finally officially stopped on 19th September, (remember S Day was 24 September) and Hitler turned his attention to Russia.
 

The Rest of the War

 Rye, Camber and Winchelsea Beach were ‘Restricted Areas’, accessible only with a pass, throughout the war. Camber was completely evacuated and mine fields laid there. The whole area was ringed with tank traps, guns and troops.

 The Royal Navy took over the Senior School in New Road as HMS Haig. Throughout the War there were visits by many Regiments, including Newfoundlanders and other Canadians. The area was affected by ‘Hit and Run’ raids in 1943. ‘Flying Bombs or Doodle Bugs’ bombed Rye in 1944. This area had many troops and acted as a ‘Decoy’ to mislead the Germans as to the embarkation and landing places before the ‘D Day Landings’ in Normandy in 1944.