June/July News
Catch up here on Events, Opening Hours and Additions at our two sites, the Museum Website, Book News, Opening Hours, The Women’s Tower Project and Volunteer Opportunities…..�
(There’s lots so keep scrolling down!)
News Flashes
Captain Pugwash is 60 years old this year! To celebrate his birthday the Museum is giving him a bigger display case at East Street, with new objects donated by John Ryan;s wife and collaborator Priscilla and their daughter Isabel. This should be ready for viewing in early July. And if you haven’t seen the Rye Tower Embroidery in pride of place at the Ypres Tower do go to see it–and all the other changes at that site. For more information scroll down.
Not sure about Summer opening times? Scroll down to learn of the changes.
Events
Our June events are now over: a Quiz Night (5th June) which went so well we’ll do it again, a talk on Arthurian Herbs, the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris by Lin Saines (8th June) enhanced with slides, music and food-of-the-past and our monthly Coffee Morning (12th June). Make sure this next major event is in your diary!
Tuesday 13th July
Trip to the newly refurbished Bexhill Museum including tour
Join Rother District Curator, Julian Porter, on a tour of the new refurbishment of Bexhill Museum including the new Motoring Gallery and the Costume and Social History Gallery. This will be an afternoon trip. If you haven’t an application form and would like to come ring the Museum: 01797-226728 or email info@ryemuseum.co.uk
To find out what has been happening at the Museum lately, keep scrolling down.
Change of Opening Times at East Street !
On lst May Rye Castle Museum changed the opening times of the East Street site. The decision to keep the Ypres Tower site open during the lunch hour all seven days of the week has been so successful in bringing in more visitors (4 times as many in May 2010 as in May 2009!) that we now stay open at East Street all day –including the lunch hours–too, i.e. from 10.30 to 5.00 (last admittance 4.30) during the weekends and Bank Holidays. However, this site is closed during the week. We run entirely on the good will of volunteers and this concentration on maximum weekend and holiday opening is proving a more fruitful way to use their valuable time as stewards. If you aren’t already a volunteer steward do think about joining us! See the note below under On Being a Volunteer.
Special requests: Please note that the East Street museum can be opened by special request during the week. Please contact the Museum: 01797 226728, or info@ryemuseum.co.uk
Ypres Tower site
The latest addition at our 13th century Tower is the Rye Tower Embroidery, an informative (and amusing) history of the castle commissioned as part of the Ypres Tower bid for Lottery money and created by 20 members of the Rye Stitchers over the last four years It’s a splendid piece of work worth a special visit/revisit to the Tower.
The Ypres Tower site will continue to open 7 days a week throughout the Summ er season, from 10.30am to 5.00pm (last entry 4.30). Note that it remains open during the lunch hour.
A reminder of what else is in the Tower
In the dungeon there is a display of Arms and Armour, with helmets to try on, and swords to try and wield. On the ground floor are cells once used for prisoners: one still reminds visitors of the stark conditions endured by prisoners but another now displays Rye pottery and a third has become a stillroom with herbs and spices from the Middle Ages (complementing the Medieval herb garden in the old exercise yard). The splendid new addition of the Rye Tower Embroidery now holds pride of place above the ground floor fireplace.
On the first floor there are beautifully sewn scenes of Rye: the Millennium Embroidery as well as a relief map of the surrounding countryside over the centuries and a map showing the scores of shipwrecks off our coast. From here you can go onto the lookout, designed for looking out for the enemy! You can look down onto the Medieval Herb Garden which you can visit later, and across to the Women’s Tower which we are currently raising funds to repair so it can house more of our exhibits. Built to keep the women and children prisoners when they were separated from the men in 1837, it is thought this may be the only such prison left in the country.
What is in the East Street Museum?
There are displays on many aspects of Rye’s long and prestigious history: as a leading Cinque Port, its shipbuilding, trading and fishing industries; politics (there are seals from five reigns), education, celebrations, the town’s celebrated pottery and mosaic ware, domestic life and pastimes . . . A popular feature is the town fire engine complete with wooden wheels, leather buckets and hoses used between 1745 and 1865. There are paintings and photos as well as artefacts. An enlarged and relocated Captain Pugwash display is about to appear. Judging from the length of time some of our visitors spend here and the comments in our visitors’ book, our Museum is well worth visiting.
For more on this site, click on Museum Sites above.
Publications: The list of Museum books, booklets, maps, postcards and DVDs has just been added to the site. Click here to see it. We are not at present able to provide a postal service, but the full range of titles is available at the East Street site and our topsellers at the Ypres Tower.
Scroll down for more Book News.
On being a Volunteer
Far from being onerous, stewarding offers a chance to meet interesting visitors and become better acquainted yourself with our exhibits and Rye’s history, so if you would be willing to help out, please contact the office info@ryemuseum.co.uk or ring 01797-226728. You may also want to ask about other ways to help, for example by joining the Rye Muses who organise events which help raise funds, or the Education Committee, or the Gardening group or . . . . . The full list of possibilities is quite long!
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Recent Museum Events
We certainly get some interesting visitors at the Museum!
Ghost Connections is a small team of people based in Kent who have been conducting investigations of alleged hauntings and paranormal phenomena throughout the South East of England since 2004. In April, they spent a night in the Ypres Tower. The team used a range of equipment placed throughout both the Ypres Tower and the Women’s Tower which enabled them to use a variety of investigation methods. Their equipment was monitored throughout the evening and the results documented. Their report can be found on their website at www.ghostconnections.co.uk. The group’s email address is enquiries@ghostconnections.com?”
April was a busy month. We also had three successful and well-attended events in April: our monthly Coffee Morning, a very informative, interesting and even entertaining talk by Dr Graham Mayhew (author of Tudor Rye) on the religion-infused lives of Ryers in medieval and pre-Reformation times, and another informative, interesting and entertaining talk by Donna Bilak , who shared her excitement at what she has found in Rye Museum documents on Samuel Jeake to further her research for a PhD on Restoration Rye. We’ll be receiving the finished outcome of her efforts in due course.
And in May we have now had another of our popular coffee mornings and an exciting talk by the man–Albert Granville – whose firm’s crane ship made it possible to raise the Mary Rose after it had lain in the mud and sand of the Solent for over 500 years. Mr Granville is a master storyteller and kept his audience spellbound.
Women’s Tower Project: Have you bought a brick (or two?), a stone (or two?)
There are still bricks and stones waiting to be sponsored. Do you have a sponsor’s certificate yet? You may collect as many as you like! Rye Town Council at its meeting of 26th October voted to contribute £5000 to the Women’s Tower Project and the process has already begun: English Heritage has approved plans; we have paid for architects’ plans with the RTC grant; proper recording, preservation and storage of items kept in the Women’s Tower is nearly completed . . . .
We are most fortunate to have the services of Linden Thomas, a professionally qualified and experienced conservator, recently retired to Rye, to carry out the important work of looking after the items we will want to display in the restored tower elsewhere) and ensuring they are properly documented and cared for.
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.
Rye Museum Website
There are now nearly 100 articles and some improvements to design and navigation. (Just added, for example are two pieces on E F Benson by Allan Downend, under Notable People.) More to come of course, so be sure to visit– and revisit. Click on any of the Local History headings and you will be taken to a page headed by a list of subtopics already available. The newest will always be on top. Sample the lot, or click on one that interests you. If you have writing/editing/web talents or information on some aspect of Rye’s history you would be willing to share, please let us know! jlfloydeltc@gmail.com
We are 100 years away from Edwardian Rye. One new ‘post’ on the site will give you an idea of the changes in Rye since then,, Click here to see it.
Book News
Do you have your copy of Rye in World War II? This was the subject of Jo Kirkham’s Address at the 2009 Remembrance Day Service at St Mary’s Church, Rye. Following requests from a number of people for a printed version of the address, an illustrated booklet is now available at £3.50.
Copies may be purchased at the Rye Heritage Cente or at either of the Museum sites. All proceeds will go to the Women’ s Tower Project so that this part of Ypres Tower, home of the Rye Museum, can be restored and re-roofed and brought into active use. t
New looks at Rye
A lovely little book for all Ryers: John Griffiths’ Shapes, Colours and Materials: a look at buildings in Rye, Rye Conservation Society. £6.99. Buying through the Museum helps the Museum!
Do you have these yet?
These both deal with Rye before 1660–the result of years of research, deliberately complementary, must-haves for anyone seriously interested in Rye’s history. Both available from Martello Bookshop–or ask at the Rye Library
Gillian Draper, Rye: A History of a Sussex Cinque Port to 1660, Chichester: Phillimore, 2009
David and Barbara Martin, Rye Rebuilt: Regeneration and Decline Within a Sussex Port Town, 1350-1660. Romney Marsh Research Trust, 2009
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